By FRANCO PANIZO
The second legs of the Eastern Conference semifinals may be on tap, but those are not the only matches American soccer fans will be watching today.
There are a bevy of quality afternoon games before the MLS postseason action resumes, including Chelsea vs. Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund vs. Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League. One of the day’s most intriguing matches will take place in Barcelona, as the Spanish giants host AC Milan in a battle of the top two teams in Group H of the competition.
The midday fixtures will be followed by two all-or-nothing MLS matches. The New York Red Bulls host the Houston Dynamo in a series that is level after a 2-2 draw on Sunday, and Sporting Kansas City will try and overcome a 2-1 deficit at home against the New England Revolution to avoid an early playoff exit.
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):
12pm – Zenit St Petersburg vs. Porto – Fox Soccer Plus/Fox Deportes
2:45pm – FC Basel vs Steaua Bucuresti – Fox Soccer 2Go
2:45pm – Chelsea vs. Schalke 04Â – Fox Soccer Plus/Fox Soccer 2Go
2:45pm – Borussia Dortmund vs. Arsenal – Fox Soccer 2Go
2:45pm – Napoli vs. Marseille – Fox Soccer 2Go
2:45pm – Atletico Madrid vs. Austria Vienna – Fox Soccer 2Go
2:45pm – Ajax vs. Celtic – MSG Plus/Fox Soccer 2Go
2:45pm – Barcelona vs. AC Milan – Fox Soccer 2Go
8pm – New York Red Bulls vs. Houston Dynamo – MSG/Univision Deportes/MLS Live
9pm – Sporting Kansas City vs. New England Revolution – MLS Direct Kick/MLS Live
Apparently the next step in convincing people that you’re a rinky-dink league, after holding your playoff matches on fields marked for other sports and emblazoned with other teams’ logos, is just not to have your playoff games televised at all.
Good thing there’s all this expansion going on, though!!!
Bonus points: league site and app are currently reporting 2-1 as the “final” in KC.
Maybe the entire league staff had vacations planned for the post-season?
yeah i thought it couldn’t get worse than saturday. How bush can this league get. it is not like they are in their first couple of seasons.
I repeat, MLS needs to change the playoffs system.
MLS needs to give the team with the MOST POINTS IN THEIR CONFERENCE,the conference title.
There is no need for conference playoffs, but yes for MLS Cup.
Once MLS hits 20 teams and beyond, give the team with the most points in their conference title and a direct semifinal spot.
C’mon MLS, it’s a long MLS season and you have to reward and recognize the best team in the conference, besides the supporters shield.
As for the playoff games, YOU NEED TO MAKE THE GAMES KNOCK OUT GAMES, in order to make the LONG SEASON interesting, you make the seeding interesting and teams will give it what they have in one game, not 2.
For example, once MLS reaches 20 teams, make it top 7 in each conference. Give the the conference winner a direct semifinal spot. So that makes it 6 teams, but remember games are knock out and team with most points will host . No 2 legged series!!!!!!!! It’s a long season, with open cup, concacaf champions and playoffs.
Once MLS hits 24 teams or even 20, this is the way to go.
Oh and by the way MLS, DO NO HAVE OVERTIME, THATS ONLY FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME OR SEMIFINAL.
Honestly, I’d settle for the games being on TV.
Remember top 7 from each conference, west and east.
The team with the most POINTS in their conference, wins their conference and gets a direct semifinal spot.
The other teams will play knock out games, which makes the season more interesting, it makes the seeding more important because you won’t have 2 legged series.
MLS needs to reward and recognize the long season!!!!!!!!!
I’m not a timbers or red bull fan, but hell yeah they deserve their conference title and a direct semifinal spot. MLS needs to see the whole picture.
separate regular season from post-season tournament. Then have a post season tournament that is group play like the world cup. That would make it an exciting tournament. BUT and its a big but…the regular season has to be separated from the post-season. The league champ is the team with the most pts during the season. Then the MLS Cup is separate. Do that, and people will watch.
in portland
calling it it now
NE wins MLS cup i Portland
come NE!!! hold that result, i am rooting for you
didn’t last long
Could it be NE vs Houston in next round?
lol probably. good luck getting anyone to watch that one
well it probably won’t be televised, don’t worry
What NY needs is more famous players
Yea, they should throw money at it…. they probably aren’t the highest spending team in the league or anything as it is.
I like what you did there.
and what about the second invisible game tonight, how is that going?
If you ask the commentators, New England haven’t committed a foul and Kansas City is the dirtiest, softest team in history.
