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Soccer Saturday: Your Running Commentary

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. Guadalajara 

8:00pm – UniMás – Tijuana vs. América

10:00pm – UniMás – Atlas vs. Atlanta

10:00pm – Univision Deportes – San Luis vs. Puebla

Comments

  1. 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.

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  2. 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.

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    • 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).]

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      • 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.

      • 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)

  3. 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.

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      • 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.

  4. 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

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    • 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.

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    • 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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.

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    • 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.

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  8. 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.

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    • 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.”

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  9. 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

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      • 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.

  10. 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.

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  11. 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

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      • 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.

  12. 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.

    Reply

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