Defending Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund’s match with surprising fourth-place side Eintracht Frankfurt headlines Saturday’s action in the world of soccer.
After dispatching Bayer Leverkusen to gain control of second place in the league two weeks ago, Dortmund slipped last weekend 4-1 to Hamburg. Frankfurt took advantage of the stumble and moved to just two points back from the champions in the league table. A road upset of Dortmund could cement last year’s 2. Bundesliga runners-up spot in next year’s Champions League. Dortmund will have to fight off Frankfurt’s upset bid without striker Robert Lewandowski, who was suspended for the next three Bundesliga matches for his red card against Hamburg.
Meanwhile, the Fifth Round of this season’s FA Cup will begin with fifth-tier Luton Town hosting the Championship’s Millwall. Later, Arsenal will continue the quest to break the eight-season trophy drought when Blackburn Rovers visit the Emirates Stadium. That match will be followed by fellow Premier League side Everton’s battle with Oldham Athletic.
In La Liga, Barcelona will host Granada in the club’s final match before its meeting with AC Milan on Wednesday. That match will be preceded by fourth-place Malaga’s match with struggling Athletic Bilbao.
The spotlight match in Italy on Saturday will be AS Roma vs. Juventus in the capital. Serie A leader Juve is riding high after the 3-0 win over Celtic on Wednesday while AS Roma is in the midst of a six-game winless skid.
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):
SATURDAY’S TV SCHEDULE
7:45am – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer2Go.com – Luton Town vs. Millwall
9:30am – GolTV – Bayer Leverkusen vs. FC Augsburg
10am – Fox Soccer Channel – Arsenal vs. Blackburn Rovers
10am – Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer2Go.com – Milton Keynes Dons vs. Barnsley
10am- beIN Sport- Crystal Palace vs. Middlesborough
10am – beIN Sport en Español – Getafe vs. Celta Vigo
12pm – beIN Sport – Chievo Verona vs. Palermo
12pm – beIN Sport en Español – Malaga vs. Athletic Bilbao
12:30pm – GolTV – Borussia Dortmund vs. Eintracht Frankfurt
1pm – Fox Soccer Channel – Oldham Athletic vs. Everton
2pm – beIN Sport – Granada vs. Barcelona
2:45pm – beIN Sport en Español – AS Roma vs. Juventus
6pm – Univision – América vs. Toluca
8pm – Univision Deportes – Pachuca vs. Cruz Azul
8pm – UniMás – U.A.N.L. vs. Santos
9pm – Telemundo – León vs. San Luis
10pm – Univision Deportes – Atlas vs. Monterrey
Roma with the win!
Bradley on!
No Bradley so far. This sucks
MB90 not in the starting 11, bad sign under the new skipper?
Well, de Rossi just got a yellow and will miss next match for accumulation, so there ya go.
Curious, but do you call him MB90 because you still believe that he doesn’t deserve his minutes, to remind us of the nepotism arguments, or because you now believe that he deserves to always go 90 min?
Hate to see that happen against Howard, but you gotta love the FA Cup!
altidore just scored on a nice turn and a clinical finish
Goal sequence begins at 0:08 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxk4zo_roda-az-alkmaar-all_sport
Blackburn’s coach bears a striking resemblence to Bob Bradley.
Wenger looks like the “cigerette man” from the x-files.
Thats the extent of my analysis.
awesome. Who needs more?
Never said it was insightful.
And Arsenal are about to lose to Blackburn.
image of the match for me was Wenger up and yelling at the fourth official after a 50-50 ball resulted in an Aresenal foul at mid field, wagging his finger. Poor Gervinho. Big miss today, would have changed the game
Didier Drogba’s first goal for Galatasaray. He will be playing against Jermaine Jones and Schalke next week in the Champion’s League.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyV6gOkIYBQ
Parkhurst defending okay in first start with FCA, but as he makes runs forward down the right, his distribution is poor.
If arsenal could score on 1 of these 135 corners that would be great
Brilliant gameplan by Blackburn.
Flawless, honestly. We can neither take them well or finish them well
If you’re gonna give up chances might as well give them to Gervinho
Come on Rovers.
Ready for Stue and Shea to start playing. I have big hopes !
No Stu on the gameday roster for Bolton.
I said it before and I’ll say it again – all those people hyping and predicting a March qualifier return for Stu to the USMNT were out of their minds.
Plenty of time for Gold Cup, not enough for March.
Gold Cup will be the opportunity if he can prove he can stay healthy. I hope he does
Parkhurst got the start for Augsburg.
According to Soccernet, Ronny Philp (whom Parkhurst replaced last week) is out for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury.
Yes, Philp is out for the season after a bad tackle last week from Junior Diaz, who most likely will be playing for Costa Rica next month against the USMNT. Here is the video of the tackle. Parkhurst needs to have a good game today, otherwise a chance he will not be starting next week as there is another right back right behind him.
Diaz tackle at the 3:08 mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CbkGfFosn8
Woot! Alfredo Morales got the start!
Played pretty well in the midfield, created chances and got back to break up attacks, a lot of energy and had a really good touch.
thanks for the report. I dig this kid’s game. He can tackle well, physical and good positioning typically in all games I’ve seen him play. Responsible player in those games too, love those guys. And he has skills with the ball too
+1
I like his overall game…plus he has a bit of an edge to him, which I wholeheartedly endorse.
Good to see. I’d been wondering why he wasn’t even getting garbage minutes for a while.
I didn’t have much to judge him on other than his appearance against Mexico’s U23s, but he looked damn good in that match. He didn’t look too bad against Canada, either, but nobody around him was doing much and some of his thru passes–while placed well–had a little too much oomph on them. JK seemed to have confidence in him, bringing him in despite the lack of PT but having had him in camp before. Must mean something.