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Soccer Saturday: Your Running Commentary

TimHowardEverton1-Wolfsburg (Getty)

 By IVES GALARCEP

Both Everton and Liverpool came into the new English Premier League season with aspirations of competing for a place in the Top Four. Five games in and both teams are stuck in the bottom half of the table.

That makes today’s Merseyside Derby that much more important for both teams, with Liverpool having lost three of four and Everton posting only one win so far this season.

The North London Derby is also back, with Arsenal and Tottenham renewing acquaintances at the Emirates. Arsenal has yet to lose this season, one of only two unbeaten teams in the Premier League. The Gunners face a Tottenham side on a three-match winless streak.

In Spain, Sevilla and Atletico Madrid meet in a clash of top five teams in La Liga. Sevilla have won four straight matches, but will find it tougher going at the Vicente Calderon against the defending league champions.

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 Soccer TV schedule is after the jump):

TODAY’S SOCCER ON TV

7:45am – NBC Sports/NBC Sports Live Extra – Liverpool vs. Everton

7:45am – Fox Soccer Plus/Fox Soccer 2Go – St. Mirren vs. Celtic

8am – beIN Sports Connect – Monaco vs. Nice

9:30am – GOLTV USA – Köln vs. Bayern Munich

10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Chelsea vs. Aston Villa

10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Crystal Palace vs. Leicester City

10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Hull City vs. Manchester City

10am – NBC Sports/NBC Sports Live Extra – Manchester United vs. West Ham United

10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Southampton vs. Queens Park Rangers

10am – NBC Sports Live Extra – Sunderland vs. Swansea City

10am – beIN Sports Connect – Blackpool vs. Norwich City

10am – beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español – Villarreal vs. Real Madrid

10:30am – beIN Sports Connect – Zenit St. Petersburg vs. Spartak Moscow

11am – beIN Sports Connect – Toulouse vs. Paris Saint-Germain

12pm – beIN Sports Connect – Roma vs. Hellas Verona

12pm – beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español – Barcelona vs. Granada

12:30pm – NBC Sports/NBC Sports Live Extra – Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur

12:30pm – GOL TV – Wolfsburg vs. Werder Bremen

1pm – MLS Live – Toronto FC vs. Portland Timbers

1:30pm – Univision Deportes – Estoril vs. Benfica

2pm – beIN Sports Connect – Lille vs. Bastia

2pm – beIN Sports Connect – Metz vs. Reims

2pm – beIN Sports Connect – Montpellier vs. Guingamp

2pm – beIN Sports en Español/beIN Sports Connect – Atlético Madrid vs. Sevilla

2:45pm – beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports Connect – Atalanta vs. Juventus

3pm – NBC Sports/MLS Live – DC United vs. Philadelphia Union

3pm – GOLTV USA – Nacional vs. Wanderers

4pm – MLS Live – Seattle Sounders vs. Chivas USA

4pm – beIN Sports Connect – Levante vs. Rayo Vallecano

4pm – beIN Sports Connect – Athletic Club vs. Eibar

5:30pm – ESPN3 – Sport Recife vs. Cruzeiro

6pm – Univision/Univision Deportes – Cruz Azul vs. León

7pm – MLS Live – Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Real Salt Lake

7:30pm – MLS Live – Columbus Crew vs. Montreal Impact

7:30pm – ESPN3 – Tampa Bay Rowdies vs. Fort Lauderdale Strikers

8pm – Univision Deportes – Monterrey vs. Atlas

9pm – MLS Live – Colorado Rapids vs. San Jose Earthquakes

9pm – Telemundo – Pachuca vs. Tigres UANL

10pm – Univision Deportes – Universidad Guadalajara vs. Morelia

10:30pm – NSCAA TV – Sacramento Republic vs. Harrisburg City Islanders

Comments

  1. It’s official. I really could care less about European football. The only football that I really get into is MLS. Anything else just doesn’t hold my attention anymore. I get that the product from Europe is suppose to be better but for some reason watching the games have just become “meh, whatever” to me. But I go nuts if my wife keeps me from watching DC v Philly or I obsessively check the score of Toronto v Portland because the playoff implications are so great. I’m not sure how or when this happened but I feel better getting off my chest 😉

    Reply
  2. The rumor making the rounds in Houston is Kinnear has been given permission to interview with San Jose if that job comes available. The paywall portion of the local paper said as much but the reporter is seen as somewhat unreliable so it’s a grain of salt thing.

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    • For sure, but some times it actually makes watching a little more enjoyable I think. I’d rather watch that then the more choppy, broken play that you sometimes see in the Championship. I recognize there’s less quality but from a purely aesthetic view I kind of enjoy players having more time on the ball.

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  3. Wow. Toronto has just completely given up, they have no hustle at all right now. Portland just walked in and scored after a bad give away, and now have two after 15 min.

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  4. Emerson Hyndman had a less then stellar half and was subbed off for Fulham. He plays a lot better through the middle, today he played on the left of the diamond. He looked good in the cup game midweek though.

    Brek Shea came on for the second half and was pretty good. Should probably have scored on a through ball chance but Fulham’s keeper came out and made a good save. More impressively though he tracked Hugo Rodallega on a run from the halfway line to the corner flag and made a good tackle at the end.

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  5. Jozy should find a way to get off this horrible Sunderland team. Both Wickham and Fletcher missed point blank headers and Jozy can’t get on the field.

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    • I just asked if Jozy was going to get into the game. I must be under investigation as it appears my comment is under moderation.

      I saw that Sunderland made two midfield subs, leaving one left for Jozy to get on the field and grab a late winner

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    • Yeah, Jozy scores a nice goal which he created on his own this week and Gus, in need of goals, goes with 2 strikers that are missing easy chances left and right. This is directly after saying that his strikers need to score goals and that’s what he’s going to judge them on. Doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. Doesn’t bode well for Jozy either. If he’s not first choice next match, he may not have a chance with Poyet.

