Matchday 5! Eight games today (2 each in Groups E-H) and eight more tomorrow (Groups A-D). The end of the Group stage is fast approaching: Matchday 6 is in two weeks, Dec 7-8, at which point the top two in each Group advance to the Knockout phase (which doesn’t begin until mid-Feb).
With that in mind, we give you not only this week’s fixtures, but also all the current group standings–and we take a quick look at how things are shaping up for which clubs will likely advance out of each group. If you haven’t been paying sufficient attention over the past couple months/four Matchdays, here’s your chance to catch up:
(Note: as usual, we have pulled the list of fixtures–and here the group standings–from UEFA.com, with links preserved to club, group, and match pages–click through any of the links below for news, previous results, lineups, etc.)
We’re back with our picks for the weekend–as usual, culled from the SoccerInsider’s comprehensive listing of matches being televised in the US this weekend (all times ET):
Don't look at me, I'm hideous
Saturday (Nov 20)
England, Spurs-Arsenal 7:30 a.m. ESPN2, ESPN Deportes: an early kickoff the match of the weekend te heated North London derby! Check what our resident Spurs and Arsenal supporters had to say about this one, here and here.
Spain, Valencia-Villarreal noon ESPN Deportes: 3rd and 4th in the La Liga table–cf. Sid Lowe’s column devoted to Villareal after their match v Hercules a few weeks ago.
Netherlands, Ajax-PSV Eindhoven 2:45p.m. ESPN3.com: We usually don’t include streaming-only matches, but will make an exception for this battle of Dutch heavyweights. If you’re only going to watch one Eredivisie matchup all season, might as well be this game. Via FIFA’s “Classic Rivalries” feature:
While older Ajax fans may always view Feyenoord as their arch-rivals, younger supporters have just as much deep-seated rivalry with PSV, who represent not just thoroughbred sporting adversaries but advocates of another philosophy of how the game should be played. True heavyweights of the Dutch footballing landscape, PSV have fully earned the right to be considered Klassieker opponents.
[…]
Since 2000, PSV have won the league on seven occasions, putting together a run of four consecutive titles between 2005 and 2008, including a 2007 triumph that went down to the final moments in the last round of games. That run of success has not gone down particularly well at the Arena, where a series of coaches have come and gone without being able to shift the spotlight back on to Ajax. Instead, their arch-rivals have taken over as the team most successful at defending Dutch colours in Europe, having reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in 2005.
Indeed, it’s shaping up that way again: PSV is atop the table, while Ajax is chasing them, currently in 3rd place (with Twente in between).
Spain, Real Madrid-Bilbao 4 p.m. GolTV: Will Madrid keep rolling towards El Clasico? (Which is a week from Monday btw…yes Monday, due to some Catalonia election over that weekend) Bilbao is one of the handful of teams in the middle of the table (they’re currently 8th) that are battling to finish 3rd. Bilbao do have a dangerous striker up front in 6’5” Fernando Llorente (the Lion King, apparently: “Un ‘Rey Leon’ en el area“)–he and Capdevila of Villareal are just about the only La Liga players who are not on Barcelona or Real Madrid that are getting playing time on the nat’l team.
Germany, Bayern Munich-Bayer Leverkusen 6 p.m. ESPN Deportes: A good Bundesliga rivalry, with Munich 6th in the table, recovering from a poor start, while Leverkusen is 2nd (chasing Borussia Dortmund). Leverkusen’s fans have been confidently looking forward to taking on Munich, according to this:
The Beatles’ most oompaloompaish tune has long been staple terrace fare in the Bundesliga but it was still surprising to hear the old chestnut on Saturday at the Millerntor. Bayer Leverkusen were beating St Pauli 1‑0 when the visiting supporters started chanting that slightly rejigged, teutonified version of “Yellow Submarine”.
“Zieht den Bayern die Lederhosen aus” (take away Bayern’s lederhosen), went the ever-popular cry.
