Sunday's Eastern match between Everton and West Ham doesn't have the same sizzle as the table-topping clash between Chelsea and Manchester United, but it still has tons of meaning for both sides.
For West Ham, the match is one of a dwindling number of chances the Hammers has to avoid the relegation zone. For Everton, the match is one of the last chances the Toffees have of closing the gap between them and sixth place in the Premier League. Tim Howard's club currently sits five points behind Liverpool for sixth place. Liverpool will also be in action on Sunday, taking on Birmingham City.
If you got enough Premier League action on Saturday, then there is a ton of Spanish First Division action on tap. Real Madrid takes on Racing Santander needing a win to pull even with Barcelona heading into their 'Clasico' next weekend.
If you will be watching soccer action on TV, 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):
TODAY'S TV SCHEDULE
10am- Fox Soccer Plus- Birmingham vs. Liverpool
11am- FSC- Everton vs. West Ham
11am- DirecTV- Real Valladolid vs. Villarreal
11am- ESPN Deportes/ESPN360.com- Valencia vs. Osasuna
11am- DirecTV- Almeria vs. Mallorca
11am- DirecTV- Sporting Gijon vs. Xerez
1pm-GolTV- Racing Santander vs. Real Madrid
1pm- Telemundo- Toluca vs. Tecos
2pm- Fox Soccer Plus- Fulham vs. Wigan (Delayed)
3pm- GolTV- Atletico Madrid vs. Deportivo La Coruna
3pm- ESPN Deportes- Sevilla vs. Tenerife
4:10pm- FSE- Boca Juniors vs. Rosario Central
5pm- Univision- Santos Laguna vs. Jaguares
5pm- GolTV- Ituano vs. Corinthians (Delayed)
6pm- Fox Soccer Plus- Inter Milan vs. Bologna
6pm- FSC- Boca Juniors vs. Rosario Central
9pm- Telemundo- Chivas De Guadalajara vs. Club America
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Thanks for your contribution to the conversation.
Do people still whine about someone else’s choice of words on this site?Hhmm, I guess since Omar left the Indians he hasn’t been really himself.:)
Sorry, I completely disagree. There are far worse defenders than Spector in the EPL, shoot, even worse players in La liga. Spector playing out of position has managed to play good futbol. If you had watched the game and knew a little bit about the game you would know that those mistakes by spector could have been prevented easily by an average defender in the best league in the world, but Ham couldn’t even managed to box out a player or hang around for more than 5 seconds in the box to prevent a goal from happening. Sorry, Ham has bad defenders in the blame can’t go to a guy who is playing out of position.
Warren,
West Ham is about to get relegated for a reason.
Every year Spector has a run as a starter for a while then loses it and then has to fight to get it back. That is not my idea of regular starter quality. Patrice Evra, Leighton Baines, Rio Ferdinand, those guys are regular starters.
Take off those redd,white and blue specs and you will see that Spector is a fine player but over the long haul of the EPL he is just an average to below average one, which is actually pretty good.
How do you know how hard he works? Have you ever played in an EPL game?
Touchy?
Dempsey has worked his butt of for years to be, at this point, the outfield player who logs more minutes for his team than any other American in the EPL.
In a world where fans would violently demand Freddy Adu’s inclusion in the World Cup team if he got of the bench in 3 games in a row for his Greek team, that is saying something.
Lazy is a powerful word to be throwing around. Dempsey’s style does not appeal to you because he doesn’t look like he is working all that hard (note someone else’s post on Beckerman). One very relevant cliche is that it takes a lot of work to make something look easy. Dempsey has discovered something that a Bundesliga midfielder I met years ago once told me; he said that the ball is always faster than the man, that best players have faster instincts. They instinctively know where to be before the other guy does. And in case you didn’t know, those instincts come from muscle memory; which is developed by lots and lots of repetition (hard work). I’ve watched Brazil a lot over the years and if you think Dempsey looks lazy, you haven’t seen nothing.
So you and everyone else on this site can stick to your guns all you want; it doesn’t make the charge that Dempsey is lazy true.
Umm yeah, Spector is a regular starter quality player in the EPL – every time Zola tries to leave him on the bench West Ham’s d is even worse.
But does sound like this was not one of his better days.
3rd at World Cup is no joke.
2nd in Bundesliga is no joke.
Klinsi as a player was very very far from a joke.
Good for you, stick by insisting you don;t really get how to play the game.
Hint: It’s not just about random motion, it’s also about being where your teammates expect you to be – and working VERY hard for say 20 seconds to make something happen.
Then it’s back to being in position and waiting to do the next thing you can to help your team. Get it? Guess not.
