Chelsea and Manchester City both boast two of the most expensive teams in world soccer, but on Sunday they will be playing for third place in the Premier League rather than first place.
With Manchester United looking uncatchable, Chelsea and Man City are trying to lock up one of the automatic Champions League places in the Top Three.
Saturday's exciting day of MLS action has already made the weekend one of the most memorable in league history, but Los Angeles and New England will face off in the final MLS match of the weekend, with Juan Pablo Angel potentially making his debut for the Galaxy.
If you will be watching today's action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today's TV Schedule is after the jump):
TODAY'S SOCCER ON TV
7:30am- Fox Soccer Plus– Fiorentina vs. AS Roma
9:30am- Fox Soccer Plus– Sunderland vs. Liverpool
9:30am- ESPN3.com– PSV Eindhoven vs. Utrecht
10am- ESPN3.com– Juventus vs. Brescia
10am- ESPN3.com– Udinese vs. Catania
10am- Fox Soccer Channel– Inter Milan vs. Lecce
10:30am- ESPN3.com– Bayer Leverkusen vs. Schalke 04
Noon- Fox Soccer Channel– Chelsea vs. Manchester City
Noon- DirecTV– Hercules vs. Osasuna
Noon- ESPN3.com– Racing Santander vs. Real Sociedad
Noon- DirecTV– Malaga vs. Espanyol
Noon- ESPN3.com– Deportivo La Coruna vs. Levante
Noon- FoxSoccer.tv– Caen vs. Arles
2pm- GolTV– Athletic Bilbao vs. Villarreal
2pm- Telemundo– UNAM Pumas vs. Pachuca
2pm- Azteca America– Puebla vs. Necaxa
3:45pm- Fox Soccer Channel– Napoli vs. Cagliari
4pm- GolTV- Valencia vs. Sevilla
4pm- Fox Soccer Plus- Marseille vs. Paris St. Germain
4:15pm- ESPN3.com- FC Porto vs. Academica de Coimbra
8pm- Galavision- Los Angeles Galaxy vs. New England Revolution
———–
I’m sorry but an international friendly whether it be in preparation for the Gold Cup or not does not take precedent over Hannover’s quest for a first ever Champions League spot. If he truly has a nagging injury, the rest of his season should absolutely not be jeopardized. There is potentially tens of millions of dollars at stake for Hannover and after all they sign Dolo’s paycheck.
While Zak Whitbread is a potential USMNT Central Defender on a team with several good Center Back’s. Cherondolo’s loss is a big hit. You do not replace a player like Dolo who is having arguably his best season in the Bundesliga, is captain of a third place team and a WC vet to boot, with a player who has not even had a cap (Chandler) or even played or started in any important meaningful game, or with someone who may have or may not have a future with the USMNT. but played so badly with his opportunity at AV, that he was loaned out ASAP to a lower division club as he was NOT going to get laying time with a relegation threatened team. And may have a touch of goose-itus with his own goal today at Leeds with a player of the caliber of Dolo, especially against Argentina and Messi.
according to fifa,
Stuart Holden, who needed 26 stitches to close a deep wound near his left knee, was among three players dropped today from the American lineup for upcoming friendlies.
“Just got home from hospital and last set of scans, all stitched up and awaiting the results. Thanks again for all your support,” Holden posted on his Twitter
Maybe Paco Torres–who looks okay after a hard collision just a second ago–as another midfield in Holden’s place? JFT should have been called in ahead of Kljestan in the first place…
Dolo should be with his club anyway. We have Chandler coming in, so that is perfect.
Holden needs to heal. That’s a no brainer.
Whitbread… His club wants to keep him there, that’s fine with me. We don’t need him.
Yes and No. In the short term the next few games for both the players team are important for a potential future league spot.
But the friendlies do play an important part in FIFA’s rankings. And the FIFA rankings determine a seeding in the WC. I’m not getting ahead of myself here as the US, while not a shoe-in, has just a good a chance of any team (except Brazil.) in 2014.
