By CARL SETTERLUND
Real Madrid’s defense of their UEFA Champions League title begins on Tuesday afternoon.
Los Blancos host FC Basel with their two new midfield additions, Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez, each being handed starts, while the famed BBC of (Karim) Benzema, (Gareth) Bale, and Cristiano Ronaldo start in the forward three.
Elsewhere in Champions League action, Liverpool return to the competition for the first time since 2009, with Anfield playing host to Ludogorets of Bulgaria. Arsenal hit the road to face former German champions Borussia Dortmund at the packed Signal Iduna Stadium, and Atletico Madrid visit Olympiacos for their Champions League opener.
All eyes will be on PPL Park tonight as the underdog Philadelphia Union host the Supporters’ Shield favorite Seattle Sounders at 7:30pm. The Sounders will be looking for their fourth U.S. Open Cup title, having appeared in five of the last six finals. The Union are no slouch, however, with Sebastien Le Toux, the all-time scoring leader in the U.S. Open Cup on their side. The Union have also only lost once since the start of August.
Meanwhile, back over in North America, D.C. United and the Portland Timbers both face key games in their search to reach the CCL quarterfinals.
Here’s the full schedule of today’s action:
2:45pm — ESPN3 — Olympiakos vs. Atlético Madrid
2:45pm — ESPN3 — Juventus vs. Malmö FF
2:45pm — FOX Sports 2 — Liverpool vs. Ludogorets
2:45pm — ESPN Deportes — Real Madrid vs. FC Basel
2:45pm — ESPN3 — AS Monaco vs. Bayer Leverkusen
2:45pm — ESPN3 — Benfica vs. Zenit St. Petersburg
2:45pm — ESPN3 — Galatasaray vs. Anderlecht
2:45pm — ESPN3/FOX Sports 1 — Borussia Dortmund vs Arsenal
7pm — ESPN3 — Cornell vs. Syracuse (men’s soccer)
7pm — Fox Sports GO — Estudiantes vs. Gimnasia La Plata
7:30pm — GOLTV USA — Philadelphia Union vs. Seattle Sounders
7:50pm — Univision Deportes — Guadalajara vs. Tijuana
7:55pm — ESPN Deportes — Puebla vs. Morelia
8:00pm — Fox Soccer 2Go — Cruz Azul vs. Chorrillo
8:00pm — Fox Soccer Plus — Waterhouse FC vs. D.C. United
8:30pm — Fox Sports GO — Peñarol vs. Deportivo Cali
9:55pm — ESPN3 — Celaya vs. Necaxa
9:55pm — ESPN3 — CorAS Tepic vs. Zacatepec
10:00pm — Fox Sports 1 USA — Portland Timbers vs. Olimpia
Timbers Army doing great work, making me proud as a supporter of MLS.
60′ – Olimpia skies a shot attempt. The camera shows the fan who got caught the ball in the stands. He tucks the ball underneath his shirt and tries to escape into the crowd.
Did he know he was being filmed? Because if so, that’s kind of a funny thing to do for like five seconds, but if he wasn’t thinking about the cameras, and that was his genuine reaction…not cool.
Third goal by Portland was crazy good. Jaw dropping teamwork and individual skill. I wish they were more consistent with those type of connections.
Come On Philly. Do something.
Thank You Edu!
You are crazy. We were defensive at WC because Altidore and Johannsen were hurt. Now he brought a few of the wrong guys, but defensiveness is not the problem. He is still the best we have had recently IMO.
Here gentlemen, is a perfect example proving the saying: “He who accuses others, accuses them of that which he is and/or does”.
So riddle me this… why isn’t the USMNT trying to copy the playing style of Althletico and Dortmund. The high pressing, counter attacking, super organized as unit seems to fit our type of players better. We will never be Barca but I feel we could do a poor man imitation of Dortmund and Athletico.
Dortmund is pretty ridiculously talented athletically and technically. Even Athletico has some pretty good players; it takes some skill to pass the ball when you’ve been exhausted running around like a mad man. Also, it takes IQ to know when/how to press as a team. Often the USMNT presses inconsistently.
I thought the USMNT game vs. Czech had a nice preview of some pretty aggressive pressing by our exuberant youth.
Stinky, i think that’s actually the way we played in the last friendly against CR. At least the high-pressing part.
First, you gotta get a manager who is less scared and less defensive-minded than the current one.
JK isn’t one of the top 5 managers in the World? Jeez who would have thought.
Yee gads – I just looked at the table for the English Championship. The bottom three are Bolton, Blackpool and Fulham. All three are recently relegated teams who look to keep plummeting down the leagues.
Add Birmingham and that’s a lot of Yanks on bottom-feeder clubs
Welbeck had the best chances for Arsenal and didn’t take any of them well enough, bit concerning to see that.
Oooh Podolski… No bueno.
Fistbump Roman whatsup?
My smart phone tells me Sacha got in in the 60th minute. Anyone see him outhere?
Not watching the game, but judging by the gamecast, Arsenal are being battered right now. Is the gamecast not giving an accurate portrayal of proceedings?
No they’ve been pretty poor. Very exposed defensively and few ideas going forward when they actually have the ball. They were surrounded and shut down for most of the match and then looked like they just gave up.
Also many of their players just look fatigued in general
These threads gotta be posted before the games start. Just sayin.
GolTV for the US Open Cup final? Powerhouse broadcasting agreement for the USSF.
shea, ream starting; spector, kljestan on the bench. no packwood.
(and, in case anyone cares, andy najar’s starting for anderlecht.)
oops, spector was subbed on in the 16th (according to espn).
Yeah he came on after an injury. Birmingham city with the better chances in the first half but couldn’t put anything in.
how’s shea doing? i’m really surprised to see him starting after looking exhausted a couple days ago. they must really be desperate for wingers.
He looked alright, had a decent chance he put in the side netting. Nearly had an assist, playing a header back to a player, setting up a shot but it went off the post. Started winning a few more headers but over all there wasn’t much of a rhythm to the match making it hard to judge.
He came off in the 53rd minute, and it looks like they’ve given up 2 goals since.
Immobile just got so lucky on that goal, he tried some weird move that completely failed and it bounced perfectly for him.
Doubly so as there was no way he was going to be able to switch his weight over that direction. He tried to move the ball but his body didn’t go with the ball shift.
It was either such an amazing fake or pure luck. I’m sayin luck.