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This Weekend’s Soccer on TV

Fernandinho of Manchester City celebrates scoring his second goal 5-2

By RYAN TOLMICH

Domestic European leagues are winding down and a pair of title races are coming right down to the wire in This Weekend’s Soccer on TV.

In England, the three-horse race that is the Premier League title race heads for the home stretch over the season’s last few weeks. Manchester City currently sit in pole position just three points behind league leaders Liverpool with one game and plenty of goals in hand. However, City face a trip to fifth place Everton where they have historically struggled. Fellow contenders Chelsea will be praying for a City slip-up when they host a Norwich team that is fighting for their Premier League lives, while Liverpool will await results until they head to Crystal Palace Monday.

Meanwhile, La Liga has a title race of its own, with Champions League finalists Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid joining Barcelona in the chase for silverware. Atletico currently sit top of the table, four points above Barcelona and six above their Madrid rivals, who have a game in hand. Atletico will look to move one game closer to their first La Liga title since 1995-96 when they head to Levante, while Barcelona and Real Madrid host Getafe and Valencia, respectively.

This weekend also features one of Italian and European soccer’s biggest rivalries as AC Milan takes on Inter Milan at the San Siro. AC Milan is all but ready to wrap up a 2013-14 campaign that has been one of the more disappointing for the club in recent memory, while Inter sit fifth in Serie A and appear to be headed for next year’s Europa League.

In other action, Bayern Munich looks to bounce back from Champions League elimination when they take on  Hamburger SV, Fiorentina and Napoli face off in a battle of Serie A’s third and fourth placed teams and AS Saint-Etienne and Olympique Marseille continue their fight for a Champions League spot when they take on Montpellier and Olympique Lyonnais, respectively.

Here’s a rundown of this weekend’s soccer on TV:

FRIDAY

2:30pm – Bastia vs. Lille – beIN Sports USA

3:00pm – Rayo Vallecano vs. Athletic Club – beIN Sports Play

SATURDAY 

7:45am – West Ham vs. Tottenham Hotspur – NBCSN

9:30am – Hamburger SV vs. Bayern Munich – GOLTV USA

10:00am – Aston Villa vs. Hull City – NBC Sports Live Extra

10:00am – Manchester United vs. Sunderland – NBCSN

10:00am – Newcastle vs. Cardiff City – NBC Sports Live Extra

10:00am – Stoke City vs. Fulham – NBC Sports Live Extra

10:00am – Swansea vs. Southampton – NBC Sports Live Extra

10:00am – Barcelona vs. Getafe – beIN Sports Play

12:00pm – Malaga vs. Elche – beIN Sports USA

12:30pm – Everton vs. Manchester City – CNBC

2:00pm – Osasuna vs. Celta de Vigo – beIN Sports Play

2:30pm – Toronto FC vs. New England Revolution – Univision Deportes

2:45pm – Fiorentina vs. Napoli – beIN Sports USA

4:00pm – Real Valladolid vs. Espanyol – beIN Sports Play

7:00pm – Vancouver Whitecaps vs. San Jose Earthquakes – MLS Direct Kick

8:00pm – Cruz Azul vs. Leon – UniMas

8:30pm – Chicago Fire vs. Real Salt Lake – MLS Direct Kick

9:00pm – Colorado Rapids vs. LA Galaxy – MLS Direct Kick

10:00pm – Seattle Sounders vs. Philadelphia Union – MLS Direct Kick

10:00pm – Santos Laguns vs. America – Univision Deportes

10:30pm – Chivas USA vs. Houston Dynamo – MLS Direct Kick

10:30pm – Portland Timbers vs. DC United – MLS Direct Kick

SUNDAY

6:00am – Almeria vs. Real Betis – beIN Sports Play

8:00am – AS Saint-Etienne vs. Montpellier – beIN Sports Play

8:30am – Arsenal vs. West Brom – NBCSN

9:00am – Catania vs. Roma – beIN Sports USA

9:00am – Parma vs. Sampdoria – beIN Sports Play

11:00am – Chelsea vs. Norwich City – NBCSN

11:00am – Levante vs. Atletico Madrid – beIN Sports USA

1:00pm – Sevilla vs. Villarreal – beIN Sports USA

1:00pm – Toluca vs. Tijuana – Univison

2:45pm – Milan vs. Internazionale – beIN Sports Play

3:00pm – Olympique Marseille vs. Olympique Lyonnais – beIN Sports Play

3:00pm – FC Dallas vs. New York Red Bulls – UniMas

3:00pm – Real Madrid vs. Valencia – beIN Sports USA

4:00pm – Sporting KC vs. Columbus Crew – NBCSN

6:00pm – Pumas UNAM vs. Pachuca – Univision Deportes

Comments

  1. So about that One World Sports schedule…

    Sat May 3 at 3AM is J-League Soccer – Kawasaki Frontale V. Venforet Kofu

    Please put One World Sports on your regular weekend SBI schedule. 🙂

    Reply
  2. The Fiorentina – Napoli match is mentioned in the “in other action” part of the article as a match between 3rd and 4th, but neglect to mention that this is not a serie A match, but the Copa Italian final. Both team’s league matches were moved to Tuesday to accommodate.

    Reply
  3. I hope some media executives take note of this weekend’s TV schedule for MLS’s nationally televised game and can now understand why MLS TV ratings are so abysmal. I believe this is the first game that is being nationally televised by an English speaking network in the last three weeks. The last game televised by NBC sports was on a Saturday. This weekend’s games is on a Sunday. It’s hard to get in a rhythm of watching MLS games if you never know when they are on due to lack of marketing or just not being televised period. MLS needs to have the next TV contract have a set day, and set time for each week to televise a game and in return MLS gives the network the ability to show the most interesting game of the week which would have the best stories behind it. Otherwise MLS will always have bad TV ratings and the league will continue to grow incrementally instead of exponentially.

    Reply
    • Yep, and I believe there wasn’t even a nationally televised game last week. (maybe it was the weekend before, I forget which I watched online vs. on TV) Regardless, that’s pretty weak that there is no established time.

      NBC’s coverage of the Premier League has been the absolute best soccer coverage ever in the US. However, it’s been sorely lacking for MLS, especially since they lost out on the next contract.

      I really hope they (NBC) keep the BPL because they’ve done such a good job. (side note: McBride, please move to NBC, thanks)

      I hope FOX/ESPN are better with their MLS coverage and show more games/programs/general coverage. However, I think the only way MLS will get more coverage at the present time is if Beckham, Kraft, etc., go on a racist diatribe.

      Reply
      • NBC will definitely be keeping the BPL. NBC Sports is new trying to compete against ESPN so it needs content and the age demographic that it pulls in (male 16-34) is what any sports channel covets. Besides look at the alternative which is hunting and fishing shows.

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