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Soccer Sunday: Your Running Commentary

by

David Silva of Manchester City and Frank Lampard of Chelsea

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

Two of the biggest names in modern English soccer take to the field once again Sunday as Manchester City visit Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is unbeaten in his last 64 home matches in the English Premier League, but his second-place Blues have a considerable challenge ahead of them when Manuel Pellgrini’s Citizens visit West London. After struggling away from home to start the season, Man City and their high-powered offense recorded back-to-back away wins against West Ham United and CSKA Moscow.

Elsewhere in the EPL, Jozy Altidore and last-place Sunderland look for their first victory of the season when rivals Newcastle United visit the Stadium of Light. The Black Cats have only recorded one point ahead of Sunday’s Tyne-Wear Derby, but new manager Gus Poyet and his club know a victory against their hated rivals could be the spark needed to turn their season around.

In France, Paris Saint-Germain and AS Monaco continue their battle for the top spot in Ligue 1 on Sunday. New league leaders PSG, fresh off a 5-0 rout of Anderlecht earlier this week, visit seventh-place Saint Etienne. But before the Parisians take the field, Monaco have a chance to put pressure on their rivals with a home win over a surprisingly down Lyon club at Stade Louis II.

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):

7:30am – beIN Sport USA – Napoli vs Torino

9:30am – NBC Sports Network – Sunderland vs Newcastle 

10am – beIN Sport en Español – Juventus vs. Genoa

10am – beIN Sport USA – Udinese vs Roma

10am – beIN Sport Play – Parma vs. AC Milan

12pm – NBC Sports Network – Chelsea v. Manchester City

12pm – NBC Sports Live Extra – Swansea City vs West Ham United

12pm – NBC Sports Live Extra – Tottenham vs Hull City

12pm – beIN Sport USA – Monaco vs Lyon

12pm – beIN Sport en Español – Villarreal vs Valencia

12:30pm – GolTV – Borussia Monchengladbach vs Eintracht Frankfurt

1pm – ESPN Deportes – Corinthians vs Santos

1:30pm – NBC – D.C. United vs Houston Dynamo 

1:30pm – Univision – Pumas vs Veracruz

2pm – beIN Sport en Español – Real Sociedad vs Almeria

3pm – GolTV Cerro Porteño vs. Peñarol (Uruguay)

4pm – beIN Sport USA – Saint-Etienne vs Paris Saint-Germain

4pm – beIN Sport en Español- Atletico Madrid vs Real Betis

4pm – MLS Direct Kick- Columbus Crew vs. New England Revolution 

5pm – UniMas – New York Red Bulls vs Chicago Fire 

8pm – MLS Direct Kick – Vancouver Whitecaps vs Colorado Rapids

9pm – ESPN/ESPN Deportes- Seattle Sounders vs LA Galaxy

Comments

    • Must be a big one for him. Until today, I’m pretty sure Austria Wien’s had beaten or tied Rapid every time the two had met since Boyd moved there.

      Reply

  3. Holy Guacamole Batman!
    What a morning so far…..
    Jozy getting insults about diving and comparisons to Joel Campbell
    Jozy either with a great layoff or a horrible first touch
    Timmy the commentator vs. Timmy the goalkeeper
    And what’s a daily post without someone somehow finding a way to throw in a negative drive by jab at Dempsey and Donovan… and the Seattle/LA game isn’t till tonight…

    Geez…. somebody peed in somebody’s cornflakes

    Reply

  7. There are A LOT of surly types on the message board today. Decent amount of rude name calling and snarky ass replies. I guess when someone doesn’t have meaningful to contribute, next best move is to belittle others. Fun times.

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  10. well obviously Timmy can’t be too critical of Man City or Chelsea players as he plays against them at least twice in 1 season. Plus he’s a very reserved guy. But he’s saying some interesting things.

    Torres made the 1st goal for Chelsea, all on his own. DAMN

    Reply

      • I think he’s doing ok. I’m biased tho cuz he’s one of my favorite professional athletes, mainly cuz I’ve actually met him countless times (he works out at the gym I work at in Memphis when he’s in town). He’s a nice chill dude when not on the pitch so I think his personality isn’t quite used to having be on camera. He barely even looked at the lens when they were doing the pregame lol.

      • Promise i wasn’t trying to name drop. I went off on a tangent but I was trying to emphasize that Timmy is quite shy and reserved in real life. Nicest dude ever tho.

      • Terrible?

        This has been great. He provides great insight as an active player and he isn’t critical. He’s very enjoyable.

      • His voice s very soft. You have to really pay attention or he fades into the background. That’s unsurprising, though, for first timer.

