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Soccer Saturday: Your Running Commentary

West Bromwich Albion has been one of the surprises of the season in the English Premier League, standing just goal difference out of fourth place in the league. They will have that impressive position tested when they take on league-leading Manchester United in the day’s marquee match-up.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad has extended the lead atop the EPL to seven points, but the Baggies have been tough all season and will look to test Manchester United’s vulnerable defense.

If Manchester City is going to have any hope of catching United, the Citizens will need a win on the road against Norwich City. Carrow Road is never an easy place to get a result, and City’s recent struggles could make that even tougher.

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 soccer TV schedule is after the jump):

TODAY’S SOCCER ON TV

7:45am- Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Deportes- Sunderland vs. Tottenham

10am- ESPN2/ESPN Deportes/ESPN3/FoxSoccer2Go.com- Manchester United vs. West Bromwich Albion

10am- Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Deportes- Norwich City vs. Manchester City

10am- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Reading vs. West Ham United

10am- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Stoke City vs. Southampton

12:30pm- Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Deportes- Arsenal vs. Newcastle United

11:59pm- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Arsenal vs. Newcastle United (delay)

11:59pm- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Sunderland vs. Tottenham (delay)

11:59pm- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Norwich City vs. Manchester City (delay)

 

Comments

  1. Walcott looks outstanding today and Giroud with two very nice finishes in his brief cameo. Defense still looked a bit in shambles though

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  2. Just caught the last 10 minutes of the Newcastle-Arsenal game. Arsenal just blew it wide open scoring 3 after the game being 4-3 when I started watching.

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  3. Bale misses the next match due to yellow card accumulation. Dempsey will start the next game for sure.

    BTW since when has Kenwyne jones started scoring again for Stike. Crouch has been benched as of late

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    • I am really surprised to see Bolton and Blackburn at mid table and Birmingham just two spots (although 7 points) above the relegation zone in the Championship.

      Good for Ream though. It would be nice to see him apparantly rediscover his form.

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    • That was a really big result for them. At least for the moment, they’re six points out of the playoff. They’re getting Stu Holden back in mid-to-late January and David Wheater and Mark Davies some time after that. Things are finally starting to look a bit brighter.

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    • my initial thought was anti-american bias, but I really think it is desparate fans who want to change anything to change a run of three really pathetic defeats.

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    • Pay no attention to Twitter. Guzan is the only player the people over at VillaTalk have been giving any credit lately.

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      • Exactly. Someone started a “Bench Guzan?” thread the other day and he was promptly marched out of town. Guzan is the only Villa player who has emerged from this holiday debacle with any credit to his name.

  4. The AV vs Wigan was pretty pathetic for the first 35 minutes by both sides, AV started to take control for the last 10 starting to get a lot more chances. Lichaj is starting at Right Wingback.

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    • I don’t think Lichaj is to blame for Villa’s defensive woes, but he doesn’t appear to be a solution either, going down 3 to Wigan

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  5. Red card for Nasri in the City v Norwich game. A bit of a silly one. He got brought down hard then started to rub his forehead against the Norwich player…got sent off for it lol. Looked like they were elephants flirting with each other

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  6. Red card for Nasri in the City v Norwich game. A bit of a silly one. He got brought down hard then started to rub his forehead against the Norwich player…got sent off for it lol. Looked like they were elephants flirting with each other

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  7. Watching the Fulham v Swansea game. With players like Ruiz and Berbatov on another level from anyone else on the field, I can’t help but imagine what this team would have done had they kept Dembele or Dempsey, or both.

    They’re just missing one or two players in midfield or supporting Berbatov. Plus their defense has been surprisingly poor. Other than Riether at right back who has been a pleasant surprise.

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    • I’m not sure Fulham would be doing much better with Dempsey in the side. The real issue with this Fulham team is that they didn’t replace Dembele and Murphy. This seasons midfield is a pale imitation of last years.

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    • yea but also since selling Dembele and Dempsey funded all the moves they made this summer, they really probably couldn’t have had it both ways.

