By SBI SOCCER
While both the UEFA and CONCACAF Champions League resume action today, the FIFA Under-17 World Cup also carries on with the second round of fixtures in the group stage, including a match involving the U.S. squad.
Richie Williams will look to get the U.S. U-17 team back on track after its 2-0 loss to Nigeria in the opener when the team takes on Croatia at 4 p.m. England and Brazil will square off at the same time as well.
Elsewhere, Bayern Munich hopes Robert Lewandowski’s torrent scoring pace is nowhere near slowing down as it pays a visit to London to take on Arsenal, which is still searching for its first points in the 2015-16 UCL season.
Barcelona will also be in UCL action when it travels to BATE Borisov while Bayer Leverkusen is playing host to Roma.
To cap the day’s action, Real Salt Lake will welcome Municipal to Rio Tinto Stadium in a CCLÂ clash. RSL currently leads Municipal by three points in Group G, so a win or tie will see the MLS advance to the knockout round.
Here is the full rundown of all the soccer action today, enjoy:
SOCCER TUESDAY
2:45 p.m. — Fox Sports 2Go — Rangers vs. Livingston
2:45 p.m. — Fox Sports 2/Fox Sports Go/Fox Soccer 2Go/Fox Deportes — Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich
2:45 p.m. — ESPN2/ESPN3/WatchESPN/Fox Soccer 2Go — Bayer Leverkusen vs. AS Roma
2:45 p.m. — ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN/Fox Soccer 2Go — BATE Borisov vs. Barcelona
2:45 p.m. — ESPN3/Fox Soccer Plus/Fox Soccer 2Go — Dynamo Kiev vs. Chelsea
2:45 p.m. — ESPN3/Fox Soccer 2Go — FC Porto vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv
2:45 p.m. — ESPN3/Fox Soccer 2Go — Valencia vs. K.A.A. Gent
2:45 p.m. — ESPN3/Fox Soccer 2Go — Dinamo Zagreb vs. Olympiacos
2:45 p.m. — ESPN3/Fox Soccer 2Go — Zenit vs. Lyon
4 p.m. — Fox Soccer 2Go/NBC Deportes En Vivo Extra — United States vs. Croatia
4 p.m. — Fox Soccer 2Go/NBC Deportes En Vivo Extra — England vs. Brazil
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Hartford vs. Syracuse
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Harvard vs. Pittsburgh
7 p.m. — Fox Sports 2/Fox Sports Go/Fox Soccer 2Go/NBC Deportes En Vivo Extra — Chile vs. Nigeria
7 p.m. — Fox Soccer Plus/Fox Soccer 2Go/NBC Deportes En Vivo Extra — Korea Republic vs. Guinea
8 p.m. — Fox Soccer 2Go — Santos Laguna vs. Deportivo Saprissa
8 p.m. — ESPN3 — Toluca vs. Alebrijes de Oaxaca
8 p.m. — ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN/Univision Deportes — León vs. Cruz Azul
10 p.m. — Fox Sports 2/Fox Sports Go/Fox Soccer 2Go — Real Salt Lake vs. Municipal
10:15 p.m. — ESPN Deportes/WatchESPN/Univision Deportes — Guadalajara vs. Veracruz
What’s the point of going to these international tournaments? Once we go outside CONCACAF we embarrass ourselves every time.
If we ever want to belong we need to start by acting like we do. Bunkering down at the first chance doesn’t help our player’s development. It only makes us look weak and scared. And this is supposed to be our most talented group ever?
EMBARRASSING.
Absolutely embarrassing from the US. The announcers on NBC Universo were just insulting the team for being cowards and not trying to play soccer in the 2nd half. They even said that they just gave the ball up and didn’t care about possession “ala klinsmman”.. Even the Spanish commentators have had enough of the program under Klinsmann.
I don’t think it’s insulting if all they are saying is the truth. The team bunkered down, the coach made changes that were defensive, and they gave up trying to finish off the match in style and with goals. Timid is what the commentators called them. I would go much further.
It’s on Richie big time. He did this before in qualifying and it backfired then. It backfired again. I don’t know why he is even allowed to carry the ball bag.
I say insulting because they were cracking jokes and laughing at what was happening to the team.
yeah the coaching made no sense. credit should be given to Croatia for pushing really hard after HT, but the US was clearly OK with sitting back. i’m glad the commentators were laying into the performance. it was astonishing.