    • At first it was a bit annoying but then after a while I got use to it and like his analyzing. He’s just a fan of the game like all of us, how man of us don’t go “ohhhhh!” And “ufffffff!” after a shot or nice pass?

      Reply

      • What a lot of people don’t realize about Ray Hudson is he was the coach of the Miami Fusion in their last season in MLS and took a crap team and in one season turned them around to reach the MLS cup final against San Jose …and by all accounts they played some of the most attractive and entertaining soccer MLS has ever seen. The only reason Fusion aren’t a team anymore is because MLS told the cup finalists whoever lost that game would not be in MLS next season and the fusion lost. Kinda sad huh???

      • Plus imagine if Ray was still an MLS coach, and how incredible sideline quotes and pre/post game presses would be! What a fun time that could have been.

      • “What a lot of people don’t realize about Ray Hudson is he was the coach of the Miami Fusion”. You mean all of us who didn’t watch the MLS insider episode? Haha. OR were actually there to watch one of the Fusion games. It wasn’t too long ago bro. Nice try.

      • Oooooook. Well I haven’t seen that MLS insider piece so I was not aware the general public knew about it. Plus let’s be honest not everyone that follows MLS were watching yet. I became a fan of soccer because of MLS in ’96 because I just loved the game; I watched that happen in real life and it always struck me as one of the more interesting stories regarding the history of MLS. So sue me for wanting to share it with anyone who didn’t know that.

        But nice try at being condescending….BRO.

      • + 1,000,000

        Nice comeback! I can’t stand some of these snarky, condescending people who feel brave behind a computer monitor.

  18. Too early to tell for sure but it seems like Jozy will play the holding role and won’t get too many chances for glory this season. I think most goals will come from sending blind balls into the box and hoping someone wins a header or by Jozy running the channels and creating something the way he did for Borini. Unfortunately the only real gap in Jozy’s game is the ability to consistently win those contested headers and Fletcher is tremendous at that so I think we will see a lot of Jozy making dummy near post runs with Fletcher the target at the far post. It’s good experience, though. Perhaps he will learn to win those 50/50 headers more consistently. He has he size and athleticism to do so, just not the technique and body control yet.

    Reply

    • You must not have seen Sunderland vs Liverpool.

      Jozy won almost everything sent his way either in the air or on the ground and managed to do something positive with most of it. The problem there was he did not have a Fletcher or Borini to take advantage of the good work.

      Reply

      • Once again, you make my point for me. Jozy will win many balls and set up Fletcher and Borini for goals but it may be that will mainly be his role, since they don’t seem to have the clever wing play that he likes to combine with for his goals. Black Cat wings seem to just want to lump the ball in blindly without much guile. The one thing Jozy doesn’t do much of yet is scoring on those contested headers the way we saw Fletcher do today. Fletcher is a monster on those, so I don’t think we will see many of those balls designed for Jozy’s head. I’d imagine Jozy will be mostly the dummy runner at the opposite post. Things may change with Giaccherini back in the mix, though. I’m not sure if Fletcher has the guile to combine with Jozy and set him up. He seems much more of a one touch target type though there were a couple decent passes back and forth between them today. It seems extremely apparent that Borini will not be laying the ball off for anyone. He has a cannon for a right foot and intends to use it at every occasion. I’ve yet to see him actually pa$$ the ball. I had a lengthy correspondence with a tactical writer at another site that felt Jozy exactly that when Jozy signed. That Jozy would run the channels and Fletcher would be the main target. I hoped he was wrong at the time but it does seem logical now. Look at today. Jozy played wonderfully, the team as a whole played well, but Ajozy didn’t get a single dangerous ball sent his way. It’s still early in Gus’ tenure certainly. We shall see.

      • Once again you misrepresent what you originally said and what I said:

        ” It’s good experience, though. Perhaps he will learn to win those 50/50 headers more consistently. He has he size and athleticism to do so, just not the technique and body control yet.”

        You are wrong. Jozy already knows how to win those 50/50 headers consistently.

        He already has the technique and the body control. In the Liverpool game he had little to work with in this game he had a bit more.

        You make it sound like he has been demoted to target man. The truth is he’s a better target man than Fletcher and Borini; that’s why he is in that role He’s their best all around forward.

