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Soccer Saturday: Your Running Commentary

NyarkoHurtado (ISIphotos.com) 

                                                                        Photo by ISIphotos.com

If you're an American soccer fan who wants some help getting into the mood for Sunday's Gold Cup final between the U.S. national team and Mexico, you're in luck. Both MLS and the Mexican First Division are playing busy schedules on TV today, with three MLS matches on national television.

Here is the full schedule of matches on TV today:

  • 3pm- ESPN- Seattle Sounders vs. Chicago Fire
  • 6pm- ESPN Deportes- Cruz Azul vs. Chiapas

  • 730pm- Direct Kick- Columbus Crew vs. Toronto FC

  • 8pm- FSE- Indios vs. Monterrey

  • 8pm- Telemundo- Tigres UANL vs. Puebla

  • 830pm- ESPN2- Kansas City Wizards vs. Los Angeles Galaxy

  • 830pm- Direct Kick- Houston Dynamo vs. New England Revolution

  • 930pm- MSG- Colorado Rapids vs. New York Red Bulls

  • 10pm- Telemundo- Atlas vs. Pumas UNAM

  • 10pm- FSC, FSE- San Jose Earthquakes vs. DC United

If you will be watching today's matches, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. Booing just to boo? We do’nt want to draw at home, we want to win, and we want to score. Any perceived timewasting we boo. Blanco why boo Blanco? He is/has been a great player I do not think many fans will argue with that, but he has a reputation for influencing referees and diving. That is not a good reputation to have.

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  2. @Hincha Tim: Some players flop and dive to gain advantage. It is the ref’s job to eliminate this behavior. I agree with you–I hate flopping. But that does not make it OK to boo. Bad sportsmanship by the fans will not correct bad sportsmanship by a few players. You probably disagree, but IMO there is no place for booing. However, there are too many ignorant fans and players–diving and booing will probably never stop.

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  3. @andy

    Blanco IS awesome…at lying down on the ground. I think that’s how he gets his powers to run at most other players walking speed, oh, and to never jump up for a ball, but simply throw his shoulders into the player behind him and then fall down on the ground once again to catch his breath. He is also awesome and giving referees jerseys. That is true awesomeness.

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  4. @Rich S.

    And what about flopping? What about feigning injury to waste time? What about jersey grabbing and other deliberate fouls? Is that sportsmanship? No, and it deserves to be booed and eliminated from the game, as it lowers scoring and makes a mockery of the game.

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  5. DC Josh–a lot of people give KC and SJ a lot of flack for their stadiums. I think that’s undeserved–both clubs have stadia in the works. I think it’s more appropriate to bash DCU and NE for their stadiums. RFK is a grand old park but it should have been retired 15 years ago. And playing in Gillette–the Revs are captive to the Krafts and their “Pats First” mentality.

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  6. DC United sucked last night in the second half. I can’t believe I stayed up that late to watch such a pitiful performance. I’d rather DC lost, so they would have learned something from the game. They were completely dominant in the first half, but just completely lost it from about the 40th minute on.

    I’m astonished at how bad the San Jose stadium is, it looks just like a high school football stadium. An actual concession stand, metal bleachers throughout, the surrounding view was gorgeous though. I know it’s a temporary stadium, but they can’t find anything better over there? Soccer fans should receive a trophy for battling through the season in the worst stadium.

    is it:
    DC?
    Revs?
    Energy Drinks?
    San Jose?
    KC?

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  7. I thought both of the DCU goals were legit. That said, San Jose played very well in the second half (combined with very poor play by DCU) and it was a steal for DCU to get a point from this match–the soccer gods were clearly capricious. A fair result would have been 4-2 in San Jose’s favor.

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  8. Just got back from the NY-CO game. Some observations:

    – we were able to go down on the field after the game for a fireworks show and I was surprised at how hard the field was. So it made sense why several of those long switches kept bouncing over players’ heads and out of bounds or were saved by jumping headers.
    – the best word I could think of to describe the Red Bulls is soulless. they need to be gutted.
    – the play that resulted in the broken arm or wrist looked awful on the jumbotron.
    – the Red Bulls left back was awful.
    – Kandji is impressive at times in person. but has no support.
    – Richards can’t cross or even pass for that matter. He was dangerous early, with some runs but I’m not sure if he’ll ever have what it takes.
    – Angel is classy on the ball but had little to work with.
    – wasn’t sure the red was really worth a red. they only showed the foul in super slo-mo on the jumbotron and it looked like a yellow at most. but the intentional handball could have been a red instead of a yellow.
    – the ref was awful early on – let too much go. but settled down later. still some weird decisions – like the advantage no call on top of NY’s penalty box when the player with the ball was surrounded by 3 defenders and moving backwards. I think they would have preferred the free kick from 20 yds.
    – I really like the stadium. Every seat has a good view, it’s intimate, and it’s well run. Though I’d only been to MLS games at RFK (was a season ticket holder the 1st season) and Giants stadium (lived in West Orange and NYC for 9 yrs before coming out West) which are pitiful venues. Actually, RFK had character at least.

