By ADAM TROXTELL
Southampton seeks a fourth place spot and revenge, for various reasons, when Liverpool pays a visit in Sunday’s most anticipated match.
On top of beating the Saints when the teams met at Anfield on opening day, the Reds have at their disposal three former Southampton players that might make their first appearance at St. Mary’s since their summer transfers. Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana are all available for selection.
Liverpool sits four points behind Southampton currently and can gain a solid foothold in the race for UEFA Champions League spots with a win. The Saints can benefit more with a victory since it would send them into fourth place, two points ahead of Manchester United.
Real Madrid can climb four points clear at the top of La Liga with a win against 17th-placed Elche. Los Merengues triumphed 5-1 the last time the teams met in September, and Cristiano Ronaldo bagged four goals.
Both Lyon and Marseille face the task of taking first place in Ligue 1 back from Paris Saint-Germain. Lyon sits one point back and plays Alejandro Bedoya’s Nantes. Three points behind the leaders, Marseille has a slightly more difficult task against fifth-placed Saint Etienne.
In Italy, AC Milan is trying to keep pace in the race for European spots, but standing in the way is a relegation-threatened Cesena desperate for points.
If you will be watching today’s action, feel free to leave your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy today’s action (today’s soccer on TV schedule after the jump):
6 a.m. – beIN Sports USA – Real Sociedad vs. Sevilla
7 a.m. – NBCSN – Tottenham vs. West Ham
9 a.m. – beIN Sports USA – Milan vs. Cesena
9 a.m. – beIN Sports en Espanol – Hellas Verona vs. Roma
9:05 a.m. – NBCSN – Everton vs. Leicester
9:30 a.m. – GolTV USA – Hamburg vs. Borussia Monchengladbach
11 a.m. – beIN Sports en Espanol – Athletic Bilbao vs. Rayo Vallecano
11:15 a.m. – NBCSN – Southampton vs. Liverpool
11:30 a.m. – GolTV USA – Wolfsburg vs. Hertha Berlin
1 p.m. – beIN Sports en Espanol – Villarreal vs. Eibar
1 p.m. – Univision – Pumas vs. Club America
2 p.m. – GolTV USA – Ituano vs. Corinthians
3 p.m. – beIN Sports USA – Elche vs. Real Madrid
6 p.m. – Univision Deportes – Universidad Guadalajara vs. Tijuana
Worrisome week for Yanks abroad…
Danny Williams’ win is one of the few bright spots. Apparently Brooks played well, but Hertha looks to be heading for the drop at season’s end.
Ream injured. Johannsson, Bedoya, Cameron did not dress. Johnson, Rubin, Hyndman dressed but did not play. Lichaj played well but is dead to Klinsmann for whatever reason.
Hertha can’t put together more than like 4 passes in a row. Mostly of those will be between the CBs and keeper. Honestly the midfield is just not good.
Dunno if Hertha would sell Brooks. They might need the money if they go down.
I would think they’d have to. He’ll be in enough demand, and Hertha can probably buy several 2.Bundesliga quality players for the price they’d get.
I have to say I didn’t personally see this week’s or last week’s matches, but all the reports I’ve read said Brooks played well in both. The phrase “didn’t put a foot wrong” was thrown out about his performance yesterday.
Worth noting that Cameron was on a red, which I forgot about.
Xolos U-20 had Arriola, Moreno, Requejo, and Arce start. Moreno has been a handful, has a goal. De la Torre started and has an assist for Fulham youth, Flores starts for BVBII youth. Novakovich with another goal for Reading youth.
Alvarado starting for America today too.
+1 Really appreciate the youth updates
So the Xolos game at 6pm on Univision is a delayed broadcast?
No, the U-20s played. First team later today.
JAB and Hertha defense looking organized and disciplined in frustrating a very talented Wolfsburg attack. JAB just misjudged a header, but recovered and headed it out of danger. He also kept up with Schurrle, keeping a perfect angle, shielding him from an almost inch perfect through ball.
And a nice sliding block of a cross by Brooks. As the announcer said, Jay Brooks has not put a foot wrong tonight.” Ugh. I wish I could say the same for the announcer. His name is JOHN!!
You do realize he’s saying the letter J in his name. Get it Jayyyy Brooks. “Jayyy”.
You can’t just decide to make up your own nicknames when you’re commentating!! You call the player what they go by. That ridiculously unprofessional. You don’t see the MLS announcers decide on their own to start calling Tommy Thompson, Tee Thompson. It’s absurd. I’ve heard him called John Brooks or John Anthony Brooks. I’ve never heard anyone call him Jay and he specifically said last year that he prefers to be called John.
