Call it Derby Weekend, with arch-rivals facing off in leagues all over the world.
Roma takes on Lazio, Real Madrid faces Atletico Madrid and FC Porto battles nemesis Benfica in just a few of the juicy match-ups on the schedule this weekend.
You know it's a loaded weekend when Liverpool-Chelsea doesn't get top billing.
Then you have the MLS playoffs, with three can't-miss second-leg battles, including the highly-anticipated Real Salt Lake-FC Dallas clash, and the LA Galaxy taking on the Seattle Sounders.
Here's a rundown of This Weekend's Soccer on TV, as well as SBI's Top Ten Matches to Watch:
SBI's TOP TEN MATCHES TO WATCH
1. Roma vs. Lazio. The Rome Derby always tops this list, no matter the state of the clubs, but this time around Lazio is in first-place against a dangerous Roma side.
2. Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid. Nobody has been able to stop Real Madrid, but maybe their neighbors can, with Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan in attack.
3. Real Salt Lake vs. FC Dallas. Defending MLS Cup champions in a must-win home game against a team that rattled off a 19-match unbeaten streak during the season? Don't miss it.
4. Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Seattle Sounders. The Galaxy had an easy time posting a 1-0 win in the first leg in Seattle, but as we saw with San Jose's upset of New York, a first-leg road win doesn't guarantee a series victory.
5. Liverpool vs. Chelsea. Can the Reds build in their mid-week rout of Napoli against a seemingly unstoppable Chelsea side?
6. Fulham vs. Aston Villa. Not a natural rivalry, but when you have Clint Dempsey facing Brad Friedel, it's a match American fans will want to see.
7. Columbus Crew vs. Colorado Rapids. The Rapids dominated the first leg, but the Crew will be at home and desperate to avoid a second-straight first round exit.
8. FC Porto vs. Benfica. The Portuguese powerhouses face off in what should be one of the more entertaining battles of the weekend.
9. Villarreal vs. Athletic Bilbao. Might seem like an odd choice, but with Jozy Altidore getting more and more minutes, this could be a match where he makes a difference in a La Liga match.
10. Cardiff City vs. Swansea City. Not familiar with this Welsh Derby? You better learn about it.
THIS WEEKEND'S SOCCER ON TV
SATURDAY
8:45am- ESPN2- Bolton vs. Tottenham
9:30am- GolTV- Schalke 04 vs. St. Pauli (Replay)
10:30am- ESPN3.com- Borussia Moenchengladbach vs. Bayern Munich
11am- Fox Soccer Channel- Manchester United vs. Wolverhampton
11am- Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv- Fulham vs. Aston Villa
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Birmingham City vs. West Ham United
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Blackburn vs. Wigan
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Blackpool vs. Everton
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Sunderland vs. Stoke City
1pm- Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv- Bologna vs. Lecce
1pm- Fox Soccer Channel- Sunderland vs. Stoke City (Delayed)
1:20pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Derby County vs. Portsmouth
2pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Sochaux vs. Auxerre
2pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Arles vs. Caen
2pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Bordeaux vs. Valenciennes
2pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Saint Etienne vs. Lorient
3pm- GolTV- Real Sociedad vs. Racing Santander
3pm- Fox Soccer Plus- Derby County vs. Portsmouth (Delayed)
3:45pm- Fox Soccer Channel- Inter Milan vs. Brescia
4pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Stade Rennes vs. Lyon
4pm- Telefutura- Columbus Crew vs. Colorado Rapids
5pm- DirecTV- Espanyol vs. Malaga
5pm- Fox Soccer Plus- Blackpool vs. Everton (Delayed)
6pm- Fox Soccer Channel- AFC Wimbledon vs. Ebbsfleet United (FA Cup, Delayed)
6:30pm- Azteca America- Jaguares vs. Atlas
7pm- Telefutura- San Luis vs. Santos Laguna
7:30pm- GolTV- Once Caldas vs. America de Cali
9pm- Telemundo- Chivas de Guadalajara vs. Cruz Azul
9pm- Telefutura- Pachuca vs. Queretaro
9:30pm- GolTV- Millonarios vs. Deportes Tolima
10pm- Fox Soccer Channel- Real Salt Lake vs. FC Dallas
11pm- Telemundo- Atlante vs. Club America
1am- Fox Soccer Channel- Sydney FC vs. Newcastle Jets
SUNDAY