Sunday (Nov 21)
England, Fulham-Manchester City 11 a.m. FSC: Dempsey seems to be playing very well, if he is a bit dim. As for Man City, clearly Mancini should be feeling the heat for the style of play, even as they remain fourth in the table. They fired Hughes last year when he was spot on the benchmarks they set for him. Honestly, it is hard watching them play at times with no wide players and three holding midfielders.
MLS Cup, Colorado-Dallas 8:30 p.m. ESPN, Galavision Live from Toronto. We’re sure to dip in and make a comment before kickoff.
Monday
England, Everton-Sunderland 3 p.m. ESPN Deportes: How will Sunderland follow up that crushing of Chelsea? Will we see Gyan score again–so that we can see him dance again? And if so, WWBD (what will Bolo do)?
Wednesday brings a number of full slate of international friendlies–some 20 matches, taking place all over the globe. See here for the full list of fixtures–for those of us in the US a few the most attractive matchups will be broadcast live:
Brazil-Argentina (12pmET on ESPN2 & ESPN Deportes; tape at 10pmET on ESPN Deportes): The big one of the day! The South American rivals meet in a neutral location–Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar.
South Africa-USA (2pmET on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes & Galavision): The USMNT returns to South Africa to face the World Cup hosts in Cape Town.
England-France (3pmET Fox Soccer Channel): live from Wembley!
Portugal-Spain (4pmET on ESPN Deportes; tape at 8pmET on ESPN Deportes): The World Cup champions will travel to Estadio do Luz in Lisbon to meet their Iberian rivals.
Except for the England-France match, the above matches plus a handful more will be streamed on ESPN3.com; check the SoccerInsider’s rundown here.
As per our custom, some prime picks from the full listings provided by Steven Goff at the Washington Post.
If you see one match this weekend...
Saturday
Juventus-Roma 2:30 p.m. FSC: Matchup between two giants who aren’t up to form this season. Both are looking to hit the turning point before the impending holiday break.
Barça-Villarreal 4pm ESPN Deportes: In-form Villarreal are hanging onto the coat-tails of the big two and they make the trip to the Nou Camp on Saturday in third place and just two points behind Barça. Teaneck NJ-born Rossi & Brazilian Nilmar are the starting strikers and leading scorers, while Altidore has played in the Copa del Rey & Europa league, but has only one La Liga appearance.
Newcastle-Fulham 5pm FSC: Andy Carroll at one end, Clint Dempsey at the other. No Joey Barton in the middle though, he’s out in the streets tripping the blind.
MLS playoffs, Colorado-San Jose 9:30 p.m. FSC
Sunday
Lazio-Napoli 6:30 a.m. FSP: These teams stand 2nd and 3rd in Serie A, should be a great second in Italy today, only to…
Inter Milan-AC Milan 2:30 p.m. FSC: Derby della Madonnina This will be the 175th meeting of the two milano giants. To our favorite public domain resource for deeper backstory: Milan Derby
America-Pumas 5:30 p.m. Telefutura: Clásico Capitalino, one of the strongest rivalries between two of the most popular teams in Mexico, played between two of the three teams which represent Mexico City
We know Lazio was Il Duce's fave team, but take it easy on the Roman salutes this weekend, ok?
Listings for what’s on TV taken again from Soccer Insidercourtesy of the kind and gracious Steven Goff at the Washington Post:
SATURDAY
England, Bolton-Spurs 8:30 a.m. ESPN2, ESPN Deportes Will be funny to see if Steinsson handles Gareth Bale better than Maicon did on Tuesday. Guessing the first yellow will appear inside 5 minutes. Maybe ole ‘Arry will rest Bale as he is now the best player in the world.
Germany, Moenchengladbach-Bayern Munich 10:30 a.m. ESPN Deportes (Out of respect for the Bayern fan that was in the bar with us Wednesday afternoon..and who is Gründer, Gesellschafter und Berater of http://koelnsport.de/)
With yesterday's first eight games of this Matchday completed (Matchday 4.1, if you will)--highlighted by Spurs demolishing defending champion FC Internazionale Milano by a score of 3-1 (which in turn was highlighted by young Welshman Gareth Bale "terrorizing" Inter with his streaks down the left side of the pitch)--we move on to Matchday 4.2. Eight more matches later today! We'll be gathering at CultFootball headquarters to watch Real Madrid playing Associazione Calcio Milan in the San Siro (though I'll also be lobbying for live look-ins on Arsenal playing FC Шахтар Донецьк in the fancy new Донбас Арена--which will host a number of Euro 2012 games, including it seems one quarterfinal match and one semifinal match).
