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Soccer Sunday: Your Running Commentary

Jos Hooiveld and Guly Do Prado of Southampton FC and Yossi Benayoun of West Ham United

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

An English Premier League battle between Southampton and West Ham United will highlight this Soccer Sunday of action from around the world.

Both of these EPL clubs had strong midtable finishes in their first season back in England’s top flight, and they will look to continue their way up the table with a win Sunday at St. Mary’s Stadium. West Ham United will be looking for a repeat of their first meeting with Southampton last season, when the Hammers defeated the Saints 4-1.

The day’s action will begin in France, where first-place AS Monaco look to continue their unbeaten start with a win over Lorient. Superstar signing Radamel Falcao has scored three times for his new club, which wants all the momentum it can get heading into next week’s road match with Paris Saint-Germain.

In Spain, Europa League-bound Real Betis will look for their first win of the season in a home match against Valencia. Los Che have also had a hard time getting momentum going in the new La Liga season, dropping back-to-back close matches to Espanyol and defending champions Barcelona.

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):

8am – beIN Sport – Monaco vs Lorient

9am – beIN Sport en Español – Lazio vs Chievo

11am – NBC Sports Network – Southampton vs West Ham United

1pm – beIN Sport en Español – Málaga vs Rayo Vallecano

1pm – ESPN Deportes – Puebla vs Toluca

1pm – Univision – Pumas UNAM vs Morelia

2:45pm – beIN Sport – Sampdoria vs Genoa

3pm – Univision Deportes – Olympique Lyonnais vs Rennes

3pm – beIN Sport en Español – Real Betis vs Valencia

6pm – UniMás – Guadalajara vs Tijuana

Comments

  1. Babajide Ogbuniyi He’s boss af! Always wondered why he never played for NY and i’d really like to see him called up for November maybe even october. Greg garza and seb hines as well as chandler. I’d rather see yedlin than lichaj.

    Reply
    • I genuinely believe that coming up through the ranks of an EPL club is one of the worst places for young Americans to develop. It’s am extremely conservative league where every single match is so important that managers are extremely reluctant to give chances to unproven players. You have to be obviously head and shoulders better than the guy in your position in order to get playing time. Most of the time there is a proven, highly paid player blocking you that the manager personally brought in and paid a transfer fee to acquire.they are not going to bench that player without clear, overwhelming evidence.

      Reply
      • You just described every good league in the world. That’s why it’s so impressive to an international coach for a player to be getting first team football in a top-flight league.

        If our players want to develop in a league that will give first team chances to players in the hopes they will become better, they can stay in MLS.

      • Not true at all. The EPL spends much more money to bring in outside players than any other league in the world. There is also much more money at stake and therefore much less chance for system players to break through. The BPL is also an extremely conservative league, as I stated earlier, so there is much, much less opportunity and encouragement for players to express themselves creatively on the pitch, which inhibits young players development. The only thing most clubs in the BPL are looking for from their system are cogs, players who fit into their style and can play a reliable support role. They beat all the creativity out of you. Other leagues value creativity and expression from their young players much more. Why do you think English players are so notoriously boring and one dimensional and their national team so perpetually mediocre? This is the type of player the English teams produce.

      • You paint with too broad a brush.

        You may have a point with the top 4-6 EPL teams but I doubt the situation would be any different if a player were trying to break into teams like Real Madrid, Barca, AC Milan, Juve or Bayern.
        It is not easy for any player from anywhere to get into those top teams. Just because a guy like Lletget, for example, has been in West Ham’s system for some time, there is no guarantee he will ever get a game in the EPL.

        “Why do you think English players are so notoriously boring and one dimensional and their national team so perpetually mediocre? This is the type of player the English teams produce”

        English players have been that way since before the EPL was formed. You can’t lay that on the EPL.

        I think if you go down the list of World Cup contenders you will find quite a few EPL players on their rosters.

      • Not players DEVELOPED by BPL teams. That’s the whole point. BPL BUYS players their top players from other leagues rather than developing their own players. They use their system players to fill holes and roles, not to develop top players.

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