If you want high-profile match-ups and fierce rivalries, this day is one of the best of the season.
Roma-Lazio, Real Madrid-Atletico Madrid and Liverpool-Chelsea are just three of the marquee battles on the schedule today.
Want to see some Americans in action? Jozy Altidore's Villarreal is on TV, as is Steve Cherundolo and Hannover 96.
MLS is also on the menu, with the Los Angeles Galaxy facing the Seattle Sounders with the final of the four conference final berths on the line.
If you will be watching today's action, please feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today's TV Schedule is after the jump):
TODAY'S SOCCER ON TV
6:30am– Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv- Fiorentina vs. Chievo Verona
7am– FoxSoccer.tv- Southport vs. Sheffield Wednesday (FA Cup)
8:10am– FoxSoccer.tv- Cardiff City vs. Swansea City
8:30am– Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv- Arsenal vs. Newcastle United
8:30am– ESPN3.com- Utrecht vs. PSV Eindhoven
9am– ESPN3.com- AS Bari vs. AC Milan
9am– Fox Soccer Channel- Lazio vs. Roma
9:30am– ESPN3.com- Hannover 96 vs. Borussia Dortmund
10am– FoxSoccer.tv- West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester City
10:30am– Fox Soccer Plus- Blackburn vs. Wigan (Delayed)
11am– Fox Soccer Channel- Liverpool vs. Chelsea
11am– GolTV- Villarreal vs. Athletic Bilbao
11am– DirecTV- Real Zaragoza vs. Mallorca
11am– DirecTV- Osasuna vs. Hercules
11am– ESPN3.com- Levante vs. Deportivo La Coruna
11am– FoxSoccer.tv- Lens vs. Montpellier
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Lille vs. Brest
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Nancy vs. Monaco
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Nice vs. Toulouse
11am- FoxSoccer.tv- Burton Albion vs. Oxford United (FA Cup)
12:30pm– Fox Soccer Plus- Cardiff City vs. Swansea City (Delayed)
1pm– Azteca America- Puebla vs. Monterrey
1pm– Telemundo- UNAM Pumas vs. Necaxa
1pm– ESPN3.com- Getafe vs. Barcelona
1pm– GolTV- VfB Stuttgart vs. Werder Bremen
2:45pm– Fox Soccer Channel- Palermo vs. Genoa
3pm– GolTV- Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid
3pm– Fox Soccer Plus- Paris St. Germain vs. Olympique Marseille
3:15pm– ESPN3.com- FC Porto vs. Benfica
5pm– Fox Soccer Channel- West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester City (Delayed)
9pm– ESPN- Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Seattle Sounders
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I’m not sure if you can have 2 or 3 dominant teams then, without doing away with the salary cap, which, as we saw with the NASL, is a tricky proposition if you want to sustain a soccer league in the US.
I’m not sure what the answer is…I’m happy with the parity, and I don’t think it affects the number of “casual American fans” who follow MLS at all. More DPs and more exciting young US national teamers seems to me the best way to go. This requires one thing: owners who are willing to spend on players and youth systems.
O/T but seeing how Newcastle beat Arsenal got me thinking
Is Andy Carroll really the striker England need?
Is Rooney done?
Can Defoe and Bent do anything to stake a claim as top striker?
No chance for Carlton Cole or Agbonlahor?
Gridiron football??? Its just football, ill never understand soccer fans who make fun of other sports then cry when no one respects theres. Besides im pretty sure in auburn that is news, or should they care more abour whats happening in a country thousands of miles away in a league that they can only see on tv?
He loves scoring against Chelsea. check the stats. He scores in the big games for sure.
Fernando Torres Liverpool’s number nine!!!!
He’s back. Best striker in the world.
Going for the hat-trick?
EL NINO. Sick, Sick strike. Pace and precision.
Torres!! GOLAZZZOOOOOOOOO
This is already old news well discussed in earlier posts on this site and others.
As for what sparked the fight — it was a rough sliding challenge by Ibra that set off Gooch. I fIbra wasn’t the big star, he’d be in a lot of people’s doghouse.
What you’re describing kinda sorta works in Europe because you have the Champions League, which is a bigger deal than the domestic leagues. In order to be competitive at the European level, teams need long-term dominance domestically — and maybe teams get extra fans when they play internationally, almost like the national team.
How in the world does Terry not get carded for that?!
He kneed Torres in the head.
I would say “not exactly”. The point away goals rule isn’t to reward teams so much as to discourage teams from b an advantage to the higher seed, but it does give an advantage to a team that cores on the road in the first game. It also really puts them on a knife’s edge in the second game, if they didn’t score an away goal in the first game.
As a Spaniard, seeing el nino score makes me very happy.
Weak weak call on the beautiful chest lob by Torres.
everyone dives. get over it.
Hannover is self destructing. Down 3-0 and a man, should be 4 but Dortmund missed a PK.
What a great goal!
