By JUSTIN FERGUSON
Defending treble winners Bayern Munich look to extend their lead atop the Bundesliga table and make league history when they face rivals Borussia Dortmund on this jam-packed Soccer Saturday of action.
Bayern head to Signal Iduna Park on a 36-match unbeaten run in Bundesliga play, and they can break the longstanding record held by 1982-83 Hamburg with another positive result against their biggest German opponents. Dortmund, who trail Bayern by four in the race for the Bundesliga title, hold a perfect home record this season, but they will be without three defensive starters in their clash with one of Europe’s top attacks.
The busy Saturday kicks off on Merseyside as city rivals Everton and Liverpool meet at Goodison Park. American goalkeeper Tim Howard and Everton’s tough defense will look to slow down the dynamic duo of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, who have lifted Liverpool to second place in a tight top-half of the English Premier League table.
League leaders Arsenal host third-place Southampton in the marquee matchup of the mid-day EPL slate. While Arsenal look to rebound from their loss to Robin van Persie and Manchester United, their visitors enter Emirates Stadium on an eight-match unbeaten run.
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):
7:45am – Everton vs. Liverpool – NBC Sports Network/Directv/Mun2
7:45am – St. Mirren vs Hibernian – Fox Soccer Plus/Fox Soccer 2Go
9:30am – Hertha BSC vs. Bayer Leverkusen – GolTV USA
10am- Dundee United vs. Partick Thistle – Fox Soccer Plus/Fox Soccer 2Go
10am – Arsenal vs. Southampton – NBC Sports Network/Directv
10am – Fulham vs. Swansea City – NBC Sports Live Extra/Directv
10am – Hull City vs. Crystal Palace – NBC Sports Live Extra/Directv
10am – Newcastle United vs. Norwich City – NBC Sports Live Extra/Directv
10am – Stoke City vs. Sunderland – NBC Sports Live Extra/Directv
10am – Barcelona vs. Granada – beIN Sport USA/beIN Sport en Espanol
11am – Reims vs. PSG – beIN Sport Play/Univision Deportes
11am – Olympique Lyon vs. Valenciennes – beIN Sport Play/Univision Deportes
12pm – Hellas Verona vs. Chievo- beIN Sport USA/beIN Sport Play
12pm – Real Sociedad vs. Celta de Vigo – beIN Sport en Espanol/beIN Sport Play
12:30pm- Borussia Dortmund vs. Bayern Munich – GolTV USA
12:30pm – West Ham United vs. Chelsea- NBC/Directv/NBC Sports Live Extra
2pm – Almeria vs. Real Madrid – beIN Sport USA/beIN Sport en Espanol
2:45pm – Napoli vs. Parma – beIN Sport USA/beIN Sport Play
2:45pm – AC Milan vs. Genoa – beIN Sport Play
4pm – Atletico Madrid vs. Getafe – beIN Sport en Espanol/beIN Sport Play
4:30pm – Vasco da Gama vs. Cruzeiro – ESPN3
6pm – Toluca vs. Cruz Azul – Univision Deportes
7:30pm – Sporting KC vs. Houston Dynamo – NBCSN/Univision Deportes/MLS Live
8pm – Morelia vs. Club Leon
Ives was covering live at Goal.com. Sad that there wasn’t independent coverage here, tho–or at least a note that he would be there. Seems to me (though I don’t know jack) that he could have driven traffic to goal.com and served his loyal readers well by dropping a line.
People get mad when he does that and I gues people get mad when he doesn’t. Until goal starts blocking people who post on the forums I don’t think I’ll visit there too much.
yeah, can’t stand the comments over there. Also, as I’ve said before, their website design/usability is pretty terrible.
Well, there you go–I did qualify that I don’t know jack.
Oh no, I mean I think he should post it, I was just saying last time a bunch of people threw a fit. I thought maybe thats why he didn’t this time. Its just clicking a link, so who cares.
Congrats to SKC, Eastern Conf Champs! Gonna be a great final regardless of their opponents – two great clubs, so either way I am stoked.
Dom Dwyer’s the real deal. Guy’s a flat out scorer. Looking forward to tomorrow night’s game!
probably best not to break your goalkeeper’s back…
Any Omar Cummings sightings yet? Dwyer looking beast tonight btw..
I was born and raised in KC. Still have family there. Like the place and am very happy the way soccer has been a success there. Toured the stadium a year or two ago and it’s a gem of a place. Still support teams from there in other sports, when the occasion arises.
Just cannot find much of anything to like about SKC, though. Too many hacks playing hack, ugly soccer, seemingly every time I see them play…
Their second goal would beg to differ
Well good for them for scoring but I don’t see so much as to why. By anyway, it’s just one goal and does not disprove the much larger point, even if one finds it to be very impressive.
Oh yeah, I’m not trying to disprove your point at all. I haven’t seen enough of them to really have my own opinion. I was just commenting on how beautiful a goal that one was.
Ah, OK, no worries.
I don’t think that goal was so beautiful though I have been appreciating Zusi’s work on plays like that one and that ball (think it was from Zusi) to Dwyer just a short while ago.
And don’t get me wrong — not overly thrilled with Houston, either! Though that lead-up to get Cummings open and his meg of the defender was nice.
it was zusi to feilheiber to dwyer
Thanks. That was a good ball.
Houston really wasted a number of chances at the end of this one…
for what it’s worth, i feel like you, RB. SKC id definitely deserving and that second goal was all class, but i do not really appreciate their general philosophy. as a coach, it might actually be similar to how I would have my teams play, but as a fan, it can be disappointing. at least zusi is almost always fun to watch, and at least it is not another 4-4-2…
Here come the nerves….
unreal garcia gets the yellow card and Sinovic gets totally away with it the play before… complete joke
really Ives, no live commentary on the MLS playoffs?
Meh, I don’t mind that. Can’t be every game. Separate thread would be cool though.
Seems a bad sign to me. I hope somebody just got sick or something, ’cause this is an important game.
damn unlucky goal for the dynamo to give up
Yeah unlucky deflection…who you pulling for?
I’m a dynamo fan… its tough missing Tayler, Clark and Bruin…. its really unfortunate… and then to give up a goal like that… the dynamo need some luck
Cool they are playing well all things considered. I like how Ashe is playing…Weaver could be more dangerous if he made some diagonal runs…that might not be his style though. Encouraging signs considering it is an away game.
1-1 Sapong!!! Looking like a lively match tonight.
Goal Dynamo!!!! What a start to the game Garcia!!!
Dynamo take it 2-1
GOooooooooal
What a start!!!
Aron!!!! What a goal! This kid is a star in the making.
I just saw both AZ goals came with 9 men. You have to be a lot better to win a game win a guy gets a red card in the friggen 9th minute.
er 12th minute then the second card in the 19th minute.
Muller goal! Bayern is too good, too strong. Even without Ribery, they are able to dominate Dortmund at home. No one is beating Bayern this year. Repeat the three peat!
The soccer of Bayern/Dortmund doesn’t look like but that was a good and fairly close game. Bayern just scored first.
Yeah, Dortmund basically dominated the first half and should have scored at least one goal, possibly two. In the second half Mkhitaryan should have passed off off to wide-open Lewandoski instead whiffing the shot over the goal and don’t know why Grosskreutz a few minutes before did not shoot as he was charging in from the wing. Ref did a (surprisingly) generally fair job, let play continue when the Bayern players did their usually dives that usually result in free kicks. The ref’s one weak area was letting Dante and Boateng several times pulling or knocking down Lewandoski, except the one time when Boateng correctly got the yellow. No comment on Gotze.