Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By JUSTIN FERGUSON
After what has felt like three long months for many fans, the English Premier League is back in action with seven matches on this first Saturday of the season.
Liverpool and Stoke City will kick the 2013-14 schedule off with an early match at historic Anfield. Reds manager Brendan Rodgers will still be without star striker Luis Suarez, but he still will have several quality attacking options to choose from, including Daniel Sturridge, Philippe Coutinho and new signing Iago Aspas. His opposition, manager Mark Hughes, will look to start his Stoke tenure off with a quality result away from home.
A battle between Arsenal and Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium highlights the second round of Saturday EPL matches. A banged-up Arsenal squad will try to defend their home turf against an Aston Villa side that is led by breakout striker Christian Benteke.
The first EPL Saturday will close with Manchester United’s road trip to Swansea City, which will be nationally televised on NBC here in the States. It is the start of a new era for the defending league champions, who will be under the direction of David Moyes after the retirement of legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
In matches outside of England, Bayern Munich hit the road to face an Eintracht Frankfurt squad that is still stinging from last weekend’s 6-1 loss to Hertha Berlin in Bundesliga play. Meanwhile, two clubs that narrowly missed Champions League qualification, Valencia and Malaga, help kick off the La Liga calendar with a match at the Mestalla.
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):
7:45am – NBC Sports Network – Liverpool vs Stoke City
9:30am – GolTV – Eintracht Frankfurt vs Bayern München
10am – NBC Sports Network – Arsenal vs Aston Villa
12:30pm – NBC – Swansea City vs Manchester United
12:30pm – GolTV – Borussia M’gladbach vs Hannover 96
1pm – beIN Sport en Español – Real Sociedad vs Getafe
2pm – Univision Deportes – Nice vs Rennes
2pm – beIN Sport – Toulouse vs Bordeaux
3pm – beIN Sport en Español – Real Valladolid vs Athletic Bilbao
5pm – beIN Sport en Español – Valencia vs Málaga
5:30pm – ESPN Deportes – Cruzeiro vs Vitória
6pm – Univision Deportes – Veracruz vs Querétaro
6pm – Univision – Cruz Azul vs Atlante
7pm – MLS Direct Kick – Montreal Impact vs DC United
7:30pm – MLS Direct Kick – New England vs Chicago Fire
7:30pm – MLS Direct Kick – Columbus Crew vs Toronto FC
8pm – NBC Sports Network – New York Red Bulls vs Philadelphia Union
8pm – UniMás – Monterrey vs Tijuana
8pm – Univision Deportes – Pachuca vs América
9pm – MLS Direct Kick – Houston Dynamo vs Seattle Sounders
9:30pm – MLS Direct Kick – Colorado Rapids vs Vancouver Whitecaps
10pm – Univision Deportes – Chiapas vs Toluca
10:30pm – MLS Direct Kick – Los Angeles Galaxy vs Real Salt Lake
11pm – MLS Direct Kick – Portland Timbers vs FC Dallas
Great stop by Guzan and Benteke is a beast!
Loaded accusation here, but this Arsenal match looks fixed. It’s one sided officiating to a point of unbelievable decisions.
He should be disciplined for that first half decision of playing advantage and then allowing another player to shoot on the empty net and then awarding a penalty after the miss.
Hahaha Arsenal, I love the look on Wenger’s face. Go Villa!
You love bad officiating that affects games?
No, just don’t like Wenger…
Anthony Taylor doing an excellent job of ruining the start of my weekend. Good god he’s been awful.
WOW!
THIS REFEREE!!!!
Terrible officiating…. It’s like this game is fixed
Wow.
This referee has completely destroyed this match. Awful decision.
64′ Jozy just misses!
Oh what the heck is this. Awful decision. Benteke buries it
Jozy has honestly been Sunderland’s best player today. Held the ball up and brought teammates into the attack beautiful, drawing fouls. Now if he could just get a goal, it would cap a nice debut for him.
While Jozy has played well, I think objectively Johnson has been the best player for Sunderland, he has been all over the place offensively and defensively.
