By JUSTIN FERGUSON
The last major Soccer Saturday of the 2013-14 European league calendar should be one to remember with a La Liga title decider on the same day as a pair of domestic cup finals.
Atletico Madrid need a win or a draw Saturday at Camp Nou, home of defending champions Barcelona. Lionel Messi, Neymar and the rest of Barcelona’s high-caliber squad can repeat as title holders and grab the trophy with their 17th home win of the season. On the other side, Diego Costa, David Villa and Atletico Madrid can be the first team outside of the El Clasico duopoly to win the Spanish top division title in a decade, and they will be looking to keep their dreams of a historic double alive.
In England, Arsenal are hoping to end their nine-year trophy drought at Wembley Stadium, where they will face Hull City in the FA Cup Final. The Gunners are in good form at the finish line of their season, defeating Hull City in both of their meetings this season while getting several players back from long-term injuries. The Tigers from Hull, on the other hand, lost four of their last five matches and will be heavy underdogs ahead of what they hope will be their first FA Cup title win.
While Bayern Munich cannot secure a treble again this season, they will go for a domestic double when they face Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal Final. The Bundesliga champions are favorites to repeat at German Cup champions, but they lost to Dortmund 3-0 at home earlier this season and dropped the Super Cup title to their biggest rivals to open the 2013-14 campaign.
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):
10 a.m. – Real Madrid vs. Espanyol – beIN Sports en Español
12 p.m. – Arsenal vs. Hull City – FOX
12 p.m. – Barcelona vs. Atletico Madrid – beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español
2 p.m. – Borussia Dortmund vs. Bayern Munich – Univision Deportes/ESPN3
2:30 p.m. – Netherlands vs. Ecuador – ESPN Deportes/ESPN3
3 p.m. – PSG vs. Montpellier – beIN Sports USA
4 p.m. – Valencia vs. Celta Vigo – beIN Sports en Español
4:30 p.m. – Toronto FC vs. New York Red Bulls – TSN/MLS Live
5:30 p.m. – Cruzeiro vs. Curitiba – GolTV USA
7 p.m. – Philadelphia Union vs. New England Revolution – MLS Live
7 p.m. – D.C. United vs. Montreal Impact – MLS Live
8:30 p.m. – Houston Dynamo vs. LA Galaxy – MLS Live
8:30 p.m. – FC Dallas vs. Chivas USA – MLS Live
9:30 p.m. – Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado Rapids – MLS Live
10 p.m. – Seattle Sounders vs. San Jose Earthquakes – MLS Live
10:30 p.m. – Portland Timbers vs. Columbus Crew – MLS Live
about time man.
finally
We have new La Liga Champions!
Classy from the Barcelona fans applauding Atletico Madrid’s title.
Yeah, they might also have been applauding their players season and effort. Either way, nice to see.
Apparently singing Atleti also… surprising.. and classy..
Yep
In spite of the clearly biased officiating Arsenal should have finished this thing off already, hopefully they don’t end up regretting the missed chances, particularly the Gibbs one
Wonder how much money Lee Probert was given. Not kidding.
Lol at all Wynalda’s diving tips…
I want an investigation into Lee Probert. This isn’t legitimate.
Okay, 4.
That is FOUR blatant penalties not given.
Nah, it’s fine.
As a neutral, I’d say two missed penalty calls: the Giroud shout is debatable, he’s pulling the defender’s arm before the foul. The last Cazorla shout, he goes down a little too easily. The handball was very clear though and the other takedown as well.
That having been said, the corner leading to the equalizer should’ve been a goal kick.
Atleti 15 minutes from the title!
And a 4th clear penalty has been denied to Arsenal, wowowowow
Heard the ref was a Spurs fan
Gibbs just missed a massive chance, should be 3-2
Gibbs….wow
Should have been a red against Arsenal.
For what….?
Sanogo, dangerously high foot
Thanks for the laugh on that one, needed it after this terribly officiated game. That happens every game, the defender bent over to get the ball and its the only reason his head is there, its a yellow tops.
Quit trolling.
Just trying to fit in
You’re just a troll.
I know
Koscielny with a huge goal there and his ankle looks like it could be in trouble, fallen on, wow.
There’s zero chance a referee assigned to this type of match could possibly miss that many obvious calls consecutively.
Okay, this is f***** silly. That’s the third no argument penalty in 15 minutes.
There’s no way a professional referee is this incompetent. No way.
It has to be fixed….Hull are such a rich club, that it would be easy for them to buy off everybody.
And yet another clear penalty is denied to Arsenal, this ref may not be just incompetent.
WTF
WTF
WTF
THIS IS FIXED
Arsenal fans, it’s always someone else’s fault
There have been 3 clear penalties and not a single has been given, its easy to feel angry about that
That ball was just punched out of bounds in the box and nothing was called. Why even have referees if they’re not going to call a single thing?