6:30am- Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv- Fiorentina vs. Chievo Verona
7am- FoxSoccer.tv- Southport vs. Sheffield Wednesday (FA Cup)
8:10am- FoxSoccer.tv- Cardiff City vs. Swansea City
8:30am- Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv- Arsenal vs. Newcastle United
8:30am- ESPN3.com- Utrecht vs. PSV Eindhoven
9am- ESPN3.com- AS Bari vs. AC Milan
9am- Fox Soccer Channel- Lazio vs. Roma
9:30am- ESPN3.com- Hannover 96 vs. Borussia Dortmund
10am- FoxSoccer.tv- West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester City
10:30am- Fox Soccer Plus- Blackburn vs. Wigan (Delayed)
11am- Fox Soccer Channel- Liverpool vs. Chelsea
11am- GolTV- Villarreal vs. Athletic Bilbao
11am- DirecTV- Real Zaragoza vs. Mallorca
11am- DirecTV- Osasuna vs. Hercules
11am- ESPN3.com- Levante vs. Deportivo La Coruna
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Lens vs. Montpellier
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Lille vs. Brest
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Nancy vs. Monaco
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Nice vs. Toulouse
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Burton Albion vs. Oxford United (FA Cup)
12:30pm- Fox Soccer Plus- Cardiff City vs. Swansea City (Delayed)
1pm- Azteca America- Puebla vs. Monterrey
1pm- Telemundo- UNAM Pumas vs. Necaxa
1pm- ESPN3.com- Getafe vs. Barcelona
1pm- GolTV- VfB Stuttgart vs. Werder Bremen
2:45pm- Fox Soccer Channel- Palermo vs. Genoa
3pm- GolTV- Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid
3pm- Fox Soccer Plus- Paris St. Germain vs. Olympique Marseille
3:15pm- ESPN3.com- FC Porto vs. Benfica
5pm- Fox Soccer Channel- West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester City (Delayed)
9pm- ESPN- Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Seattle Sounders
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Which matches are you most looking forward to? Which ones will you be sure not to miss?
Share your thoughts below.
Chelsea sure did walk over Liverpool didn’t they?
I’ll stand by what I said in saying that RSL-FCD will be better than the Chelsea-Liverpool matchup. And as a soccer fan in America the MLS playoffs mean a lot more to me than a 1 vs 16 matchup in the EPL
I care about and appreciate MLS and have attended several DC Untied matches since I moved to the District, however, the league still falls below my interest in the PL, especially when it involves RSL and FCD, two teams I care very, very little about regardless of it being the playoffs. I didn’t complain about the Galaxy-Sounders game being ranked ahead of it, did I?
And to the commenter below writing off Liverpool, a win tomorrow puts them in a tie for 5th and only 2 points out of CL place. This team is far better than the showing it had from August to October.
I’d add that I didn’t think my comment was as vitriolic or ill conceived as most of the crap that is spouted in the comments section. I totally appreciate your reporting and coverage.
+1. PSG is finally having a good year, which means Le Classique will finally be a good match
What about PSG and Marseille
Great game, bolton dominated them and spurs almost came back…. then bolton closed the door, great game
Nah. Ives needs to keep put Euro snobs in their place……
The Bolton Spurs game was surprisingly more entertaining than most of the EPL matches this season so far. Glad I got up early!
WOW! Wonderful Wanderers. Wonderful game as well.
Right before that final goal in the Tottenham game, Holden made an absolutely marvellous tackle to stop William Gallas, who was off to the races. This got the ball to a Bolton defender, who played it long to Davies, and Davies proceeded to flick on to Petrov.
It was indicative of his work the whole day. He was making brilliant tackles and delivering some very smart passes that helped kill the game off.
Davies was brilliant today. Absolutely brilliant.
Excellent game.
No question he is being banned for a minimum of 3 games.
That deserves a life time ban from the FA. How in the world did the official not even see that? He just went out of his way to stamp on Elmander’s body.
So while I’m normally Zzzzzz…. about women’s soccer, apparently the US Lady Nats got beat by Mexico and now have to win the 3rd place game in the qualifying tourney and then beat Italy in a “play-in” match. Certainly they can do this but the fact they Have to is newsworthy.
