De Silvestri of Lazio vs Pato of Milan at Stadio Olimpico in Rome, 1 Feb 2009. (Photo by New Press/Getty Images)
We’ve been persusing this weekend’s list of televised matches–and we’re coming across a lot to recommend. So as we continue whittling down the list for Saturday and Sunday, here are two matches today that you might tune in for. Check back within the next 24hrs for our picks for the rest of the weekend…
Friday, Sept 9
Italy, AC Milan-Lazio 2:45pmET (FSC, Fox Deportes, ESPN3.com): It’s the belated Serie A season opener–Friday Night Lights at the San Siro! These are two teams that should be near the top of the table throughout. AC Milan picked up another Scudetto last season, while Lazio is looking to improve on their 5th place finish. Plenty of players to watch for on both sides..
Portugal, Porto-Setubal 3:15pmET ESPN3.com: We rarely tune in for a Liga Sagres match, since we get sucked into the major leagues most weekends (Englad, Spain, occasionally Germany). But you might switch over from the Serie A match to catch a bit of this, especially since Porto is the defending title-holder in Portugal, and will be hosting Shakhtar Donetsk Tuesday in the first Champions League matchday.
Given our Anglocentric view of the footballing world, the pre-group stage UEFA Champions League qualifying playoffs have primarily been about Arsenal’s challenging tie against Udinese. But there’s more going on–much much more, including some interesting 2nd leg matches today.
Here’s the full schedule of today’s and tomorrow’s fixtures, from UEFA’s site. The matches we’ll keeping an eye on are two involving rather “big” clubs from two of the continent’s big leagues: Zürich vs Bayern München & Villarreal vs Odense BK.
Will OB sink El Submarino Amarillo?
Bayern won 2-0 last week against the Swiss club (founded, we just learned yesterday, by the same man who went on to found FC Barcelona). So barring a lopsided upset today in Zürich they should advance to the group stage. On the other hand, Danish OB (not to be confused with the true Korean beer) surprised the heavily favored Submarino Amarillo 1-0 at home in Odense (the 3rd largest city in Denmark, with a population of approx 167,000).
So Villareal will have to win at home, and by at least 2 goals. But we’ll be looking for that to happen, given their “imperious home form“at El Madrigal and high-scoring abilities (via strikers Giuseppe “Jersey-born” Rossi and Brazilian Nilmar, and midfielders Cani, Borja Valero, Bruno Soriano and team captain Marcos Senna–the latter three of whom have all earned caps with the Spanish national team–no mean feat given the current generation of Spanish midfielders: Xavi, Iniesta, David Silva, Cesc Fabregas, Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets).
We’ll be back soon with an account of what we watched this past weekend, but first there are two matches later today that are worthy of your attention:
This is an annual pre-season friendly hosted by Barcelona each August, named after Joan (nee Hans) Gamper–a Swiss player and businessman, and founding member of FC Zurich. He moved to Barcelona in 1898, where he founded, played for, and then served as club president of FC Barcelona (cf. Chapter 4 of Jimmy Burns’ definitive history of the club, Barça: A People’s Passion).
Aurilio De Laurentiis' Napoli goes into the Lion's Den to face Barcelona today
For this trophy, Barcelona invites a club from outside Spain to play at the Camp Nou; the past few years have seen top clubs like AC Milan, Man City, Boca Junions, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, and Juventus travel to Barcelona. Today it’s another Serie A club, one that has emerged as a challenger to the Milanese hegemony in Italy.
Napoli finished 3rd in Serie last season, behind the two Milan team, so we’ll be seeing them in the Champions League this fall. Their breakout star last year was 24-year-old Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani–he scored a club-record 26 goals in Serie A last season, his first with Napoli after they’d signed him away from Palermo. Napoli showed they’re serious about challenging in Serie A–and perhaps even in the Champions League–by extending Cavani’s contract until 2016.
Not only that, they added to their squad over the summer by signing Swiss-Turkish midfielder Gökhan Inler away from Udinese (who, by contrast with Napoli, sold off their star players following their strong finish in Serie A last season).
