By MICHAEL KLINE
Manchester City kicks off another wonderful Sunday full of soccer action with a high-profile match against Chelsea. Manchester City trail league-leaders Manchester United by  15 points going into their match against The Blues, and anything other than three points will essentially eliminate them from the title race completely. Chelsea have issues of their own, however, with Tottenham nipping at their heels for third place.
Fresh off of an exhilarating Champions League win against Barcelona on Wednesday, AC Milan will battle against crosstown rivals Inter Milan in a match with big implications on the third Champions League spot in Serie A. Having won the last three meetings against AC Milan, Inter will be feeling more than confident heading into the match, but they will have to keep Mario Balotelli in check in the process, something other Italian clubs have had difficulty doing since his transfer back to Italy in January. Balotelli will be particularly exicted for the Milan Derby, and one can only imagine the striker will relish the opportunity to score against his former club.
Later in the day, Málaga will attempt to avenge their midweek Champions League loss against FC Porto with a win against Real Betis. Three points from the match will move Málaga four points clear of Valencia, who is challenging The Anchovies for the final Champions League spot in Spain. Finally, Guadalajara will host León in Liga MX, with both clubs searching for their second win of the young Mexican season.
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 TV schedule is after the jump):
SUNDAY
8:30am – Fox Soccer Channel – Manchester City vs. Chelsea
8:30am – FoxSoccer2Go.com – Newcastle United vs. Southampton
9am – beIN Sport en Español – Atalanta vs. Roma
9am – beIN Sport – Juventus vs. Siena
9:30am – GolTV – Borussia M’gladbach vs. Borussia Dortmund
1pm – beIN Sport – Atlético Madrid vs. Espanyol
1pm – Univision – Toluca vs. Jaguares
2:45pm – beIN Sport en Español – Inter Milan vs. AC Milan
3pm – Sky Sports 1 Ireland – Real Betis vs. Málaga
6pm – Telemundo – Guadalajara vs. León
wow Becks with the immediate impact helping set up that second goal.
Beckham flick unlocks Menez to the endline who passes across the goal face for Ibra goal, 2-0 PSG wins
Marseille played better than the result indicates
Pastore out for Beckham. The ultimate insult.
Watching the Marseille PSG game. Eventhough PSG is getting recognized a lot for Ibra and Becks Lavezzi and Pastore. I’ve been hearing a lot about Veratti gotta watch him close.
I didn’t realize Alex was their starting CB. They have quite the team. Lucas just got a goal off a deflection.
Interesting seeing the difference in sporting cultures between Americans and the British over the pk “controversy”. Going by the posts on SBI, de Guzman is a villain, while the British comments are overwhelmingly against Dyer for showing poor form by placing himself over the team.
A couple thoughts on de Guzman taking the penalty kick instead of Dyer –
1)He is the Swans designated pk man.
2)How many chances does a man have to score in a cup final?(fwiw, both he and Dyer had braces).
3)While I have no idea how his contract is structured, I imagine he receives bonus payment for goals.(If you read interviews with Swansea City’s chairmen, weekly wages are the lowest in the BPL, balanced by relatively high bonus payments).
4)Swansea was scoring pretty much at will, so it was not unreasonable to think Dyer would score his hat-trick from the run of play.
Now, having said that, yes, I think he should have allowed Dyer to take that PK.
de Guzman’s wikipedia article this morning:
“Whilst on loan at Swansea, he was given the nickname ‘Selfish Arsehole’ for not allowing Nathan Dyer to get his hat-trick in the Capital One Cup Final by taking a penalty, which he scored to then put Swansea 4-0 up against Bradford City”
De Guzman is officially the biggest DB in England. Your teammate needs one more for a hat trick and you get into a fight on the pitch because you don’t want to give him the shot?
Seriously?
Swansea number 20 is a huge dbag! Let Dyer try for the hat trick! First ever hatty in a league cup final? Just give it to him, 20.
The Bradford gk just got sent off.Officially the most one sided match I’ve ever seen.De Guzman and Dyer arguing over the pen Balotelli style.
You can tell Bradford aren’t comfortable playing on the huge Wembley pitch.It negates their ability to stay compact and accentuates Swansea superior athleticism.
I haven’t seen such a one sided game like this in a while.Bradford has only had the ball in the final third two or three times in the entire half.Cmon go Bradford get one for the gaffer!!!
Boyd has a goal for Rapid.
Why isn’t the League Cup Final on Fox Soccer? Is it being televised on any U.S. network?
Bein sports.I have a feeling the tall Bradford #9 could get some headers on goal vs the two Swansea cb’s Ki and Williams who aren’t the tallest or strongest.
Bein sports.I have a feeling the tall Bradford #9 could get some headers on goal vs the two Swansea cb’s Ki and Williams who aren’t the tallest or strongest.Oh sDyer just scored off a rebound save from Michu.
Bradley with an assist!
Chipped in a great ball for the RWB who was running on to the back post. Looked like he was trying to head it back across, but it ended up sneaking in the net.
I really believe our young strikers need to head to Holland to finetune their game. Midfielders as well. but especially strikers. Agudelo should ditch Celtic and pick up with a mid table club like Breda or Roda or Gronigen. Where he can study and develop his skill and score on a ready basis. Sure it’s only ranked 8th in EUROPE and just about anyone can score in Holland, but it’s still good development for our boys.
I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic with your last comment, but if you aren’t you are way off base. Think about some of the great strikers in the game today, and many blossomed in the Dutch league, not anybody can do it, if that was the case then everybody would score 20+ goals as a forward. And 8th best in Europe, that’s pretty good when you consider the leagues in Europe; England, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Russia, Portugal are the best leagues with the best talent in the world, to be right behind those leagues is no small feat.
I can think of loads of Eredivisie top scorer exports that bombed in higher ranked leagues. I’m not sure that the “striker development” badge is well justified. I think that the league is much like LigaMX…strikers are well developed through established youth academy setups and the supporters desire flowing attacks and goals over anything else. Light on the D, heavy on the A. The teams develop their kids and buy players with the right attributes…like most other leagues. They buy for starting positions and for depth, but not to “develop” 20 somethings that are for some reason still underdeveloped.
USMNT supporters hope that their attackers end up in the Eredivisie, mainly because they will score goals there. That is the illusion that perpetuates the “striker development” badge.
Freakin Cox in Phoenix has a problem this morning and no Fox Soccer. I hate Cox!!!! Moved here from VA where we had FIOS which was the best. Can’t believe I’m paying extra to not see this game!!!
Game is good, but the American announcer is absolutely terrible. Feel like he should be doing third-rate college basketball games.
R u talking about Gus Johnson on fox soccer? I agree he is horrid.Why can’t they go with the sky comentators who are much better.
Gus johnson is awesome, but it could be because im a huge college bball fan
Gus Johnson is the best. Great move to attract the average American sports fan
He does first-rate college basketball games.
Roma in all white, playing in a snowstorm.
MB is out there somewhere.
Solid block by MB a second ago. Fun, fun game to watch, since the snow started, the match has completely descended into chaos. Tony Pulis would be proud.
Bradley with a nice chip over the defense in the build up to a Roma goal; 3-2 Roma @ 73 min. Filed covered with snow; lousy conditions.
Should get the assist for that.
Frank! Oh my sweet Lord! He always goes left, why he can’t just open his hips on a penalty for once is beyond me. F!!ck!
Oscars tonight. Best Film- Lincoln. Best Director- Ang Lee. Best Actor- Daniel Day Lewis
best work of fiction.
They are Hollywood-made movies…NOT documentaries.
Hey, bayern_kaiser. Just wanted to let you know that I did respond to your comment to me on yesterday’s Saturday Running Commentary.
http://www.soccerbyives.net/2013/02/saturday-running-commentary-2.html
Mfg, Biffy
Uh Oh, it’s on. Everybody hide. Got us a rumble
ha-ha
Hide yo kids, hide yo wife…
this has nothing to do with anything but I’m so bored this morning.
out of the past decade. who is your top 5 strikers. Let me list a few. Ronaldo, Henry, Shevchenko, Van Nistlerooy, Eto’o, Totti, Toni, Torres, Villa, Gomez, Klose, Drogba, Rooney, Van Persie, Lewandowski.
who would in your opinion be your ideal striker?
Ronaldo or C Ronaldo? Ronaldo, before he ate all the pies was by far the best striker of the era.
Great speed with the ball, unbelievable, glue to the foot ball skills, fantastic strength on the ball and a heck of a shot to boot.
His injuries are what started it off. He came back from all that time off a lot heavier. He still could be effective, but was never the same player as he was before those injuries (which is a shame because they came when he was so young – so much talent and ability there).
eddie johnson
How about a twist on ‘who would be your Ideal striker?’ to under-rated or under-appreciated strikers. Roy Makaay, Andy Cole, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Antonio De Natale perhaps? Would also add Del Piero to your list of ‘top 5’ over the past decade.
Praying for a hat trick from Jozy today
also David Beckham playing in France. Wow
I just love the idea of a 4th division club like Bradford playing in the Europa League. It’s very exciting. If they win, perhaps they will agreed to be filmed and maybe a documentary can be made of this.
The Bradford owner said yesterday that if the won they would likely turn down the Europa league spot. The early rounds are expensive and the club wouldn’t be generating profits till the later rounds and they are won’t make it that far. Many lower league clubs are just scraping by. Oldham fined a player for throwing his shirt into the crowd after the Everton game and had posted a notice not to exchange jerseys after the game as they were short on kits.
he’s not the owner. He’s co-chairman of the club. And he’s an idiot.
If Bradford wins they will play in Europa. They would lose their support if they declined (and lose more money)
O/T but how has Borussia Monchengladbach been doing since Bradley left?
They made Champions League last season in a stunning turnaround. All their best players were poached that off-season, and now they’re back to being mediocre.
what about chievo?