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Soccer Wednesday: Your Running Commentary

Jack Wilshere of Arsenal and Thomas Muller of Bayern Munich

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By DAN KARELL

For the second consecutive year, Bayern Munich’s path to UEFA Champions League glory travels through north London.

After winning back some momentum last Saturday, Arsenal look to overcome their recent fatigue against the defending European and German champions as they meet Bayern Munich on Wednesday evening at the Emirates Stadium. Bayern will be without Franck Ribery and Xherdan Shaqiri but their strength in depth is still scary with the likes of Arjen Robben and Javi Martinez fully fit and back in the lineup.

Jack Wilshere is expected to return to the starting lineup for the Gunners while manager Arsene Wenger has made the curious decision to start young forward Yaya Sanogo.

Over in Milan, Atletico look to continue their impressive season with a match against long-struggling AC Milan. The Italians are currently in ninth place in Serie A compared to Atletico’s third-place position in La Liga, and Milan’s defense will be quickly tested at home against Diego Simeone’s charges.

In the evening, Club Leon plays their second Copa Libertadores match of the campaign when they travel to Bolivar in Bolivia.

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 schedule is after the jump):

2:45pm – Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich – Fox Sports 2/Fox Deportes

2:45pm – Atletico Madrid vs. AC Milan – Fox Soccer Plus

7:30pm – Bolivar vs. Club Leon – Fox Deportes

7:30pm – River Plate vs. Godoy Cruz – GolTV USA

7:55pm – Oaxaca vs. Veracruz – ESPN Deportes

7:55pm – Altamira vs. Pachuca – Univision Deportes

8pm – Palmeiras vs. Ituano – ESPN3

9:55pm – Monterrey vs. Cruz Azul Hidalgo – Univision Deportes

Comments

  1. Anybody who claims that Klingsman won’t try to beat Germany hasn’t played competitive sports.He and every jock would even try to beat his twin brother just for bragging right. I am first born AMERICAN , my entire family is or was in Germany, l even played for 2 years as a GOALIE there,but l wouldn’t dream of rooting for them.Red bull all the way.

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  2. The day an MLS team first participates and then goes to Uruguay and beats Penarol, I will be a very happy camper. MX far way better than MLS, I know nobody disputes that.

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    • MX makes a lot more money and so can pay for better players and keep them on longer deals. It should be a better league. MLS won’t compete internationally until we allow a team to build a quality roster and keep the core of it intact for more than one season.

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  3. Relegating the Arse-Bayern to FS2 was criminal and disgusting!

    May this disgusting company die the minute after that monster Murdoch kicks the bucked!!!!

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  4. If you needed any evidence of how utterly far English football has fallen… yesterday and today were pretty brutal for the EPL. Two 2-0 home losses for the top two squads in the EPL with a red card to the home squad in each and three surefire penalties not given to the visiting teams and one legitimate goal disallowed.

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    • To be fair they were playing arguably the two best teams on the planet. So this could have been the outcome even if arsenal and city are the third and fourth best teams in the world.

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      • Very true. Man City should do better with all the cash they keep spending. Why does it seem like Man City has almost no backup for their starters.

        I guess its the excess of strikers they seem to have.

      • A few of those back ups were on display yesterday. Negredo for aguero, navas for the just recovered nasri, and most vitally, demichelis for nastasic.

    • Also if we’re looking at Champions league as the state of a league, then its not good news for Serie A as it’s only representative looses at home today.

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  5. people, if you have cable, go to Fox Sports Go and stream the game! they just released it last month to compete with WatchESPN and the NBC version. go there, sign in with your cable provider, and stream EITHER game (or whatever else they have on). you can stream Fox Deportes too, just like ESPN Deportes.

    if you don’t have cable, well FoxSoccer2Go is your only hope other than malware streams.

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      • i have both games pulled up. plus, i even pulled up the Deportes stream on my phone. so that’s FS1, FS2, and Fox Deportes currently being streamed, by me, on this site.

        if your cable subscription does not include the channels, then obviously you can’t stream it. for FS2, a lot of cable companies have yet to add it apparently. luckily U-verse is not one of those, we have it in HD even.

