Cult Football - Schedule

main

Preview Schedule

What to Watch This Midweek (Pre-Christmas Crunch Edition)

December 21, 2011 — by Suman

Who knew there’s a full slate of games in the Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1, Spain (Copa del Rey)? Though to tell the truth, not a whole lot of must-see TV today. Actually the one match today that we will try to watch just kicked off, so this will have to be a very quick post:

Udinese-Juventus at Stadio Communale Friuli (12pmET, Fox Soccer Channel, RAI Internazionale, ESPN3 USA, FOX Deportes): 3rd vs 2nd – Udinese with 31 points, two behind Juve, who are in turn a point behind table-toppers Milan. Neither team was really expected to be competing for the Scudetto, but here they are. Udinese had a great season last year, but sold off three of their best players (Alexis Sanchez, Gokhan Inler, and a defender whose name escapes me right now). They failed to get past Arsenal in Champions League qualifying, but that may have been a blessing in disguise, as they’ve been able to concentrate on the domestic league.

Juventus is perhaps even more surprising–still undefeated in the league (9W 6D 0L). We finally got to watch Juve play (thanks to the fact we flew cross-country on JetBlue, and so were captive with GolTV for 10 hours), specifically the rather dramatic Coppa Italia match they played against Bologna. Players to watch on Juve: holding midfielder and Milan transplant Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio, Paraguayan Marcelo Estigarribia, ageless trequartista Alessandro del Piero; we also like to see Dutchman Eljero Elia, whose been somewhat lost in the shuffle since coming over from Hamburg in August.

Regarding the English fixtures, go over to PoliticalFootballs and see John’s latest post–“This week in: English Football – Christmas Time is Here“. The one match today in England that we might try to catch later on is:

Fulham-Manchester United at Craven Cottage (3pmET, Fox Soccer Channel, FOX Deportes): Fulham has had success against MU at home: 2 wins and a draw in the past 3 seasons, according to the honorable Barry Glendenning (“purveyor of ‘lazy journalism’ and ‘anti-[insert name of your favourite team here]’ bias”) on this past Monday’s Guardian Football Weekly pod. Although he doesn’t rate them to repeat that success today. Raphael Honigstein, on the other hand, said he thinks Fulham could very well earn a point from this match, and cites two players to watch: Costa Rican attacking midfielder Bryan Ruiz, who arrived from FC Twente over the summer, and seems like he’s only now adjusting and fitting in; and Belgian striker Moussa Dembele, who also came over after success in the Eredivisie, with AZ Alkmaar, the previous summer. We wrote at the time that perhaps Fulham might have to choose between playing him and American Clint Dempsey–but they combined rather well last year, and from what we saw in their draw versus Liverpool a couple weeks ago, Bryan Ruiz is starting to combine well with the two of them.

Bonus reason to watch this match: Dempsey is #3 on the list of jid’s players to watch.

Commentary Schedule

What To Watch This Weekend (Nov 19-21)

November 19, 2011 — by Suman

A variety of matches worth watching this weekend: a couple from England, a couple from Spain, intriguing matches in Munich and in Naples, a Uruguayan super derby, and the MLS championship game.

(As usual, all times ET and all TV listings for the United States.)

Saturday, Nov 19

England, Manchester City-Newcastle (10amET, Fox Soccer): The match of the weekend in England. Will the new Mancunian juggernaut keep rolling? City is at the top of the table, with 10 wins and 1 draw. More remarkable: 39 goals for vs. 10 goals against. But the Toon are the only other unbeaten team, 3rd in the table (7 wins and 4 draws for 25 points, 1 behind that other Manchester club, 6 behind Man City). Will Newcastle’s French revolution keep the Tooners run going? Or will the Newcastle bubble burst?

Germany, Bayern Munich-Borussia Dortmund (12:30pmET, ESPN Deportes & ESPN3.com): The Bavarian giants–favorites to win the Bundesliga yet again–against the team that won it last year. Take a look at the video highlights of last year’s match on the cultfootball tumblr.

