By SBI SOCCER
After seven games in the English Premier League, Chelsea is in a rut.
The London-based club can attempt to dig itself out, though, against a tough Southampton side.
Chelsea currently has eight points, while Southampton boasts only one more this campaign. Blues boss Jose Mourinho recently said this string of results is the worst of his career, so dropping more points Saturday at Stamford Bridge may be cause for major concern within the Chelsea camp.
In Spain, a tasty affair between Sevilla and Barcelona kicks off at Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. Off-the-field issues have plagued the Spanish giant this season, and a win against a former UEFA Champions League contender would do wonders for the team psyche.
In the afternoon and evening, MLS and Liga MX action takes over, but so to do a couple of CONCACAF Olympic qualifying matches. The U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team squares off against Cuba, hoping to build off of its 3-1 win against Canada.
If you will be watching today’s soccer, 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):
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
7:45 a.m. — NBCSN/NBC Sports Live Extra — Crystal Palace vs. West Bromwich Albion
10 a.m. — NBC Sports Live Extra — Norwich City vs. Leicester City
10 a.m. — NBCSN/NBC Sports Live Extra — Manchester City vs. Newcastle United
10 a.m. — NBC Sports Live Extra — Aston Villa vs. Stoke City
10 a.m. — NBC Sports Live Extra — Bournemouth vs. Watford
10 a.m. — USA Network/NBC Sports Live Extra — Sunderland vs. West Ham United
12:30 p.m. — NBC/NBC Sports Live Extra — Chelsea vs. Southampton
SPANISH LA LIGA
10 a.m. — beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español — Sevilla vs. Barcelona
12:15 p.m. — beIN Sports en Español — Granada vs. Deportivo La Coruña
2:30 p.m. — beIN Sports Connect — Espanyol vs. Sporting Gijón
4 p.m. — beIN Sports Connect — Las Palmas vs. Eibar
4:05 p.m. — beIN Sports Español — Málaga vs. Real Sociedad
GERMAN BUNDESLIGA
9:30 a.m. — Fox Sports 1/Fox Soccer 2Go — Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. VfL Wolfsburg
9:30 a.m. — Fox Soccer 2Go — Hannover 96 vs. Werder Bremen
9:30 a.m. — Fox Soccer 2Go – Hertha Berlin vs. Hamburg SV
9:30 a.m. — Fox Soccer 2Go — Hoffenheim vs. VfB Stuttgart
9:30 a.m. — Fox Soccer 2Go — FC Ingolstadt 04 vs. Eintracht Frankfurt
OLYMPIC QUALIFYING
2:30 p.m. — Telemundo/NBC Deportes En Vivo Extra — Canada vs. Panama
5 p.m. — Telemundo/NBC Deportes En Vivo Extra — Cuba vs. United States
ITALIAN SERIE A
Noon — beIN Sports USA — Carpi vs Torino
2:45 p.m. — beIN Sports USA — Chievo Verona vs. Hellas Verona
MEXICAN LIGA MX
6 p.m. — Univision/Univision Deportes — Club América vs. Chiapas
8 p.m. — Azteca America — Santos Laguna vs. Toluca
8 p.m. — Univision Deportes — Monterrey vs. León
9:30 p.m. — Azteca America — Atlas vs. Tigres UANL
10 p.m. — ESPN Deportes — Dorados vs. Veracruz
ENGLISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
7:30 a.m. — beIN Sports USA — Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Huddersfield Town
MLS
5 p.m. — MLS Live — Toronto FC vs. Philadelphia Union
7 p.m. — MSG/MLS Live — New York Red Bulls vs. Columbus Crew
7:30 p.m. — MLS Live — Orlando City SC vs. Montreal Impact
8:30 p.m. — MLS Live — Chicago Fire vs. New England Revolution
10:30 p.m. — MLS Live — San Jose Earthquakes vs. Vancouver Whitecaps
10:30 p.m. — MLS Live — Portland Timbers vs. Sporting Kansas City
NASL
7:30 p.m. — ESPN3/WatchESPN — Jacksonville Armada vs. Indy Eleven
8 p.m. — ESPN3/WatchESPN — Minnesota United vs. Tampa Bay Rowdies
8:30 p.m. — ESPN3/WatchESPN — San Antonio Scorpions vs. Fort Lauderdale Strikers
NCAA MEN
1 p.m. — ESPN3 — Northern Kentucky vs. Detroit
6 p.m. — ESPN3 — Youngstown State vs. Milwaukee
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Oakland vs. Northern Kentucky
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Detroit vs. Cleveland State
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Valparaiso vs. Oakland
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Fairfield vs. Canisius
8:30 p.m. — ESPN3 — Valparaiso vs. Milwaukee
That Morris – Kiesewetter combo is looking awesome.