But remember, by winning our Group at the 2010 WC, the US inherited England’s seed which saw us play Ghana and, if we would have won, Uraguay in the quarters. These were, for the most part, beatable teams.(or had FIFA seeds, not far above or below our own) What teams were England faced with to the Quarters? Germany and Argentina.
Which is why most seeded teams advance beyond the round of 16.
A win over Argentina and Paraguay would boost our ranking considerably and although Brazil 2014 is a few years away, any step up in rankings we build now, can only pay dividends if our rankings reaches high enough to get a seed, and the opportunities to play and beat top 5 teams are not guaranteed anytime in the future. Even winning the Gold Cup and WC qualifying, we would not beat a seed higher than us. In short, every game we face a higher seed before the next WC is IMPORTANT to the US for it’s rankings and its seed and it potential opponents in the WC.
The sooner we realize this and challenge these teams that withhold our players for their own purposes, to the detriment of ours, the sooner we can realize that the success we enjoy in future WC’s are built on present day realities and strategies due to of our own determinations and not those of foreign teams.
I wonder if BB is done with calling players for the ARG. game. we lost our starting RB so we got LichaJ to probably start in his place, I just hope our starting LB plays the whole game because if he gets moved to CB, who is going to play LB? Borstein? against Argentina? good grief!
Do you think Adu should be held to a different standard than other players?
Even if he was “special” Bradley should only then “think about it”?
I know this is an ancient and ongoing debate, but I think Dolo potentially leading his team to a CL spot is bigger for US soccer than this friendly, regardless of the outcome.
i luv wen ppl correct you’re grammar, its so cool + eye dont care. but thanx 4 be ing da bigger men because i under stand u hav no lyfe.
post makes little sense.
FIFA is reporting that Stuart Holden, Steve Cherondolo and Zac Whitbread have been dropped by the US team for next weeks friendlies. Stuart Holden is the obvious one requiring 26 stitched in his knee, No broken bones but the results of the soft-tissue scans are not revelealed yet.
As for Whitbread and Cherundolo, both players teams are in a fight for second place in their respective leagues. Norwich is looking for a EPL spot next year and Hannover is looking for a Champions’s League spot.
But both players played 90 minutes on Saturday victory’s but their teams have determined that they have “injuries” that will keep them from international duty.
Sorry but that a load of CRAP. If these were Euro Qualifying matches they would have been released, but a US-Argentina Friendly, sure to be hard-fought, and all of a sudden those niggling injuries are too drastic to let them off.
Pure Bull-pucky!
Scratch that: Tevez looks like Drogba’s pet midget.
Jeff,
Agreed 100%. That was a shocking display today.
It seems like the guy has looked very good in a Chelsea uniform so far. No goals to show yet, which at some point has to be troubling. I still feel like if he keeps up his strong play, the goals will almost certainly follow.
In any case, today, those goals were coming whether he was on the pitch or not. The first a header from a corner, the second the result of City finally pushing forward after they lost Mancini’s precious point.
What’s up with that picture? Torres looks like Drogba’s midget.
I have defended Mancini for a while now, and sometimes the chorus of ‘negative tactics’ is much more persistent than the actual events on the pitch would call for. But today was a pitiful example of how negative and how reactive (rather than proactive) he can be. Between his terrible gameplan today, the abysmal work rate of at least half of the squad (starting to really question Dzeko in this regard) and the absence of Tevez (who, at his very worst, at least inspires effort from some of the others), City gave themselves absolutely no chance.
you can also find that information on ussoccer’s website
More from the article:
Cherundolo (groin) and Whitbread (back) will rest nagging injuries. U.S. coach Bob Bradley added Leeds defender Eric Lichaj to the roster on Sunday.
The USSF expects Holden was to be evaluated again on Sunday.
