Can there ever be too much soccer to watch? Okay, probably not, but this weekend's slate of soccer on TV is about as loaded as any weekend a soccer fan could hope for.
The list is enormous, with marquee tilts in England, Italy, France and MLS. Want rivalries? How about Manchester United vs. Manchester City? Want beautiful attacking soccer? How about Barcelona-Atletico Madrid? Want a quality MLS clash? You could do much worse than Columbus vs. Chicago.
Worried that you don't have access to all these matches? Setanta Sports just so happens to be offering a free weekend of viewing for DirecTV subscribers, while ESPN2, yes, ESPN2, will have a La Liga doubleheader on Sunday afternoon including Real Madrid. Ever think you'd see the day?
Whatever your taste, there's something for you. With that in mind, here is a look at the Top 10 matches to watch this weekend, as well as the weekend's full TV schedule:
Top 10 Matches to Watch
1. Manchester United vs. Manchester City. The Manchester Derby is always a heated affair, but City's loaded squad has dreams of a title and will need to win at Old Trafford to show it is for real. No Adebayor or Robinho hurts, but not as much as an in-form Wayne Rooney.
2. Chelsea vs. Tottenham. The top teams in London square off as Tottenham looks to rebound from its loss to Manchester United and Chelsea looks to stay perfect.
3. FC Barcelona vs. Atletico Madrid. Want some free-flowing, attacking soccer? This is your match of the weekend. Messi vs. Aguero? Ibrahimovic vs. Forlan? Xavi vs. Simao? Can't miss this one.
4. Chicago Fire vs. Columbus Crew. These teams always have great battles, and it should be no different in this meeting at Toyota Park. Will Cuauhtemoc Blanco carry the day, or will Guillermo Barros Schelotto carry the champs to victory?
5. Napoli vs. Udinese. Match of the week in Italy features several top strikers as Napoli looks to rebound from a slow start and Udinese tries to climb toward the top of Serie A.
6. Paris St. Germain vs. Lyon. French League title contenders clash in one of the weekend's more underrated match-ups.
7. Seattle Sounders vs. Chivas USA. No love lost between these teams as the Sounders look to score first win vs. the Goats.
8. Cruz Azul vs. San Luis.
9. Roma vs. Fiorentina. Yes, Roma is struggling, but there's still too much talent in this clash to leave it off the list.
T10. CSKA Moscow vs. Dinamo Moscow. I know, it's too early in the morning, but if you're up why not watch this Moscow Derby?
T10. Schalke 04 vs. VFL Wolfsburg. Can't miss a chance to see the Wolfsburg strike force of Grafite and Edin Dzeco.
This Weekends Soccer on TV
TODAY
2:30pm- GolTV- Schalke 04 vs. VFL Wolfsburg
7:30pm-MSG/Direct Kick- New England Revolution at New York Red Bulls.
8pm- FSC- Boston University vs. Boston College
9pm- Galavision- Tecos vs. Morelia
11pm- ESPN2- San Jose Earthquakes vs. Colorado Rapids
11pm- FSC- Vancouver White Caps vs. Cleveland City Stars
SATURDAY
7:45am- ESPN2- Burnley vs. Sunderland
9:25am- ESPN360/ESPN Deportes- Bayern Munich vs. Nurnberg
9:45am- FSC- Arsenal vs. Wigan
10am- FSE- Aston Villa vs. Portsmouth
11:55am- ESPN360/ESPN Deportes- Deportivo La Coruna vs. Espanyol
12pm- FSE- Napoli vs. Udinese
12:15pm- FSC- West Ham United vs. Liverpool
12:55pm- Setanta Sports USA- Nice vs. Monaco
2pm- ESPN360/ESPN Deportes- Osasuna vs. Sevilla
2:45pm- ESPN360- Juventus vs. Livorno
3pm- Setanta Sports USA-Marseille vs. Montpelier
3pm- FSC- Seattle Sounders vs. Chivas USA
4pm- GolTV-Barcelona vs. Atletico Madrid
4:15pm- ESPN360- Sporting Braga vs. Porto
5:30pm- FSC-Bolton vs. Stoke City (Delayed)
6pm- Azteca America/ESPN Deportes- Cruz Azul vs. San Luis
