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Soccer Sunday: Your Running Commentary

Etienne Capoue of Tottenham Hotspur and Tomas Rosicky of Arsenal

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

A pair of famous derbies in the English Premier League highlight this Soccer Sunday of action as Arsenal visit North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United host title-chasing Liverpool.

Both Tottenham and Arsenal both suffered tough results in European action this weekend, and they will be looking to set the record straight with a victory against their bitter rivals. Shorthanded Arsenal come into the match looking to take advantage of Chelsea’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa on Saturday, while Spurs continue their tough stretch of March matches needing a win to stay alive in the race for a Champions League spot.

Sunday’s action will kick off at Old Trafford, where Manchester United have won six straight matches against traditional Northwest rivals Liverpool. This season, the high-scoring Reds will come to Manchester as favorites to pull out all three points and deliver another blow in the dismal season of David Moyes and the defending EPL champions.

Elsewhere, Barcelona will look to maintain their pace behind their Madrid rivals in the race for the La Liga crown with a home win against Osasuna. First-place Juventus hit the road to play Genoa before wrapping up their Europa League title with fellow Italian club Juventus, and Paris Saint-Germain take on former French powerhouse Saint Etienne at the Parc des Princes.

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):

9:30am – Manchester United vs. Liverpool – NBC Sports Network

10am – AC Milan vs. Parma – beIN Sports USA

11am – NAC Breda vs. Ajax – GolTV USA

12pm – Tottenham vs. Arsenal – NBC Sports Network

12pm – Barcelona vs. Osasuna – beIN Sports USA

2pm – Sevilla vs. Real Valladolid – beIN Sports en Español

2pm – Puebla vs. Tigres UANL – Azteca America/ESPN Deportes

2pm – Pumas UNAM vs. Atlante – Univision Deportes/Univision

3pm – Portland Timbers vs. Chicago Fire – UniMas

3pm – Penapolense vs. Corinthians – GolTV USA

3:45pm – Genoa vs. Juventus – beIN Sports Play

4pm – Paris Saint-Germain vs. AS Saint-Etienne – beIN Sports USA

4pm – Real Sociedad vs. Valencia – beIN Sports en Español

5pm – Boca Juniors vs. Argentinos Juniors – GolTV USA

7pm – Chivas USA vs. Vancouver Whitecaps – MLS Direct Kick

7pm – Chivas de Guadalajara vs. Club Leon – UniMás/Univision Deportes

Comments

  1. Not a Euro SNOB but MLS isn’t doing it for me

    Have to watch PL or Bundesliga or La Liga

    or heck even Ligue 1. MLS is improving each year but it’s a decade away from glittery glamourizing football.

    Reply
    • Um, dude, you said you’re not a Euro snob, then went on in the next breath to describe yourself as…a Euro snob. Nothing wrong with being a Euro snob, just admit it and move on (and maybe refrain from posting how dreary the MLS is on a site that emphasizes…wait for it…US soccer and the MLS). Sorry, man, but if the UK shoe size fits…

      Reply
      • i don’t know, i always think of ‘eurosnobs’ as pissing on everything mls just because it’s not european, regardless of merit.

        if you don’t have an mls team that you support, i don’t really see anything wrong with saving your game-watching for the best leagues in the world.

    • I watched 3 MLS games this weekend and I was pleasantly surprised at all 3 matches.
      Players looked pretty sharp, some decent movement, the kickball effect was at a minimum, some nice goals – wasn’t the PL, BL, LL etc, but I enjoyed the games I saw

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      • I too have to second that.

        I hated on the MLS but after the games I have watched this season, I take it all back.

        It’s still not at the level of the big leagues but the games are good. I mean really good.

        The biggest issues seem to be: small mistakes, and defense. Too much of the former and the latter is the weak link from being “the MLS” to being a top league.

        Just my two cents but I am going to get more into the MLS.

    • Honestly don’t know how anyone who loves the sport would prefer to watch La Liga more than MLS. Matchups between any 2 teams in the bottom half of that league or Serie A are unwatchable….and If you think Osasuna is better than most MLS teams, you’re smoking crack.

      Reply
  2. Chicago keeps taking Nagbe down just like Philly did last week. Need a new rule – red card for continuing to foul the same player

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  3. GOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

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  4. Lionel Messi passed Paulino Alcántara on Saturday to become the Blaugrana’s greatest goal scorer.