I’m a Chelsea fan, but exit Torres and 2 immediate goals? Central defender acquired at the same time has 2, Torres 0?? This may go down as the worst tranfer in history
News is Holden had to have 26 stitches in his knee…no broken bones or torn ligaments…he is out of the up coming USA matches as are Steve Cherundolo and Zak Whitbread.
Confirmation here:
Boston Hearld….as Ives doesn’t allow links you can google it to find the link…
2-0
Boy…ManC got owned today…
Everyone is scoring this weekend. Come on Jozy! Get on the score sheet for once!
1-0 Chelsea
A just lead as ManC is disgraceful with the negative footy. Typical Mancini…against the big clubs…go into a shell. With the amount of $$$ ManC has at their disposal, I expect a lot more out of them.
Wow torres. At least the usmnt doesn’t have to pay jozy altidore 50 million pounds to not score any goals
I don’t understand that decision. Torres looked to be Chelsea’s second best player.
Oh man this is a comic disgrace… Ancelloti forgot to tell the players he was sending on where he wanted them to play.
Nigel De Jong is infuriating to watch. I would love to see him given a straight red card for just being on the pitch.
It could happen at the start of every match and become tradition. I don’t see any room for people like him in football.
According to an update from U.S. Soccer found here:
http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Mens-National-Team/2011/03/Lichaj-Added-for-Argentina-Paraguay.aspx
Cherundolo, Whitbread and Holden are out with injuries, but the good news is that tests haven’t revealed any broken bones in Holden’s leg, although he required 26 stitches.
Could just be that FSC sucks on the general broadcast quality thing.
Spam.
At the time of writing this comment the result is still scoreless. It will be interesting how Mancini’s men react in the next 45 minutes, knowing a win will enhance their standing in the table, after losing out in Europe last week
http://www.soccerlastic.com
Hm. i’ll have to call cox and see what’s up.
Torres has to be the best player on the pitch right now, he is playing out of his mind. What a flick on!
I haven’t had any problems
anyone know what’s up with fsc’s broadcast of this chelsea man city game? it looks like a bad internet feed. is this just a problem with my service or are other people experiencing it?
And Petr Cech should be required to teach all young goalkeepers how to play the ball on the ground out of the back. Chelsea builds so many attacks from his foot, and he really helps maintain possession. He is always looking to pass first, hit up field second.
haha ouch.
I agree. He’s definitely a model of an all-round striker.
I’m sorry, but you’re just straight up wrong and overhyping him. Adu has scored two goals and you’re saying he can’t stop scoring? Moreover, one of the goals was quite easy. Let’s not forget he’s in the Turkish Second Division. He’s going to really need to start showing himself to be special on a consistent basis before Bradley even thinks about bringing him into back to the national team set-up.
Torres has incredible football IQ. His runs off the ball are pretty much always the best decision. His movement opens up so much space for his teammates.
Not to be rude, but mentioning Adu and lethal in the same sentence at this point is overdoing it
I’m sorry you have to be petty and rude. By the way, “you are” = “you’re.”
good thing your not a coach
Davies*
Need my morning coffee or things like that happen.
Freddy Adu cannot stop scoring goals. Look at this kid go!
This is going to sound odd… but if I were a coach I might experiment putting Adu next to a quick striker like Agudelo/Boom Boom/Davis.
His technical abilities and field vision would be lethal… somewhat of a David Silva type of position.
Haha, nice. Thanks for the link. Looked like the goalie just handed the ball to him and said, “Here, please put it in the back of the net, I beg you. The bookies have my family hostage and we must lose or else.”
GIF of Freddy’s Goal
Arsenal Goalies would be proud.
http://i56.tinypic.com/2cnjdph.gif
Heynckes back to Bayern, Dutt replaces Heynckes at Leverkusen.
Keeper couldn’t hold onto the shot from a teammate Adu was there for the rebound.
According to livescore Adu scored. The match is late in the first half now.