      • I totally disagree. I love Jozy,but I can quickly find 10-15 BPL goals of a fletcher rising up over a defender and scoring with his head. I’ve seen just about every goal Jozy ever scored and can’t think of a single one where he’s done the same. I remember one with AZ last year where he shoved the defender to create space but that’s a different technique since, by the time the ball arrived, he was open. As far as I can remember, almost every single one of Jozy’s headed goals are in open space. If you can find a YouTube clip of a few I would be shocked. Just google Fletcher highlights and you’ll see oodles of those sorts of goals. That’s his thing. He’s a beast in the air. Jozy is probably better in every other aspect, but I think you’re seriously uninformed about Steohen Fletcher if you think Jozy can match him in the air.

      • Mr. G.

        So you’re saying Jozy will never have an uncontested header on goal in the BPL? Are they banned in England?

        Fletcher may in fact be better in the air than Jozy when it comes to going for goal.

        That has nothing to do with what I wrote.

        What I wrote was ” You make it sound like he has been demoted to target man. The truth is he’s a better target man than Fletcher and Borini; that’s why he is in that role He’s their best all around forward.”

        Based on the games I’ve seen to date, Jozy is Sunderland’s best all around forward and may even be their best all round player. That is probably why he seems to be their primary target man.

        A target man is the outlet for your team, the guy who can be the next link in turning defense into offense. Being better in the air than Jozy does not necessarily make you a better target man than Jozy.

        This is what you wrote about Jozy:

        ” Perhaps he will learn to win those 50/50 headers more consistently. He has he size and athleticism to do so, just not the technique and body control yet.”

        You are wrong. He may not be as good in the air as Fletcher but he is more than useful. He is Sunderland’s most mobile and most intelligently physical forward. His movements and overall game get better every game.

  23. Altidore takes a dive and people say he “wins a free kick” then he fails to control the ball which happens to be recovered by a teammate who scores and people call it “an assist”
    It’s embarrassing

    Reply

    • It’s embarrassing when a person who has no knowledge of the game doesn’t give a player who works hard for his team, holds the ball up well, and got named Man of the Match his due. Just give it a rest, we can tell you probably don’t like Jozy, but you don’t know what he meant to do on his assist, and there was contact on the freekick he won.

      Reply

      • Except nothing he said is wrong. Jozy screwed up and a teammate bailed him out. That’s not really up for discussion. We like Jozy doing Jozy things. That was not a good play by him.

        And he did dive. Why celebrate that? The same people on here that filet Barcelona players take a blind eye when Jozy or Dempsey go Greg Louganis.

      • Wrong. That was a very typical layoff. You will see that from Jozy almost every single match if you watch him play.

      • Seriously. Take the homer glasses off.

        Jozy touches that trying to trap it and moves toward it as if he mishit the touch. He pulls back when he sees Borini coming in.

      • How is that not up for discussion? You know for a fact he wasn’t trying to lay the ball off? He does that all the time. You must be really close to Jozy to know whether he meant to that this time or not. Some of the comments on here are unbelievable.

      • So the fact that he does that all the time is simply coincidence to you. It is sheer coincidence that every time he does that, there happens to be a man making that run behind him for the ball to magically appear at his feet? When something happens over and again, I tend to think there is intent there. If you’re not a big believer in cause and effect, that’s fine but I don’t think I’m up enough on my Kant and Hegel to have that discussion, lol.

    • You didn’t mention one good thing about Jozy’s play today. Open your eyes. Hopefully you’re not a US fan. That’d be embarrassing.

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      • A dive is a dive regardless of what shirt the player is wearing. People went crazy when Campbell took a dive but celebrate Jozy, Donovan and Dempsey for “wining a free kick”
        Not only are they embarrassing but fans like yourself are an embarrassment for the rest of us.

      • That wasn’t a dive. There was direct contact with Jozy’s feet. Could someone as strong Jozy have stayed up? Probably. But it’s not like he wasn’t touched.

        I’m not celebrating any diving. You’re just being an overly critical conceited prick.

        If only the rest of us could all be like you. So wise. So levelheaded.

      • There was contact there. The defender’s foot made contact with Jozy’s, and got no piece of the ball. Was Jozy looking for the contact? Yes. Nothing wrong with that at all. And, whether you like it or not, he did indeed “win a free kick.” Sorry it’s spoiled your day.

      • Personally, I define dives as going to ground with complete fabrication of contact, so it’s not a dive in my book. What Jozy did was to feel the contact and go down easily without fighting for his feet. That’s something you see 20 times a game. You can go all hunger strikey about it if you like. It’s your prerogative but I’m not sure how you watch a single match if it get that much under your skin. ha, I just saw Hazard do it in the Chelsea match.

