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Soccer Wednesday: Your Running Commentary

Edu (Reuters Pictures)

Another edition of the Old Firm derby is set to take place in Scotland, as Celtic and Rangers do battle in a Scottish Cup fifth-round replay (2:45 p.m.) to see which Glasgow-based club advances to the quarterfinals.

The sides played to a 2-2 draw almost a month ago and have already faced each other a total of four times this season with today's game and a meeting in the League Cup final still on tap.

Among the day's other key matches, Arsenal hopes to put its Carling Cup disappointment in the rear-view mirror with a FA Cup fifth-round replay against Leyton Orient (2:45 p.m., FSC); Michael Bradley gets his first start in an Aston Villa uniform as Manchester City and Villa also fight for a spot in the FA Cup quarterfinals (2:45 p.m., Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv); Oguchi Onyewu and FC Twente meet FC Utrecht with a place in the Dutch Cup finals on the line (2:45 p.m.); and Barcelona meets Valencia (4 p.m. GOLTV) in the headliner of a near-full slate of La Liga action.

If you will be watching any of Wednesday's matches, either on television or via Internet feed, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments sections below. Enjoy the action.

Comments

  1. Sky Sports has player ratings from the fans only. Pretty much everyone got a 4 except Bradley, Delph. Heskey and someone else who all got 1s…not very scientific but I’ve never seen “1s” before….so for those of you who said he wasn’t the worst on the pitch – apparently he has some company but it seems like a pretty dreadful day.

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  2. And you would be certain that’d be attributed to this performance specifically? If he starts next game will your tune change completely?

    My point is that the people who comment hear about individual Americans are often watching games for that individual alone — very few people honestly had any stake in whether AV won or not. Critiquing every pass, movement, position, etc. is so very easy when that’s all anyone is paying attention to. No one did had anything other than a passing interest in most of the other players, leading to this assumption that the disparity in quality between players in AV is extremely large, with MB being at the bottom.

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  3. Was he bad? Yeah. Certainly. Not really an MB-like performance in any aspect really. But was he horrendous? No. Relatively speaking, he was about average with everyone else that played.

    People calling for him to be CUT and SENT BACK to BM: that’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. Some of the people on here just refuse to consider things neutrally or in any level-headed manner. If it was Petrov that played like that, we’d say he looked terrible and leave it at that. If it’s an American (who people tend to resent because of his father), it’s means for capital punishment. Let’s all pump the brakes a little bit.

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  4. No no, don’t you know they’re not ripping him they’re telling it like it is? Anyway, I agree it’s absurd to call it a failed loan after 1 substitute appearance and 1 cup start.

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  5. I don’t know what you’re seeing, but we’re not seeing the same thing. If you look at the replay, he’s the only one who actually stuck a leg out. Dunn just stands there and then turns his back on the strike. Look again, and closer this time mate.

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  6. i know babyb can be a polarizing player for usmnt fans, but sheesh. ive never seen a player on this blog get ripped this bad. granted, im not watching the game – so it could be as its being stated here. but failed loan? back to bm? wait till the pulse is gone before calling time of death.

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