UEFA Champions League Matchday 4 has already started, with Panathinaikos v Rubin Kazan already underway in distant Kazan (Russia), then 7 more matches later today, and 8 more tomorrow. With the first 3 Matchdays completed (on September 14-15, September 28-29, and October 19-20, respectively), we’re now at the halfway point of the Group Stage, i.e., halfway thru the home-and-away round robin schedule within each of the 8 groups, with every team having already played the 3 other teams within its group over the course of those first 3 Matchdays. Now they turn around and play each other again, but at the other location. (For example, Barcelona hosted Panathinaikos on Matchday 1, played at Rubin Kazan on Matchday 2, and hosted København on Matchday 3. For Matchdays 4, 5, and 6, they play at København, play at Panathinaikos, and host Rubin Kazan.)
Without further combinatorial ado, here are the fixtures for today and tomorrow, pulled directly from UEFA.com (luckily copying-&-pasting is a link-preserving operation, so you can click thru below to UEFA’s group, team and match pages! Very handy for checking group standings; lineups once matches are underway, and results once they’re finished.)
We’re back once again with our recommendations on when exactly you should plant yourself on your couch or local pub stool this weekend. Again using SoccerInsider’s full TV listing as a reference, here we go, with some notes from various members of the CultFootball collective:
Saturday Oct 30
Striker, Goal Scorer, Contortionist
Manchester United-Spurs 12:30 p.m. FSC: a matchup of the 3rd and 5th place teams in the EPL table, with goal-scoring players in form on both sides (Chicharito and Nani for Man U, Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart for Spurs)
Barcelona-Sevilla 4 p.m. ESPN Deportes: One of the more challenging La Liga games for Barca, especially since Sevilla seems to finally coming into form (6th in the table) after a slow start, and their Brazilian WC2010 star Luis Fabiano back in the lineup and finding the back of the net.
Those are the two matches to make time for, but if you need a couple additional matches to fill out your day:
Hercules-Real Madrid 2 p.m. GolTV: It’ll be interesting to see if Real Madrid can keep up their recent dominating form (well, last week’s scoreless draw against 3rd division Murcia in a Copa del Rey game excepted), or conversely whether Hércules can pull off another upset.
AC Milan-Juventus 2:30 p.m. FSC: AC Milan is 2nd in the Serie A table, and has an exciting set of big names in attack: Ronaldhino, Pato, Robinho, Ibrahimovic, Seedorf, while Juve is in 5th. See Goal.com’s rundown of key individual matchups here.
And since the MLS playoffs have started, a Saturday night special…
San Jose-New York 10 p.m. Telefutura: Sounds like Thierry Henry will miss this match due to an injury, but the Red Bulls have a number of players to watch: Rafa Marquez, the Mexican international recently arrived from Barcelona; Estonian Joel Lindpere; Jamaican Dane Richards; and Senegalese-American goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul (see this NY Daily News article about his journey from Senegal to the Bronx to high school in Manhattan, and eventually to the MLS).
Sunday Oct 31
Palermo-Lazio 7:30 a.m. FSP: Roman side Lazio sits atop Serie A, while Palermo is in 8th. We’ll refer you to Goal.com for eachside‘s rosters, recent team news, and standard formations.
Stan Cummins (sunderland) 1980's tyne-wear derby
Newcastle-Sunderland 9:30 a.m. FSP: The Tyne-Wear derby. Overlooked step-sister Sunderland have held their own against Newcastle on the pitch over the years, if not in international fame. Always good to share your name with a tasty brew.
Bolton-Liverpool noon FSC: Liverpool played well last week, and Fernando Torres finally scored, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can build on that—and work their way up in the table.
And one more—another MLS playoff game, featuring the star-studded Galaxy:
