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Soccer Sunday: Your Running Commentary

Robin van Persie of Manchester United celebrates scoring the opening goal of the game

By MICHAEL KLINE

The race to qualify for next season’s Champions League kicks into top gear in England, with both Chelsea and Arsenal in action today against quality opponents.

Chelsea will welcome Swansea City to Stamford Bridge, where The Swans will attempt to secure their first league win since early March.

Chelsea haven’t beaten Michael Laudrup’s men in the last four meetings between the two clubs, and will likely opt to start Demba Ba instead of Fernando Torres, who hasn’t scored a league goal in his last 997 minutes. Laudrup will have a fully healthy squad to choose from, but with Swansea having already qualified for Europe next season, there is little left for the Welsh club to play for.

An hour later Manchester United will travel to the Emirates, where they will receive the traditional guard of honor for winning the Premier League.

Robin van Persie will grab the headlines in his first trip back to his former London club since his big-money move to United last summer. Arsenal have the chance to move four points clear of club-rival Tottenham, who struggled to earn a point from Wigan Athletic yesterday.

Enjoy the action (Today’s TV schedule is after the jump):

TODAY’S SOCCER ON TV

8:30am – Fox Soccer Channel – Reading vs. Queens Park Rangers

9am – beIN Sport en Español – Torino vs. Juventus

10am – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer2Go.com – Chelsea vs. Swansea City

11am – Fox Soccer Channel – Arsenal vs. Manchester United

11am – beIN Sport – MĂ¡laga vs. Getafe

11:30am – GolTV – Schalke 04 vs. Hamburger SV

1pm – beIN Sport en Español – Real Valladolid vs. Sevilla

1pm – Univision – Pumas UNAM vs. Jaguares

1pm – ESPN Deportes – Puebla vs. Atlas

3pm – beIN Sport – Evian TG vs. Paris Saint-Germain

3pm – beIN Sport en Español – Real Sociedad vs. Valencia

5pm – UniMàs – Houston Dynamo vs. Colorado Rapids

6pm – Telemundo – Guadalajara vs. Querétaro

Comments

    • Another bad call by the ref. Should have been a 2nd yellow, even though Davis was missing the next game anyway. The fines might be different, though.

      Reply
  1. MB goes 90 as Roma deploys the 4-2-3-1, Fabian Johnson plays LW (also in a 4-2-3-1), and Jones returns and goes 80. Wondering if the MNT could deploy something like this over the next few games.
    _________Altidore___________
    F. Johnson__Dempsey__Donovan
    _______Bradley__Jones_____
    Chandler_Gonzo_Cameron_Dolo
    _________Howard__________

    Reply
    • Rather have Gomez/Shea/EJ-in-a-442. No reason why he can’t be effective from the back, remember the first goal against Mexico in the gold cup 2011? Dolo worked over half of Mexico. Lahm is currently tied/one off the lead in the Bundesliga in asists (take THAT, mods!), for what it’s worth.

      Reply
      • Rather have Gomez/Shea/EJ-in-a-442. No reason why he can’t be effective from the back, remember the first goal against Mexico in the gold cup 2011? Dolo worked over half of Mexico. Lahm is currently tied/one off the lead in the Bundesliga in assists (take THAT, mods!), for what it’s worth.

  2. Man U have not conceded a penalty or received a red card this season.

    Is it the refs preconceptions/fear of SAF or are they really that disciplined?

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    • It is highly unlikely that a given team is disciplined enough to not get a red card all year, they have played what 34 EPL games? Has to be SAF playing some role in refs minds

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    • wow, that’s quite a stat, hard to beleive, revealing I’d say

      any other BPL team with even one of those two stats, no reds or no PKs conceded, as part of their season’s stats?

      Reply
      • Sunderland received no red cards surprisingly. They are the only other team.

        The average number of penalties conceded appears to be about 5.

      • To date the EPL has played 313 league games.

        42 players have gotten red cards.

        Sidwell of Fulham and Pienaar of Everton each have 2, the remaining 40 players have one each

        Arsenal and WBA have 4 reds
        Everton and Man City each have 3 reds.
        Man U has no red cards but Rooney has 7 yellows as do 14 other EPL players.

        The totals work out to a red card being given to someone in the EPL once every 7 games or so.

        By the way, over in Germany, Jermaine Jones has 5 yellows and one red to date which puts him at 13th on the BL list of card offenders. They have a system where they rate players by total number of cards.

        Number one offender on that list for the BL is one Vedad Ibisivic of Stuttgart, former NCAA Freshman of the year for the Saint Louis University Billikens and also formerly of the USL Premier Development League with both the St. Louis Strikers and Chicago Fire Premier.
        It’s good to know the American influence, at least, leads the BL in something.

  3. That was so bad from Sagna that words cannot describe. Overall Asenal outplayed United, especially in the opening 30, but it still goes into half tied due to a horrendous Sagna giveaway followed immediately by giving away a terrible penalty giveaway.

    Also I would put money that someone is going to get sent off, Dowd is giving away yellows like they are hot potatoes

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  4. Let’s see how this weekend is going… Liverpool thrashed Newcastle – check. DCU got drubbed by Crew – d’ohhh (maybe Benny needs to scrutinize himself again). Man U so far getting outplayed by Arsenal – nice.

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  5. Harry Redknapp and Jose Bosingwa pretty much laughing as they walk off the field down the tunnel after being relegated. Pretty embarassing if you ask me. What a joke.

    Reply
  6. MB went 90, Roma with a 4-0 win to go 5th and hold a Europa spot.

    Slim chance, but still possible to get CL. They’ll be 6 or 7 points back with 4 to play.

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    • How did he play? I caught the last 10 minutes and the announcers were saying nice things about him as I started watching? Did he play well or did I just tune in right as he made a positive play?

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      • Quite well, I thought. Typical MB game: ran the midfield well, didn’t give the ball away, made clean passes.

      • I read that he had other chances to score but squander them, which shows that he needs to be fed to be effective. Unfortunately, he is not getting fed at the national level. Do we have a forward that can make their own chances? in all fairness not many national teams have forwards that can make their own shots.

  7. first piece of business.

    We need more Yanks in England. Need to stranglehold that league. Oh and also need more guys in italy/spain

    Reply
    • I’d actually like to see more in Germany/Spain. England seems to be missing the boat as of late. The only problem is I don’t get freaking BeIn so I can’t watch the games!

      Reply
  8. so what y’all think of Jozy? 30 goals, 7 assists in 38 matches this season. He has 3 more including a cup final which if AZ wins, they get to EUROPA LEAGUE in the fall.

    Reply

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