    Lionel Messi is officially the greatest goal scorer in FC Barcelona history. The Argentine striker scored in the 63rd minute on Saturday against Osasuna, netting his 370th career goal in his 452nd match in a Barcelona shirt, passing Paulino Alcántara, who had held the record since 1927.

    Messi entered the match one goal behind Alcántara

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  5. ZLATAN needs to move to the PL. He’s been BOSSIN the French league for just about 2 full seasons. Needs a new challenge

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  6. What a fantastic match Liverpool played. They should be in the thick of the race until the end. They play a much better attack than any of Chelsea, City, Arsenal or United.

    It looks to me that Brendan Rodgers has been studying Pep and Bayern Munich. He has the only team in the Preemie approaching the playing style of Bayern. And he has the attackers and defense to do it.

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    • I was nodding along with everything until the Defense comment. Surely it can be fixed in the summer, especially if they have CL football on offer, but ‘pools defense doesn’t belong on the same field as Bayerns (though at this stage it seems few do).

      Crazy to think what Rodgers might do when he can truly go after most any player in the world.

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      • Defense as good? Of course not. But Rodgers has them playing like Pep’s team does.

        The overall play in the BPL has dropped in recent years, to the point that world-class young players were staying away from them and going instead to European leagues.

        However, if Rodgers keeps this up he may change some foreign young stars’ minds a little.

  7. why don
    t they play FRIEDEL? Lloris hasn’t been at his best recently. Let my boy FRIEDEL gets some playing time. Lloris played against Benfica on Thursday. NOT FAIR

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  8. Luis Suarez has to be the best pure #9 goal scorer in the world.

    He is simply too good.

    And as I write this….he scores!!!

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    • He’s not a ‘Pure #9.’ He can create, beat people off the dribble, make his own shot, and finish what others create. He’s an all-around forward. Zlatan is the best ‘Pure #9’ in my opinion. That man wants one thing only, to put the biscuit in the basket.

      Reply
      • Well, I was trying to get at that many goal-scocers today aren’t really strikers. Messi and Ronaldo come to mind. Lot lots of wingers and midfielders taking on the goal-scoring role.

        That was my general point.

        Also, I think Suarez is better. He isn’t as flashy but he is a beast. 25 goals in the best league in the world. Not to take away from the Swede.

        Again, that is my opinion.

      • Yes, Suarez is very very good. It helps that he has 2 more good attackers, Sturridge and Sterling, playing with him with a good defense to boot.

        I would put La Liga and the Bundesliga above the BPL. Just my opinion. And the Preem may drop more next year if both United and Chelsea blow out of CL.

      • A pundit on the radio (Stan Collymore) made a point the other day, that while the top teams in La Liga & Bundesliga (Bayern, Real M, Barcelona, perhaps Dortmund & Atl. Madrid) are better this year in European play than the top teams in the EPL (except perhaps Chelsea) the week-in/week-out competition in the EPL is the toughest. If you look at the regular opposition for the Spanish giants & Bayern – especially Bayern, going on the road for example and winning 6-1 v. a team in the top 5 – I think it’s reasonable, albeit not indisputable, to argue that 25 goals are harder to come by in England.

      • not even perhaps. Chelsea is not on the level that the European teams you listed. You could put Paris S.G, Porto, Benfica, Juventus, on the list too, they also are better than any Preemie side. And we will learn a lot more this week when Galatasara comes to town.

        By the way, the reason La Liga and the Bundesliga have been rated, at the end of 2013, as being better is that they have the better teams. Based on your logic you could say, because there are great teams in Europe, that are better than their leagues lower table teams, that the U.S MLS is tougher.

      • Am I really the only person who thinks that you should judge a league by the bottom 1/3 not the top few?

      • Well it is difficult, if not impossible, to compare the bottom thirds of leagues against other leagues because they never play one another.

        The only way the bottom thirds can be judged at all is how they play against the upper teams within their own leagues. For instance: let’s say the bottom third of one league (Preemie) win more matches against the upper third than does the lower third of another league (Bundesliga).

        The only clear way different leagues can be compared is by teams from those leagues playing against one another.

        Then if the better teams in one league (Preemie) lose to the better teams in another (La Liga, Bundesliga, League 1 the only conclusion one can draw it that the other leagues are better.

      • Suarez is why Hodgson is having sleepless nights and why England will be lucky to get out of their group.