El Nino strikes… Beautiful touch and finish.
in terms of what? they’ve covered the MLS playoffs, they had an open commentary for yesterdays games, an the Gooch situation, there’s not much to talk about and I’m sure Ives will hve something tomorrow on it. Sat/Sun aren’t big days for blogs, so why waste a story thats going to garner lots of comments/views on a sunday?
He started on the bench.
Let’s get it on. Com’mon you REDS. Make it a fiesty one today.
any altidore updates?
One thing you notice about Chelsea is how quickly they play. Not just passing quality, but how quickly they look up, take a control touch, turn with the ball. Even with no pressure on them, they play at a speed higher than their opponents.
Arsenal lose 1-0 to Newcastle United.
ANOTHER uncalled penalty for Lazio.
Okay, this is getting a little ridiculous at this point.
They are not happy. I’m excited to see the reaction after the final whistle.
This should be entertaining.
This official is making an enormous mess of this game.
Lazio has several serious, legitimate grievances now. The uncalled penalty, the official not stopping play for a serious head injury which gave Roma a 2 man advantage on a fast break.
I doubt that the official makes it out in one piece.
I agree Riise held and tugged the Lazio player but Rugby tackle I think overstates it… they were both falling (and of course the Lazio played was helped along). Probably was difficult for the ref to see with all the bodies in the box.
Now, Lazio must be furious with another penalty given to Roma especially with a Lazio defender down.
56th minute
Beasley coming in for an injury.
Damn! What great back-to-back saves by Hannover’s keeper Fromlowitz.
Hannover’s been really sloppy with their passes today. They came out flat but have woken up
Yikes, the Lazio/Roma official just missed Riise rugby tackling the Lazio forward from behind.
MLS has playoffs, so the idea that you have no chance to win does not come into play. If there was a single table with no playoffs, then I would agree with you.
Balotelli going for a hat trick after 27 mins of play!
The penalty shot may have been weak, but did you see the shot that earned it?
It broke that Lazio player’s forearm. Talk about power.
definitely man.
atdhe.net
thanks to you i will never leave digital cable
watching Hannover vs B Dortmund
Hannover look alright but they’re down a goal. They seem to make a lot of turnovers and Dortmund keep attacking. Stevie is good as usual.
12years at Hannover. He has to be a LEGEND.
Ask someone in, say, Blackpool or Mallorca if they enjoy going into each season knowing they have *absolutely* no chance at a title. Heck, there’s less parity in England than in MLB, which is a feat.
I can see the allure of Real Madrid or Bayern Munich for the average newcomer who doesn’t yet have a team to support, but I don’t know of any small-market fan who would rationally argue against some form of parity.
Considering there is no away goals rule in the MLS playoffs, imo it’s harder on the top seeds. They have to play away first and so usually come back home needing to get a goal or two to win the series outright. The whole point of the away goals rule in the Champions League is to reward the teams playing away first for scoring goals.
If RSL only had to win 1-0, do you think Dallas would have had so many chances on the break?
Roma scores on a weak penalty shot where the Lazio keeper practically dove over the ball and it sort of bungled into goal. Hopefully this one opens up more now.
Hopefully to a January Serie A or Ligue 1 Loan.
This can’t be good for a career at AC Milan especially when you are not the one scoring goals.
“ROME (AP)—AC Milan teammates Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Oguchi Onyewu brawled during a training match Friday.
Team vice president Adriano Galliani, speaking with SkySport24 TV, described the fight as “very lively” but said both players have resolved their differences. He didn’t say what sparked the brawl.
The Italian news agency ANSA said the American defender and the Swedish forward came to blows during the scrimmage and had to be separated by teammates and Milan staff.
AC Milan was training at its Milanello field ahead of Sunday’s away match with Bari.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-ibrahimovic-onyewubrawl
Gooch on his way out of Milan?
I had this thought this morning. The MLS needs less parity.
I feel that in order to really bring in the casual American fans, you need two or three teams to dominate. MLS needs the equivalent of a Chelsea and United, or a Barcelona and Real Madrid.
I think a lot of casual fans are turned off when all of the top seeds lose. It really makes for an anti-climatic finals.
When I hear Americans discuss “gridiron football” my brain usually shuts off, but you’ve got a point about the ticker on ESPN — it really bothers me more during soccer games than when I watch other other sports.
That’s funny. I thought it would be a stronger indictment of the poor quality of teams the top seeds were. If you can’t win a home and home format series to advance, are you really that good?
So far, the story of the MLS playoffs has been “Eastern Conference? What Eastern conference?”. Except, if Seattle advances than the real story will be not about East v. West but how NONE of the top seeds made it out of the first round. Which would be a strong indictment on the current playoff system. As it is, 3 of the top 4 seeds have been eliminated to this point.
Diving Chamakh. He’ll fit in on Arsenal.
yeah good point. espn is the place to be
The MLS playoff games have been incredibly exciting.
Glad to see they moved the game up to ESPN from ESPN2….does that mean no bottom line telling us 10,000 times a game an agent/player tried to take money from a college to play gridiron football ?
Like that was news in the first place.