I remember under Coach Bob when we used to pass like Barcelona. Other teams couldn’t even get the ball from us.
US getting some decent breaks but terrible final pass attempt, shocking.
HOLY MOLY. Considering Croatia just twice hit the woodwork in the last seconds of the game…I’ll take this 2-2 tie!
WOW. Croatia hit the post TWICE in the last 30 seconds. ends 2-2. embarrassing performance for the US…again. good luck getting out of the group.
Chile and Croatia drew in their game so Croatia has 2 points, US 1, Chile 1 and Nigeria 3 at this point. If the US defeats Chile they will likely go through as a 3rd place team at the very worst, maybe even in 2nd.. If Nigeria wins out and the US and Chile draw you would have a 3 way tie for 2/3 in the group, so a lot depends on the Nigeria-Chile game and the last round. A place is still up for grabs.
The US, playing the way it has played, is not going to beat Chile at home.
Wow, its true…what a difference a goal makes. Though the Pulisic goal was a bit lucky (a lucky deflection kept the ball in the path of De La Torre), the US really started looking the more dangerous team. Croatia has more possession, but we have more danger when we have the ball. And props to Vazquez for making up for missing that sitter, with a nice header. Keep it up fellas!
sadly, they aren’t. i’m pretty sure Croatia has had 100% of the ball in the 2nd half. 2-1. that was almost the equalizer. WAKE UP US!
2-2
They look more likely to give up a 3rd than score. I missed the first half so this all looks very bleak.
it could be 5-2 right now. no one showing up in the 2nd half.
Vazquez from Pulisic US up 2-0
wow, that should be 2-0 for US. how did he miss that?!?!
there it is. 2-0.
U-17s looking much better.
Lichaj goal for Forest.
Pulisic goal US 1-0 20th minute
Very open game so far U-17 holding their own 15 minutes in
Don’t think Duece would be getting a lot of time with Spurs either.
Roma has some great midfielders. Pjanic and De Rossi are really fun to watch. Love their intensity. Not so sure about the Belgium poser.
Look at Roma in the CL. 2nd in Serie A. That could be Bradley starting for them right now
I gotta imagine JK was pissed that Bradley came home to play for Toronto haha
You know there is a reason why Bradley came back from Roma…he wasn’t going to be a starter, heck, his place on the team wasn’t even assured. If another Euro team would have offered him anywhere the money he got from TFC he would have stayed in Europe.
Sorry but he wouldn’t, Bradley was good enough for Roma when they were finishing 6th or 7th but this is a completely different team out of his reach, they sold him with a giant smile on their faces after all.
Bradley- my guess he’d be a strong squad player for Roma. He’d get’s some minutes to cover for the midfield starters in less important matches or when there’s an injury. Mostly insurance for DeRossi if he were out, as he’s a similar two-way player.
REMEMBER WHEN DEMPSEY AND BRADLEY WERE IN EUROPE?!?! THOSE WERE THE DAYS!!
I get it. You enjoy mocking me.
Stupid baseball pushing Champions League from FS1 onto FS2.
What has been the weaknesses in recent years for the youth teams? Is it that our boys arent good enough or simply just bad luck? We should be good enough to qualify for these tournaments at the very least.
Our weaknesses have been 3 fold. In the younger age brackets (sub 20s) the problem has been a lack of bite/fight. Our players have tended to get manhandled by more physical opponents & when the original game-plan fails they’ve lacked the tactical understanding to change their style of play. After U-20 the players have lacked game fitness and experience. As our players migrate from the youth ranks to their clubs first teams they’ve been unable to get enough minutes to be effective in competitions.
While I hate to give credit to anything that the Mexican Football Federation does, they did do one really smart thing. They made a rule in the MFL that required teams to field youth players (U-23 & younger) X minutes per season. This has given young players the experience needed to truly develop and contribute at the youth levels.
Or….you know….the whole “youth soccer is wildly unpredictable and not a future measuring stick against future performance” thing.
It’s certainly more stable once you get to the U-23 level but before that it can be a huge crap-shoot. Nigeria has done really well at the youth level over the past 6-7 years (especially the u-17s) but they aren’t exactly lighting things up on the senior level.
Mali came in 3rd (!) at the last u-20 WC while Argentina (one of the heavy favorites) failed to make it out of the group. Those are just a few examples. Winning is great and all but at this level it’s more about getting them games and seeing who has the “it factor” to make an impact the next rung up the ladder.