      • Sorry I’m just bitter about having Comcast. On the plus side I have Bein Sport(s) so I get my dose of neon backdrops and ray hudson metaphors.

      • it’s not bragging, it’s just pointing out they work and the difference must be cable providers providing accessibility to certain channels.

      • odd. they must have different deals with each provider then. its possible that comcast doesnt even offer FS2 on cable so they cant stream it online.

      • yeah, they definately do. Comcast is always bad about striking deals with networks for new channels. although i think they were one of the first to carry beIN Sport. so who knows…lol

    • watching the game it FEELS as if Arsenal hasnt had the ball for 20 minutes. not sure if thats true but they havn’t looked dangerous at all

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    • Definitely reality. Bayern is going five minutes at a time knocking the ball around and through the arsenal penalty area. Never seem more than two touches away from scoring.

      It will be a miracle for arsenal to escape this without conceding a second (and third).

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    • I use the guardian MBM but yes Bayern camped just outside the box. Slamming in crosses United vs Fulham style.

      Ohh another near Penalty jeez twice now with the luck for Arsenal.

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    • Hardly a nail in the coffin. Last year they went into munich facing a larger deficit than this and bayern squeaked through on away goals.

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  6. Arsenal got lucky there should have been another Penalty. Not sure who is was but he got his legs kicked out from under him while he was taking a shot.

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  7. A lotof dirty players from holland

    van bommel

    de jong karate kicks xabi inthe wc final

    why is the spittingnot sanctioned likrinthe nfl

    you do somethin wrongleaguesuspends ancfines you.

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  8. The more I watch Vines of this, the more I think it isn’t a red card at all. Robben is not getting to that ball, and therefor should only be a yellow as it doesn’t meet all three of the DOCGSO criteria.

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    • Are you blind? He spit on the ground. Stop trying to antagonize people. Oxlade and Sagna would have reacted….and yes I am an Arsenal fan.

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      • There is no way at all you can see that hit the ground, frankly it could very well be sweat. However there is no way at all you can tell where it lands.

  9. ozil is playing like a scared little boy. I can finally understand why Ancelotti didn’t want him. No fight and no bite. Mi nimum effort on defense. He does not want to be playing against his good buddies from the German national team. You can see it in his body language. and that PK. Yeah, that wimpy PK right into Neuer’s hands. If Arsenal would have struck first would have been a whole different game. But the good news, Ozil will be happy for his German national team buddies if Bayern wins. I hope Wenger and his teammates are giving him a good talkin’t too in the dressing room and maybe he come out fired up. Yeah. well.

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    • Well he wasn’t scared until that Penalty. He was rather amazing for the first 15 minutes or so.

      I don’t think its the German thing so much as He ALWAYS passes.
      Does Wenger know that Ozil doesn’t score goals? He doesn’t like the pressure of shooting. Bad decision.

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    • Man, your contribution is overwhelming based on no facts. Ozil has played a ton of games this year, and needs some rest. The whole staff has come out and said he needs a rest, but their not going to rest of him because how much they spent on him. Plus, there has been a ton of injuries. I feel like you’ve never even watched him play. He played extremely well in Spain, and has played well until the start of the new year. His first 8 games yielded 2 goals and 5 assists. So, your argument really has no merit.

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      • Wow. Cutting edge comment. “His first 8 games yielded 2 goals and 5 assists.” Really? You are truly a soccer expert.

      • Increase and Arsenal.

        Ozil is a playmaker who has never scored much.

        He averaged a goal every 6 games in the Bundesliga
        He averaged a goal every 6 games in Spain
        He is averaging a goal every 6 games at Arsenal
        Strangely, he averages a goal every 3 games for Germany.

        In this regard he reminds me of Carlos Valderrama who scored once every 11 games in his club career and once every 10 games for Colombia.

  10. Anyone else wonder about klinsi vs. His motherland?

    does he deep down want to get nasty andbeat de mannschaft he won the cup with?

