Photo by ISIPhotos.com
A season that started off poorly has continued for Liverpool, who sit fourteen points behind first-place Manchester United nine games into the season. First year head coach Brendan Rodgers certainly did not see his tenure starting off this way, as The Reds will play host to Newcastle United, which currently sits in 10th place with thirteen points.
Another club off to a poor start is Palermo, which has just one win on the season, and is currently tied for the final spot in relegation amongst the Serie A standings. In order to begin turning their season around, they will have to be up to the challenge of traveling to Rome to take on AS Roma, which could feature American Michael Bradley in the starting lineup today.
Meanwhile, stateside, the MLS playoffs continue, as two conference semi-final matchups take place. Firstly, Sporting Kansas City will travel to BBVA Compass Stadium to take on the Houston Dynamo. Later tonight, defending MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy will play host to the Supporters’ Shield winners, the San Jose Earthquakes.
If you will be watching today’s soccer 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
7:30am- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Braintree Town vs. Tranmere Rovers
7;45am- Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer2Go.com- Dundee United vs. Celtic
8am- Univision Deportes- Ajaccio vs. Olympique Marseille
8:30am- Fox Soccer Channel- Queens Park Rangers vs. Reading
8:30am- ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes- FC Twente vs. Feyenoord
9am- bein Sport Espanol- Catania vs. Lazio
9am- beIN Sport- Napoli vs. Torino
9:30am- GolTV- Bayer Leverkusen vs. Fortuna Dusseldorf
10am- Fox Soccer Plus- Gloucester City vs. Leyton Orient
11am- Fox Soccer Channel- Liverpool vs. Newcastle United
11am- bein Sport- Olympique Lyon vs. Bastia
11:30am- FoxSoccer2Go.com- Dorchester Town vs. Plymouth Argyle
11:30am- GolTV- Werder Bremen vs. Mainz 05
1pm- beIN Sport en Espanol- Deportivo La Coruna vs. Mallorca (Delayed)
1pm- beIN Sport- Catania vs. Lazio (Delayed)
1:45pm- beIN Sport en Espanol- Granada vs. Athletic Bilbao
2:45pm- beIN Sport- Roma vs. Palermo
3:30pm- beIN Sport en Espanol- Sevilla vs. Levante
3:30pm- NBC- Houston Dynamo vs. Sporting Kansas City
5pm- beIN Sport- Sevilla vs. Levante (Delayed)
7pm- beIN Sport- Ajaccio vs. Olympique Marseille
9pm- ESPN- Los Angeles Galaxy vs. San Jose Earthquakes
NY Giants game is packed. Hm
What was that awful music Houston played when the teams walked out?!
MB90 looking absolutely solid for Roma today.
Yes, very good. Broke up a couple plays so clean and started the counter. Unlucky to miss out on a hockey assist. Roma dominating. They are a really, really good side. There’s a dude on Palermo wearing, I kid you not, a cafeteria lunch lady hair net. He looks ridiculous.
Bradley starting for Roma! Yeah boi!
played a very nice first half along with all of Roma.
Red seems harsh for Coloccini foul on Suarez. Definite yellow though.
I wouldn’t have had as much problem with it if the referee wasn’t letting Liverpool players off all game for going through the ball and catching the leg of a Newcastle player without a card.
Straight red, no question.
I think there is plenty of room to question it since he, you know, didn’t make any contact at all.
That ability to take that ball down on his choulder (chest + shoulder) while the ball is played over his back is amazing. That goal was special.
Superb control while in full stride. Liverpool has had a mediocre (maybe crap) season do far, and potentially would be disastrous without Suarez.
*…so far…*
Love or hate him (I think most people hate; I’m not one though), Suarez sure is skillful. His touches are so sharp.
Suarez is a damn good footballer. I cannot hate him.
I enjoy watching him play, warts and all. the guy’s a top shelp competitor, his best quality imo, and why Iike him
Suarez deserves hate and I hate him.
How is it possible for Suarez to be good? According to Klinsi, the Eridivisie isn’t a good league. How do they produce so many great strikers?
LMAO sprinkler malfunction at Anfield soaking home fans at half time. When it rains…..?
Alright folks, call it in the air: who wins today, Houston or SKC? LA or SJ?
Its hard to bet against Houston at home, especially in the post season. So I will say Houston wins a tense one 1-0 I hope I’m wrong, cuz I want SKC to do well in the cup.
LA SHOULD hold their own at home against SJ, but both team’s defenses are suspect. I think SJ can pull out the upset tho. I’ll go 2-1 for SJ away.
