Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By MICHAEL KLINE
The start of the 2013/14 Barclays Premier League and Spanish La Liga headline this weekend’s soccer action.
Liverpool welcome Stoke City to Anfield early Saturday morning, with the meeting between the two clubs commencing the 13/14 Premier League season.
Brendan Rodgers will be without the services of his polarizing Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, who is still serving a 10-match suspension for biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic at the end of last season. His adversary, newly-appointed Stoke City boss Mark Hughes, will manage his first competitive match in charge of The Potters, and will look to improve on last season’s 13th place finish.
Later on Saturday afternoon, Swansea City will host Manchester United live on NBC. The reigning Premier League Champions will be without Sir Alex Ferguson for the first time in league-play in over 27 years. A Scot still mans the touchline, however, with David Moyes hoping to get his Manchester United managerial career started off in a positive direction Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday, Barcelona will face Levante in Gerardo Martino’s first league-match in charge of the Spanish titans.
Lionel Messi is doubtful for the season-opener due to a quad injury, but newly-signed Brazilian phenom Neymar is set to make his official debut for the club.
Here is a rundown of This Weekend’s Soccer on TV:
FRIDAY
2:30pm – Univision Deportes –Â Sochaux vs Olympique Lyonnais
8:30pm – ESPN Deportes –Â Morelia vs Atlas
10:30pm – Univision Deportes –Â Santos Laguna vs Tigres UANL
SATURDAY
7:45am – NBC Sports Network –Â Liverpool vs Stoke City
9:30am – GolTV – Eintracht Frankfurt vs Bayern München
10am – NBC Sports Network –Â Arsenal vs Aston Villa
12:30pm – NBC –Â Swansea City vs Manchester United
12:30pm – GolTV –Â Borussia M’gladbach vs Hannover 96
1pm – beIN Sport en Español – Real Sociedad vs Getafe
2pm – Univision Deportes –Â Nice vs Rennes
2pm – beIN Sport –Â Toulouse vs Bordeaux
3pm – beIN Sport en Español – Real Valladolid vs Athletic Club
5pm – beIN Sport en Español – Valencia vs Málaga
5:30pm – ESPN Deportes – Cruzeiro vs Vitória
6pm – Univision Deportes – Veracruz vs Querétaro
6pm – Univision –Â Cruz Azul vs Atlante
7pm – MLS Direct Kick –Â Montreal Impact vs DC United
7:30pm – MLS Direct Kick –Â New England vs Chicago Fire
7:30pm – MLS Direct Kick – Columbus Crew vs Toronto FC
8pm – NBC Sports Network –Â New York Red Bulls vs Philadelphia Union
8pm – UniMás – Monterrey vs Tijuana
8pm – Univision Deportes – Pachuca vs América
9pm – MLS Direct Kick –Â Houston Dynamo vs Seattle Sounders
9:30pm – MLS Direct Kick –Â Colorado Rapids vs Vancouver Whitecaps
10pm – Univision Deportes –Â Chiapas vs Toluca
10:30pm – MLS Direct Kick –Â Los Angeles Galaxy vs Real Salt Lake
11pm – MLS Direct Kick – Portland Timbers vs Dallas FC
SUNDAY
8:30am – NBC Sports Network –Â Crystal Palace vs Tottenham Hotspur
11am – NBC Sports Network –Â Chelsea vs Hull City
11:30am – GolTV –Â Borussia Dortmund vs Eintracht Braunschweig
1pm – beIN Sport –Â Barcelona vs Levante
1pm – Univision Deportes – Pumas UNAM vs León
3pm – GolTV – Flamengo vs São Paulo
3pm – beIN Sport –Â Real Madrid vs Real Betis
5pm – beIN Sport en Español – Sevilla vs Atlético Madrid
6pm – UniMás – Guadalajara vs Puebla
10pm – UniMás – San Jose Earthquakes vs Sporting Kansas City
“5pm – beIN Sport en Español – Valencia vs Málaga”
That’s an 11pm local kick-off. WTF?!
And what happens to Fox Soccer? UCL/UEL, WC, FA Cup, ENGMNT/USMNT will be on FS1 or FS2. Does it just vanish tomorrow? Become the new FS+, and current FS+ is donked off?
Before you say “same-day tape” the Valencia-Malaga game is en vivo according to beIN
Yes, Fox Soccer is absorbed into FS1. Don’t feel too sad. It went from a bonus package channel to 1st tier nationwide.
Take a look at the SBI Blogroll in the right column. EPL Talk, rebranded as World Soccer Talk has the most indepth coverage of which providers are offering the Extra Time channels and app coverage, if you don’t know. It’s worth bookmarking, I promise.
Fox Soccer Channel still hypes Fox Soccer Plus Subscriptions lol
I still can’t get NBC’s Live Extra app to work on my Galaxy SIII.
Try downloading flashplayer. You have to Google it and download the version for 4.1+. The app works on my gs3.
Also, I continue to loathe BeIN Sport. F U for taking La Liga and Serie A away from me. (Not to mention USMNT away games)
I can’t tell you how much I agree with your comment. +infinity
I’m kind of ok with losing La Liga and Serie A. But losing USMNT away games? I hope they rot in hell for that!
