More than bragging rights in North London will be on the line at the Emirates today when Arsenal takes on Tottenham. For the Gunners, holding on to their precious top four place in the English Premier League standings will be at stake, while Tottenham will be trying to solidify their hold on third place.
Chelsea's romp over Arsenal has pushed the Gunners to fifth place, and Arsene Wenger's side can't afford to drop many more points if they are going to be back in the Champions League next season. For Tottenham, a win at the Emirates would mean a ten-point cushion in third place and a chance to strike a brutal blow for their arch-rivals.
In Italy, red-hot Napoli takes on struggling Inter Milan in what should be one of the day's more entertaining clashes, while Spain will offer up the Atletico Madrid-Barcelona battle as Barca tries to keep hope alive of a miraculous comeback on first-place Real Madrid.
If you will be watching today's soccer 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
6:30 a.m. - ESPN3.com - Excelsior vs. Ajax
8:30 a.m. - Fox Soccer Channel - Arsenal vs. Tottenham
8:30 a.m. - Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv - Norwich City vs. Manchester United
8:30 a.m. - ESPN3.com - PSV Eindhoven vs. Feyenoord
9:30 a.m. - ESPN3.com - Bayern Munich vs. Schalke
10 a.m. - ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes - Rayo Vallecano vs. Real Madrid
10 a.m. - Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv - Stoke City vs. Swansea City
11 a.m. - Fox Soccer Channel - Cardiff City vs. Liverpool
11 a.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Brest vs. Marseille
11 a.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Toulouse vs. Sochaux
12 p.m. - ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes - Valencia vs. Sevilla
12 p.m. - GOLTV - Real Sociedad vs. Mallorca
12 p.m. - DirecTV - Osasuna vs. Granada
1 p.m. - Fox Deportes/Azteca America - Morelia vs. Cruz Azul
1 p.m. - Univision - Pumas UNAM vs. Queretaro
1 p.m. - MLSSoccer.com stream - Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Houston Dynamo
2:45 p.m. - Fox Soccer Channel - Napoli vs. Inter Milan
2:45 p.m. - FoxSoccer.tv/ESPN3.com - Lazio vs. Fiorentina
3 p.m. - MLSSoccer.com stream - Sporting Kansas City vs. Montreal Impact
3 p.m. - Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv - Stade Rennes vs. Lille
3:30 p.m. - GOLTV - Atletico Madrid vs. Barcelona
5 p.m. - Telemundo - Chivas de Guadalajara vs. Santos Laguna
5:30 p.m. - GOLTV - Boca Juniors vs. Newell's Old Boys
7:30 p.m. - GOLTV - Sp. Desamparados vs. River Plate
Herculez Gomez scored his first goal for Santos tonight. Too bad it still ended up being a loss against Chivas.
Ninth.
The Dutch league is a free scoring one but so what?
The coaching is top flight and they produce a great number of top flight players of all types, strikers, midfielders and defenders.
Yong Amerrican players, if they can find a good situation, as it seems Jozy has, could do lot worse than spend a few years there.
ahh logic.
Agreed. Give the young dude a chance. I’m not even a big Tim Ream guy and I’ve been critical of his play but still.
You’d think none of our defenders had flaws the flak he gets.
Thanks for the link. Decent shot, but GREAT turn move by Jozy. It wasn’t as spectacular as his Confed Cup post up on Capdevilla, but very nice indeed. That’s kind of his go to move.
I don’t think looking collectively at a league’s goal difference can tell you what kind of defense is being played on account of it always being 0.
+1. All his managers have consistently said that Tim is one of the fastest guys on the team. Ream has his issues, but speed isn’t one of them. If you persist with this argument, we’ll have to change your name to captain clueless.
haahahahahahahh
Italy’s squad for Wednesday is out.
No Balotelli!
Italy squad: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Morgan De Sanctis (Napoli), Salvatore Sirigu (Paris St Germain), Emiliano Viviano (Palermo; Ignazio Abate (AC Milan), Davide Astori (Cagliari), Federico Balzaretti (Palermo), Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Domenico Criscito (Zenit St Petersburg), Christian Maggio (Napoli), Angelo Ogbonna (Torino); Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Thiago Motta (Inter Milan), Antonio Nocerino (AC Milan), Andrea Pirlo (Juventus); Fabio Borini (Roma), Sebastian Giovinco (Parma), Alessandro Matri (Juventus) Giampaolo Pazzini (Inter Milan).
