The huge Serie A double header of Juventus/Fiorentina and Lazio/Napoli headline a jam-packed Saturday in the world of soccer.
Napoli and Lazio sit two and three in the league table, hot on the heels of league-leading Juventus. Fiorentina is only a point down from both Milan clubs, who currently occupy Serie A’s Europa League spots. Needless to say, both matches in Italy today will have a huge impact at the top of the table.
Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United will kick the day off over in England. Tottenham is closing in on third-place Chelsea, who lost last week to a rising Newcastle squad. Later in the day, the Blues will have their chance to bounce back at home against struggling Wigan Athletic and end this run of bad form.
In Germany, Dortmund hosts a HSV side struggling to keep any momentum heading in its direction. The defending Bundesliga champs are now 12 points behind rivals Bayern Munich after last week’s victory over previous #2 Bayer Leverkusen.
The third place match in the Africa Cup of Nations promises to be an intriguing one. How will Ghana bounce back from its shocking penalty kick loss to Burkina Faso? Will the Eagles proudly bring a third place finish back to a nation in conflict?
Real Madrid will take its usual place in the spotlight this evening. Days before their massive Champions League fixture with Manchester United, Madrid hosts Sevilla, a side that has only scraped together seven road points this season.
Finally, be sure to tune in to tonight’s Liga MX action. After drawing with league-leading U.N.A.L. last week, Tijuana hosts Club America in a battle of second vs. third in this young Clausura campaign.
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 your Soccer Saturday (Today’s TV Schedule is after the jump):
SATURDAY’S TV SCHEDULE
7:45am – ESPN2/ESPN Deportes/ESPN3.com – Tottenham Hotspur vs. Newcastle United
9:30am – GolTV – Borussia Dortmund vs. Hamburg SV
10:00am – Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Deportes Chelsea vs. Wigan Athletic
10:00am – FoxSoccer2Go.com – Norwich City vs. Fulham
10:00am – FoxSoccer2Go.com – Stoke City vs. Reading
10:00am – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer2Go.com – Sunderland vs. Arsenal
10:00am – FoxSoccer2Go.com – Swansea City vs. Queens Park Rangers
10:00am – beIN Sport/beIN Sport en Español – Mallorca vs. Osasuna
12:00pm – beIN Sport en Español – Celta Vigo vs. Valencia
12:00pm – beIN Sport/RAI – Juventus vs. Fiorentina
1:00pm – ESPN3.com – Mali vs. Ghana – (AFCON Third-Place Match)
2:00pm – beIN Sport en Español – Levante vs. Malaga
2:45pm – RAI – Lazio vs. Napoli
4:00pm – beIN Sport/ beIN Sport en Español – Real Madrid vs. Sevilla
6:00pm – ESPN Deportes/Azteca America Cruz Azul vs. UNAM
6:00pm – Univision Deportes – Querétaro vs. Chiapas
8:00pm – Univision Deportes – Monterrey vs. GuadalajaraÂ
8:00pm – UniMás – Tijuana vs. América
10:00pm – UniMás – Atlas vs. Atlanta
10:00pm – Univision Deportes – San Luis vs. Puebla
Watching The Manchester Vs Everton Game. I Think It’s Time Tim Howard Lose The No. 1 Spot. I Was Impressed By Brad Guzan. He Is A Beast In Goal. He Appears To Be More Confident Than Howard.
Hey, hey, hey – DMB just scored twice in the space of ten minutes for the win. Great goals too. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some goals like that for the USMNT?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysOReDwlTyA
I can’t believe that Tijuana just lost a home match against an America team that played an hour with only 9 men on the field.
Speechless.
The match stats are insane (pay special attention to shots, saves and possession)
http://espnfc.com/us/en/gamecast/358852/gamecast.html?soccernet=true&cc=5901
PS the commentators were very high on Joe Corona when he came on. They went from looking like maybe they’ll score to its a matter of time they’ll score when he entered. Too bad he didn’t come on earlier.
Possession percentage for xolos: 81… Dayum
That translates to 73 minutes of possession. 30 shots during that time. Or a shot every 2.5 minutes.
PPS
That was one of the MOST impressive goal keeping displays I have ever witnessed. The America keeper was ridiculous. Just ridiculous.
Crazy Tijuana game with the Xolos trying to come back from 2 goals down against 9 men. Corona with the assist to make it 2-1.
No holden or shea today i assume
The Bayern v Schalke match is going as expected.
Switching over to the TFC v Crew match.
Higuain and Columbus are going to be dangerous this season, from the looks of it during this pre-season friendly.
Joe Hart is horrible! Guzan to Man City!!!
Ha–Man City 2-0 down to cellar dwellers Southampton.
