After watching the top teams in England and Spain steal the headlines over the last few weeks, Italy's biggest clubs are set to make an impact of their own.
AC Milan already kicked off its campaign, and Inter Milan, Juventus and the rest of the Serie A teams get their 2011-12 season underway after a temporary resolution to the players' strike allowed the season to commence this weekend.
Saturday could mark Stuart Holden's return to Bolton's first team in a match against Manchester United, the same club he played against when suffering the leg injury that sidelined him for five months.
There are a number of meaningful MLS matches taking place over the weekend as well, as Los Angeles-Colorado and Seattle-Salt Lake pit Western Conference contenders against each other; Sporting Kansas City and Houston do battle for Eastern Conference playoff positioning; and Chivas USA and D.C. United meet with both being on the cusp of the league's final playoff berth.
Here is this weekend's soccer on TV:
FRIDAY
7 p.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Duke vs. Virginia
9:10 p.m. – Galavision – Estudiantes Tecos vs. Jaguares
11 p.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Colorado Rapids
SATURDAY
9:30 a.m. – GOLTV – Borussia Dortmund vs. Hertha Berlin
9:30 a.m. – ESPN3.com – Bayern Munich vs. SC Freiburg
10 a.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Arsenal vs. Swansea City
10 a.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv – Stoke City vs. Liverpool
10 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Manchester City vs. Wigan Athletic
10 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Everton vs. Aston Villa
10 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Wolverhampton vs. Tottenham
10 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – West Ham vs. Portsmouth
10 a.m. – ESPN2/ESPN3.com – Sunderland vs. Chelsea
12 p.m. – ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes – Real Sociedad vs. Barcelona
12 p.m. – GOLTV – Villarreal vs. Sevilla
12:20 p.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv – Coventry City vs. Derby County
12:30 p.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Bolton vs. Manchester United
12:45 p.m. – ESPN3.com – Roda JC vs. FC Twente
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – St. Etienne vs. Lille
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Ajaccio vs. Valenciennes
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Bordeaux vs. Evian Thonon Gaillard
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Caen vs. Toulouse
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Dijon vs. Lyon
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Sochaux vs. Lorient
2 p.m. – GOLTV – Real Madrid vs. Getafe
2:45 p.m. – Fox Soccer Channel/ESPN3.com – Cesena vs. Napoli
3 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Marseille vs. Stade Rennes
4 p.m. – ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes – Valencia vs. Atletico Madrid
4 p.m. – Telefutura – Sporting Kansas City vs. Houston Dynamo
4 p.m. – MLS Direct Kick/MatchDay Live – Seattle Sounders vs. Real Salt Lake
5 p.m. – GOLTV – Santos vs. Cruzeiro
6 p.m. – Univision – Queretaro vs. Pumas UNAM
6 p.m. – Azteca America – Cruz Azul vs. Morelia
7 p.m. – GOLTV – Nacional de Medellin vs. Santa Fe Bogota
7:30 p.m. – MLS Direct Kick/MatchDay Live – New York Red Bulls vs. Vancouver Whitecaps
7:30 p.m. – MLS Direct Kick/MatchDay Live – Philadelphia Union vs. Portland Timbers
7:30 p.m. – MLS Direct Kick/MatchDay Live – Columbus Crew vs. Toronto FC
7:30 p.m. – MLS Direct Kick/MatchDay Live – New England Revolution vs. FC Dallas
8 p.m. – Telefutura – Santos Laguna vs. Chivas de Guadalajara
9 p.m. – GOLTV – Dorados vs. Irapuato
9:45 p.m. – Galavision – Atlas vs. San Luis
10:30 p.m. – MLS Direct Kick/MatchDay Live – Chivas USA vs. D.C. United
10:30 p.m. – MLS Direct Kick/MatchDay Live – San Jose Earthquakes vs. Chicago Fire
SUNDAY
6:30 a.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv – Juventus vs. Parma
8:30 a.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv – Norwich City vs. West Brom
9 a.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Roma vs. Cagliari
10 a.m. – DirecTV – Racing Santander vs. Levante
11 a.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Fulham vs. Blackburn
11 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Montpellier vs. Nice
11 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Nancy vs. Auxerre
11:30 a.m. – GOLTV – Wolfsburg vs. Schalke
12 p.m. – DirecTV – Osasuna vs. Sporting Gijon
12 p.m. – ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes – Rayo Vallecano vs. Real Zaragoza
1 p.m. – Telemundo – Toluca vs. Tijuana
1 p.m. – Azteca America/Fox Deportes – Puebla vs. Monterrey
2:45 p.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Palermo vs. Inter Milan
3 p.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv – Paris-St. Germain vs. Brest
4 p.m. – GOLTV – Espanyol vs. Athletic Bilbao
5 p.m. – Univision – America vs. Atlante
Aupa Atleti!!
Ditto!
Wow! That’s a lotta games on Saturday! Amazing how times have changed over the years when you would search for one game a week to watch.
I plan my weekend with this tv schedule
Not to mention one of our biggest players as of late for the US and among the brightest young players will be playing for a potential top 7 team who with some luck could fight for Europa league spots.
This column is one of my favorite features on this site. Thanks, Avi!
that ref at the end of the milan game is a POS! haha gives them the corner and then blows the whistle before they can take it.
I never thought much of Serie A, but that was some good attacking football by both sides. Looks like I have another league to look at this year.
Figures Milan would do this crap and keep me pissed off the 1st 25 mintues! lol
But it’s a game now that Ibrahimovic has cut the lead, great start to Serie A in terms of excitement and goals scored!
Damn I didn’t realize how much better Lazio got despite losing Zarate. Klose, Cisse and Ledesma help.
Whoa!!!!!!! Right as I type this now Cassano who assisted Ibra on the 1st ties it off an Aquilani corner! Damn guess Aquilani will work better for my Rossinery than he did for Liverpool, I wasn’t too thrilled AC Milan signed him..
Where is Robinho? That fool hurt again or resting from Brazil call up? Hope to see Pato in 2nd for Amrossini, love the Duck!
Wow. Cisse with a beautiful header to put Lazio up 2-0 over Milan.
I really miss my DirecTV, when I get it back Soooo getting dual DVRs in both my tv’s and I’ll get a nice 2TB hard drive JUST to record TONS of Football.
Can’t have enough Footie on hold to watch when they’re just giving reruns, plus MLB looks to be so boring this year it will both cause delays in TV AND be predictable and boring, need DVR NOW!!!!!!!!!! lol
thats a hell of a lot of games