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Soccer Saturday: Your Running Commentary

BradFriedel (Getty)

Brad Friedel has started an English Premier League record 306 straight matches, but after Tottenham's acquisition of star French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris on Friday, that streak looks to be in jeopardy. Friedel will make it 307 starts in a row today as he leads Tottenham against Norwich City in what might be his final Premier League start for some time.

Tottenham took a step toward being the new favorite club of many American soccer fans after the acquisition of Clint Dempsey on Friday, but Dempsey won't play today since he did not transfer to Spurs in time to be eligible for today's match. Two Americans who will be in action are Geoff Cameron and Maurice Edu. Cameron is starting and Edu is on the bench for Stoke City today as they take on Wigan Athletic.

If you have been craving some women's soccer action since the Olympics, your wait is over as the U.S. Women's national team takes on Costa Rica in their first friendly since winning Olympic gold in London.

If you will be watching today's action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Today's TV schedule is after the jump):

TODAY'S SOCCER ON TV

9:30am- GolTV– Nuremberg vs. Borussia Dortmund

9:30am– beIN Sport 2- Werder Bremen vs. Hamburger SV

10am- FOX Soccer Channel– Tottenham vs. Norwich City

10am- FOX Soccer Plus– West Bromwich Albion vs. Everton

10am- FOX Soccer2go– Wigan Athletic vs. Stoke City

10am- FOX Soccer2go– Celtic vs. Hibernian

10 ambeIN Sport- Celta de Vigo vs. Osasuna

11am- Univision– Olympique Lyon vs. Valenciennes

Noon- beIN Sport– Torino vs. Pescara

12:30pm- FOX Soccer Channel– Manchester City vs. Queens Park Rangers

12:30pm- GolTV– Fortuna Dusseldorf vs. Borussia Moenchengladbach

2pm- Univision Deportes– Ajaccio vs. Evian TG

2:30pm- NBC– U.S. Women's National Team vs. Costa Rica

2:45pm- beIN Sport– Bologna vs. AC Milan

4:30pm- FOX Soccer Channel– Swansea City vs. Sunderland (tape delay)

6:30pm- beINSport– Sochaux vs. Montpellier

7:30pm- MLS Direct Kick– New England Revolution vs. Philadelphia Union

7:30pm- MLS Direct Kick– Columbus Crew vs. Montreal Impact

7:55pm- Telefutura– Santos Laguna vs. Tigres

8pm- FOX Soccer Channel– Tottenham vs. Norwich City (tape delay)

8pm- beIN Sport– Deportivo La Coruna vs. Getafe (tape delay)

8pm- Univision Deportes– Monterrey vs. Atlas 

8:30pm- MLS Direct Kick– Sporting Kansas City vs. Toronto FC

9pm- MLS Live/Direct Kick- Real Salt Lake vs. DC United

10pm- MLS Direct Kick– LA Galaxy vs. Vancouver Whitecaps

10pm- Univision Deportes– San Luis vs. Leon

Midnight- beIN Sport– Bastia vs. Saint Etienne (tape delay)

———-

 

Comments

  1. from what I can tell (and I didn’t watch the game), first goal was just a deflection which is really nobodys fault, second one saw Bogdan get destroyed on what should have been a foul against hull, and the third one actually was Tim’s fault as he got runaround and manhandled by Jay Simpson leading directly to the assist and goal. Yeesh.

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  2. AVB is a horrible coach. Idk what it is about this guy but these players just won’t play for him. Trying to make too many personnel changes when they’re just not needed. Screws up team chemistry and the player’s don’t buy into his system.

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  3. Howard had a terrible mistake for the 2nd West Brom goal. Off a corner, the Baggies have him blocked off at about middle, cross comes in the the frontpost, Howard can’t get around the man, oncoming Baggie knocks it in unmarked (that’s obviously not Howard’s fault) only about a yard or 2 from Tim.

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  4. Twas a clean challenge. All ball. Pull his legs back after making contact. If anything it should have been a foul on the Norwich player, as he made contact with Huddlestone without winning the ball

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  5. Instead of trying to trade him, you might as well just cut Huddlestone and take the financial loss if that’s how he’s going to play. What the **** was that.

    Nightmare finish for Tottenham.

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  6. The karma for trashing Dempsey was a convincing win. After Jol backtracked a little and defended Dempsey against the fans, Fulham got a close loss to Man U. Now that they moved Dempsey as was his wish they lost and looked poor. Clearly Fulham should have continued to leave Clint out of the squad and said lots of bad thing about him!

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  7. Yeah, it was a tough red, more due to risk of the tackle as opposed to the result. Not unjustified, just right at the border of red and yellow. In real time it looked horrible.

