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Soccer Saturday: Your Running Commentary

Lukasz Piszczek of Borussia Dortmund and Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

Before the Gold Cup Final in Chicago takes center stage on Sunday, fans can get their soccer fix on Saturday with some high-quality matchups in Europe and Liga MX.

The most prestigious of the day’s matches will be in Germany, where Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund square off for their country’s Super Cup. Bayern will look to build off of last year’s treble with their first trophy of the 2013-14 campaign in this rematch of May’s UEFA Champions League Final. In last season’s edition of the Super Cup, Bayern raced out to a hot start and defeated then-defending league champions Dortmund 2-1.

A few more global powers will battle in preseason action on Saturday. AC Milan and Valencia will kick off the International Champions Cup at the Estadio Mestalla, the only non-American venue in this eight-team preseason tournament. While that match gets underway, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid face off in a star-studded friendly in Sweden. It will be the first test as Real Madrid manager for Carlo Ancelotti, who left PSG for Real Madrid earlier this summer.

Although the headline Liga MX match for this weekend, Club America vs. Club Tijuana, was postponed until October, there are still a few matches that should catch the fans’ eyes. Fresh off last week’s 1-0 win at Toluca, Pachuca will host Tigres UANL, who are playing in their first match of the campaign. Chivas de Guadalajara will also kick off their Apertura season on the road, facing a Chiapas side that drew with Veracruz last week.

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):

9:30am – beIN Sport en Español – Hamburger SV vs Inter Milan

11:15am – beIN Sport – Leicester City vs Monaco

1pm – beIN Sport es Español – Vålerenga vs Barcelona

2pm – Fox Soccer Channel – AC Milan vs Valencia

2pm – beIN Sport – PSG vs Real Madrid

2:30pm – GolTV – Borussia Dortmund vs Bayern München – German Super Cup Final

7pm – MLS Direct Kick – Montreal Impact vs Sporting Kansas City

7pm – Univision Deportes – Whitecaps vs Philadelphia Union

7pm – MLS Direct Kick – New York Red Bulls vs Real Salt Lake

7pm – MLS Direct Kick – DC United vs New England

7pm – ESPN2 – Colorado Rapids vs Los Angeles Galaxy

8pm – UniMás – Monterrey vs Puebla

8pm – Univision Deportes – Pachuca vs Tigres UANL

9pm – NBC Sports Network – Houston Dynamo vs Chicago Fire

10pm – Univision Deportes – Chiapas vs Chivas de Guadalajara

10:30pm – MLS Direct Kick – SJ Earthquakes vs Portland Timbers

Comments

  1. Well, Dortmund walloped FC Bayern 4-2 to win the SuperCup, meaning that Pep Guardiola lost in his first chance to win silverware in his new job. Dortmund looked awesome and, of course, extremely well coached, while Pep’s team looked out of sorts. Pep did some real head-scratchers, starting Thiago as a lone number six while leaving Bastian Scheinsteiger on the bench, not to mention sitting Dante in favor of Daniel Van Buyten, who scored a disastrous own goal.

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  2. Dempsey bags a goal in Spurs pre-season 3rd place match against South China… Jozy ran out the first half against Man City. Hard to get a read as the match was essentially played underwater. Jozy demonstrated a couple of good touches receiving long balls, but was largely ineffective as Sunderland controlled the ball but couldn’t really do anything out of midfield (although in fairness, the middle of the pitch literally was covered in standing water)..

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  3. T. Boyd starting up top for Rapid Vien today. 11th minute no score! With the resurrection of Eddie Johnson and Wondo’s recent exploits, I’d say Boyd needs another solid season to stay in contention for Brazil.

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    • I was thinking that too. Since Jozy has matured and is being a beast and because JK has figured out a structure to get him the kind of support he needs, there are fewer striker minutes likely available. Johnson, Wondo, maybe Herc, and now an LD who just may be used as a striker leave little room for Boyd this cycle. However, he is so young his development this season could be very fast. I hope so cuz the kid is a beast in waiting and seems to have a great attitude.

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      • Is he so young though? He’s 22. One year younger than Jozy and Shea and two years older than Agudelo. I thinks its interesting that fans wrote off Jozy and Shea and complained that they weren’t polished enough for a player that’s already 22 but say Boyd is still young and has loads of potential.

  4. How many mls games does espn put out there? Seems like its once a month lately. They should do most of their games in summer. As soon as football season starts, mls is really lost in all the constant college coverage.

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      • You don’t have to assume that–you have to recognize that there are only so many networks and there are A LOT of ncaa football games on (which the broadcasters seem to love). Ten pounds of sugar in a five pound sack is the problem.

  5. Jozy starting with Sessegnon up top again. Love the attacking talent PDC has brought in to complement Jozy so far in Cabral, Giaccherini, etc. and Jozy may be breathing life into Sessegnon who was starved for a creative, technical partner to combine with last season. Very excited to see Jozy this year.

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