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  9. @ant: Booing the opposition does not equal supporting your team. Booing is disrespectful and bad sportsmanship. Good sportsmanship is supposed to be one of the underlying tenets of soccer (fair play, intentions, exchanging jerseys and club flags, kicking the ball out for injuries and the other team returning it). Unfortunately, good sportsmanship gets lost between the field and the stands. There are plenty of fans who don’t boo but we get drowned out by the classless. I love the chants FOR our team not those against the other. We try to teach good sportsmanship to our kids but many adults don’t set a good example. Then we wonder why they turn out the way they do.

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  10. Man it was great to see the quakes over come adversity and at least pull out a tie tonight… With the addition of Sanchez in the middle, the quakes got out of the kick the ball and run style of play… Wish they could have pulled off the win tonight… When is the MLS going to get better refs? The 2 goals DC scored were questionable…

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  11. Home from the Crew game. All I have to say is.. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Have a nice trip back to Canada Toronto! LOL.

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  12. Anyone watching the Peace Cup on GOLTV, between Olympique and Besiktas? There’s so few people at the match that you can clearly hear a single baby crying in the stands.

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  13. The Quakes played a great 2nd half tonight. 2:2 really flatters D.C. United, which looked tired and unimaginative in the 2nd half. San Jose should have been up at least a goal, but Convey and Glen both missed easy chances at the end of the 1st half.

    I have to say that despite their poor record, San Jose looked much more entertaining than either the Galaxy or KC, or the Red Bulls. I wonder if it is the coaching since they seem to have good enough players to be much better than they record would show.

    Ryan Johnson is a beast, it is too bad he got injured. Amarequa also can play some. Look forward to see them play the Crew in a couple of weeks.

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  14. Great game in Columbus tonight, as The Crew comes back from one down to win it with a goal in injury time. Both sides blew 1-goal leads and it finished 3-2 with Garey netting the last shot on a nice looping cross from Hejduk.

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  15. Turned the NYRB game off after 2-0, disgrace, JCO has to. I really have to question anyone who thinks NYRB can do well in the CL…

    JCO OUT!

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  16. To: NYRB Front Office

    Please fire JCO before the CONCACAF Champions League matches.

    Here’s a thought: How about doing it RIGHT F—ING NOW, you idiots!

    Sincerely yours,
    A pissed off season-ticket holder

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  17. would you rather

    A. have your ears slowly removed by fingernail clippers OR

    B. listen to an ESPN soccer broadcasting crew for 90+ minutes.

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  18. the red bulls are a detroit lions-level disgrace. jco needs a scarlet “L” painted onto his forehead. such a waste of a market… bring back tab ramos and youri djoerkaeff.

    also, beckham is a doosh. love watching him booed.

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  19. It’s 4-0 Rapids in front of Red Bulls and there is still 20 minutes left in the match. Why does JCO still have a job as a head coach? At some point, the man has to be considered accountable. It’s not like the team got a really bad break or has been hit with the kind of injuries that leave you playing your reserve GK at forward. Nah, his foreign signings for 2 years have mostly been dreck, he’s failed to develop some of the youth talent and the team is in a constant state of chaos. If dismissing Bruce Arena for losing in the first round of the playoffs doesn’t meet HQ’s standards for performance then I’m just baffled by the past two years.

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  20. ha in the KC-LA game a fan wearing an england jersey shook hands with beckham, but in the post game interview when asked about the exchange beckham said “he actually shouldn’t be wearing that england jersey because the things he was saying about my wife were an absolute disgrace”

    that made me lol

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  21. DC JOSH – That is an Italian flag behind the Fire goal. Good try, though…

    Posted by: sasoccerfan | July 25, 2009 at 03:56 PM

    Wrong again! It’s in fact Irish.

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  22. this McKenzie kid on KC has done a pretty good job tonight.

    In other news, the Red Bulls should be disbanded…Utterly embarrassing, as per usual.

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  23. Yeah there are many RB’s in the US system. The difference is that Lichaj is very young, so he’s going to be there for the future.

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  24. what are the dimensions of that KC field, exactly? These guys look like they are running in to each other.

    Becks shakes hands with a guy wearing an England fan. Is that something professionals are apt to do during a game? It felt like I was watching some MTV rock and jock soccer game for a sec there.

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  25. I was only able to watch a little of Tigres tonight, so I saw a little of Edgar Castillo. From what I saw, he looked good. He pushed forward a lot, and he had some good touches on the ball. I saw Lichaj too. He looked good, but there are many RB’s in the US system.

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  26. Sigi sent him to the locker room and was super pissed because Ljungberg didn’t hold his composure. It was nice that Bob Bradley let Busch come and play though, if only he would have let Evans too…

    Reply

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