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  11. Tragedy for Arsenal as Csezny misses the ball completely and clatters into Robben, causing the penalty and the red card. Gunners are done. Stupid, stupid play as Robben had little chance of being able to bring that down quickly enough to do anything with it.

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  12. Robben just got there first…. That’s a red… Robben even managed to keep that ball close. That last man rule ruins games sometimes. Yellow and a penalty.

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    • don’t think last man ruins the game so much as rash challenges ruin the game. When will these idiots learn? Play straight up and try to make the save instead of putting your head down and clattering into people like a fool.

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    • don’t think last man ruins the game so much as rash challenges ruin the game. When will these boneheads learn? Play straight up and try to make the save instead of putting your head down and clattering into people like a cretin.

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      • I just don’t like the fact that its always a Red for the last man. I kinda think of Reds as a way to deal with dangerous or continuous foul play. Oddly I don’t think Refs given enough Reds. They let too much go sometimes.

        Seeing this play in slow motion makes it clear that he caught Robben after he planted a foot. Thats a good way to break someones ankle.

      • If it wasn’t so clear then we’d see even more ridiculous challenges. I feel like scoring is up a bit, maybe due to the rule. When it wasn’t an automatic red, guys would get dragged down all the time with scoring chances. A yellow is meaningless compared to a scoring opportunity. Managers have to adjust and drill it into their players that they need to back off of last man in and allow the shot. It’s nonsensical. Half or more of these chances would be saved or squandered and it’s not the end of the world to give up a goal as long as you have 11 men. Just back the f off.

  13. Game on fox deportes
    pretty even so far
    cant figure out if Julian Verde is onthe bench
    i wonder who special one is cheering for wenger or pep?
    lol

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  14. I think Bayern should have Mueller on. Bayern have too many people that like to play inside on right now without Ribery everything is too tight.

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  15. I think it’s pretty clear that MLS signing a deal with Fox may be disastrous no matter how much money they’re getting. The sheer incompetence of Fox can never be underestimated.

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  16. Oh god the conspiracy theories are going to run rampant. Terrible penalty from Ozil. I’d hit a better shot than that–and I’m terrible.

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  17. Arsenal completely dominating the early stages. Great opportunities from Sanogo, Cazorla, and now an awful penalty miss from Ozil. Gunners doing all but finishing in this brilliant match that Fox has pushed to their alternate channel for cars driving practice laps in a circle. Sorry for you guys who don’t have Fox2 to miss this.

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      • Correct. Comcast and Fox can go F-off i am so tired of Soccer being screwed over by the TV deals. Form USMNT away games to tis new Fox Sports 2 crap.

      • You can get bein sports on comcast (at least in my area) but its part of a package in which i care about literally no other channel so its not worth it to me.

      • Yeah I know but I already pay $124 per month and don’t get BEin. It should be covered in the amount of money I pay them.

    • Oh, ya. But i think after that missed Pen Bayern is calming down. Bayern is a step slow right now.

      Whoever has the ball looks crazy dangerous right now. Both want an early goal.

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  18. WHY CANT THEY JUST STREAM ALL OF THEIR SPORTS ONLINE LIKE ESPN DOES. HOLY F*(&. IF I AM A LISTED PROVIDER AND CAN STREAM FS1 WHY CANT I STREAM FS2 AS WELL??

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  19. Disagree with Ozil starting against his buddies on the German national team. Will gladly eat crow if he has a good game to help Arsenal beat FC Bayern.

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  20. It’s about time we start pushing for broadcast contract stipulations that if you bid for a programming schedule–you air the programming schedule.

    A NASCAR truck series practice is being shown ahead of the potentially the most watched match of the year outside the UCL final?

    Embarrassing.

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      • The day an MLS team first participates and then goes to Uruguay and beats Penarol, I will be a very happy camper. MX far way better than MLS, I know nobody disputes that.

    • and they have the world cup after brazil. freakin terrible! “oh this spain v brazil world cup match, i think we’ll show AA baseball practice instead…”

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      • Soccer in the US will not reach its potential until every fan knows exactly when the games are and what channel on their TV. I really hope NBC goes balls out and buys all the leagues including MLS.

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