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Soccer Sunday: Your Running Commentary

Tim Howard of Everton

 

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

Long-time U.S. National Team teammates Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey will renew acquaintances as adversaries today when Howard’s Everton takes on Dempsey’s Tottenham in a clash of teams with UEFA Champions League aspirations.

Spurs are currently in third place in the English Premier League, but are only two points from slipping to fifth place. Everton are currently five points clear of a Champions League place, but a win would draw them closer to the pack for a European place.

In other action in England, Liverpool will host West Ham United to kick off your Sunday morning, and the Reds will be heavy favorites in a fixture which hasn’t seen The Hammers win at Anfield since 1963.

Liverpool have kept a clean sheet in 28 of 39 matches against West Ham over the past 50 years, and The Hammers’ pitiful goal-scoring record away from home so far this season pits Sam Allardyce’s squad against the odds to reverse that historic trend.

West Ham will also be faced with the difficult task of slowing down Luis Suarez and the rest of Liverpool’s attack, who have scored 28 goals since the start of 2013, the most in the Premier League by a decent margin.

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):

TODAY’S SOCCER ON TV

8:30am – FoxSoccer2Go – Liverpool vs. West Ham United

9am – beIN Sport en Español – Catania vs. Cagliari

9:05am – Fox Soccer Channel – Tottenham vs. Everton

10am – FoxSoccer2Go – Chelsea vs. Sunderland

10am – FoxSoccer2Go – Newcastle United vs. Fulham

11am – beIN Sport – Reims vs. Olympique Lyon

11am – beIN Sport en Español – Osasuna vs. Espanyol

11:10am – Fox Soccer Channel – Queens Park Rangers vs. Wigan Athletic

1pm – beIN Sport – Getafe vs. Atlético Madrid 

1pm – UniMás – Toluca vs. Monterrey

2:45pm – beIN Sport – Napoli vs. Genoa

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

3:15pm – ESPN3 – Olhanense vs. Benfica

5pm – ESPN2 – Chicago Fire vs. New York Red Bulls

7pm – Univision Deportes – Atlante vs. San Luis

 

Comments

  1. Awesome to have the Sunday TV schedule listed here – thank you, Ives! For anyone interested in watching the games over the rest of the week, check out awaygoals.com. It’s a free site with no popups, no ads, no nothing – just a site made by fans, for fans in the U.S. to easily and quickly find what games are on T.V. at what times and on what channels!

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  2. I never thought much about Dempsey’s game other than his scoring. However, he is a first rate scorer. He’s scored 8 goals this season. But most games he played off the bench. If you look at his goals per 90 minutes this season the number is impressive.

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    • Actually it depends on whether AVB regards Clint as a striker or an attacking midifelder.

      Clint has appeared in 36 games in all competitions for Spurs. He has 3 FA cup goals and 5 league goals for 8 goals total. That gives you a goal every 4.5 games.

      Attacking midfielders like Eden Hazard scores at a rate of a goal every 4.4 games and Juan Mata scores about once every 3 games.

      Strikers should score for frequntly.

      But he’s not doing too badly for a midfielder.

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  3. Watching a recording of the Spurs-Everton tilt. after seeing Lloris concede the second goal he should have stopped, I’m wondering how much he’s being paid to throw the match. On the second goal, it just seems to me as if he reacts very late, almost making a show of diving for the ball when it’s already to late to stop it.

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  4. Chitown – Based on that logic Adebeyor, Defoe, sigurdson, essou-ekotto, and many others should be getting prepared to get sold to a lesser team or adjust to life on the bench.

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      • No, he is using LOGIC. Who has more goals and assists than adebeyor, Defoe has done crap since before the winter when he isn’t injured, don’t see holtby scoring like mad, Sig hasn’t impressed, and bale is going to be sold…so Clint is obviously a weak link at spurs and should be sent to the 3rd division lol. Just more anti-american euro trash snobbery.

      • All this back and forth over Clint is silly. Follow your logic all the way to its conclusion and you’ll find that Bale is the only untouchable.

