Top Stories

Soccer Sunday: Your Running Commentary

Gylfi Sigurdsson of Tottenham Hotspur and Pablo Zabaleta of Manchester City

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

A matchup between two English Premier League powers on the outside looking in at the early-season title race highlights this Soccer Sunday.

Eighth-place Manchester City host seventh-place Tottenham Hotspur at Ethiad Stadium in a matchup between City’s high-powered offense and Spurs’ stingy defense. Both sides fell to Tyneside clubs in their last match, and a win today could catapult one of these teams back into the top four.

Manchester United will look to keep their momentum going in the other EPL match of the day, a visit to Cardiff City. Rivals Man City lost at Cardiff City Stadium earlier this year, and the Red Devils will look to avoid a letdown following their win against league-leading Arsenal before the international break.

Other notable European matches include Juventus’ trip to Livorno and AS Monaco’s match at Nantes. The day of action outside the U.S. will end in Mexico with two high-profile quarterfinal matches in the Liga MX Apertura playoffs.

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):

6am – Levante vs. Villarreal – beIN Sport Play

8am – Lille vs. Toulouse – beIN Sport Play/Univision Deportes

8:30am – Manchester City vs. Tottenham – NBC Sports Network/Mun2/NBC Sports Live Extra

9am – Livorno vs. Juventus – beIN Sport USA/beIN Sport Play

9am – Udinese vs. Fiorentina – beIN Sport en Espanol/beIN Sport Play

10:30am – Twente vs. NAC Breda – ESPN3

11am – Cardiff City vs. Manchester United – NBC Sports Network/Directv, MUN2/NBC Sports Live Extra

11am – Rayo Vallecano vs. Espanyol – beIN Sport en Espanol/beIN Sport Play

11am – Nice vs. Saint-Etienne – beIN Sport USA/beIN Sport Play/Univision

11:30am – Werder Bremen vs. Mainz 05 – GolTV USA

1pm – Georgetown vs. Old Dominion – Guhoyas.com

1pm – Virginia vs. St. Johns – Virginia.sports.com

1pm – Elche vs. Valencia – beIN Sport en Espanol/beIN Sport Play

2:45pm – Bologna vs. Inter Milan – beIN Sport USA/beIN Sport Play

3pm – Sevilla vs. Real Betis – beIN Sport en Espanol/beIN Sport Play

3pm – Nantes vs. Monaco – beIN Sport Play/Univision Deportes

6pm – Tigres UANL vs. Club America Univision Deportes

7:15pm- Racing Club vs. River Plate – GolTV USA

9pm – Portland Timbers vs. Real Salt Lake – ESPN/ESPN Deportes/MLS Live

9pm – Queretaro vs. Santos Laguna – ESPN Deportes/Azteca America

Comments

  1. I just can’t believe in Karma. I hope tonights Western Conference Finals match is as exhilirating as the Merseyside Derby was this weekend. About half an hour before kickoff! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Spurs shouldn’t have sold Dempsey. Dempsey wouldn’t have allowed Spurs to lose 6-0, he would have at least scored two garbage goals to make it look respectable. Spurs fans would then call him crap for not scoring big goals.

    Reply
      • He played well for hem last year, scored big goals, but yes, for the Sounders he has been mediocre. My bet is he lets it rip next year

    • I think he wanted he wanted to go.

      Regardless, I can’t see how he could help. Spurs are in total confusion. (Not that I mourn their difficulties, being a Gooner…)

      Reply
    • +1 AcidBurn

      Dempsey was playing quite well for them. I was totally shocked when I learnt they were letting him go.

      IMO, it’s because he is an American. The rest of the world simply cannot handle the fact that we are slowly catching up in the one sport we don’t completely dominate. Bias against Yanks is fashion for most of world.

      Reply
  3. Can’t watch the rest of this game. Too egregious a mistake to place any value or integrity in the result.

    Its not like a 50/50 tackle went wrong or a close offside call was missed. The referee saw a United player commit textbook violent conduct off the ball and chose only to issue a yellow.

    No trust in anything else.

    Reply
  4. Any game involving Manchester United should be presumed fixed. Zero integrity in this league involving them.

    Seriously who even wants to watch this crap?

    Lash out and kick someone off the ball from behind… anyone else that’s a red and minimum 3 game suspension.

    Rooney gets a mother*&3+3*$ yellow card.

    How do you admit you saw the play and NOT immediately pull out a red card. Immediately.

    Reply
  5. Just infuriating.