In the last 10 minutes Hull has clubbed someone in the neck–intentionally–and punched the ball out Thierry Henry style and neither resulted in even a foul let alone the penalty it should have been.
If Hull had any honor they would score two own goals, and let Arsenal win.
And an Arsenal cross is PUNCHED OUT OF BOUNDS. And nothing is called.
Seriously, this is fixed? What the hell.
Ronaldo out for a week and Diego Costa out for 2 weeks
And there is another clear penalty denied to Arsenal, Livermore with a very obvious handball in the box
Eric Wynalda is a top 10 trending topic in the United States on Twitter.
THAT IS HOW BAD THIS IS.
i’ll never forget when they showed Khedira on Madrid’s bench during the game at Bayern and he referred to Khedira as a former Bayern Munich player. dude is an !d!0t.
Whoever assigned Wynalda to this game–F you.
Giroud was just donkey punched in the throat–on purpose–and nothing was given. This referee is a clown.
Wynalda is a freaking terrible commentator. TERRIBLE.
And that was a stone cold penalty.
Huddlestone just clubbed Giruod in the box and no penalty is given, this ref is a complete joke.
Wynalda and Johnson seem to have no idea why the fans are clapping for the 56th minute, pathetic from them
I logged on simply to post that Alexis Sanchez hit that so hard I didn’t even see it go in.
on the slow mo replay the ball was a blur
Bullet Tooth Tony and his Desert Eagle .50 looks too menacing for the Fox halftime set…
Awesome…
I was lulled into almost rooting for the overdog. Then those wimps from North London gave up two goals in a nanosecond.
C’mon Hull.
And C’mon Atletico. . . but at least if you lose it was to a great goal.
Stu!
Come Atletico don’t pull a liverpool
on
This ref is a joke. He’s been allowing Hull to waste time since the 10th minute with not so much as a warning. He has yet to give out a yellow and there have been numerous tackles warranting one. Also the foul he called when Fryatt was through was beyond soft.
It’s a well known fact that refs favor the smaller clubs in big games….
yowza
Holy crap
Clinical finish from Alexis.
Wow what a goal
Ray Hudson is a pathetic commentator, openly rooting for Barcelona.
Where you bean, frijol?
So…Gus Johnson said Hull City just changed their mascot to a tiger at insistance of their owner, lol. Close up of fans with tiger make up, and he says, “It’s nice to see the fans finally buying in.” Clueless moron.
Lol, lordy. Btw I find that whole thing dumb. They are nick bamed the Tigers… how is it that big a deal to just formally make the the tigers.
Gus needs to pay attention though… still a dumb comment by him.
I’m with the opposing fans on that one. Hull Tigers sounds corny and the reasoning that “it will make them a global brand” is ridiculous. Did Man U have to change to Manchester Red Devils to become a global brand? No, they accomplished that by um, WINNING.
Allam also said that, if he owned Man City, he would rebrand them as “Manchester Hunter”, lol. Seriously, the dude should be buying American Arena Football franchises instead…
Oh its silly and childish. Im just saying ita not some horrible injustice. The British media act like its some act of spit and evil.
Barca or Athletico?
Barca is AMAZING to watch and had highs n lows of this season.
At the same time Atletico is an underdog and I do enjoy watching someone other than Barca and Real win the league. been 10 years since Valencia won it.
Diego Costa off injured
And now Turan… 2 of their best off with injuries within first 20 minutes
Even relatively minor injuries at this point have to be of major concern for WC participants.
gotta admire when smaller clubs HAMMER the giants.
when was the last time Arsenal was actually a REAL CLUB?
was it 06 when they reached the CL final?
they have been in the CL for like 16 years straight okay. they challenged for the title but are always lucky to reach 3rd or 4th.
Such a troll comment
nope. it’s an opinion.
check yourself for warts TROLL
In your first comment you called Arsenal a “giant” club and then questioned if they were a “REAL CLUB.” Keep trolling.
Apparently 16 years is just luck somehow… be reasonable. …
That was a helluva shot by Cazorla.
If you want to rob a bank in England today, go to Hull. No one’s paying any attention to anything but the FA Cup and it looks like 2/3 of the city is in Wembley, anyway.
For those who thought Arsenal would have a walk in the park…
If I was playing a drinking game based on how many times Fox mentions Arsenal ‘s trophy drought, I’d be hammered by now
you got me! You made me believe that the Real Madrid game was on BEINsports spanish channel. It’s not and comcast doesn’t offer bein sports play to watch it. I hate how comcast doesn’t offer BEIN sports play and you have to buy 2 seperate packages to get both BEIN channels.