” I’ve never heard anyone call him Jay and he specifically said last year that he prefers to be called John.”
That is not proof that no one calls him Jay.
As for what he prefers, big deal, commentators don’t care.
“Tony Brooks with a nice tackle”…….
“As for what he prefers, big deal, commentators don’t care.”
Whether or not commentators care was never TomG’s point; he simply alluded to it being unprofessional. In that case he’s somewhat correct. A commentator should professionally call each player what they want to be called, especially if it’s on record. Fleeting nicknames are acceptable; e.g. calling Tim Howard “Timmy” once in a game in context. Furthermore, “Jay” is more commonly a nickname for “James”, whereas “Johnny” usually is used for “John”.
Dee Jeter
Em Jordan
Pee Sampras
Aich Grant
Wai Berra
Ecks Lopez
shall I go on?…..
Pee Sampras is the best.
Comical defensive sequence gifting the goal to Sterling. Even the best defense in one of the top leagues in soccer can have moments where they look completely clueless.
Brooks and Hertha under siege by Schurrle, De Bruyne and Dost.
Things are going to get weird in what is usually a very strong position for us if Howard gets benched and Guzan is in the championship.
I could not be less concerned with this. Howard is not getting benched. Did you see their backup play the last couple months when Tim was injured? Guzan is class. If AV goes down, he could get transferred to a top level club. Even if not, he won’t stop being class just because he’s one level down. We have Hamid ready to take the next step and Steffen looking like an elite level prospect. WE couldn’t be in much better shape at that spot.
All good points… If you’re dumb
Ps why are all these threads you commenting on your own posts… You’re really weird.
dammit i think i just responded to a troII.
the only way guzan plays in the championship is if he wants to be there, for money or loyalty or whatever. he’s been one of the best keepers in the epl for the past two seasons; if villa is relegated, there are any number of clubs (english or otherwise) who would snap him up.
Murican born, Desavio Payne, got a start at RB in Holland today.
Yeah, Brian Sciaretta said he’s a likely call up for the next U20 camp.
Brooks with the hockey assist on a really nice chip down the wing with terrific backspin.
Brooks looking strong one-v-one.
Brooks in the lineup for Hertha.
And the clueless announcers on Gol TV just called him Jay Brooks (palm hits forehead).
J Brooks, technically that is not a mistake.
You’re right. It’s very common to hear commenters refer to L. Donovan, C. Dempsey, L. Messi and E. Hazard. Oh wait… no it isn’t.
Just because it is uncommon, it does not mean it is a mistake.
Just because it’s not a mistake doesn’t make it unfunny… 🙂 The “spirit” of TomG’s comment still holds true.
JAB will have his hands full with De Bruyne and Dost today, but he looks good so far. He’s very calm and confident back there and he makes quick, confident decisions… maybe too confident?? Not sure but he’s seeing a lot of the ball so far and looks good.
Grat goal by Schurrle and Dost. JAB may have been caught out of position there. Not sure. Couldn’t really tell on the replay.
Blatantly awful refereeing at St. Mary’s with 2 obvious penalties missed for Southampton in the first 5 minutes. The second was insane. Two scousers dragging down the Southampton forward in the middle of the box.
Brilliant strike by Coutinho, though, for the Liverpool goal.
Lots of early action.
Friend is a pathetic ref
It sucks that poor performance seems to have absolutely nothing to do with whether you continue to get trotted out to referee match after match.
ANOTHER missed penalty for Southampton!!! What do they have to do??
Friend is an awful ref, proving it again. the big teams love him of course
So much for Tim Howard retiring a legend at Everton. Seems like the wheels have fallen off. Quick look at some Everton fan forums and they wan’t him out of the lineup ASAP.
Realistically, there are some fans that want players out after every single match, no matter how they perform or how great they’ve been in the past. Some fans just aren’t too bright. Unfortunately, the loudness of the fan tends to correspond in an inverse relationship to their intelligence.
Also, retiring a legend doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with any of this. Iker has been poor this season, but you don’t think Casillas will retire a legend at RM, regardless?
Tim Howard is having a howler of a game
*Fixed* Tim Howard is having a howler of a season.
Brad Guzan is going to have a difficult time claiming a starting XI spot from the Championship after Aston Villa goes down.
If Villa go down there are more than few EPL teams who would consider Guzan an upgrade.
Guzan is a better keeper than Hamid and is likely to remain so for some time.
Howard is still physically adjusting to the dramatic change in his routine. He’s never been out injured this long before. And, as has been pointed out elsewhere his backup is not good.
Maybe Everton will buy Guzan.
He has certainly been inconsistent, though I thought he had been doing pretty well since his return up until today