Kamara on for Norwich for the last few minutes against Fulham.
Yeah for those who think Dom Kinnear is a genius, he once traded Kamara away for Abe Thompson. Now he’s in the EPL and Thompson retired after dropping down to the minors.
[Ditto Wondo (since MVP and Golden Boot) for Cam Weaver (no MLS goals last year), DeRo (since MVP) for Julius James (option declined by Crew, free agent).]
Yet Kinnear still manages to get his team deep into the playoffs year after year. MLS has a salary cap; contributions to the team per dollar of salary are a huge consideration in way that they aren’t in Europe. I am looking forward to the day when the salary cap isn’t as important, but that day is still very far away.
Kinnear would be a decent national team coach, I think.
Imagine the quality of players that a ML$ team could put on the field with 10 mil. With that much money you could have a 33 man roster (1st/2nd/3rd teams)
I hope we can 5 DP’s by then (500K a piece against the cap)
It is not easy being an Arsenal fan…down to ten men
Arsenal is a different team with a full strength Wilshire and Monreal. Unfortunately, Wilshire just left with a knock.
And with Wilshire out, Sunderland are seeing more of the ball and building attacks…
and with Jenkinson gone it’s gonna get worse. Ugh
Bobby Wood making some noise in Germany with a goal and an assist today for 1860 Munich. Don’t be surrpised to see Bobby get a call-up to the May USMNT training camp and a call-up to the Gold Cup this summer.
Reading’s keeper have kept them in the game. Stoke has had some great shots on goal.
I’d be surprised if anyone would want to play in MLS if Champions League soccer was still a possibility for them.
David Beckham
You mean the guy who did everything he could think of to get out of his MLS contract so he could go play Champions League soccer with AC MIlan?
I mean the guy who left a CL club to come to MLS, resigned with MLS after his initial contract expired, and has now returned to another CL club. And yes, he played some games with Milan in the off season, though I don’t really see the relevance to this discussion.
the Milan thing with Becks had everything to do with him wanting to be in the England WC2010 squad, and nothing to do with MLS (at least directly). He was trying to do what he thought Capello would think prepared him best for the WC. Of course it ended up being a moot point when he ruptured his achilles.
Beckham’s Champions League days seemed well and truly behind him when he signed with MLS. I’m hardly alone in thinking he would have pushed his MLS move up another year if he knew he was going to become an important player for Real Madrid again.
In any case, my point stands. People want to play in the Champions League. It’s a huge factor in European teams keeping their players. It’s also a factor in MLS attracting players.
MLS should offer a deal to Robben. I dont get why they didnt go after Drogba or Sneijder. 6million a year and you got them. Same with Ibrahimovic
Robben is one of my favorite players, due to his dribbling skills. He is too fragile though. He would be hacked down in MLS, and stay injured much of the time. He has better options.
What makes you think they “didn’t go after” Drogba? There was never the remotest chance that the other two would be interested in MLS. Maybe some day, but certainly not now.
Oh my God. Did everyone see the article on Soccernet where Jol waxes poetic about how much he misses Deuce? He sounds like Dempsey was the one that got away. The article doesn’t mention it, but Jol was playing Adele in the background and Martin is writing Clint over and over on his school binder with little hearts over the i’s.
Yep. Jol has managed the likes of Van Der Vaart, Berbatov and Suarez. Glad to see he xonsiders Dempsey very highly
Yeah, pretty rich. Somehow I doubt Deuce reciprocates.
Torres just had sensual relations with that ball. Wow. What. A. Pass.
Highly recommended is the Dortmund vs Hamburg game. HSV up 2-1 at half-time. Lewandoski got a red card for a foul and Rafael van der Vaart for shoving Lewa after the foul. Is a game full of emotion in 80,000-seat Dortmund stadium and second half has potential to be historic.
Sorry, van der Vaart got a yellow card, not a red.
No wonder Espinoza moved to Wigan. He is very, very comfortable on the ball and technical.
Watching him play for Wigan right now just shows you the huge differences in spacing, technical ability, positioning and game speed.
If MLS played at this speed it would be so much more enjoyable.
MLS is a pretty good league which to its credit has a lot of parity. Is it as good as EPL, generally no, although the creme of our crop might beat the tail end of their league. Is it as technical as EPL, no, but we’re doing well enough where we’re churning out some Espinozas and Kamaras etc. they want.
FWIW if we had their salary levels I think we’d have as exciting a product or better. But there are historical and financial reasons MLS keeps its salaries limited and roughly equal.
I don’t see Cameron in the starting line-up for the Potters. My stream isn’t too good today, but I can’t see if he’s on the bench as a sub.
