By ADAM TROXTELL
Liverpool’s hopes of a UEFA Champions League spot hinge on today’s encounter with Chelsea.
The Reds travel to Stamford Bridge knowing a win is the only way they can keep pace with Manchester United in fourth place. Liverpool has not beaten English Premier League champions Chelsea since May of 2012.
In Italy, Lazio’s place in the top three may be in jeopardy if the Rome club cannot top Inter Milan at home. Inter has not lost in its last six outings, but is realistically only chasing down a Europa League spot at this stage.
Sevilla can pull within one point of fourth place Valencia with a win against Celta Vigo in La Liga action.
The U.S. Women’s National Team headlines the afternoon with a World Cup warm-up against Ireland. That match leads into MLS action, as Toronto FC plays its first home game against the Houston Dynamo before the New York Red Bulls battle city rivals New York City FC.
Liga MX wraps up its regular season today, and Tigres can assure a top of the table finish with a win against Toluca.
If you will be watching any of today’s action, feel free to leave your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (today’s soccer on TV schedule after the jump):
6 a.m. — beIN Sports en Espanol — Levante vs. Atletico Madrid
8:30 a.m. — CNBC — Manchester City vs. QPR
9:30 a.m. — GolTV USA — Paderborn vs. Wolfsburg
9:30 a.m. — Fox Soccer Plus — Aberdeen vs. Celtic
11 a.m. — NBCSN — Chelsea vs. Liverpool
11 a.m. — beIN Sports en Espanol — Villarreal vs. Elche
11:30 a.m. — GolTV USA — Koln vs. Schalke
1 p.m. — beIN Sports en Espanol — Almeria vs. Malaga
1 p.m. — Univision — Toluca vs. Tigres
2 p.m. — ESPN3 — New York Cosmos vs. FC Edmonton
2:45 p.m. — beIN Sports USA — Lazio vs. Inter
3 p.m. — beIN Sports en Espanol — Celta de Vigo vs. Sevilla
3 p.m. — Fox Sports 1 — USWNT vs. Ireland
5 p.m. — ESPN2 — Toronto FC vs. Houston Dynamo
5:30 p.m. — GolTV USA — Vasco da Gama vs. Goias
6 p.m. — UniMas — Guadalajara vs. Morelia
7 p.m. — Fox Sports 1 — New York Red Bulls vs. New York City FC
Haha jozy. Got out muscled by Houston’s goalie on the TFC goal after math.
a bit hyperbolic. your statement implies he either had the ball first or had equal share in possession of the ball to start. the gk fell on it and jozy trying to pull it out of his clutched arms……
and to add to above comments, this, for example, isn’t rude. i disagree with his perception of the situation (as well as thee following joke based off said false perception), thus i commented back
TFC why aren’t you throwing numbers forward. It’s almost like they’re content being down 2 -0 with 15 min 2 go. ..wtf.
yea but they looked sluggish from the start. not the best showing for the first home game.
i did like that TFC’s GK almost scored the equalizer– had it not been a soft bouncing bunt of a header.
I merely was excited about a Yank Abroad’s superb strike from distance. If you want to pursue arguing over semantics I’ll kindly excuse myself from the dialogue. I assure you my skills of perception are quite adequate yet, it seems, these forums represent opportunities for others to engage in negativity. For shame.
geez, i am sorry, sir…… perhaps the friendly jest did not come off friendly. I merely and jokingly said you lacked perception skills; is that the end of the world. did i insult your family? threaten you? poke at something you’re really self conscious about? again, i never aim to hurt anyone’s feelings, i guess i just assume we’re all mature enough to handle a lil internet banter……. at the end of the day is it really that rude that i disagree on whether the ball knuckled or not? had i called you unintelligent or a slur then sure but we all need to relax. theres far worse “bullying” out there.
fwiw sorry for all the emotional damage caused.
TFC playing like they’re on the road still… lol
Considering A.J.’s goal could have guaranteed Europe for AZ and it was a 25 yard out knuckled, I’d say it’s “worthy” of consideration, bruh!