You guys are so touchy. I know a lot of others on this site agree with me. I am not just seeing things. And Dempsey can and should play ahead of others on Fulham if he is better than them while not necessarily working as hard. Hodgson wants to win, and as I acknowledged before, playing Dempsey gives them a better chance at this than playing his backup. I am just saying that he could be even better if he worked harder on the field. I stick by that.
I like Spector but don’t lose perspective here. If he were English you might actually have a more realistic view of him, which would be that he is a mid to lower level quality defender who is lucky to have hung around the EPL as long as he has.
He is not a regular-starter-quality defender.
In the interest of full disclosure, I actually like Beckerman. If he had any skill at all he would start over M. Bradley for the US. That he has come so far with so few skills( he treats the ball like it was radioactive) is a tribute to his grit.
Only in Alaska
I guess Hodgson doesn’t agree with you.
I’m sure you are very knowledgeable but on the issue of Dempsey’s characteristics as a player I think I’ll side with Roy. After all, his job depends on Clint’s efforts (or lack thereof).
Deuce works his butt off and every conceivable observation and metric backs that up. As mentioned before, he wouldn’t play wing for a mid-table premiership team if that were otherwise. You need to clean off your glasses or something.
LOL
Do people still use the word “retarded”?
FSC commentators kept blaming and bashing Spector after that awful clearance in the box. They kept saying he is too slow for the EPL but in some strange way he has managed to stay in the league.lol
Yeaaahhhhh,.. it’s Spector’s fault for allowing both goals, and not the central defenders fault, lets just blame it on the Spector man.:) I understand Spector’s lack of clearance, but for God freaking sake West Ham players, play more tight inside the box. Putting the full blame on Spector for both goals is just plain retarded.
Yes, actually you can. And I wasn’t saying that he should run around like a chicken with his head cut off–I realize he is one our best players and that running around with no purpose or skill is a waste; however, in my opinion he would be better if he worked a little harder on the field.
Definitely not as much fun to watch Everton. No doubt they were a better team with Landon on the wing.
they played much, much better after Torres was taken off
Rafa has taken the team to 2 Champions League finals and made a heck of a run at the league last year (in addition to 2 La Liga titles). Klinsmann is a joke compared to that.
Watching everton just isn’t as much fun anymore. If west ham do go down, what happens to Spector? will he play in the championship?
WHat I find funny is how mad the fans where when the owners wanted klinsmann instead of rafa. Absolute joke that team is.
West Ham has tied it up.
I think gerrard has had it with rafa. I wouldn’t be suprised if he gave liverpool an ultimatum this summer. Obviously everyone thinks rafa should go, but wouldn’t liverpool lose something like 35 million pounds on his contract, and wouldn’t they gain about the same on the selling of gerrard? Somebody is going to walk alone on that this summer.
Why? Who cares if the USMNT loses a lazy player?
After all he’s not like Kyle Beckerman. Now there’s a player; runs around all day and sweats up a storm when he plays for the USMNT. He really looks the part.
Of course, he doesn’t get anything done but who cares? He sure looks like he works hard and that’s the important thing. Perception is everything.
It’s more important that the fans think you are working hard than if you actually produce anything (like goals).
You can tell how hard he is trying by the way he looks? That’s a new one on me.
Fulham has a lot more depth than the USMNT most of you are certain that Hodgson is a far, far better coach than Bradley. I find it difficult to believe he would tolerate lackadaisical play from one of his players.
Why does Hodgson not just sit him down if
what you say is true?
Clint just got taken down in the box. It should have been a penalty. I hope he isn’t hurt.
I can do nothing but laugh at Liverpool and Rafa Benitez.
Did anyone see the expression on the faces of both Torres and Gerrard when Rafa subbed Fernando off? They were both flabbergasted.
RT @JozyAltidore17 Timmy Howard is the Truth!
As for the Everton goal, I don’t really see it as entirely Spector’s fault. Sure it was a poor clearance, but his teammates allowed Cahill and Bilyaletdinov to get two unmarked headers after that
Timmy with the save!
Timmy Howard!!!
Howard with a great penalty save against Mido!
nice save by timmy
Like he usually does for the U.S.–lackadaisical. Don’t get me wrong, he should be starting up top with Jozy, but he seems like he could be so much better if he just tried a little harder.
Well until Specs had a horrific header that lead to the Everton goal, he was having a good game.
Birmingham is just taking it to Liverpool. I don’t think the scoreline is at all representative of how this game has played out.
How does Deuce look so far?
deuce getting a start apparently out wide today for fulham