There’s only one game they need to be AWSOME, the semifinal game. Canada and Cuba, naaah.
So is Johannsson injured?
No, he just ran out of hair gel.
oh man, he should have got some off of Cameron
Chelsea. …L. O. L
Where were you last year? Go back to your burrow.
I thought deandre was fine today. Hopefully they give him more looks
yea definitely more good than bad. not too involved in the attack for contextual reasons (winning at first and then down to 10 men).
here’s the real question tho, will DA say on as coach? or will it be yet ANOTHER loaned american to a team that loses its coach early on? oh the drama; who needs soap operas?
Well, whoever the coach is, it will be hard to justify not – at the very least – having him in the rotation. He’s shown well and Van Aanholt has been atrocious.
If you are going to have a long career as a pro the chances are you are going to go through a number of managerial changes.
Yedlin’s loan is about getting experience so if Advocaat leaves Yedlin may as well get used to that.
All Deandre can do is play as well as he can and based on his two appearances, he is doing that.
Naturally; I was merely pointing out the unstableness that ensues once a coach is fired. Often players are criticized for “not being good enough to play” when anew coach comes in and doesn’t play said player. Just hoping this isn’t the case of DA leaves
DLOA,
“Often players are criticized for “not being good enough to play” when anew coach comes in and doesn’t play said player.”
From what I have seen over the years , if you look at the players they dress for game day , #1 to about # 18, on a given BPL roster, all of them can play. All of them have the skill and the talent. The key seems to be to get to one of those 18 spots.
There are a lot of games left and it’s a long season but Deandre as had two good games for Sunderland now. So chances are, whatever happens, he will get a chance to make his case.
Advocaat thought enough of Deandre to move Billy Jones, one of their best players according to Advocaat, to left back in order to make room for Deandre.
And this was a big game, a very important game, not some Capitol One throwaway.
It’s possible some new anti American guy will come in and give everyone on SBI a chance to play their Anti-american card but Sunderland are in no position to ignore someone who might be able to help them, even if he comes from Seattle.
Right. I agree. I was mainly just trying to mention this in relation to the people who overreacted and said Green was terrible because he “couldn’t make it on the 18 while on loan” tho the coach was fired shortly after his arrival and did not rate playing a young loanee. I am hoping if something similar happens at Sunderland that people won’t lose faith in yedlin or even claim “he’s not good” etc
I think that Yedlin has looked good enough in his last two games that he has to be given serious consideration as a starter, if not now in the near future, for the US. The means we have Yedlin and FJ at RB. Or, if you move FJ to right wing, then Bedoya gets left out. The other possibility is FJ to LB in place of Beasley and instead of Garza or Shea. If Chandler ever plays well, then he adds depth, too. We certainly have a lot more options than ever before..
Yeah the versatility of guys like FJ, Yedlin, Bedoya, Cameron etc. to play in numerous positions across MF and defense is a nice benefit in ensuring depth and flexibility. One thing I’d actually like to see more of is in-game tactical changes that leverage this advantage and do not involve substitutions (i.e. wingers swithching sides, sustained overllaps between full-backs and wingers). JK has experimented with some of this but rarely in competitive matches. I figure there are not too many teams with the versatility/personnel to try these things…. why not see where it goes?
good point
Diego,
“I figure there are not too many teams with the versatility/personnel to try these things…. why not see where it goes?”
The US already has.
Dempsey has consistently shifted between midfield and striker. In fact that is what he did in the 2010 World Cup in the second half of most of the games.
Fabian, Mikey, Yedlin, Jones, Cameron, Bedoya, Zusi, Shea,Corona, Mix etc., etc.have all had games where they have had to shift to a different position but usually that has been a matter of necessity rather than a desired tactical shift.
No one has nailed down an outfield starter spot for the 2018 World Cup yet so JK needs to find his best starting 11, or 22 first before he starts shifting them around.
