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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At 6’1″ Ibra is just average sized for a Romulan. And a true Romulan would never have let Gocch get the drop on him like that.
What you are doing is taking the lineup decision out of the hands of the manager and no manager worth a damm is going to put up with that BS.
What you have heard about the Mexicans and Italians falls into the category of alleged gossip about “unwritten rules”. These are things that outsiders have observed about their teams. Indeed that seems to be their preference but I’m pretty sure there are no hard and fast written rules about this. Rafa Marquez and Hugo Sanchez had their best years in Spain. I doubt Mexico wanted to do without them. Guiseppe Rossi played in the Confederations Cup ( a FIFA sanctioned tournament)for Italy and he was at Villareal at the time. And even if those countries did have those rules, well, they have a hell of lot larger and more talented pool of players to pick from so they can aford to be choosy.
The US cannot be so picky. If Donovan’s time at Everton had not gone well and he did not play regularly for them then the US would have been forced to leave him off the World Cup roster.
US regulars, the regulars for many national teams, often get called up even when it seems the new kid in town is a hotter prospect. Why?
Because, just because the new kid in town is tearing it up for some European team, it does not mean they will play well with the National team. You forget, go usa, that for these new guys playing for the National team is a completely different thing from their club team where they have had success. Everyone is different. Some players may take 5 minutes to adjust, some take 5 games.
And national team managers rarely have the luxury of letting some new hot shot blend in.
The USMNT plays about 14 games per year on average.
Obviously, every team has to find ways to do that but the point is every national team manager is inherently a conservative one unless they have the kind of talent Brazil has,where they can afford to make wholesale changes and be fairly certain the talent level won’t suffer.
I get your point about EJ but BB recently gave him chances only after he played reasonably well in Greece and seemed to be doing well at Fulham. Off course, it helped EJ that the US had no other striker candidates worth a damm.
Nice.
I’ve read that the Italian team not only requires players getting time, but players getting time at Italian Serie A clubs. Mexico wanted its players playing in Mexico. I don’t see these rules as “BS”. Those countries just feel that it brings continuity or availability or whatever.
The rule I’m suggesting is to restore some kind of objective sanity for selecting National Team players vs. the current “who’s in the club” approach. For goodness sake, people were clamoring for Charlie Davies to get called up for the World Cup. My complaint is that once you’ve been capped and do a few good things, then your half-life of getting called up goes on forever. Look how long it took for Eddie Johnson to finally fall off the radar. If he starts doing well for Fulham, then call him back up, but if not then give people who are currently playing well (premiership or not) the chance they’ve earned.
I have actually contacted ESPN about the ticker and the size of the score box in the upper-left corner. Never received a response. The screen looks so compressed and the movement of the ticker is a distraction.
For all their efforts to increase exposure to soccer, ESPN’s coverage has been terrible. They could stand to watch FSC and GolTV to see how things should be done.
Maybe they would listen if one of America’s most respected soccer journalists gave them a call.
I resent that
What you are saying then,if I read you right is that you know his club and national team situation better than Gooch does. Not to mention his personal medical situation.
Clearly you think he’s stupid.
Perhaps you should write/tweet/ e mail/ whatever him.
You would be unnecessarily hindering your national team.
Klinsmann wanted “total control” whatever that means, of the USMNT, especially when to comes to selecting players, I’m sure.
Do you think he or any self respecting manager would take the US job if there was a BS rule like that in place?
It’s been alleged that BB only plays guys who are seeing “significant time ” (whatever that means) for their club and that is just not true. National teams are begggars who can’t be choosy. Everything is a case by case basis. If Dempsey had taken a lot longer to recover from his knee injury last season and had only played a game or two before the World Cup do you leave him off the squad? I don’t.
Even though he wound up not playing a lot or at all, BB put Adu on the rosters of the Confederations Cup and the Gold Cup in 2009. And obviously he brought Gooch to the World Cup. In Adu’s case it’s almost as if he had to see for himself if Adu had anything and it seems he did not. In Gooch’s case, if Gooch was healthy then there is no doubt he deserved his chance to prove his worth. And when he came up short, BB pulled him. And besides, we were running out of healthy center backs.
Respectfully disagree. It’s been said before by other people on this site: No other American defender warrants a look by Milan. If Gooch is healthy, he is in the USA starting 11.