These homers are almost unwatchable.
Love the dynamo hate.
On to the Semifinals
Ugly win for an ugly team. dynamo are garbage and will lose in the ECF. Can’t get lucky three times
Yea, I could imagine there is a lot of butt-hurt out there…. the dynamo have crushed most teams dreams at least once on their way to 2 championships and 2 finals appearances in 7 years.
Sorry, NYRB keep wasting 8 million a year on Henry and Cahill while the dynamo do it with 2 million a year for the whole roster.
Bah, you were still the Earthquakes just wearing orange when you won those c’ships. LA has owned you in those other two.
Lol two more stars than you guys.
Get a win in the playoffs and then you can speak.
Have you watched them in the playoffs? Don’t speak too soon.
They’re always written off and always seem to give a hell of a fight.
The stars on our shirt look nice though. You guys should try to get some.
2013 Sekayga+olave = Roy miller+Rafa Marquez of 2012
Huge collapse for NY. They need to rehaul their roster. There’s just too much crap on their roster.
Agreed. Steele had his worst two games of the entire year in this series, Carney is s back up at best and barklage makes too many poor decisions
huh?
They won the Supporters Shield. They had the best record all season.
It’s a cup match. Anything can happen.
YES YES YES on to the semis…..
Red bulls gave away that series. Ouch. Dominate play in every aspect of the game except the score. Motm tally hall easily
Outside of the first derp-goal, Tally Hall had one hell of a game.
Completely spotting a team a goal during a tied game is a pretty dang big derp….. he def owed the rest of the team.
Dynamo fan here. Happy with the result. Bummed I couldn’t watch the game. Thanks MLS
what if they played two MLS playoff games one night and no one knew
Well that was quite a call. Another collapse for NY?
Am I the only one that can no longer get the RB vs HD game on MLS Live now that it’s in extra time. It shows the game as over and now only plays the replay. Sigh…
No problems here (unless you’re a Red Bull supporter…)
Weird..working now. Not a Redbulls fan but I wish they would win this one.
Likewise, crowd has been great
mls just amazing. How can you not televise play off games? And then you have last weeks fiasco with the nfl lines. what a joke
playoffs and soccer don’t really go together.
I wonder if playoff preformances for national team players matter to Klinsmann. Kind of feel like Zusi needs to step up in this one.
I’ m sure they do. JK wants to know if his players can step up in big games. Playoffs, champ league, or just playing the clubs biggest rival. It is one thing to beat Chivas or DC but can you take down a playoff team in a winner takes all.
Two goals off of two awful plays. Thank god for Univision though. And mls is lucky I paid for MLS Live a few months back. But it is a JOKE these games aren’t on tv (other than Univision showing the NY game). It’s astonishing.
Astonishing that I am having to listen to these ignorant NY commentators who just seem incapable of acknowledging the success of anyone who didnt come from NY or LA and didn’t spend big to buy their way to success. NY so insular
Well that was a bad pass
that’s a nice way to put it.
1-0 NY. Bradley wright phillips w/ the GOAL.
I just assumed the 2nd leg of the MLS playoffs would be on TV since I watched the first leg on TV. It’s like showing the first half of a game and not the second half. Absolutely outrageous. MLS has really looked bush league in the playoffs, playing on fields with football lines, no national television. Great job Don Garber.
Just get rid of the playoffs and make it a single table league. Not because thats how they do it in Europe but because the MLS just doesn’t have the power to adjust its schedule.
single table would be awesome but MLS is run by ex-NFL goobers that don’t understand the sport.
No national TV for the 2nd leg deciders? And the Revs-KC game is preempted in my area by the Celtics and according to the Time-Warner cable guide on my TV, that is followed by the Celtics post-game show then the Revs game scheduled for exactly 1/2 hour from 10:30-11:00pm!! Yes folks, that’s the Revs status in this sports marketplace – a joke.
Try 085 if you have xfinity
WTF, why show the first leg on regular TV then not let anyone watch the 2nd leg. Guess I won’t watch MLS playoffs anymore
wow, i just realized non of the MLS games tonight are on normal channels…
So how does the MLS not get these two games on TV tonight? I would have rather the first leg or last weeks games show on Direct Kick then the two elimination gams tonight. Just seems kinda dumb for them not to be available.
Especially considering these are the games without the gridiron lines. I can’t believe the folks at mls are this inept. Actually I can, but still.
Arsenal just won at Dortmund, massive result
They actually played better against them in London, but today luck was on their side. They can wrap up advance ment the next game.
