Set your alarms for early Sunday morning, because a rare matchup between two of the world's most entertaining teams — and players — is on the docket.
Barcelona and Santos each took care of business to set up a meeting between the defending European champions and the South American powerhouse in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup. The match not only features two of the best teams in the world, but it also pits Lionel Messi and Neymar against each other, adding fuel to the fire on the budding rivalry between the Argentine maestro and the up-and-coming Brazilian star.
Elsewhere, Sunday's Manchester City-Arsenal bout is a can't-miss match in England, as the Gunners try to creep back into the title picture behind red-hot Robin Van Persie.
Some of the weekend's other top matches, however, are taking place in Italy's Serie A, where Lazio meets Udinese in a battle of top-four teams and AS Roma takes on Napoli. It'd also be wrong to overlook Sunday's clash between Paris-St. Germain and defending-champion Lille, two teams in the thick of the Ligue 1 hunt in France.
Here is this weekend's soccer on TV:
THIS WEEKEND'S SOCCER ON TV
SATURDAY
1:30 a.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Newcastle Jets vs. Sydney FC
9:30 a.m. – GOLTV – SC Freiburg vs. Borussia Dortmund
10 a.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Everton vs. Norwich City
10 a.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv – Fulham vs. Bolton
10 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Blackburn vs. West Brom
10 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Wolverhampton vs. Stoke City
10 a.m. – ESPN3.com – Newcastle vs. Swansea City
12 p.m. – Fox Soccer Plus – Chievo Verona vs. Cagliari
12 p.m. – GOLTV – Sporting Gijon vs. Espanyol
12 p.m. – DirecTV – Mallorca vs. Getafe
12:30 p.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Wigan Athletic vs. Chelsea
12:30 p.m. – ESPN3.com – Schalke vs. Werder Bremen
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Brest vs. Auxerre
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Caen vs. Nancy
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Maresille vs. Lorient
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Nice vs. Valenciennes
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Dijon vs. St. Etienne
1 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Montpellier vs. Toulouse
2 p.m. – ESPN3.com – Athletic Bilbao vs. Real Zaragoza
2:45 p.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – AC Milan vs. Siena
2:45 p.m. – ESPN3.com – Fiorentina vs. Atalanta
3 p.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Lyon vs. Evian Thonon Gaillard
3:30 p.m. – ESPN3.com – Porto vs. Maritimo Funchal
4 p.m. – GOLTV – Sevilla vs. Real Madrid
SUNDAY
2:30 a.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Kashiwa Reysol vs. Al Sadd
5:30 a.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Barcelona vs. Santos
7 a.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv – Queens Park Rangers vs. Manchester United
8 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Portsmouth vs. Southampton
8:30 a.m. – ESPN3.com – Feyenoord vs. FC Twente
9 a.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Cesena vs. Inter Milan
9 a.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv – Aston Villa vs. Liverpool
9 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv/ESPN3.com – Juventus vs. Novara
10 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Tottenham vs. Sunderland
10 a.m. – DirecTV – Granada vs. Levante
11 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Ajaccio vs. Stade Rennes
11 a.m. – FoxSoccer.tv – Bordeaux vs. Sochaux
11:10 a.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Manchester City vs. Arsenal
11:30 a.m. – GOLTV – Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Mainz 05
12 p.m. – DirecTV – Osasuna vs. Villarreal
1:45 p.m. – ESPN3.com – Racing Santander vs. Real Sociedad
2:45 p.m. – Fox Soccer Channel – Napoli vs. Roma
2:45 p.m. – ESPN3.com – Lazio vs. Udinese
3 p.m. – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv – Paris St. Germain vs. Lille
3:30 p.m. – GOLTV – Valencia vs. Malaga
Fox Soccer is such a scam…
Agreed, it would be great to have it in the US.
They just awarded the next two Club World Cups to Morocco. Which makes sense as it’s right next to Europe, and a stone’s throw away from Spain specifically.
*…gladly take the money from these games
**Miami
***area
Are you serious? College football season is over, excluding the bowls, freeing up tons of stadiums… e.g. every stadium in the greater LA area. The same goes with Florida, where there are several large stadiums. In Miami alone you could play at either Sun Life or the Orange bowl, depending on which was free.