And a big thumbs down to ESPN for not putting up the money to get the away games.
beIN Sport has pretty much unlimited financial resources, which is how it was able to purchase the rights for La Liga, Serie A, and USMNT away matches…would be nice if they invested some of those funds into improving their production values, because as it stands it’s almost painful to watch anything on that channel.
beIN’s production values are miles ahead of FSC’s or Gol’s. The pic on their HD channel is really good so not sure what you’re talking about.
plus its not like we had those game before BeIn.. USMNT away qualifiers were pay-per-view or randomly on other channels last cycle..
Ives,
What happened to the top 10 games of the weekend? I’m not as familiar with some leagues and teams so I liked seeing from an expert which are the games to watch .
Ives is chillin with his peeps in Peru, I believe, drinking pisco sours along with his jack and cokes…
(In all seriousness, I also appreciated the Top 10 games of the week, was a good rundown of which games to watch, haven’t seen it in a while.)
No Sunderland – Fulham? Great choice NBC, not showing the one American player everyone wants to see.
agreed. ridic
You can watch it on the NBC Sports Live app or if you have Direct TV, it’s on channel 492.
Trust me, I’m happy with the legal stream but NBC payed zillion dollars to get these rights. Why not promote the yanks playing in the EPL to gain viewership? Guess we’ll only see matches of the big 5 on TV.
NBC doesn’t need to promote US players to get viewership.
agree with you, Bill. Watching any EPL games simply because you’re hoping to see American players, means someone probably not watching for the right reasons, and definitely not watching because you like the sport. That’s like only watching MLB games when a team has players from a specific. We watch for the sport, and for the teams we love. Besides, most fans don’t really care where a player is from if he’s good. I’d say that’s way more important to NBC. I know I will most certainly be watching and enjoying! Gotta love competition!!!
As a supporter of the USMNT, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to see players from your national team do well at the club level, especially when it’s Jozy’s debut. That is by no means an indication that we don’t care about the sport. Not sure why you’re unable to comprehend that.
Congrats, Marti. With your, “not watching for the right reasons” comment, you’ve won the narrow minded, self centered comment of the day award. You’ve won a whole life inside your own head insulated from any other possible points of view. Believe it or not, other people watch for all SORTS of different reasons and not everyone does things for the reasons you do. Shocking, i know, but don’t worry. I suspect you’re very good at ignoring these inconvenient fact thingies.
awesome.. Thanks for this. I had thought directv hadn’t come to an agreement. It’s unreal that we can watch every game
That match is being shown on TV. Not sure what your provider has chosen for channels for the Extra Time package. I have Uverse so…
ATT UVERSE channel 1692 for Sunderland-Fulham at 10am ET.
1691-1694 are the ‘Premier League Extra Time’ channels on Uverse.
That match is available on one of the four NBC Premier League Extra Time channels that are available for free from providers that decided to carry them.
I’m gonna ask a naive question, but figured you guys would know better than going through hours of automated telepromts….
Does Comcast carry these extra channels or do I need to watch Jozy whoop @$$ online?
Go here and put in your zip and cable provider.
http://www.nbcsports.com/extratime
Much obliged!!!!
Wow! Time Warner Cable actually carries the extra time channels! I am shocked!
Jolazos on the big screen!
Hey thanks for doing the legwork on that one, Bill.
Yes, I’m 99% sure I read Comcast Xfinity signed on to have all games and access to the app as well.
Just checked, some xfinity markets are ready to go, they say the rest of the markets will have it by the end of the year… but you can obviously get the free stream immediately
Of course my market doesn’t have it yet…..
No games on fox soccer channel this weekend. Nice strategy they’ve got going there.
what should they show? They no longer have the rights to EPL, and with this being opening weekend, well……
More UCL reruns
As of tomorrow there is no FSC.
But of course they’re still pushing Fox Soccer Plus subscriptions, so you can watch various reruns, a handful of CONCACAF Champions League matches (eventually), and rugby. Such a deal for $15/month!
Per Wikipedia, Fox Soccer shuts down on Sept 2.
I continue to be surprised this has not been covered by SBI. Fox Soccer has for years been one of the primary ways many of us have experienced soccer.
100% agree. FSC is a big reason for the huge growth of the sport over the past 5+ years.
FSC also has helped the hair transplant/replacement industry.
And the “male enhancement” business…Enzyte anyone?
Ives writes for Fox sometimes, so probably didn’t want to bring up anything negative about them.
Pretty sure he doesn’t write for Fox anymore.
It’s not covered by SBI because when Ives left ESPN for FSC he made a big deal about FSC being the future of soccer blah blah blah and now he has egg on his face.
Really? Had no idea. Comcast just added them to the regular lineup in my area.
that, is a lot of soccer. Not to mention all the games available online. Dan Levy at Bleacher report wrote a great article on the amount of soccer available in this country. Much more than in England, or most parts of the world. We, are a lucky bunch.
You, use commas weirdly.
Yes he, does.
He is writing as if he is speaking. The commas are there to signal a pause in speech either for dramatic effect or emphasis. It has to do with the spoken meter and not the traditional composition and structure of the writing itself.
Fan, of the Bleacher Report. So, go figure.