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  8. Hey Biff, you always have a lot of good info and commentary about the game. On this topic, though, you’re wearing it a little thin. It was a tough transfer negotiation and BOTH sides used leverage to get the best result.

    You’re on the board enough to know that Kevin_Arnold and GW (and me) are also on the board enough to know your position on Jol.

    So my thinking is that maybe you want to let it go for now. We ALL know your position and agree or disagree, the story is kinda over. Make sense?

    Cheers!

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  9. Also, things you never thought you’d hear…

    3 games into the season the top 4 are Chelsea, West Brom, West Ham and Swansea City.

    I mean they will all finish the season 20-30 points out of first place, but it’s fun to see early standing.

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  10. Two games into the season Hoffenheim, which talked of winning a Europa League slot this season, is falling apart, lost 4-0 to Eintracht Franfkurt at home, had two men sent off on yellow-red cards. Hoffenheim is now last place in the Bundesliga, and that comes after getting whipped by a regional league team in the DFB Pokal two weeks ago. Coach Markus Babel has be sweating for his job. One more loss and he might be gone. Two more and no question he will be yanked. Only positive for a USMNT fan is that Babel pulled DM Sebastian Rudy at half-time for Danny Williams. For some reason Babel has preferred Rudy to Williams and I just don’t see it. I think Williams is better.

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  11. Wow does Tottenham look horrible. I had to endure AVB trying to reinvent Chelsea last year to disastrous effect. At least when he is doing it to Spurs, it’s funny. 🙂 To me at least.

    EDIT: I was hitting enter when Dembele scored. Figures. My remarks stand.

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  12. I watched a large chunk of that match and Clint’s old team looked shell-shocked, didn’t put out much effort and not much fighting spirit at all. I imagine there is more than just a bit of envy at seeing their two best teammates move to top-level club at huge salaries, plus it has to be discouraging to be playing for a coach like Martin Jol who brutally attacked Clint in an attempt to destroy his reputation after all of the loyal service Clint gave the club for more than five years. I bet some of the players are ashamed that they did not stand up for Clint. And Clint in his statement last night thanking the Fulham chairman and the Fulham fans was pure class, unlike Jol and Fulham management and Fulham fans. And today we have fans who after weeks of mercilessly attacking Clint on this board are now asking Clint’s many supporters to just move on and “cease” being angry.

    So, after all that, my point is that I agree it appears Jol has brought in some good players. But his treatment of Clint, I think, has left the team shocked and I bet there are some who would like to follow the more than half a dozen players who have left in the past few months out the door. So it remains to be seen what Jol can do with the team. I will say that Berbatov has some nice moments today.

    “Ask yourself? Why is everyone leaving or want to leave??? Hhmm”

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  13. Probably could have been more clear, but I was referring to the international break. If he was available today, I imagine AVB would have already sent him to warm up along side Dembele.

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  14. This is true. Tottenham do not look impressive offensively. The silver lining is that this shows just how important Clint can be to the team. I am a little bit concerned about Villas-Boas, whether he has what it takes to coach in the PL. But he says he learned his lessons at Chelsea and will not make same mistakes twice. Got my fingers crossed.

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  15. Spurs not impressive that half. WHL getting restless. Friedel made an amazing save on 42 minutes.

    Dembele will be on soon after half it seems. Spurs lacking any creativity in the middle with the current set. I think they’ll regret not giving Moutinho the extra thousands/week that he wanted.

    With nobody else appearing a goal threat, imagine AVB will want a quick look at Dempsey after the break.

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  16. ah, thanks. At one point it looked like he was at CB, but too good to be true. I suppose it’s good he does well wherever they put him.

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  17. Started at right central mid in a flat four, moved to right fullback when their starter went out injured. Charlie Adam filled the RCM spot.

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  18. I wish we had more players at Wigan. Seriously. Roberto Martinez seems like the real EPL (presented by Barclay’s bank) moneyball when you look at their wages vs. table position, and they play a pretty decent style.
    Better than sending them off to Stoke City Academy for Gladiatorial Combat.

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  19. Lost in all this Dempsey flash mob is the fact that Fulham have assembled a pretty interesting side. Jol was Berbatov’s manager when Berbs was starring at Spurs.

    Jol is a very good coach as the Spurs fans ironically enough, will tell you and it will be interesting to see what he makes of all these new pieces.

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  20. Ok, so Dempsey moved, Fulham got stuffed, now hopefully the lust for Fulham blood will cease among that portion of the commentariot that accused the club of lacking respect for Dempsey.

    I defended Fulham’s back line here yesterday, and of course they had to make me look awful today. However, they have had a busy week and they always struggle against West Ham. Always. So I’ll stand by my defense of them for now, confident the Whites will come good as things become more settled.

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