  9. Well that’s karma. Bummed Stevie G missed his penalty hat trick but ref got it wrong in awarding a penalty on Sturridge’s dive.

    Reply
    • Did you see the one right after that? Clear trip and penalty when Sturridge was changing directions, I guess it’s fair Gerrard missed it, but they should have been playing with a man advantage since the first PK, that handball was international and should had been a second yellow for Rafael

      Reply
      • Agree that Rafael should’ve been sent packing. I think Sturridge is (and I’m a Red Dragons supporter) *today* is going down a bit soft. Doubt at that point in the match the ref was going to award him another penalty without more/nastier contact. Though not disagreeing with you that there was some contact on the sequence you mention.

        Cheers

  10. Increase0, I found a link to the Bayern II-Buchbach but it said I had to add “Video Download Converter powered by Ask”. I was afraid to to it, have to ask my computer guy if it is okay.

    Reply
      • watched it (one of the 743 who turned up at the stadium). Julian Green was a bit underwhelming today.

      • I missed the first 15 minutes.My seat neighbour told me that “nothing happened” though. Buchbach played with 9 men behind the ball and Bayern had most of the possession. What I noticed about Green was that he lost every single aerial battle in the box. He looked very raw. He didn`t have a single shot on goal this time. In the 70th to 80th minute, Friesenbichler was substituted in and played in JG`s role as a striker – Julian moved back to the right wing and he looked better there.

    • Yeah, Vidic was pissed off after and I understand why, but at the same time he didn’t get the ball and he slid in hard in the box. Not a smart challenge, period.

      Reply
      • I wouldn’t call it a dive. He just sold it.

        Running at that speed, with a player coming at you making the tackle will result from you falling down. No way around it.

        The only difference is he sold it to the ref who bought it like it was on clearance sale.

        It wasn’t a dive. Vidic made a bad decision. Get the ball or risk the penalty.

        I get why people are pissed but it wasn’t a dive.

  11. Van Persie gets a ball(not to fast) served right to his head and…. barely makes contact. That should have been a goal. He wasn’t even being pressured. I don’t like calling a header a “sitter” by if there ever was one it was that.

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    • Looking at the same one as me. Mata must wonder why he didn’t play it on. I think Mata and Kagawa need to be out there at the same time.

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  12. T. Ho doing a great job in the booth in my opinion. You gotta wonder how awkward it might be for him doing this particular game though: his old coach the manager of Man United, as an ex-Man U player, Moyes was a good friend to Howard, and now having to watch and comment on this train wreck of a game/season. What I mean is, the things Timmy is saying and the thoughts he is thinking are probably very different. He’s doing a great job staying professional.

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    • He is the only current play I know of that does this. I rather like it. I’m sure it helps that he is a keeper and they aren’t exactly considered controversial.

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    • I agree, and to top it off he’s doing really well at calling approaches to set pieces. It’s been educational and I can rarely say that of any commentary.

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      • Agreed. I definitely love the unique perspective from a current player knowledgable in the league (obviously) as it is, players as they are and tactics he studies and analyzes day and night. It’s refreshing.

      • Although he has started to rip into the man united players for their on field performance. I mean, deservedly so. But his honesty is still professional and doesn’t feel biased.

      • Honest and professional (plus insightful) would definitely be the way I would describe his commentary. Now I’m just disappointed I haven’t tuned into the matches he’s covered more often.

  13. FYI if anyone wants to catch the last 35 minutes of the Manchester Utd v Liverpool match and you DON’T have cable/satellite the game is on Telemundo if you can deal with listening to it in Spanish

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  14. Does anyone know why Aron Johannson went off around the 60th today? Hoping and praying tactical or fatigue and not injured.

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    • From the sound of it, it appeared he was just having a stinker of a match 9primarily losing the ball and making poor decisions, including trying to dribble out of his own box one time), it happens to every player sometimes.

      Reply
  15. Liverpool are really taking it to Man U. with attacking football. United are getting flustered. Can’t wait for the second half. Go Liverpool.

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  16. Rafael… can you be any more obvious, careless with that handball. We’ll take it. And Gerrard with a deserved yellow in elbowing Fellaini.

    Reply
    • If we’re being completely honest, I feel like Rafael should have gone off for that. He should write the referee a thank-you note after the game.

      Reply
  17. Man U v. Everton is a great game today and like Fifawitz is saying above, Timmy Howard putting in some really insightful commentary.

    Reply

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