6:45pm- Setanta Sports USA- Hull City vs. Birmingham City
7pm- Azteca America- Puebla vs. Pumas
8pm- Telemundo- Chivas de Guadalajara vs. Jaguares
8pm- Telefutura- Pachuca vs. Monterrey
8pm- GolTV- Santa Fe vs. Junior
8:30pm- Direct Kick- Houston Dynamo vs. Real Salt Lake
8:30pm- Direct Kick- Kansas City Wizards vs. FC Dallas
10pm- Telemundo- Atlante vs. Santos Laguna
10:15pm- Setanta SPorts USA- Cardiff City vs. Queens Park Rangers
10:30pm- Direct Kick- Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Toronto FC
3am- FSC- Brisbane Roar vs. Perth Glory
SUNDAY
6am- Setanta Sports USA- CSKA Moscow vs. Dynamo Moscow
8:30am- ESPN360- Feyenoord vs. PSV Eindhoven
8:30am- ESPN360- VVV Venlo vs. Ajax
8:30am- Setanta Sports USA- Manchester United vs. Manchester City
8:55am- ESPN360- Cagliari vs. Inter Milan
9am- FSC/FSE- AC Milan vs. Bologna
9:30am- ESPN360- Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Hamburg SV
10:30am- ESPN Deportes- Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Hamburg SV (Delayed)
11am- Setanta Sports USA- Lens vs. Lille
11am- FSC/FSE- Chelsea vs. Tottenham
11am- GolTV- Athletic Bilbao vs. Villarreal
1pm- ESPN2/ESPN Deportes/ESPN360- Real Madrid vs. Xerez
1pm- Telemundo- Toluca vs. Atlas
1pm- Setanta Sports USA- Wolves vs. Fulham
1pm- GolTV- Bayer Leverkusen vs. Werder Bremen
2:30pm- FSC/FSE- Roma vs. Fiorentina
2:55pm- ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN Deportes/ESPN360- Valencia vs. Sporting Gijon
3pm- Setanta Sports USA- Paris St. Germain vs. Lyon
3pm- Telefutura- Chicago Fire vs. Columbus Crew
3pm- GolTV- Santo Andre vs. Sao Paulo
5pm- FSC- Boston University vs. Harvard (women's soccer)
5pm- Univision- Queretaro vs. Club America
7pm- FSC- Everton vs. Blackburn (Delayed)
7pm- FSE- San Lorenzo vs. Racing
—————
What matches are you most looking forward to? Which do you think is the best? Who do you see winning the Manchester and London Derbies?
Share your thoughts below.
how about being able to watch the little team that could – three cheers for burnley! loved watching them.
GEEZus please post photos of players other than freaking Wayne Rooney. His ugly mug little by little saps my will to live. Thank you.
(SBI-LMAO. Fair enough. Hey, it’s an upgrade from Ribery photos.)
For those of you that have it, AT&T U-verse is giving a free preview of some of the overseas sports channels, including Setanta. Starts today and runs through Sunday night. Enjoy.
On another point. I get the feeling we got Burnley games for the goals. Granted the goal scoring for Burnley wasn’t there but Liverpool put up a big number and Chelsea did as well. No goals is a big reason soccer hasn’t caught on as well in the US (“The main reason soccer hasn’t caught on here is that Americans can’t tolerate nil-nil ties” –Steve Czaban, personally I don’t buy this arguement as the perfect game for a pitcher [allowing no runs] in baseball is one of the more coveted accomplishments) and with a just promoted team playing the big four practically guarantees goals, which is good for the casual fans.
I thought the Setanta freeview was over few days ago as I don’t see it in my Dish Network guide as free anymore.
@lo it wasn’t for the drag racing, it was for the US open they broadcasted.
Where does it say that Setanta is being offered for free this weekend? I don’t see anything on their site?
Considering I live in Northwest Ohio where the only NFL games shown at 1 pm are the Browns & Lions. The 1 pm time slot for La Liga is of no problem to me.
Free Setenta preview?!?!?
Does this mean I can watch the Manchester Derby on Comcast cable? Anyone know what channel it will be on in DC?
PS GolTV is great. Ray Hudson is a golden god!