Whose better? The only compitition is Droghba and perhasp David Villa. He’s certainly in the argument
Ronaldo already did that, and he’s claiming the baby as his, and only his. Apparently he’s shunning the mother, and has the baby living in Portugal with his mother and sister.
Is it just me or is Ives advertising Roma?
How long till this comment is removed?
Best in world? (Trying not to laugh).
Would I be a real big nerd if I said Zlatan looks more than a bit like a Romulan? Okay, easy answer.
bob bases all or most of his decisions to play his regulars based on club time and health and form. it was clear during the world cup and the recent friendlies that his lack of playing time is impacting his form. his been at milan for a year now and hasn’t received any playing time and it doesn’t seem likely. he seems so determined to stick it out with Milan that someone needs to be responsible for getting the message he needs to move across to him. Hopefully if he feels his place with the nats is jeopardized, then he’ll feel more compelled to move.
Sorry but I agree with Tim. I think it should be hard rule that only players currently getting significant time with their club (MLS or 3rd division Denmark) get called in, even if it means leaving a supposedly good player struggling at a top club out.
Lazio had a legit penalty claim when Riise brought Mauri (or was it Floccari?) down, but don’t forget that Roma also had a legitimate goal called back in the first half…two bad decisions by the referee
Nah, they’d feel Spanish :p
Parity is a form of socialism, which makes it kind of interesting that the MLS has it, but no other league does…
Although I guess that explains why MLS still isn’t very popular in the US. The fans aren’t used to having a team like the Yankees to cheer for/against.
“If gooch doesn’t even make the bench, their needs to be some serious demand from the media that Gooch be left of the Nats picture until he situates his club situation.”
You lost me here. If Gooch is playing well for the NT it shouldn’t matter how he’s doing for his club. Normally good form for club is an indicator of potential for the NT. If he”s healthy there’s no doubt Gooch is a starting centerback for the US.
Plus Villa.
Other great strikers for the past year i’d include Dzeko, maybe even Ilic who plays for Bayern Munich.
Defoe and Bent though are among the top strikers in England.
I understand that they were far from goal, but the last defender is the last defender.
If that’s a card, it has to be a red.
Terry sucks. Quality defender a few years ago. World class cheat though. Thank god he wasn’t England’s captain at the WC
Dude, it’s not their style. Get over it. They let other teams have possession and play with two banks of four on defense, allowing very little space between the lines of midfield and defense and making it difficult for teams to pass through them. Difficult tactic to break down.
O/T but Dempsey has 4 goals in 11 matches. League i mean. And he’s guaranteed to start until Zamora comes back in 2months.
any chance he can become top scorer this season? I have him down with 10 league goals.
Torres needs to mate with a dozen American women. 1 of his offspring surely will become a world class player for us.
I’d love to see Carroll up top with Defoe. Crouch is best as a sub. Rooney needs some time off with the England to get his head straight but we know that will never happen.
seriously what has he done for England?
He was brillant in WC qualifying and in euro2004 but flopped at the last WC.
I had that in mind. I know it’s Howard Webb, but at some point a card has to come out for persistence of hard fouls.
On the most recent (of many) fouls today, I think Terry was going for the ball. The one in 1H where he kneed Torres in the back jumping for the header was deserved of a yellow IMO.
How does Terry not have a card yet?
On current form is Reina the best goal keeper in the world Holy Cow! Another tremendous save against Malouda.
Seriously, Liverpool needs to pass the ball, this is getting sad. Where is your composure?
Liverpool need to stop and slow the pace of the game down or Chelsea is going to run them into the ground.
Certainly vintage Torres so hope this marks a return to his best form. Right now, I’d say that Drogba and ETO’O are the two best strikers based on form in club and European seasons. Though maybe all this is moot if CRonaldo continues his goal scoring exploits for Real Madrid
I think that Andy Carroll might be the most in form striker England has. Defoe is probably their best striker overall.
Allegri told reporters that the two have made up and that it was blown out of proportion, which is just probably bs. With all of their injury problems in the back, Allegri was asked who would be in the back line for their upcoming match. He said Yepes, the Columbian we recently played against would be starting next to Nesta. Which will be only his second appearance for AC Milan. The difference between gooch and yepes is that yepes has Seria A experience. If gooch doesn’t even make the bench, their needs to be some serious demand from the media that Gooch be left of the Nats picture until he situates his club situation.
http://tribalfootball.com/ac-milan-boss-allegri-gooch-ibra-already-have-made-1230981