However it winds up, I’m having fun with it and he’s having a big step forward this year. In any case, I think he’s exceed everyone else’s predictions, which topped out around 12.
By the way, No Short Corner’s blog is really good on Dutch football. His take is that the coach is playing mind games with Jozy and that the need to start him has been a major talking point on the talk shows and in the papers.
That may be true but Adu has to prove he can start consistently at the club level first. Yes he has shown flashes at the international level, but he doesn’t deserve to be in the conversation as a national team contributor until he nails down consistent playing time with a good club team. Hopefully, he stays healthy for Philly this year and does that just that.
Do you think he’ll ever get called up to play for the Arsenal “A” team in Spain?
Yes, lets criticize the defender starting in the EPL against Chelsea. He’s garbage. Is there a German reserve team defender we can pin our hopes on instead?
(He had his first game in the EPL yesterday. He is a puppy in defender years. Give him a chance).
If it wasn’t for the benching I think your prediction would have come true. Hopefully his performance today forces him back into the starting eleven.
ya he should probably stick with ninja-kicking opposing fans
Jozy…12 to go
He was injured up until last weekend having missed 2 games in a row I believe. Could be that Norwich City didn’t want to release him and asked him to skip the call up IF Klinsmann did call him up, but considering that over 3 days before the period of 2 weeks when usually clubs receive the calls from National team coaches Whitbread was considered injured.
Guy has just had bad timing, got hurt right before the March Friendlies if I’m not mistaken and also before the Gold Cup I think and had a bit of a nagging injury in the beginning of the season also right when call ups where about to happen, nothing usually all that serious just a week or two, but when the US usually has had call ups
The keeper could have done a little better but good for Jozy
What a finish.
Why was WHITBREAD left out for the US ITALY game??, It doesn´t make any sense.
Wow Liverpool scores in extra time and Cardiff hits back in the dying minutes. Come on you Bluebirds
That;s the ticket. I believe Shea will continue to develop too and Adu’s role needs to be integrated into this squad. He has an important function I believe. Case in point, Gold Cup Final versus Mexico. There are a lot of things (Adu) he isn’t, but there are things he does well that no one else in the pool does.
I have not seen him much. In general, I am enjoying the progress of our players and such. Believe me, there have been far worse times and less talent.
Be careful, people here might not get your sarcasm.
Not much difference than in any other league. Look at the EPL table.
Ja Ja Ja.
AZ could win the title this year, even if they do not, they have EL football which is damn good for them,
I wonder if this means we’ll see Johnson at left back
Jozy Altidore is slow, lucky, never ever scores, has a terrible first touch, the Dutch league is worse than MLS, he’s old, he’s too big, nepotism, global warming,Freddy Adu 2.0, EJ 2.0, Emerson Hyndman is already better and should start in his place…let’s see what else, oh yeah he is lazy and unmotivated.
AZ coach needs to look into why Beerens and Holman can never find him (continuing problem). Goalie gave the win away today.
You called it.
And all of this for a team in contention for the title, which (despite what the secret footballer said for the Guardian yesterday) would hopefully be good for his confidence.
My money is on Boyd
well always a chance Davies becomes a real attacking threat.
Agudelo, Bunbury, Sapong (as you noted), the kid Boyd and perhaps a few more. I think we’re developing. If in 1 year the only true striker we have still is just JOZY, than freak out time
9 league goals in 23 league matches ain’t bad. Considering he’s been on the bench the last few matches. In fact a few weeks back he scored a brace off the bench. Overall he’s at 13 goals in 36 matches for the season.
A frontal attack of Donovan, Altidore and Dempsey
ah makes me DREAM
Yes and I think that is a promising sign. Altidore is doing more things well than not. He is a good fit at F in our new system.
Granted, it would help if a couple more F develop in advance between now and WC2014. My money is on Sapong.
Jozy has been the best passer in the attacking zone the past two games.
Skrtel with a finish after Suarez’s header clangs of the post. Red Dragons back in it. Should be an intense 25+.
Yes, he lost them the win. Nearly made another gaffe when he let a 20′ straight up high ball bounce 5 feet away from him.
Altidore is progressing well. It will be interesting to see Wednesday’s match with Donovan and Dempsey playing together for the first time under Coach Klinsmann.
The entire team collapsed, nothing on Friedel.
Somewhere around there. I was checking the table to see where AZ and Heer were at the moment when I noticed that only the top 6 at the table have a positive GD and they are a way above 0.
Jozy with a nice turn down the sideline and dangerous cross. Goalie just beat the offensive player to the ball.