That isn’t what objectively means.
in his context, it works. since we are American, we are biased towards Jozy. but objectively, KC is saying Johnson has been the best…not Jozy. subjectively, Jozy.
Jozy’s passing is so much better nowadays.
And he almost gets a goal. Maybe his teammates will see that he can create opportunities if they get him the ball.
Another good pass and wins a corner.
He has been really good. Jozy just can’t get a break. That ball just bounced away from him. He was onside right where he needed to be.
I’m pretty sure that is Cabral’s fourth shot outside the box.
Maybe Jozy showed him tapes of M Bradley…
It’s like nobody at Sunderland watched Jozy at AZ or for the US Squad. Quit playing him up as a target forward.
He’s drawing fouls, now.
Jozy’s been good. Rest of the team? Not so much.
Sunderland knows there isn’t a three point line in football, right?
Haha perfect analysis of their offense, the Duke of the EPl so far
Jozy’s not getting good service or involvement.
The other forward with Jozy..Cabral? Is not a god fit, this guy shoots every time he gets the ball.imo they need a player like Clint who is both a playmaker and a scorer.
I don’t know why Cabral is shooting at all — he’s a defensive midfielder!
Lol. dude played most of the game in the attacking 3rd if we are talking about the same guy
lol I know. Well he’s new to the team, too. Probably trying to make his case.
Dang, he just took another shot over the bar!
I think it may be Sessegnon and Johnson taking most of the shots. They were a big part of the team last year.
lol how in the world is that a yellow on the Villa player? Chamberlain gets beat to the ball, goes to ground and studs the Villa defender in the mid section while sliding… and the Villa player get carded.
Mind boggling decisions from this guy so far.
Sunderland dominating, but not able to get the ball to Jozy at all so far.
Jozy got a near-post ball at 31:30 but couldn’t finish. In his defense, there were two guys on him.
That was NOT a clear cut scoring opportunity. Hangeland was draped all over him and impeded his access to the ball
Any hints where to watch Suderland gm?
http://bliner.tv/viasatsportsweden.html
Good picture if you don’t mind Swedish
al the games are on watch nbc live:
http://stream.nbcsports.com/liveextra/
towards the bottom half
If you have cable and a subscription.
On my cable it’s on an ALT channel. But from my perspective you must mean the Fulham match.
I’ve seen that header rebound from a penalty on fifa like a hundred times, and every time I think about how unrealistic it is. I guess I was wrong.
Wow…
Where to start with that?
First off–immediate penalty and red card. That’s not debatable. Second off–you cannot let the other Villa player shoot and then award the penalty after he misses. That’s not how playing advantage works.
So to play advantage and let the Villa player miss an open net, and then go back and give only a yellow card and then award the penalty on top?
Atrocious officiating.
Yea, whats up with that?
It is MLS what do you expect… oh wait.
from a distance SUN v FUL kits look like Revs vs ChivasUSA
Jozy wins a free kick.
So far Jozy’s not getting service.
31:42 Jozy got near post service and wiffed.
Wouldn’t describe it as a whiff at all. Ball was about chest high off the bounce. Jozy flung his leg at a full run but it was out of his reach.
I would not call that a wiff at all. He just could not each it; maybe if his legs were a foot longer. Jozy did very well today.
Geoff Cameron generally looked very good today as right back for Stoke. IMO, if he locks down RB for Stoke then this should be his preferred position for the USMNT.
Stoke looked decent today under Hughes against tough Liverpool. I might be able to start to like this team.
And I am basing that on his play in the 2nd half. did not see the 1st half.
He looked good in the second half. In the first half? Not so much.
I don’t agree. I watched the whole game. Cameron looked good as RB in both halves against Liverpool. In form he’s a very solid defensive RB. He’s just not aggressive in the attack. But he’s faster, stronger, and a better tackler than say, Brad Evans.
The right back under JK is more of a withdrawn winger. Cameron can do a serviceable job there but Evans is better at what JK wants to accomplish with the position.
Geoff would be great if you were going to put ten men behind the ball and go all out defensive. And that may happen. JK is no stranger to using four center backs at the same time.
But JK’s current preferred posture is offensive not defensive.