        Which means Clint and all the others, including AVB himself, could be gone by the start of next season.

        And of course, given all the rumors who knows if Spurs can afford to hang on to Bale.

        It will be an interesting off season.

    • I agree. AVB has already stated that he is going to shake up the striking corps in the silly season and I doubt a guy like Dempsey who is willing to fight for minutes to follow his dream of big CL matches and doesn’t have a large wage bill would not be pushed out the door.
      Two other points here – Fulham absolutely needed Dempsey to score and he did that for them where he consistently played more often and closer to goal. I am surprised he doesn’t have more assists, but IIRC he has been involved in numerous buildups that resulted in goals (as he was today).

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      • Nonsense.

        Pointing out reality isn’t hating. No matter how much he wants to sugar coat it, Dempsey is gone in the summer.

        Live in whatever fantasy reality you want, but when Clint is dropped you
        have to deal with it.

    • Next season Clint is moving to Real Madrid and earning a starting spot because…… Almost every year at Fulham he had to fight for a spot in the starting 11 and had to prove himself to every new coach (of which there were many) and he shows all the doubters wrong in the end.

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      • Your sarcasm is ridiculous. Guess what, whether he is playing at Fulham or Tottenham, he is playing against pretty much the same teams. Using your logic, Dembele shouldn’t do as well playing for Tottenham as for Fulham. Dempsey scored twice this year against Man U and has been more productive than any midfielder at Spurs except for Bale and maybe Lennon.

      • Except that Spurs are trying to play CL while Fulham is happy to be a middle to bottom of the table team.

      • AVB has stated on more than one occasion that he sees Clint primarily as a striker.

        Which means he is really in competition with Adebayor and Defoe.

  5. Everyone that is writing Dempsey off already is just flat out retarded. Just because he isn’t lighting it up like he did last season doesn’t mean he’s lost his spot on the team. Outside of bale, no one on spurs has really had a killer season. Dempsey will be fine and only become a bigger part of the team the more he settles in at spurs. I’d bet on him taking a larger role next season.

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    • You are correct. People who write such things about Dempsey either know little about soccer or little about Dempsey and his career. Almost every year at Fulham he had to fight for a spot in the starting 11 and had to prove himself to every new coach (of which there were many) and he shows all the doubters wrong in the end.

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      • It’s too early to be speculating on what next year’s Spur’s lineup will look like.

        1. First they have to know if they are in the Champion’s league.
        2. That will influence what is going to happen with Bale.

        Once those two things are sorted then AVB can sort out all the other pieces.
        Obviously it would help if Clint went on a tear and it would hurt if he is miserable for the remaining games but if he continues to play more or less like he did today he’ll be in that 50/50 category that most of the team is in i.e not untouchable but not necessarily ticketed for an exit either.

  6. Finally a goal in the Chelsea game scored by the attacking side. After two own goals, I was starting to wonder who had money on whom?

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  7. AZ only able to tie despite being up a man on a red card for the last 40 minutes and now hovering near the relegation zone.

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    • American passport-holder Aron Johannsson made his AZ debut. Came in the 77th minute and got involved quickly. Should have scored the game winner on that sweet pass from Jozy in added time.

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    • He dummied a pass to a guy who hit the post that rebounded to the guy that scored. I’m looking for positives too, but not touching the ball is a real stretch.

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      • If nothing else he showed a level of footballing maturity the rest of the Tottenham attackers struggle to possess….

  8. There you go. Great piece of play. I’m a neutral but as a Chelsea fan, I’d just assume see Everton win. I actually like both of these teams in spite of AVB’s curious methods.

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  9. Well, that was a tough yellow. Actually, I don’t think Tottenham is a playing badly at all. Everton is making it really hard as only a Moyes team can do.

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    • I would’ve pulled Holtby. While Deuce certainly hasn’t been on target and has attempted a couple of low percentage shots, he has been active in the final third and is trying to threaten. And as I write, his dummy to Adebayor helps set in motion the equalizer.