      • Believe it or not your personal definition of a foul means absolutely nothing. Contact doesn’t necessarily equals a foul. That’s just ignorant.
        If Aguero went down every time he got touched he would have zero goals so far this season, Kind of like Altidore

      • Since I said nothing about whether it’s a foul or not, you’re the one who’s being ignorant. Implying that Jozy goes down every time is the absolute HEIGHT of ignorance. The man takes a beating every single match. It’s debatable whether he went down too easily on that particular play but the absurdly overreactive, foaming at the mouth fervor you are showing over it is completely ridiculous.

      • There’s also a difference between diving and drawing a foul. The latter is legal and not unsportsmanlike.

  24. Sunderland killed off the last 3 minutes beautifully, with Jozy in the middle of it. Excellent stuff. the Sunderland fans are happier than kids on Christmas morning

    Reply

    • Some definitely are. He’s not bad at hold-up play, but I fear that a long spell at Sunderland will leave him with just that part of his game.

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      • Well he hasn’t played bad at all this game: doing a lot of things right. He’s not lighting it up (obviously); I think we all kind of expected Jozy to go all Lukaku on everyone when the season started lol. Regardless he hasn’t played poorly.

        That touch was not intentional tho. Still good to be in the right place to make that touch but better work by Borini to take advantage.

      • considering he gets hacker mercilessly and continually and the refs basically don’t protect him, I think he’s doing very well. how’d you all like how he helped kill off the game at the end?

      • Are you new to the sport? The refs are supposed to protect the players by calling fouls when they are fouled. If they don’t call fouls, don’t you think the players could get the impression that they can start making rougher challenges, which can in turn hurt the players on the receiving in?

      • do better if you want to insult me rookie

        and you are wrong, it is the officials mandate to protect the players, rookie

      • The EPL is a very physical league. The refs dont call a foul every time theres contact. Go learn about the game before you post stupid comments, you amateur

      • Beachbum, while not always right, has been around on this forum for a long long time, so hardly an amateur. And you know who ends up looking like the amateur? The one who results to name calling.

      • Ha! that’s your insightful comeback? do better please. it is the officials’ job to protect players and your original post still reeks of that which you accuse me. I’ll help you…stupidity

      • Disagree. Looked very much intentional to me. Also is very much a typical play for Jozy. We’ve seen him do that for Dempsey time and again.

      • Fair enough. I’ll watch replay again. But to me it appeared he miscontrolled a bit.

        Don’t mistake me for a Jozy hater. I’m not. I think he had a great game. I just think in this one instance he did a lot of things right like get into position, hold his man off and get a touch on the ball, which in my view wasn’t spectacular but obviously worked out great.

      • Oh well. It might be debatable, but I’ve seen him make that exact layoff so many times that I think it’s highly unlikely that it was done without intent.

    • If he meant to do so — then, the bit is not so much in the dink touch but in creating a screen and space. I’m not sure any of it was intentional, though. If you watch Jozy, he’s taking a step towards the loose ball. I think Jozy’s touch was a bit long and his teammate snapped up the ball before Jozy could recover it.

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  32. Jozy wins a freekick with a great bit of play, and then both Fletcher and Larrson won’t let him take it. Fletcher then puts it directly into the wall. Smh.

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  35. NBC Sports Live is a great service and awesome how many ways it can be used to watch every BPL game … but Christ it’s glitchy! Every week a game cuts out online or on iPad or on tv and just inexplicably stops working for the rest of the match.

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    • Yeah, missed the Newcastle equalizer because the coverage cut out and went to commercials. So frustrating normally, but even worse when something important happens during when the coverage is screwed up.

      Reply

  36. it’s so frustrating to watch Jozy consistently make good plays with the ball, and then his teammates ruin the move with a bad pass after receiving the ball from him.

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  39. I love these announcers someone skys a cross out for a goal kick and they say “if he had more pace” he could have gotten it. Oh cliches.

    Reply

  41. Not a good first half from Newcastle.

    Can they try to work through someone besides Ben Arfa? They are making him too closely to have an impact

    Reply

  44. I wish the away team in the derby would wear the away kit.

    They don’t clash, but the distinction between the two is not that great on tv.

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      • It’s amateur hour when they let two teams with stripes and black shorts wear kits that are too similar. They never make teams which both wear white todo this. Fulham wouldn’t wear their home white at Spurs, so why do they let the teams w/ the stripes do it?

  48. Red Bulls vs Chicago will be exciting; big time playoff implications. A Chicagp win and Mike Magee is your 2013 MVP! Let`s go Galaxy finish strong!

    Reply

    • A huge game for the Fire. After a terrible start to the season I love the pieces they’ve added to the attack. A few defensive lapses have really hurt them. They need to look for a couple of studs on D…Segares has slowed down and they need to find a replacement.

      Reply

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