Then we are talking about different things. My point is “why no do it intentionally– as part of a strategy?” rather than out of accidental necessity.
We have guuys like Fabian Johnson who can swap sides and move from fullback to MF seamlessly. Let’s use it!
Diego,
You could argue that the sort of versatility you are talking about only happens because the team does not have enough starters who are good enough.
When they were healthy you usually saw the same 11 guys for Barca and Bayern when they have been at their very best in the last 5 years or so.
How do you see this working?
One reason JK plays so many players “out of position” is because tournament (such as the World Cup) card and roster regulations mean that versatility is critical.
An ill timed card or two, an injury here and there and your World Cup tournament is suddenly in a very bad way.
All the guys I mentioned in the previous post and some others are valuable in part because of their versatility.
Brad Evans keeps getting call ups because of his versatility. Even the Champions, Germany, do things like switch Lahm to holding midfielder and play centerbacks as fullbacks.
Gw
This is just my interpretation of his comment but I feel like he’s talking about utilizing it in game in a free flowing way. Thus a LB may overlap one play and just swap to lm for several minutes since the lm can play lb too. It would confuse defenses. Or tactically aim to have someone like FJ make horizontal runs to the opposite side to unbalance the attack momentarily. So less of the idea of players that can play multiple positions and more of players who utilize said flexibility IN GAME frequently to create chaos for the opposition.
DLOA,
“So less of the idea of players that can play multiple positions and more of players who utilize said flexibility IN GAME frequently to create chaos for the opposition.”
Good teams are not phased by that.
At the highest levels you frequently will see anyone attacking and defending. Maybe you forgot JA Brooks starting a play at the halfway line and finishing off the tap in vs, I think, the Netherlands.
What creates chaos is not WHO attacks, but how many attack, mismatches in terms of numbers.
And to do that,among other things, you need to be smarter, fitter and faster than the other guys since, if you don’t score ,you will be exposed on defense unless you get back quick enough.
As Cruyff loves to say, the fastest man on the field is the one who starts running first.
O/t but anyway to find the goals scored by say Wynalda and Joe Max Moore and mcBride scored in the 90s for club and country?
Just searched on… ‘goals scored by Joe Max Moore wiki’ and got a link with listings of his club-by-club + USMNT goals.
So this IS still Sunderland??
Haha.
Sure Yedlin should’ve stayed with his man, but the keeper has to control that first.
No way to blame the second goal on Yedlin either. He has to hold the line, and there is no way he can recover from that position after the keeper spills that ball. Had to be punched away if not caught cleanly. I have been very critical of Yedlin, so not just blindly sticking up for him here. Nothing in either of those goals was on him though.
But why was cattermole defending for him in the first place?
it seems DA wants his fullbacks tucking in with the mids helping cover the wings. i feel you tho, it looks weird to me but they’ve been doin it constantly so it appears it’s tactics
I’m not sure, to be honest. Their shape was fine though, so as DLOA says, it seems to be by design.
Yedlin had a fairly good half in my view, but it’s hard not to allocate some blame to him for the WH goal.
Why? He went to double the ball and prevented the cross. Whoever was defending on the ball got beat on the cut back and allowed the cross in. Yedlin did his part as the second defender.
THAT is what i thought Lens would be doing this whole season… better goal
Yes, Yedlin’s starting.
You mean we’re actually going to discuss an American Abroad during a game?? Thank gawd.
No more:
-top five strikers in the world? Suarez or …?
-or: don’t you miss Dempsey at Fulham??
gotta give credit where credit’s due: that was a good goal by Sunderland………. (albeit scared GKing by WHU)
Danny Williams with the opener for Reading!
nice, i’d like for him to develop into a jones-beckerman hybrid for the NT
(cracks knuckles)…
LoL West Ham
haha touché…
it’s not over yet
LoL Sunderland
wait for it…
(I still feel WHU have a game winner in them… lol)
meh…
sunderland… l…o…l…….
No AJ for Werder again and no Brooks for Hertha. Guessing will be at the Rose Bowl.
Yedlin starting at RB for Sunderland. Against my better judgement I’ll be watching that dumpster fire of a team again.
Somehow they look like gods so far. Very weird.
That appears the be the West Ham special this year. Lose to bad teams. Beat the good teams.