And of course on the other side of the ball it’s only the best club side of our era. Given that it’s just a friendly, we’ll be watching for some of the second-stringers to get more playing time: new/recent arrivals Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez and Ibrahim Affelay, as well as La Masia graduate Thiago Alcântara. Consider that those four (Thiago and Cesc in the midfield, in the spots where Xavi and Iniesta usually run things; Sanchez and Affeley on the wings), plus current starters Messi and Busquets, form a front six (in Barça 4-3-3) for the next decade–Cesc and Affelay are the senior members of that lineup at 24 and 25, respectively.
EPL, Manchester United-Tottenham Hotspur (3pmET, ESPN2/ESPN3.com): A more consequential match than the one above. It’s Tottenham’s season opener, after their Week One fixture was postponed in the wake of the London riots–and they have the tough draw of going into Old Trafford to face defending title-holders ManU. Here are Coach Larry’s thoughts on the match:
Considering we know (assume?) that Spurs will make significant changes to their team before the window closes, how they lineup should prove interesting. United’s squad appears settled, and now they have the youth (back from loan spells) they lacked last term. ManU should lock down the midfield area to protect their central defense, but Rafael van der Vaart could prove a challenge. Tottenham’s back line represents their most consistent group and their matchup against United’s attack probably will offset.
Our resident Spurs fan John Lally is optimistic: “I really fancy spurs to put in a performance today. Ashley Young is their biggest threat but hopefully we start [Croatian] Kranjčar again in the middle. I’ll say 2-2”
Also optimistic is the Guardian’s Barney Ronay, who writes that the Spurs may “wing” their way to victory, thus ending to their long drought at Old Trafford (their last win there was in December 1989!)–that is to say, that the matchups to watch will be on the wings, where Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon will be running at Man U depleted defense.
It was shaping up to be a packed weekend, with some interesting EPL matchups and the start of the La Liga season in Spain. But alas, Spanish football is still in shambles, with the players on strike over unpaid wages. Hopefully that will be resolved over the coming week so that we’ll see those interesting fixtures next weekend. In the meantime, let’s take a look at the EPL games that we’ll be watching–along with the FIFA U20 World Cup final:
Saturday, August 20
EPL, Sunderland-Newcastle (7amET, ESPN3.com): An early kickoff for this edition of the Tyne-Wear derby. Last year this fixture resulted in a Sunderland suffering an embarrassing 5-1 thrashing–though Kevin Nolan scored 3 of those goals, and Andy Carroll was on the pitch for Newcastle as well.
This year Sunderland is probably picked my most to finish above their cross-town rivals. See Coach Larry’s thoughts on Sunderland following their draw with Liverpool last Saturday.
Arsenal fans would be happy if Arshavin scored even 1/4 as many tomorrow
EPL, Arsenal-Liverpool (7:45amET, ESPN2/ESPN3.com): Another early morning game for those of us in the US–is it worth waking up for? Liverpool supporter & observer Coach Larry weighs in:
I think for the fans of the two teams it is. Both teams are trying to adjust to their new players still, and with the high stakes involved for the two, I’m not sure either will be too adventurous. They did do this in 2009.
Suarez might just have the full run of the middle of the pitch with Arsenal without Wilshere (injured) or Song (suspended) in the midfield. Stuart Downing and Enrique taking on Sagna should also add some fun. We should get more info on whether Dalglish has in mind rotations/matchups or starters/subs for his eight MFs at least.
RVP will give Carragher and Agger a rough time, and the Gunners should try and attack in spaces behind both left and right back. But the usual question remains, if they do, will they convert the chances into goal attempts. And they also have to solve a left back issue considering Gibbs’ and Djourou’s balky hamstrings.