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      • They only spent about 8 million in transfer fees this summer while the sale of Dembele alone brought in 15 million.

      • it’s not like transfers are the only revenues and expenditures a club has. unless they have a large amount of funds available for tranfers that they are withholding at the moment, it’s safe to assume whatever financial moves made in the summer were necessary or thereabouts. so if they didn’t sell Dempsey and/or Dembele, they would have theoretically had even less to spend or possibly nothing to spend on incoming transfers.

      • That’s a very simplistic way of looking at transfer spend that ignores a lot of the realities of the market (and the specifics of what happened at Fulham). Without getting too deep into the details (though I will note that Dembele was only sold because Spurs triggered an automatic release clause in his contract with their 15 million bid), I think it’s pretty clear Fulham spending what they spent this summer was not dependent on the sales of both Dembele and Dempsey.

      • Fulham didn’t buy a lot in the summer. They lost Dempsey and Dembele so late in the window they didn’t have time to replace them.

      • To be fair, Fulham did an excellent job replacing Clint’s goal production, however they did not come close to replacing what they lost in the midfield with the departures of Dembele and Murphy.

  8. Fun watching Dempsey today. Looks like Stoke is having problems on defense. Cameron is out – I think due to yellow card accumulation.

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    • Little of the recent praise for Stoke’s defense seemed to mention Cameron. He goes out, and look what happens. Does make one wonder if it’s more than coincidence.

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      • I’ve heard plenty of praise for Cameron (and not just from US centric media). And btw, Cameron isn’t the only player missing from Stoke’s back line today.

      • The last game I watched the commentators were praising him handily. They did say he was a tremendous athlete…how many times we’ve heard that about an American.

    • Wow, he can’t even make the 18 when two starters are missing… dude is BURIED at Stoke. There’s more chance we’ll see Sebastian Lletget for West Ham.

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    • In his limited minutes with them so far, I believe he’s been deployed in the MF.

      I know Pulis praised his versatility when they picked him up after the Mexico game, but it seems they don’t consider him depth at CB. Since no midfielders were out due to YC accumulation, it’s not any more surprising that he didn’t make the bench compared to, say, Wednesday.

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  9. 81st minute in Spurs game, Dempsey came on for Defoe maybe 10 minutes ago. Just had a disgusting backheel to put Adebayor alone in on goal but Mignolet denies him. Damn Clint is fun to watch…

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  10. Dempsey with a beautiful lay-off, almost a leaping backheel to send Ade in on goal alone, and he shot right at the keeper. Great pass and vision to even see it.

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  11. Lennon underrated in my view. Dembele and Sandro both a bit off today. These cards for diving are too much. The evidence has to be overwhelming.

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    • Agreed on the diving. I know Bale has a reputation, but there looked to be contact at the knee an he touched him with the arm, not saying definite penalty, but the card for diving would surely seem way too harsh.

      Also, I don’t think you can properly judge it in slow-motion because you fail to account for how fast the player is moving, which means it only takes a small nudge for a player to lose balance and fall.

      But he didn’t do himself any favors with the flailing as he went down.

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    • Lennon is very erratic IMO. He’s very talented but also blows a ton of chances and makes more than his share of head scratching decisions, kind of like his counterpart in North London, Mr. Walcott.

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      • Right, and Dempsey isn’t nearly as effective playing out wide left. They would have to change a lot of their system or bring in another winger.

      • Every time Bale has a big game, the “rumors” explode. But they’re always curiously lacking in sources or placement in credible publications. This latest rumor comes from the Daily Fail. The latest rumor is actually that Madrid is making a big bid for Bale, not Barca, and it makes no sense. Madrid already has Marcelo, Fabio Coentrao and Angel di Maria, and they can’t even find time for Jose Maria Callejon. And Spurs have no reason to sell unless the bid is way, way higher. Bale also just signed a new four year deal before the season started. The whole thing makes no sense whatsoever and should be ignored.

      • Me too. If Barca’s going to shell out big money, they should spend it on a centerback rather than a winger they don’t really need and might not be able to use.

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