Also, NFL teams don’t own their stadiums. There are plenty of management teams that would gladly take the money from
Plus, only one match of the tournament, depending on the chosen area (likely in either CA or FL) would POTENTIALLY fall on an NFL home game (whether it was a Thursday or Sunday).
You can’t make an argument for the timing of games, either. Sun Life in Miami occasionally hosts the Hurricanes on Saturday and the Dolphins on Sunday. Big deal if there’s a soccer game around the time of a Dolphins game. Same thing in Tampa with USF and the Bucs.
In FL, the tourney could easily incorporate venues in Miama, Orlando and Tampa which are at most about 200 miles apart… that’s a pretty short plane ride.
Finally, there’s no rule that says this tourney has to be in a warm are. You think it’s warm right now in Japan? The highs in Yokohama look like the lows in LA right now. Furthermore, the highs in LA look like the lows in Miami.
Case in point: the U.S. could EASILY host the Club World Cup.
At 10 min in, Dempsey in the middle of an active offense. Both distributing and shots. Gotta get some on goal – and in goal
Um, where are you playing these games though. Show me an NFL team who wants to give up their stadium midseason for a soccer tournament. The tournament requires a large seater NFL type stadium. Also whose going to want to play this in the northeast come December so that means were looking at West Coast, Florida or Texas. LA Coliseum, out. HDC is too small, Dolphins are in season, Cowboys Stadium in use and has no natural grass. Its not just ticket sales, its stadium availability.
Is ManU always on Fox Soccer Plus these days? Seems like we’re paying enough on DirecTV to get the package with FSC …
Um… there are a ton of ex-pats in the U.S. Don’t think selling out games involving the likes of Barca, Santos, or Monterrey will be a problem.
2:30 AM an the left coast for Santos Barca – hell yes I’ll be watching.
I’ve gotta pull for the brash young underdogs of Santos. Hope they can muster some good defending.
This picture: proof that Messi plays at a different level than anyone else
They’ll show games with US players in them too, even if they’re not playing one of the big teams. Especially if it’s two teams with US players.
Japan was the original choice when it was called the Toyota World Club Cup, switched to the middle east for a couple of years, and now back to Japan under the FIFA CWC. To have it in the US would mean it would go up against NFL, NHL, and in a non lockout year, the NBA. Not to mention out of all the games in the tournament, the only one worth watching is the final. Don’t think you could sell fans in the US on some of those African/Middle East/Asian teams. The only way I could see this ever happening is if one of the MLS teams finally wins the CONCACAF Champions League.
Rose bowl and hd center as hosts… Or las vagas
Red Bull Arena? Are you serious? Try the Rose Bowl, New Giants Stadium, Reliant Stadium, etc. We could sell out the biggest venue we’ve got. Have you seen the crowds for the summer training tours? Think BIG man, BIG!
hacks
Wow, Messi really does play at a higher level than everyone else…
Would be nice, however with the weather, I would think they would have it in states with a warmer climate. Also bigger stadiums.
Red Bull Arena seems like a natural for the Club World Cup. Would have a packed house for every game regardless of teams because of the diversity of nationalities in the area.
Could not agree more… Great exposure for MLS with the home country team guaranteed participation.
I would love to see the United Sates host the FIFA club world cup. This tournament would be wonderful to have here, an our ability to host major sporting events has been lauded ad nauseum. Does anyone know how the host is decided upon?
division II american football still trumps epl in viewers for sat morning.
It’s more like, “Holy schnitzel, Batman! He levitates too?!”
Ditto.
Maybe Messi’s skin emits radioactive waste, those two defenders in the picture clearly have no interest in touching him. His success makes so much more sense now.
ESPN’s hypothesis seems to be that the general ESPN viewer won’t watch any PL clubs aside from ManU, Chelsea, Arsenal or L’pool. So, ESPN probably doesn’t think it’s worthwhile to broadcast on the flagship or deuce.
Newcastle/Swansea City would be a good match to test whether the hypothesis is valid.
Any reason why Newcastle/Swansea isn’t on ESPN2?