“knuckled”??… sounds like you don’t know the meaning of that term.
the ball was spinning quickly, thus negating the possibility of it knuckling ….
and perhaps i was misunderstood; do you guys think this is GOTY relative to just US soccer or the entire world? Because if you think this is a GOTY relative to the world’s highlights then again i say: BRUH…..
PS- it was quite easily 36+ yes out, but since you think it knuckled I should have known your perception skills were lacking.
Seems kind of harsh for no reason. I might not think it was a Goal of the Year candidate, even for a U.S. player, but I’d hardly fault the enthusiasm over it. Also, I’m not sure how anyone can say definitively that it did or did not knuckle, given that (a) AJ is out of frame when he shoots it and (b) the video is a side-view. I’d say the “knuckling” remark is at least defensible. The SBI comment section really is becoming more message board-like every day.
“Considering A.J.’s goal could have guaranteed Europe for AZ and it was a 25 yard out knuckled, I’d say it’s “worthy” of consideration, bruh!”
this was his statement. there are several off things about this statement which sparked my response. perhaps my second comment was a bit much but we’re all grown ups here right? you had to enter your SSN to comment here, too, right? further, the shot was a lot farther than 25 out, it didn’t knuckle judging by the DEFINITIVE curve on the ball (perhaps you also watched other replays and other views of the goal rather than that crappy vine clip, right?), and just because it MAYBE gets a team barely into Europa (not Champions even) doesn’t mean it’s GOTY worthy. That being said, i am a big AJ fan and am super happy he scored that. its a good goal from distance– in which he was unmarked for 7 seconds…
that is all.
happy mother’s day
Brendan Rodgers really is very fortunate to be at Liverpool, who are historically among the least-trigger happy “big” European clubs when in comes to firing managers. I actually like this attitude and feel that the “fire everybody at the first sign of disappointment” mentality that has done nothing to improve the quality of the game, despite having become the almost universal philosophy of global soccer.
But he’s had a lot of time now, and I’d really like for him to begin showing us what has justified this faith. Realistically, he just hasn’t actually achieved anything for the club, and I can’t really think of an argument of how the club is “better off” by measurable standard. The performances week-upon-week are wildly inconsistent and don’t suggest that there is much of a blueprint in place. I do not know he contrived to crash out of the ridiculously soft CL group Liverpool drew this past year. I guess he won’t have that problem next season….
Most disturbing for LFC fans should be his consistent ineptitude in the transfer market. Liverpool have the ambition and resources to be an elite European team. Ain’t gonna happen with these players. He’s brought in mediocrity by the boatload at absurd valuations. Coutinho has been the only clear example of “good value”.
You can only blame the loss of Suarez (who Rodgers didn’t acquire in the first place) for so long. The apparent two-pronged strategy of bringing in well-known garbage like Balotelli, and lesser-known garbage like Markovic has predictably yielded…. garbage.
He has had some good days. Sometimes, he actually looks like a good tactician. So I’m not going to call for his head just yet. But the standard needs to come up. This guy should be on borrowed time.
I think the lack of backline cohesion needs to be addressed as well. Too often burned on set pieces, and Skrtel and Lovren IMO do not complement each other.
And to your point about lack of consistency, too much tinkering with the match day lineup (yes, to some extent necessitated by injuries). LFC started to show their potential with Sterling up top (I know, not a true striker) supported by Coutinho and Lallana but then any cohesion and style of play disrupted by perplexing selections like inserting Balotelli, etc.
AJ with a Goal of the Year worthy, 88th minute winner for AZ today to keep them in hunt for Europa League automatic qualification. Wait until you see this goal!!
GOTY??? you’re kidding right? sure it was a fun goal from distance but bruh….
Looks like QPR will be officially joining Burnley in the Championship next season. The Fighting Tigers of Hull City will probably join them on the final match day of the season.
Which one of those three clubs will return to the top flight first?
Doesn’t seem like QPR has somehow been relegated in each of the past 10 seasons? I feel like there was one campaign where they actually captured all three relegation spots, I can’t wait to see them somehow pop up again in the topflight next year, with a fresh and inexplicably expensive new crop of burn-outs, career under-performers, and occasionally talented sociopaths