    Ridiculous that Wayne Rooney is not in the shower already. Just pathetic joke of nonsense Man Utd refereeing bogus bs.

    Reply
  6. I would just like to point out out much Tottenham have suffered with Bale and Dempsey.

    Bale is clearly the better player but Dempsey helped out the team on more than one occasion.

    Man. City as always is dangerous and fun to watch.

    Reply
      • I have pointed out a few times that many Spurs bloggers (mainly Fitch on ESPNFC) routinely blamed Dempsey for any problems that Spurs had last year. Dempsey is not always the smoothest player, but he added some grit to the team last year and ended up one of their top scorers. They have no one to do that this year.

        Please don’t take my comments to ignore Bale who was Spurs best player last year and singlehandedly won more epl games last year thatn any other player I can think of.

    • was just thinking about this the other day. i think it’s hard to tell how much they miss anyone besides bale, simply because other teams were so focused on him that it opened up space for everyone else.

      that said, i do think you’re right about dempsey. he wasn’t a constant threat, but he provided a spark that tottenham could use right now.

      Reply
      • Totally.

        That is my basic point; he came in and gave that extra which provided goals and opportunities. Very similar to how that Mexican is used over at Man. United.

        The rumor mill has it that Tottenham want him in on loan.

      • What are your opinions on Tottenham’s midfield providing service to its forwards? Soldado only scored a few goals and most by pks. I think Chicharito gets lost up front playing for Spurs.

        Villas Boas must be desparte because he put on Adebeyor.

      • I think AVB just doesn’t know what he’s doing. Keeps trying different combinations but really he’s the problem. There are some great players to work with but they seem confused and inept about how to work as a team – I really think this is on the manager. He did the same thing last year.

      • Completely agree. Last year his strategy was to keep the other team from scoring, and then let Bale get a winner late.

      • Lol, yes! They tailored the whole team around him and now that he’s not there to carry them anymore, AVB’s poor management is more exposed.

    • He was 3rd highest goal scorer on their team last year. They thought he was crap.

      Hey, it wasn’t his best year but he actually like tried to score. Hardly anyone else on that team will take a shot.

      Reply
      • I agree, but with a small caveat – the problem is wingers like Lennon and Dafoe didn’tshare the ball. all they did was try to score

        They are better than Adam Johnson at Sunderland thought – poor Jozy

    • +1, usaalltheway. AVB was so fricking stupid to dump Dempsey and AVB last season never, IMO, played Clint strategically with the respect he deserved, nor did a large majority of the fans. This wimpy Tottenham team needs a man like Dempsey. And now Tottenham languishing in ninth place and having to pay the huge salary of the worthless Emmanuel Adebeyor. I’ll admit it, am enjoying the schadenfreude.

      Reply
      • Dude, did you see Dempsey play for the Sounders? Getting rid of him was absolutely the right decision.
        It saved us all the humiliation of watching him sit in the stands all year long

      • There is a difference between not being good enough and being injured. Clint has been injured for a while now and is still nursing his way back to health.

      • The explanation to that is actually found off the field.

        In interviews, Dempsey stated how he felt once he joined the Sounders. He explained it was like being with a family. He had friends there and it wasn’t this day in and day struggle and fight.

        Due to that, Dempsey lost his edge. He even admitted it himself. He said he felt less angry, like there was less to prove.

        The absence of that anger and drive are the real reasons he started playing poorly. He has been injured before and somehow managed to continue playing well or would bounce back quickly.

        Dempsey did the right thing for his family; he cashed at the right time. He has three kids and a wife. His soccer career is nears it’s final years.

        Those are the reasons the EPL Dempsey scored and played the way he did, while the MLS Dempsey (this time around) is playing like he does.

      • I think AVB thought Dempsey was interchangeable with Siggurdson, and Dempsey didn’t want to be the bit part player that AVB labelled him

      • agree, biff. And like I said above, they tailored the whole team around Bale at the expense of all else and now that he’s not there to carry them anymore, AVB’s poor management is more exposed.

      • Don’t think it was AVB’s decision. I think AVB wanted to keep him, but the higher-ups thought the price was right.

      • I agree with you, AVB always found playing time for Dempsey, even when he wasn’t playing well. But all of that changed once they didn’t qualify for the Champions.

  7. Mix has a goal in the Norwegian Cup final. Lovely rising shot from just outside the box.
    He’s playing in a deeper holding role. Have seen him give away the ball poorly a couple of times and force his team to chase back defensively.

    1-1 at half with Molde.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Respect Meh Cancel reply