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      • Agreed, Citronomics. Holtby offered nothing in the second half. Quite frankly, a lot of his game is simply running around the field like a chicken with his head cut off. I predict AVB is going to cool on him in coming weeks. Sigurdsson generally looked good with huge effort and will to win.

  10. Apart from one good spell, Dempsey is having a disaster of a season. It’s not just about scoring and assists. He is awful. If he was deliberately trying to avoid the ball and not take part in the game there wouldn’t be much difference from what he is doing now. He is finally taking part in the game today but it’s only serving to show why he didn’t get involved earlier. If I were Tottenham I would unload him fast. He’s not even a good substitution at this point.

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    • Agree in part, though I think Dempsey needs a more defined role rather than “well we can play him as a striker, a second striker, left wing, or today, right wing.” It look like he’s being told to drift as centrally as possible and it makes a sense to a degree as he’s one of spurs few header threats, but the service is never there. He’s much better on the wing and picking up through-balls rather than to have to operate in tight spaces in a congested middle. That said it seems that if he only had more confidence on the ball it would do him a world of good. We’ve all seen his talent and his goal scoring abilities, but he needs to be better on the ball or else start putting in more goals. Don’t think we can call this a failure till we see what happens after summer, and Duece has never shied away from a challenge before, and certainly AVB sees something in him in the way he keeps playing him in different spots.

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  11. Holtby is one annoying player. Follows the ball on defense and just gets in the way. I dont see why the kid is rated so highly

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    • +1, shane. He irritates the heck out of me also and I think he is being overrated at this point. Has he made a single pass to Clint today? Been a couple of times Clint was open and Holtby ignores him.

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    • Loan if they can get a good arrangement for wages paid by the receiving team. If not, then I could see him sold to a non-top team in the window.

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  12. so what’s the deal with Gooch at Malaga? he’s on their bench for CL matches but not for La Liga matches. I recall him getting a few matches from October to December but nothing since.

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  13. I’m loving no announcers at the moment. Just the crowd noise. I don’t know if I would like it for the whole game but for a while, it is great.

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  14. As much as I want Dempsey to impress I am rooting for Everton to win the game. I hope Dempsey gets a brace and Everton wins 3-2

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  15. Spurs literally have nobody who on the bench who can change the game. expect Clint to go full 90. He has to score today

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    • Yeah, one would expect him to stay on all game. That bench is thin. Then again, that is a hell of a lineup for Spurs. Should be a good game to watch.

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    • I disagree. Clint has 8 goals this season. Adebayor has 2. Scoring goals doesn’t have much to do with AVBs process.

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      • lots of critics hating on Clint. His lack of performances and goals. He was slow to start this season but January he was doing great as Defoe and Adebayor were unavailable. 1 injury in February robbed him of a starting spot/

    • In addition to the points brought out by others, Dempsey scored in two out of the three games in the qualifiers. I can’t understand why some people are dumping on
      Dempsey.

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      • Clint’s goals for the US have nothing to do with Spurs.

        Most of the commentary about him is about his status with Spurs.

      • Others addressed his performance at Spurs, but since you apparently need further convincing, considering that he came to Spurs after the start of the season and no pre-season training and has lost games to two different injuries, if you look at the # of goals he has scored plus the # of assists per 90 minutes played, he is among the leaders of
        Spurs in those categories. Let’s review–scoring a goal every two games is excellent for a striker (that would be 19 in a year in the EPL, something only a couple of players achieve every year), every three games is excellent for a midfielder and one every four is good for a midfielder unless your name is Christiano Ronaldo or Gareth Bale who are really attackers. Until his last injury Dempsey was on a pace for 10 goals and 10 assists in less than a full year, which is very good. His last 3 years at Fulham he scored 10 goals, then 13, then 17. 17 was probably an anomaly since Fulham had their strikers out most of the year and Dempsey ended up playing striker for maybe 40% of the time. Dempsey is a very good player and remains that and apparently people expect CR7 numbers out of him, which is ridiculous.

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