Flomax can fix that.
Good one.
Well played. I laughed.
Shea is also not on the team, had to return recently to the US to complete immigration formalities, and their assistant has also ominously said, “Brek has been injured for three months, so we can’t expect too much at the present moment, truth be told……..He trained yesterday, and he appeared to be ok, but we will need the fitness guys to take a further look at him over the coming days and weeks. He needs to be assessed properly, before we can have any idea of how long it will be before he comes into consideration.”
Bale. Spurs in 3rd place. Hello Champions League
Dembele is lucky to have a leg in one piece.
Should have been a red card. Newcastle plays dirty.
Clever move by AVB switching Dempsey and Bale — totally changed the game.
Impressed that Dempsey played 90 in Honduras and will play 90 here.
Hardman
He may have on the field for 90 in Honduras, but he didn’t “play” 90.
Nobody for the US did… Honduras started the games at 3pm in 90 degree weather while leaving the grass extra long for that very reason. Just like the US playing Mexico in Columbus in the Winter…. Dempsey scored a class goal.
Wonderful defense Newcastle
Magic Spray! He’ll be O.K.!
Bobby Wood with an assist now 3-1 1860
Should be noted that last week in the Newcastle vs Chelsea game Fabricio Coloccini kicked Demba Ba in the face full force and broke his nose. Accident? You be the judge. Ba was being booed furiously by Newcastle fans every time he touched the ball and it was a very poisonous atmosphere on the field.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dOBykY9Ibg
It was pretty clearly an accident
It was clearly an accident…and clearly should also have been a penalty. YOu raise your boot that high in the box, you take the consequence when it goes wrong.
+1. coloccini did what any defender should do, and tried to get the ball away, no matter what. still should have been a penalty and yellow card. poor no-call by the ref.
Bobby Wood scored for 1860 Munich in the 15th minute, now in the 70th with 1860 ahead 2-1
Bobby with an assist 3-1 now.
1860 has a sliver of a chance at gaining that 3rd promotion position. Of course, even if they get it, they still have to win a playoff.
Bale is good as gone come May. Real Madrid or Barca or AC Milan or Bayern Munich or Man U
I could see the Bayern one with Robben shipping out.
Robben’s leaving? I didn’t hear anything to that respect.
Said he’s unhappy with his bench role.
That move might actually make sense in terms of PT for Bale.
Newcastle has loads of French players. I suppose Sunderland will rival them by buying loads of Corsicans
I need Newcastle to win. Liverpool need their spot on the table.
You spelled Arsenal wrong haha. Good weekend for us to pick up points on them and Everton
*Need Tottenhams spot
Thank you Newcastle. Tuck
Didn’t expect to be watching footy while Blizzard Nemo is still dumping on Massachusetts.
Don’t follow Tottenham much (except for Deuce goal predictions and goals on SBI) but they breakout on the attack super quick and not just Bale and Lennon.
So dar Deuce with good link up play and getting into dangerous positions.
So *far*
Put the jinx on Holtby. He’s missed a couple of good chances now. Maybe three.
Hey, Bale scored again. Hopefully they’ll sell him to Madrid so he can sit on the bench. Oh, I’m an Arsenal fan.
So doez Gooch make a lot of money on the bench?
We need a friendly with Ghana. who here supports it? They knocked us out of 2 straight WC’s so it would be quite a rivalry. Either host it in Accra or Washington DC. Have John Kerry attend. Would be great for PR
Good idea… strange, random impulse though
I suppose he saw the Mali/Ghana match
Dempsey should have gone to La Liga. Sevilla, Atletico Madrid or Valencia
Except none of those teams made a transfer bid.
Doesn’t matter. Dempsey goes where Dempsey wanna goes. Just watch him play soccer.
He should’ve gone to real Madrid, Bayern or Barcelona. Anything else is just wasted talent.
I hope your joking/ being sarcastic. Are you really trying to tell me Dempsey is better than Ronaldo, Ozil, Di Maria, Iniesta, Cesc, Ribery, Muller, Kroos etc.? Tottenhams a great fit for him. Lots of playing time, champions league spot contender, and a team that’s young and very talented. They have a gold young coach who obviously rates Dempsey and appreciates his work ethic and a big future in they can keep the team together. Great team to be apart of.
And this is coming from a big US supporter an really big Dempsey fan. And if your not joking I apologize for my rant but I have actually seen people suggesting these teams seriously.
It was a joke. I was making fun of how delusional some people around here are.
Apology accepted.
I will bite… yes Dempsey is better than both Muller & Kroos right now….
Deuce misses a goal by an inch and then draws foul that leads to Bale goal on free kick. Holtby looking like a good add for Spurs.