From the numerous Arsenal-supporting branch of the CultFootball family, Tyler opines that Gunners fans and pundits are overly pessimistic. (Case in point: longtime Arsenal supporter Eddie wrote in: “I have to say, this is the most depressing start of season for Arsenal. I will feel compelled to watch the game, as I would video-clips of a tsunami disaster..” Last week while watching Newcastle-Arsenal together at the Chip Shop, Eddie mentioned how he started following the Gunners as a young lad in Singapore–actually he converted from supporting Leeds United, back in the days of Don Revie and Brian Clough. Naturally we immediately commissioned him to write the 2nd installment of our “They Reminsce” series. Look for that in the coming weeks.) On the other hand, Kirby joins Tyler in his cautious optimism: “I truly believe that it could be both a good match, and if Arsenal wins, a huge boost for the challenges ahead. A depleted squad goes in, but Robin, Vermaelan, Sagna. Who knows, maybe Arshavin will decide the time is right to be kickass again and bag 4 goals. Looks like Nasri may be playing tomorrow, btw. That just made the game a bit more star-powered.”
EPL, Chelsea-West Brom (12:30pm, FSC): Our resident Chelsea supporter, who prefers to go by the nom de plume The Cunning Linguist, writes in with these thoughts on the Blues after their lackluster scoreless draw opener against Stoke: “I hope people start giving ManU some stick for spending money. I’m sure no one will forget the 50mm quid on el niño, who looked very sharp and dangerous. Too bad his supply line is crap; Salomon still hasn’t got a kalou and Malouda is, well, he’s French. I prefer Anelka on the right as a wide man and would like to see Benayoun in the mix. Chelsea don’t impress me and doubt they’ll do much this season. May have to start cheering for QPR.”
FIFA U20 World Cup Final, Brazil-Portugal (9pm, ESPN3.com): We have to admit, we haven’t been watching the U20 World Cup. So we might as well tune in for this all-Lusophone final. We’ve variously heard over the past week that the best teams in this tournament were ones that didn’t make the final (Spain, according to Jonathan Wilson, and Mexico, according to Tommy, who also had some unflattering comments about Portugal: “they start that flopping crime in Portugal early. I’ve been watching a lot of the U20 Cup, and the final 30 minutes of Wednesday’s Portugal showing vs France was humiliating. Apparently France had several snipers posted in the stadium because the Portu-gals were going down like they were on an adult film set. Bad news for the US – the Mexican U20s look great. They may have lost to the Brazilians in the semis, but they were the best team I saw. Gddmmit.”)
Sunday, August 21
EPL, Bolton-Man City (11am, FSC): Both teams put in 4 last weekend, albeit against newly promoted sides (QPR and Swansea, respectively), and hence are at the top of the table after one week. All eyes will be on Kun Agüero’s after his Premier League debut performance–two goals sandwiched around a spectacular assist to David Silva, all after coming as a substitute in the second half.
Joey Barton welcomes Gervinho to life in the Premier League with an embrace
Us Arsenal fans have been approaching the beginning of this new campaign with a sense of dread. On the field, the team fell of a cliff last spring–in quick sucession, they handed the Carling Cup to Birmingham in the waning minutes; got eliminated from the Champions League yet again by nemesis Barcelona, and fell from within striking distance of the top of the Premier League to barely hanging on to a Champions League spot. Then came the usual dreaded drama of off-season transfers. The Cesc-back-to-Barcelona negotiations dragged out all summer, until finally being consummated just yesterday. But worse than that (most Gunners fans had already bid adieu to their displaced Catalan captain), rivals Man City poached experience defender Gaël Clichy, and then came the disconcerting news that rising star Samir Nasri wanted out too. As of now, Nasri is still ostensiby on the squad, but he too might follow in the ignominious footsteps of former Gunners Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Adebayor, and now Clichy, trading in Arsenal’s bright red for City’s sky blue.
On the other hand, Arsene yet again failed to offer the fans some hope with a big move in the transfer market. The only player that he brought in during this transfer window (so far, at least) is yet another Francophone West African, albeit one with a Brazilian-style single moniker: Gervinho, from Ligue 1’s Lyon. Plus many Gunners followers were disappointed that Wenger failed to sell underachievers like Denilson, Andrei Arshavin, or Nicholas Bendtner.