I think your right about the KC/Houston game. Having said that I think KC moves on in that series.
I’m a Quakes fan (please no Lenny jokes) and I know lot of Quakes fans don’t want to admit it but I’m scared to death of this series. I know the Quakes have gone 2-0-1 against LA this year but LA has so many weapons. True their D is a little suspect but I think too many folks are overlooking the Galaxy this post season.
Having said that I say LA pulls out a 3-2 win tonight…..next Wed at Buck Shaw will be epic! (No prediction on that game yet).
I am a LAG fan and am scared of this series. So there.
Goonies Must Die… LA 1-0 SJ.
Daaaayyyyuuummmmm. Nice goal Cabaye.
At least this ‘Pool – New Castle game is fairly entertaining. Not a whole lot of actual chances to talk about, but it’s still had decent amount of attacking flair.
Surprised to hear Sterling has the opportunity to play for Jamaica. I think he should. Cuz that’d be awesome to have someone of his skill set in our region. I know there’s more notoriety playing for England. But I think it’d be cool to see Sterlng v USA regularly.
Jamaica is in all-out recruitment mode ahead of the hex. Can’t blame them.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Jamaica_seeking_to_recruit_nine_England-based_players-176525991.html?m=y&smobile=y
I think it would be great for our region if Jamaica could land even a couple of those guys. Besides the USA and Mexico, I would love to see Jamaica be the other team to make it to the world cup. That’d be awesome.
Nice find on that article. Of course I’d be absolutely shocked to see Sterling in a Jamaica jersey, but some of those others seem like they are genuinely interested.
I know some will find it adding to the “mercenary” aspect of soccer, but I think it’d be good for the region, and ultimately couldn’t fault someone like Beckford realizing this is likely his last/only chance at international level soccer and potentially playing in a World Cup
There are a lot of top players with ties to the CONCACAF. Of course, some obvious examples are Giuseppe Rossi and Owen Hargreaves. But there are several English and French players have parents from the Caribbean, including Thierry Henry, Ashley Cole, and William Gallas. Theo Walcott’s paternal grandparents are Jamaican. Both of Jermaine Defoe’s parents are from the Caribbean. So lots of players who could theoretically play for CONCACAF – unfortunately we’re not likely to draw the top talent anytime soon. Probably good for our qualifying chances, anyway.
I hear ya on easier qualifying, but part of me wants to see the best possible talent playing for our rivals. I think overall it would be best for our region and our US team specifically. For obvious reasons. But I’ll even argue that the USMNT plays BETTER against better opposition and worse against lesser competition.
In other words, USA seems to have the “competition level syndrome.” Playing better against better teams and worse against lesser teams.
So if maybe all the teams in our regions are better, we will play better in general.
WAAAY off topic, but I was watching highlights of Neymar’s recent hat trick this morning and man he’s electric. He’s still only 20! My question is, has he committed to a European team yet? Barca? Madrid? Or is that still up in the air? I can’t wait to see him week in and week out playing in league and cup play.
he’ll join 1 of them, you just know it. probably after the WC
I have this feeling Jozy is leaving Alkmaar by season’s end.
Interesting. Can elaborate on the feeling? What makes you thing Jozy is going?
AZ bought him to develop and then sell him.
If his year continues to go well that would make two in a row.
My guess is that his value then would be at an all-time high and AZ would not risk Jozy having a subpar third year. I would think they would want to sell him in January as the prices are usually inflated then.
But I think his contract runs until summer of 2015, and I was wondering whether yikes had any particular reason why he thought Jozy might be going this summer (or in January), because some have said they think he will stay until summer of 2014 and transfer before his last year.
That Luis Suarez is 1 heck of a striker. He gets like 4-6 scoring chances a game. If he scored at least half of those he’d be the best striker around
And AZ goes down in remarkable fashion with a last second goal.
Can’t wait to see which MLS player assaults the referee tonight!!
Can we say, “which player ‘Najars’ the referee tonight.”
AZ dominating but unable to break through. VVV taking away Jozy and forcing others to beat them. Guys like Beerens have tons of space but unable to finish. As announcer says, every time Jozy touches the ball, he’s surrounded by blue shirts. He has drawn a couple corners and a dangerous free kick, but is otherwise unable to do much. he will have to pull off something special to score today.
Somewhat of a positive, then, that VVV (best name ever) see our striker as worthy of such coverage.
Jozy stunk today. The announcers were calling him out for his wooden touches throughout the second half.
Def not a good game, but maybe you are overstating. Jozy hardly had any touches today. I only recall one time the announcers commented on his touch and it was essentially saying he made a great first touch and a poor second.