(SBI-The free Setanta preview is on DirecTV. Sorry Red Devil.)
…or I should say, comcast is offering FSC for free.
I don’t know about everywhere else, but FSC has been offering this past week free for pacific northwesterners. Great news for the cheap-o college kids like me who wanna catch the sounders game.
any places out on the cape to watch a game that people know of (from chatham inland), wanted to try and catch that chelsea game live
phil schoen isnt garbage…i dont mind him. and goltv certainly isn’t. ray hudson is the man.
FRIDAY NIGHT
11pm- ESPN2- San Jose Earthquakes vs. Colorado Rapids
This is the one to watch. The Colorado Rapids have sneaky dreams of winning the cup. San Jose is at home and has something to prove at the bottom of the table. Could be fun if the Quakes show up – they have a few young guns coming on
(SBI-Yes, you’re right. That game came in at No. 95 on the list.)
phil schoen is garbage. goltv is garbage.
guys stop complaining about burnley…the schedule was made before espn usa got the package…plus even if it wasnt the epl isnt gonna cater their schedule to what espn usa wants ahead of what sky sports 1st and bbc 2nd want…ANNNDD espn2 is only showing the saturday morning game…so you can check the schedule yourself and get a pretty good idea of what games are coming up on the schedule so its not a shock to the system when you see the likes of burnley again
Ok, it’s Phil Schoen. He’s not bad, and he’s American. Someone needs to bring this to the attention of ESPN.
sooooo, when ESPN says La Liga will be ESPN2, do they actually mean ESPN Classic like last weekend?
Folks,
I got a Tweet from Setanta saying that on 9/23, it will showing “the French League Cup between Stade Rennes v Sochaux. Bocanegra vs. Davies.”
Oh, and BTW, I hope that Real Madrid destroy that Xerez side that refused to play Jozy last year.
Does anyone know who the guy doing the play by play for the Schalke Wolfsburg match is?
Lo – ESPN had to broadcast the US Open tennis semifinal last Sunday, so La Liga got bumbed. In reality, who cares, because the game they had was awful.
That said, I notice that this week’s ESPN2 La Liga game is at 1pm on Sunday. It seems to me that ESPN ought to try to have games in the 11am time slot on Sundays in the fall, not the 1pm time slot. I don’t know how the La Liga games get chosen, but I’m just sayin…
So Real Madrid in HD? Did I read that right?
Why’d ESPN advertise a la liga game last Sunday only to broadcast f’in drag racing? Did i have the times screwed up? I turn on the TV. I’m excited. The TV guide channel says a Spanish league game will be on ESPN2 and i turn to the channel only to be disappointed. WTF? Hope it doesn’t happen again.
Maybe espn thinks the us is full of bunley fans
lol, My post was also gonna be about Burnley and say They should have this double-header as a regular thing since Burnley is the main ticket these days on Saturday. FSC has been like that older brother/sister Always keeping the best and giving the rest away.
Hull-Brum City is showing on Setanta Xtra’s schedule
Boo to the no live Everton match
And if you’re going to list MSG as showing the New York v. New England match, you should list TV38 WSBK too.
schalke v wolfsburg on goltv in 10 mins
My head is spinning…DCU has some well earned time off and U20’s haven’t started yet so no “must see” games for me, but so much to choose from in the “like to see” category.
lol, what, howd Wiz vs FC Dallas not make the list? haha
Yes!
First! Post!!
Hah!!! Yeah!
There’s so many I’d like’ta thank…
But seriously, a rhetorical question, since I sorta already know the answer: how come the Bundesliga is at best a second level talking point?
I have no anger or defensiveness, etc., etc. I’m just wondering. Is there any reason beyond the obvious stats: no European cup winners for eight years; few if any teams in Champs League quarters or semis over the past several years; most of the hyper-Q rating superstars are in Spain or England or Italy?
Just wondering.
Thanks.
Seriously, eff all these Burnley games
2nd ?
will be the redbulls game tonite.
HC
What is with ESPN’s obsession with Burnley?
(SBI-Not sure if it’s ESPN wanting Burnley or ESPN getting stuck with Burnley games on the front end in order to get the deal done. We can only hope the matches get better as the year goes on.)