And so it was with some trepidation that we tuned in to Saturday’s season opener at Newcastle upon Tyne–especially since last year’s fixture at Newcastle was among the lowest of many low points last season. And although the result was a rather lackluster scoreless draw, with more attention drawn to red cards given and not, this Arsenal observer was encouraged by the team’s performance. One got the feeling that the players on the pitch had already put the Fabregas and Nasri nonsense aside, and were focused on getting on with things.
We thought there was some good combination play among the front 5 or 6: captain Robin Van Persie up front; Tomáš Rosický in the center of the midfield, filling (for now) the playmaker role Cesc used to boss; Arshavin on one wing again, but Gervinho getting the start on the other; and behind them stalwart Alex Song and the rising Aaron Ramsey in the holding roles (with Jack Wilshere unfortunately injured for now). Predictably the Gunners all too frequently failed to find the final ball for the finish, but the quick attacks off one & two-touch passing was there, with Gervinho in particular providing some aggression and excitement off the wings. Interestingly, he and Arshaving switched sides multiple times in the first half alone, causing both the viewer and the Newcastle defense some confusion.
The good news for Arsenal fans was no news on defense–it was solid, allowing Newcastle few good chances on goal, and not making any glaring errors. The return, finally, of center back Thomas Vermalaen is great news–he, Koscielny and Johann Djourou give the Gunners some solidity in the center of the defense. On the outside defense, we can count on Bacary Sagna, and youngster Kieran Gibbs had a good game stepping into the starting role vacated by Clichy; both of them got forward on occasion, providing extra width in attack.
But alas, it was a couple fracases involving Joey Barton that grabbed the headlines. First an Alex Song stamp on the ankle in the first half that the ref failed to notice, and then Barton grabbing Gervinho by the scruff of his jersey and hauling him up after he’d perceived that the Ivorian had taken a dive in the box (replays show that Cheikh Tiote may have in fact clipped him). The ref missed that initial Barton no-no (understandably, as he was following the play up the field and had his back turned), but didn’t miss Gervinho giving Barton a little tap on the cheek. The arbiter had no choice but to give Gervinho a red card in his Premier League debut.
If you missed the game, here is BBC’s Match of the Day segment–highlights followed by commentary and analysis by host (and former England captain) Gary Lineker, former Newcastle United captain Alan Shearer and Liverpool and Scotland defender Alan Hansen:
That brings us to today–Arsenal’s 2nd game in a very tricky opening stretch is the first leg of a Champions League playoff tie against Italians Udinese. Udinese were a revelation in Serie A last year, climing to 4th place to claim a Champions League spot for the first time since 2005-06, finishing up traditional powers like Lazio, Roma, and Juventus. Here is what SerieAWeekly.com had to say in a column from last May, titled “Why Udinese Finishing Fourth Is Good for Serie A“, a couple weeks before the close of the season:
The opening matches of the 2011-12 English (sorry, Barclays) Premier League kick off in less than an hour–not to mention the fact that Ligue 1 and Bundesliga have been already been going to a minute. So, just in the nick of time, we’re back with our weekend preview–here’s our picks for what you could/should be tuning in for this weekend.
(As usual, we’re US ET-centric with our listings info included below; take a look at livesoccer.tv for your local listings.)
Saturday, Aug 13
Germany, Wolfsburg-Bayern Munich 9:30am GolTV
A Bundesliga match to kick things off. It’ll be interesting to see if Bayern can rebound from their disappointing finish last spring. Says goal.com: “The Bavarian giants travel to Lower Saxony to meet their former coach Felix Magath and will be looking to bounce back following their opening day defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach”
At sports bars and gyms and generally anywhere Americans congregated Sunday, people celebrated soccer like it was the national sport. Until last week, I doubt if hardly anyone knew a Women’s World Cup even existed, let alone any player’s name, from any country. But as with the Olympics, if any American is in the running for the gold for any sport, be it badminton, fast walking or synchronized swimming, people who may have badmouthed the sport just the day previous keep their eyes glued to the TV. As a nation, we are ardent fans of [fill in the blank], provided there’s a medal involved.
The thrill of the soccer pitch thrilled like never before, literally. Every shot on goal elicited gasps, clapping, hoping against hope, you name it, by yes, the very same people who say soccer isn’t a real sport like American football. Politics may split America into roughly equal halves, but when it comes to winning something, the country bands together as one, jingoistic as jingo can be.