I think LA ‘easily’ beats Seattle if the ref allows hacking and fouling to go unpunished in the game (like the first half of the first game). As a neutral, hoping for a game with multiple goals rather than the home team parking the bus and putting me to sleep by knocking ball after ball into unoccupied spaces of the Seattle half.
People, Liverpool has lost four games the same as Dallas and Salt Lake….only their season has barely started. Besides that Liverpool would have to go close to undefeated the rest of the way to win the EPL, MLS is in their playoffs !
Give Ives a break.
ps. Ives, LA “easily” beat Seattle ? They were definitely better than my Sounders, but “easily” ? Buddle took a Meadowlark Leman shot and won the game.
-MLS guy adding perspective/balance
FCD vs RSL should be the MLS CUP!!!! its a shame
and i cant wait to see Demsey go against Friedel!!!
good list though, glad MLS gets love
I guess if it gets too out of hand, Ives, you could always just list the 10 to watch in no particular order. But then the hand-wringing would be over the matches that didn’t quite make the top 10.
Even if it wasn’t as big a deal as it first sounded, we need your scoop on the Gooch-Ibra fight ASAP Ives!
Always a great game. Atletico fans have a ton of pride in their team but are almost always rooting for the second-best team in Madrid.
Forlan has been ineffective this year. Maybe the rivalry will motivate him, but I hope not because I am a Madridista.
You could not pay me enough to watch a Liverpool game. I like watching great soccer and they have not been playing it for some time. This game could easily be 3-0 or 4-0.
Ranking that game fifth is a gift.
Lazio Merda! Forza Roma! Vucigol with the winner.
I truly believe LA v Seattle will be more interesting than RSL v Dallas, and I’m an RSL fan.
(SBI-It was a coin toss for me, and in the end I think RSL-Dallas should wind up being a tighter match than LA-Seattle.)
People – this site is centered on American soccer not europe!
its good to follow european football but its not the main theme of this site
Eurosbobs need to go elsewhere… Ha ha
I always thought Juliet would be better looking…
Chelsea will walk all over Liverpool; I guarantee the RSL-FCD match will be more entertaining
(SBI-Thanks for understanding where I’m coming from. All the hand-wringing about the order of the list is so silly. The purpose of the list is to spotlight the top matches and let people know matches to watch for. All the “This game should be ahead of that game” stuff is dumb.)
Oh, and I’m very excited to watch that Madrid derby. Much luck to forlon and aguero.
How has nobody commented on the picture though??
Looks like a real Romeo and Juliet romance going on under that rivalry. haha
The most enticing matchup for me is athletico-real.It’ll fun to see my favorite la liga times square off, and to see forlan and ronaldo on the same field.
maybe he’s named after a west-coast weather phenomenon that affects rain patterns?
Ibra is lucky. Gooch would kill him. He’d stare at the corpse like Jared Borgetti!
If Liverpool is so good why is the best player on the team called ‘the boy’.
Yeah, evidently Gooch took exception to a rouch tackle by Ibra during practice. Don’t blame hime, considering he’s just now getting healthy after missing a full year with a bum knee.
Wow. I don’t care if it is the playoffs, Real Salt Lake-FC Dallas over Liverpool is an abominable choice…
(SBI-Last time I checked this was an American soccer website, and the best MLS playoff match-up is going to be picked ahead of a mis-match that isn’t even a derby. I get the name value of Chelsea-Liverpool, and in years past it has been a top match, but right now it just doesn’t have the same sizzle as usual, and the MLS matches are THAT important and worth watching. Given the fact that all your past comments have been about European soccer it’s clear you don’t care for MLS. That’s your prerogative, but I happen to think American fans should care about MLS and should watch the playoffs.)
anybody hear about the Ibra and Gooch fight????
Ives my man i respect the S out of you and like your writing…but Liverpool/Chelsea isn’t higher than 5? I know the reds suck right now but wow.
(SBI-Just trying to look at it impartially, with no preferences to European league (and only the obvious preference to matches affecting American fans directly, be it MLS or Americans Abroad). I’m sure folks who prefer watching the EPL will ignore the fact that Liverpool is struggling and Chelsea is rolling, and ignore the fact the match-up lacks the usual sizzle, and still rate it No. 1. I think that’s a pretty boring way to look at it. The top two are classic rivalries featuring great teams and players, can’t knock those selections, while the next two are very intriguing and important MLS playoff matches that American soccer fans should watch. That’s how Liverpool-Chelsea is only No. 5.)