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      • i agree, my only thought is that he’s resting HIM from HIS (grammar cops above…) game on wednesday. as if Poyet said “ok jozy, u scored on wednesday, ill give u saturday off, and see if my other worthless strikers can score.” perhaps jozy gets the start next weekend vs stoke i believe.

        on another note, i really like Van A. he makes mistakes here and there ( no different than the rest of SUND) but he’s super active and works hard both ways. buckley’s a little floppity but creates some chances, vergini’s calm on the ball is admirable. Larsson should only be a sub, he’s the definition of a sub, but a quality sub. cattermole looks funny in his 1979 NBA shorts, but he loves a good volley.

        the best 11 consists of cattermole, AJ, Buckley, Giacc Wickham and Jozy plus 4 defenders. cattermole cdm, giac cam, aj n buck wide, wick n joz up top

        aaaaaaaaand im done

    • Have you seen Altidore play? He did score a goal but he was absolute crap the rest of the game. The guy lacks the most basic of football skills.
      Three goals in 60+ games not a starter makes.

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      • 60 is not the correct number of appearances. According to wiki its 34. That doesn’t matter much though. I’m not here to defend Jozy’s play at Sunderland which has not been good.

        Still as a USMNT fan I can’t think of another BPL I’d want him at less than Sunderland. It’s early this season and maybe my opinion will change as the season goes on. But for the year and a few games that they’ve been there the team has been a complete mess. It’s painful to watch them play. If things don’t change by December I want him out of there in a heartbeat. Even if that means a move to a lesser league.

  6. I have been checking to see if Jozy would get substituted into the Sunderland game. Two midfield subs for Sunderland in the 65-70 minute area, including taking off Adam Johnson.

    Any chance that Jozy gets sent on to try to grab a late winner?

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  7. R U sure? In these two cases the object is not him, it’s a specific act or condition belonging to him. The object is “not playing” or “finding” something, isn’t it?

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      • Yes, there are much deeper and darker issues at work in the psyches of these grammar obsessed hooligans. I’ve seen them roaming the streets of nyc at all hours in gangs, correcting people’s grammar, talking in overly loud voices about splitting infinitives and generally oppressing the masses. They’re a menace.

    • “Him” is acceptable because the construction is SVO. “It’s” is the subject and verb contracted, and everything else is an object phrase. You don’t need a possessive pronoun because “he” is not the subject.

      You could reconstruct the sentence to require a possessive by making “His not playing” the subject, “is” the verb, and then an object, ex “His not playing is the issue.” In this case you would need the possessive as “Him not playing is the issue” would incorrectly use an object pronoun as the subject of the sentence.

      At any rate, any student of language will know that grammar is not ironclad but mutable, with constantly shifting standards and guidelines for syntax.

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      • Where to begin. Your first sentence makes no sense Brett. In your example the fact that It is the subject and is is the verb I understand. However, your saying everything else is an object phrase is more than wrong. There is such a thing as compound sentences. I learned that last year in the 3rd. grade.

        The person posting as Possessive Pronoun and ben in el cajon are correct, and everyone saying they aren’t are wrong. That includes you know who.

        What I learned last year is that while there are objects in sentences that are of the subject, i.e. the house is big, there can be many objects inside a sentence, such as an object of a preposition for instance. Your saying that the possessive pronoun is only required if it is in the subject is…(I can’t use those words because I’m in the 4th grade).

        The rule is determined by what is the object? If the object is him then you say him. If the object is what he is doing, needs to do, feels,
        etc. then proper grammar is to say his.

        i.e. He is tall. He feels bad because he is short. His feelings of sadness are due to the fact that he is short. His feelings of sadness are due to his being short. The main reason that he is sad is the fact that, to him, he is short.

        I understand the original question because it is so widely misused but what I don’t understand is that there are those of you who insist that it is not, that saying “him not playing” or “him needing to find a team” is correct.

      • Your comment is irrelevant. The example in question is not a compound sentence, and you also made more than one mistake in your subject/verb agreement. (That was a compound sentence; notice it has two SVO constructions liked by a conjunction.)

        Maybe you should take your English education beyond the third grade level and try again.

  8. Why have 99% of all writers and commenters forsaken me? Why does most everyone say something like this: “It’s about HIM not playing” or “it’s about HIM finding a team”?

    It should be: “It’s about HIS not playing”.

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    • “not playing” is not something that is “his.” “not playing” is a descriptor about “him.” same thing about “finding a team.”

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      • Actually, no.

        Someone can possess an action or activity: ‘Bono’s singing has not been good, lately,’ for example.

        In the strictest English grammar, the following would be correct: ‘My dog’s constant whining to get more pizza puts my friend in a bad mood because it interrupts his playing Minecraft.’

  9. O/T – Ives, where in the world is Juan Agudelo? He had a decent season in Holland, and wasn’t/isn’t FC Utretch interested in signing him…

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    • Ives had a comment about it in yesterday’s Q&A (not much but I’ve pasted it for you below:

      1:08
      Comment From Brad
      Any updates on Juan Agudelo? What is the reason he can’t find a team?

      1:09
      I think it’s less about him not being able to find a team and more about him holding out for a specific deal. From what I know some options emerged this summer that fell through, and some others he passed on in order to keep pushing for a bigger move. We’ll see if the wait was worth it.

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  10. Can we bring in Lambert for Balotelli please. Would be nice to have some movement in the box or at least have our center forward not bumble into his teammates making runs,

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  11. liverpool-everton fairly entertaining so far, but both teams have been awful in the attacking third. howard’s made a good couple of saves. still 0-0 at half.

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