Admittedly, that was somewhat of a rant. But as everyone loves bitching and whining, I’ll continue in a related vein.
The majority of Americans have always denigrated soccer and deemed it downright wimpy when compared to American football, even if all evidence points to the contrary. Slide tackles, snapped legs, knees and ankles, cleat studs raked across faces, all without the full body armor of American football, these are but details. And why does it matter? Extreme physicality and the threat of real bodily harm exist in both sports. I’ve heard people disdain baseball for being boring but never for being less violent than football. And what of basketball, the pushing and the pulling in abundance, but if it gets too rough you can bet the man in the black-and-white stripes will blow his trusty whistle.
In his How Soccer Explains the World, Franklin Foer theorizes that although American upper middle-class parents champion soccer for kids at early ages for confidence building and team play, it’s only as a sports placeholder. Parents cleave to the “let’s not keep score, everyone wins” kindergarten mantra until the child (or boy, really) can at last strap on the body armor and do battle on the football field. Much of the American football hegemony stems from inertia (father’s father taught by his father, and now onto the son), as well as class (in non-Latino communities, few inner-city kids are similarly encouraged to play at a young age). Soccer gets tagged as a sort of yuppie’s game, which is deeply ironic in a global perspective. Soccer is one of the few sports that anyone of any income bracket (and really, of any size) can play. Ask Maradona, for example.
We’re nearing the end of the lull between the end of the European club season and the start of the major international tourney of this summer (Copa America, which starts a week from Friday)–but the three remaining competitions we’ve been tracking converge today, yielding up five matches to watch: the semifinal matches in both the UEFA U21 European Champions and the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and the 2nd leg of the Copa Libertadores final between Santos and Peñarol. Here’s today’s schedule:
All Times U.S. Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4) (Local Times in parentheses)
UEFA U21 European Championships Semifinals (fixtures via here)
(Both these matches will be broadcast live in the US on ESPN Deportes and also available for streaming on ESPN3.com.)
Spain is the clear favorite and the team to watch (in order to see young Spanish stars like Javi Martínez (Athletic Bilbao); Juan Mata (Valencia); Adrián López (Deportivo La Coruña); and the Barcelona trio of Jeffrén, Bojan Krkić, and Thiago Alcântara (although looks Barcelona is selling Bojan to AS Roma, and both Jeffrén and Thiago have been mentioned in transfer rumors as well).
In any case, it should be a cakewalk for Spain today against surprise qualifiers Belarus (who advanced out of Group A ahead of Iceland and hosts Denmark based on goal difference). We don’t know much about the Swiss or Czech squads, but the names that came up on “players to watch” lists and tournament previews were Czech strikers Libor Kozák (Lazio) and Tomas Pekhart (Slavia Prague; previously with Tottenham Hotspur), and Swiss(-Albanian/Yugoslav) midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri (FC Basel).
(The USA-Panama game will be shown live on FSC; both games will be on Univision and available for streaming on UnivisionFutbol.com.)
The USMNT seemed to finally get its act together on Sunday, defeating Jamaica 2-0 in the quarterfinals, following decidedly lackluster performances in the group stage: close wins against Canada and Guadeloupe on either side of a shock loss to Panama. Let’s see if Bob Bradley can get his tactics right and his players motivated to beat Panama this time around–and hang on to his job at least a little longer.
In the other semi, Honduras squeaked by Costa Rica on PKs last Saturday at the New Meadowlands, while Mexico surprisingly needed two second half goals to get by Guatemala. Prior to that, though, Mexico had been blowing the competition out of the water, and that could likely happen again tonight in Houston.
Copa Libertadore Final – Second leg (fixture via here)
We watched the first leg match in Montevideo last Wednesday (after following our friend’s journey back to Montevideo over the preceding two days). Even though it ended as a scoreless draw, it was rather exciting and eventful, with missed chances for both sides. Here is Jonathan Wilson on that match (read the whole column for a typically Wilsonian detailed tactical analysis):
