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This Weekend’s Soccer on TV

BalotelliSpain (Getty Images)

All eyes will be on Olympic Stadium in Kiev on Sunday, when Spain and Italy meet for the Euro 2012 championship in the match of the weekend.

The two world powers meet for the second time this tournament after opening group play with a 1-1 draw. For Spain, a win would mean consecutive European championships to go along with a 2010 FIFA World Cup championship. For Italy, it would mean the Azzurri's first Euro championship since 1968 and first major trophy since lifting the 2006 World Cup.

The U.S. women's national team is an action as well in a send-off friendly ahead of next month's Olympics tournament. Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan & Co. will face Canada at Rio Tinto Stadium in a rematch of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament final, a game that the U.S. women won 4-0.

In MLS, the latest rivalry match between the San Jose Earthquakes and Los Angeles Galaxy is the must-see match of Week 17. The Earthquakes are the top team in the league and own bragging rights over the Galaxy from their meeting last month, but the Galaxy are finding their form after a curious start to their MLS Cup title defense. Their three-game winning streak is the longest active one in the league.

Elsewhere in MLS, Sporting Kansas City and Chicago kick off the weekend with a Friday night match on national TV, Houston and Philadelphia meet in a 2011 playoff rematch and Real Salt Lake and Seattle each look to bounce back from losses by going on the road to face Eastern Conference competition.

Here is this weekend's soccer on TV:

THIS WEEKEND'S SOCCER ON TV

FRIDAY

8 p.m. – NBC Sports Network – Sporting Kansas City vs. Chicago Fire

SATURDAY

2 p.m. – NBC – USWNT vs. Canada

3:20 p.m. – ESPN3.com – Cruzeiro vs. Sao Paulo

7 p.m. – Galavision – Toronto FC vs. New York Red Bulls

7:30 p.m. – MLS Live/Direct Kick – D.C. United vs. Montreal Impact

7:30 p.m. – MLS Live/Direct Kick – New England Revolution vs. Seattle Sounders

8 p.m. - MLS Live/Direct Kick – Columbus Crew vs. Real Salt Lake

8:30 p.m. - MLS Live/Direct Kick – Houston Dynamo vs. Philadelphia Union

9 p.m. - MLS Live/Direct Kick – Colorado Rapids vs. Portland Timbers

10 p.m. – ESPN2/ESPN3.com – San Jose Earthquakes vs. Los Angeles Galaxy

SUNDAY

2:45 p.m. – ESPN/ESPN3.com – Spain vs. Italy

Comments

  1. yeah it hasn’t been as good as the WC or the last Euro 2008 coverage. One reason is, only the Darke and McManamen duo is actually at the stadium when broadcasting the matches. The other announcing teams are doing it from Bristol, CT.

    Also i think they are missing Andy Gray. He’s one of my fav commentators.

    another thing is in the studio Michael Ballack is too low key. He sounds bored. I don’t think he’s been very good even though his commentary has been good. He just doesn’t bring the excitement.

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  2. Gatt pays dividends. Long ball and Gatt just straight outruns his marker and draws a red card in the box. Penalty Molde… 3-0

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  3. Watching Molde right now…Gatt comes on after half time and immediately makes a blistering run into the box with the ball and almost slips the last denfender. He is so dang fast.

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  4. While euros is probably the second most competitive competition behind the world cup, much fewer nations are involved, and with no south American teams involved there are fewer fans here in the US that are going to be interested, and thus the Euros is more of a hardcore soccer fan event than the world cup.

    I think ESPN is doing a great job, but without the US involved, there will be a drop off in coverage and interest, only natural

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  5. It does seem like they mailed it in. I think this is partly due to the fact that ESPN lost future World Cup rights to Fox even though that shouldn’t be a reason. There’s every reason to expect that the 2014 coverage will be as good as 2010’s. But look at NBC’s excellent MLS coverage and you can see the possibilities and how other networks are going to want a piece of the pie.

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  6. Am I the only one who thought ESPN’s coverage has been extremely mediocre, at least compared to the World Cup? Maybe it was the novelty factor of having guys like Ian Darke for the first time, but the production value was just much higher (even the last Euro seemed better). I felt like I was in South Africa for the World Cup, I have no idea whatsoever what’s going on in Poland/Ukraine, especially after the big deal everybody made at the beginning. I get the US isn’t in the tournament, but still, even Darke and Bob Ley seem not as great as they were then. Maybe it’s the bad tournament, but it just seems off.

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