You all asked for an offensive team so you will have to give up some defense to get more offense.
if you’re in NYC and have time warner Jozy is on 391
and got a nice early shot off, winning the corner.
oh, nice. Thanks!
I actually cancelled Time Warner and am switching to Verizon starting tomorrow (earliest I could get Verizon here) because Time Warner doesn’t support live extra for some reason. Didn’t realize they’d still have other channels on cable (but I do still want live extra for streaming through apple tv)
Jozy sighting!
Weird seeing him in mackem colors (as a NUFC fan), but great to see him starting in his first Premier League match!
I rather like the colors….
Forgot about Hull . . . Oops
Fabian Johnson starts and Hoffenheim up 1-0 early against Hamburg
Fabian starting today his strongest position. No, not left midfield and got the assist on the goal. Folks, Fabian is a left back.
(USMNT player Michael Parkhurst for the second week in a row has not made the game-day roster.)
Mignolet did his job, thankfully.
Jeez Luis how do you miss that penalty Cameron should have taken it.
What the hell was Agger doing, thinking? And how about Mignolet coming up huge on the penalty kick save.
So BBC just showed Joe Walters last five penalty kicks went to the right side. Who would have thought that his sixth shot would go to the right side? Regardless, nice save by the Liverpool goalie.
LMAO
Even if everyone knew where he was shooting, he should still have made it.
What a save!
Jozy starting today. Hopefully he can open his account and keep his form going
O/T but what shows are you guys fans of
Game of Thrones? Boardwalk Empire? The Wire? True Blood? Community? It’s always sunny in philadelphia? Homeland? Mad Men? The Walking Dead? The Killing? The Bridge?
Game of Thrones. Breaking Bad. I have a soft spot for Adventure Time because of my nieces and nephews, plus the fact that I’m a kid at heart. At the top of my personal list is The Americans. Loved the first season!
Dear GOD please let Jozy score a brace. Once he scores he can get the pressure/monkey off his back. we need him to score 15 league goals this season
Boyd was injured without even playing for the NT? That dude won’t be in Brazil. remember when people claimed he was a “great striker”
it’s a dislocated shoulder dude…
so the older comments are lower on the page? Kinda weird. to see newer comments at the top
what channel is the Sunderland/Fulham match on?
If you have Directv it’s on 492 in HD, with another three live HD broadcasts in the 490s. I’m liking the new NBC deal more and more.
I love Liverpool but waking up at 4:45 to catch a game is really draining on me
what about Jozy’s hat trick against Bosnia on wednesday
20 goals in 61 matches for the NT and he’s only 23. Plus he has 5 assists. Not bad lads
He should hit 25 goals by seasons end and perhaps be on 30 goals after the WC. He is gonna be our top scorer for the NT. you betting against him?
Ok, if posting the most RECENT comment on top of the thread makes sense, why isn’t the “Leave a Reply” box the very first thing we see on the comment thread? No, you have to scroll to the very bottom, away from the most recent comments in order to leave the comment.
If posting the most recent comment at the top of a thread makes sense, why aren’t the replies to a comment posted ABOVE the comment? The replies all fall UNDER the original comment with the most recent reply on the BOTTOM. Please return to what makes sense and put the most recent comments at the bottom, just like all the replies to a comment fall to the bottom. At the very least give us a choice like many websites do, I know I always prefer most recent on bottom…
Agreed. Doesn’t make sense to have to scroll to the bottom then work your way up
Agreed!
best striker of the past decade?
choose between
world
Ibrahimovic? Rooney? RvP? Villa? Van Nistlerooy? Torres? Eto’o? Drogba? Falcao? Cavani? Suarez? Forlan? McBride?
Charlie Davies.
I’m not sure who could be considered the best of the past ten years, but I know which two I would employ right now.
I would put Ibrahimovic, and Suarez the forward positions.
I’m as big a USA booster as you’ll find. I’ve attended USA matches at Cups in Italy, France and Germany, not to mention numerous qualifiers, Gold Cup matches and friendlies in the lower 48. A reasonable list of the best strikers would likely have to be hundreds of players long before you get to McBride.
messi
Eto’o
Wondowlowski
come on stoke tie it up
Go United Stokes!