Arsene Wenger needs to throw so much shade at so many people in England.
nice assist Jozy. southhampton answer right back though. 2-1.
Jozy is the only Sunderland player who provides any service to teammates, no wonder he has trouble getting looks at goal there.
Jozy was fantastic today. He created both goals, and provided an assist.
Adam Johnson is bad.
Jozy with a great assist!
typical Adam Johnson cross.
Holy god, Lionel Messi. Drop in form my butt.
Sunderland up 1-0 on Southampton. Jozy involved in most of the attacking endeavor thus far; he had a clever layoff to Craig Gardener that Gardener wasn’t able to convert, and Phil Bardsley’s goal was taken off a rebound from an Altidore header.
And a lovely assist from Altidore.
That was the most sunderland goal ever. Good effort by Altidore on the header and the rebound was put barely over the line.
Yeah Jozy cant catch a break, I was really hoping he would get the goal for some confidence. great that he created the goal for a teammate, but still. He had that beautiful backheel pass in the first half that should have resulted in a Sunderland goal. Just unlucky…..
Haha.
Warren Barton just gave Wynalda the “you have to be kidding me, this is how my career is going to end… talking with someone like you? Well, good thing the check is big.” look.
Check is big? This is fox soccer.
Lol @ that own goal.
So. Much. Flopping.
It’s not flopping. It drawing fouls.
Attn: Jozy Altidore
Yikes, and that should have been a second red. Milan are losing control right now. Maybe this will be more interesting now that they have to come out and attack.
Jeez, are you really going to let Neymar get in behind you like that in your box of all places? Lucky the referee didn’t pull the red as well.
It was quite the acting job, though. A slight tug turned into a total barrel roll. So annoying to see that.
Did you see the replay? Abate grabbed him around the neck. Not the biggest Barcelona fan here, but that was a pretty clear penalty. You cannot grab someone–especially near the head when you’re beaten and expect anything but that.
Yes, he put his arm around him, but he rolled like had been yanked. Disgusting. No need to exaggerate, it was a penalty. And Alves grabbed at his shin when his foot was hit, screaming in pain of course. I can’t stand to watch Barca.
You must HATE watching Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore then–they do that and worse.
No they don’t…Neymar is so much worse.
Than you haven’t watched Clint Dempsey. He has a bad reputation as a diver.
If you can remember he’s even been called out by Brendan Rodgers for diving too much.
yeah, i wouldn’t say jozy so much as dempsey. dempsey’s a horrible diver, in every sense.
Jozy just knows when to earn the foul. Nuance of the game. Agree.
Dempsey is a flat out olympic quality diver.
It makes me furious reading American fans go off on some moral high ground argument about how it’s bad when Dempsey was considered one of the EPL’s worst.
Busquets an Neymar are absolutely too of the worst. Clint can be bad, but not like that. i’ve never seen Clint roll around a million times or peek between his fingers. same for Jozy.
see, i don’t really consider those things making dives worse. they’re already cheating; those things just make them look silly.
haha that is a fair point. but for me, that makes it worse. much like Campbell. not only did he dive from no contact, he acted like he got sniped. you cheated and then you perpetuated it.
That campbell nonsense is worse than anything. That’s not even in the run of the game. That’s cheating outside the confines of the game.
That’s on par with poisoning your opponents pre-game meal.
26th minute, Atleti 2 Wien 0 🙂
Guess it is over to the Barca match for a while…
3 – 0
In hindsight, it is probably not the best idea to be watching Champions League in the afternoon when I have tickets for the Red Bulls tonight….
Hmmmm Jozy or Champions League? How about both!! Thank you new age technology.
Live match audio commentary for the Sunderland v. Southampton at http://safc.com/news/team-news/2013/november/live-matchday-audio
there are a couple of streams for that one, too.
jones starting for schalke.
Definitely good to see.
also, altidore’s starting for sunderland against southampton in the league cup at 2:45 ET.
Aupa Atleti!
Also, go Red Bulls! Gonna be chilly in Harrison tonight.
Arriba el Atletico!
Vamos Red Bulls!
So the only game that fox is going air this time around is the snore fest from Man U. Great coverage Fox
barcelona milan is on Fox Sports 1.
And Arsenal Dortmund is on Fox Sports 2.
It’s anyone’s guess why SBI is not listing the actual TV channels, but I looked it up at the FOX soccer site..
Also — yesterday, FOX 2 aired the thriller between Real Madrid and Juventus.