SHORT TAKES
• My predictions for this year's Premier League: A re-energized Chelsea will swoop back to the top of the league, with Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City rounding out the top four. At the bottom, Hull and Burnley will go straight back down to the Championship, but newly promoted Middlesbrough will stay up — at the expense of Swansea City.
• In the end, the U.S. women's national team couldn't climb to the top of the international mountain, losing in a penalty shootout to Sweden in the quarterfinals of the Olympics. It's an understandable letdown, the year after a World Cup title, but it also represents the first time the U.S. has finished outside the top three at a major tournament — a huge disappointment in any case.
• According to reports, Lionel Messi's retirement from the Argentina national team will last a grand total of two months. Messi, who said he'd no longer play for his country following a second consecutive loss in the Copa America final, will reportedly announce that he'll play for Argentina in this fall's World Cup qualifiers after all.