This NBC Sports app is pretty cool. It’s certainly better than Fox2go. I think NBC is gonna be leaps and bounds above what Fox was doing. I really wish they would’ve gotten the future World Cups
It already is. On Directv I can watch any match I want live in HD (extra matches are in the 490 channels). No more waiting until 5PM for delayed SD broadcasts on Fox Soccer Plus for $15/month.
West ham over Cardiff
Sunderland over Fulham
Everton over Norwich
West Brom over Southhampton
Arsenal DRAW Aston Villa
Manchester United over Swansea
Liverpool over Stoke City
Tomorrow:
Tottenham over Crystal Palace
Chelsea over Hull City
Monday:
Manchester City DRAW Newcastle
Terrence Boyd is out with a separated shoulder. Should miss about 3 weeks:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=573710196004519&set=a.187123327996543.36262.139208599454683&type=1
Hmmmm. Interesting. The message says he was injured while on USMNT duty. Was this reported by US Soccer and how did it happen? Was Terrence on the bench for the Bosnia-H game?
I thought I remember seeing him warming up during the second half, so this is strange news.
True. He was tweeting out pics and a video yesterday. He sent out a pic with Jozy from after the match…
No sling, no brace. It could have been minor and aggravated when he got home, but you’re right that it seems odd.
Anyone know where Cameron started for Stoke vs Liverpool?
Right back
Watching the match. Looks like RB, but Cameron has overlapped a fair bit with Stoke RM. Cameron looks pretty good at RB today. Liverpool looks fast and technical but weak on set pieces. I support Liverpool (after the USMNT, of course).
He has been pretty good at fullback. I just wish that he wasn’t so tentative dribbling forward. A couple of times he could’ve dribbled right into the LFC’s 18 yard box and might’ve made something happen. Though I understand it is the first match of the season. Defensively he has been good.
Agreed, he’s definitely not an aggressive attacker.
seems to be very steady so far. He has made a couple of nice takcles and has been an outlet at times for Stoke. If he gets regular time at RB, that could be a nice turn of events for the NATS. (although Evans really acquitted himself pretty well the other night)
Cameron could have another solid season in tackles. He makes tackling look easy at times. He is comfortable at this level, and When Stoke met Liverpool last season, when he was green to Barclays, he handled defending Sterling, and Suarez with relative ease. It looks like he is starting off good again. I think that when he is in form, the RB spot could be his, if he continues to play that position in the top flight. The thing that I really like about Cameron is that he can comfortably slide into the midfield as well.
Interesting article about Di Canio’s rules at Sunderland.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/sunderland/10248151/Sunderland-manager-Paolo-Di-Canio-bans-mobiles-ketchup-mayonnaise-ice-in-coke-and-singing.html
In pregame calisthentics he’s found it works best to stretch only the right arm.
haha well played
COYW!!!! Up the Fulham!!!! Sorry Jozy, two games a year you can’t score on. Fulham home and Fulham away. Um ooon Ful um!!!
With all due respect, have not yet forgotten Martin Jol’s untruths concerning Clint last year and the way the Fulahm fans treated Clint and hoping that Jozy’s give payback for the USMNT captain and Sunderland takes three points. I will take great pleasure each time Fulham loses this season as long as Jol is coach.
It’s all about Clint with you.
Fulham fans venerate(d) him and McBride. If there’s a break in that it’s his choice.
Heres to Sunderland, Stoke, whatever team Suarez is on and our yanks abroad!!!
Yes, yes, oh God no, and yes.
I’m usually a lover not a biter but in his case I’ll make an exception lmao
YNWA
What does that mean?
You’ll Never Walk Alone. Come On You Reds!!!!
LMAO… Will Luis Suarez always be welcomed as a Red? 🙂
Goal!!!!
Daniel Sturridge looks very focused. Great nutmeg goal. Liverpool in general looks very crisp with Coutinho, Aspas, and Sturridge combining.
Damn I’m at work can’t wait for 7 oclock am Pacific to Check out the Big Games. EPL on national T.V. Who would have thought?