Italy, Napoli-Lazio (2:45pmET, ESPN3.com): Napoli is the Serie A neutral observer’s team of the moment–open attacking football, featuring skilled and exciting players like Cavani and Lavezzi up front, with Hamsik and Inler behind them in midfield. But they’re only 8th in the Serie A table (on 14pts), while Lazio has quietly climbed even with Udinese at 21 points at the top of the table! German striker Miroslav Klose had struggled for Bayern Munich the past couple seasons, but has been prolific and pivotal for Lazio this year.

Spain, Valencia-Real Madrid (4pmET, ESPN Deportes & ESPN3.com): Madrid has been overpowering, but this is a tricky fixture. Barcelona struggled to salvage a draw at the Mestalla a couple months ago. Don’t be surprised if this one comes down to the wire as well. You’re probably more familiar with the Madrid squad, so here are a couple Valenica players to watch: wingback Jordi Alba, midfielder Ever Banega, forwards Robert Soldado and Aritz Aduriz (with diminutive Argentine striker Pablo Piatti often coming as a super sub). But imagine for a minute if they’d been able to hang on the players they sold over the past couple summers: David Villa, David Silva, Juan Mata, Raúl Albíol.

Saturday, Nov 20

England, Chelsea-Liverpool (11amET, Fox Soccer): Two of the biggest clubs, though both have been inconsistent this season. #4 and #6 in the table, respectively.

Spain, Sevilla-Bilbao (12pmET, ESPN Deportes & ESPN3.com): We are fascinated by Atletic Bilbao and Marcelo Bielsa after previewing and watching them host Barcelona couple weeks ago. Sevilla is not uninteresting either.

Uruguay, Nacional-Penarol (4pmET, GolTV): The great Uruguayan derby–El Clásico del fútbol uruguayo. (According to The Oval Log, “The Forgotten Derby.”)

MLS Cup, Los Angeles-Houston (9pmET; ESPN, Galavision, and ESPN3.com): The one MLS match we’ll watch this season. Maybe.

Monday, Nov 21

England, Spurs-Aston Villa 3pm (ESPN Deportes & ESPN3.com): Spurs are up to 5th in the table (with a game in hand, due to the cancellation of that season opener due to the riots in London that week), while Villa are 8th.

Europe History Schedule

What to Watch Today: Germany-Netherlands in Hamburg

November 15, 2011 — by Suman

Out of wide array of matches being played and televised today (a bunch of international friendlies, a few South American World Cup qualifying matches, and the final four qualifying playoff matches for Euro 2012), the one to watch is a friendly in Hamburg:

Germany-Netherlands (2:30pmET, ESPN Classic, ESPN3.com): It’s not really a friendly between these two national sides. True, this match is worth watching based just on the fact that these two are among the top handful of national sides around right now, and will be the top challengers to unseat Spain as European champions next summer. But in addition to current form, there’s the history to consider.

It’s a history that on the pitch goes back to the famous 1974 match in Munich, which resulted in (then West) Germany’s ~~first~~ second World Cup title, via a loss that still looms large in the Dutch national memory.

The Oranje got some revenge in 14 years later, beating Germany in the Euro 1988 semifinal, in a match which like today’s took place in Hamburg, on their way to their only major title. Those two matches got caught up, especially in the Dutch psyche, with a previous, darker history–that of Nazi Germany’s occupation of Holland during World War II.

Two chapters to read for much much more on the Holland-Germany rivalry, and in particular on the legendary 1974 and 1988 matches and their complicated historical context: Chapter 2 of Dutchman Simon Kuper’s Football Against the Enemy, titled “Football Is War”; and Chapter 13 of David Winner’s brilliant Brilliant Orange book, titled “football is not war.” (At least read them before next summer. If things go according to form, it’s entirely possible these two could meet in yet another Euro semifinal, or perhaps even in the final.)

Remarkably the entire Euro 1988 semifinal Hamburg match is on YouTube, in 10 parts. Though the last segment ends with the final whistle, and so doesn’t include Ronald Koeman infamously wiping his backside with German midfielder Olaf Thon’s jersey in front of the visiting Dutch fans after swapping shirts. The description of the YouTube videos does include this quote attributed to Koeman: “1988 didn’t erase 1974 from our memories. The bitterness is still there. Before the match Rinus Michels, who also coached the 1974 squad, told us about that lost final, in order to motivate us. I regret what I did after the match. It was an impulsive reaction, the kind of stupid reaction that follows you for the rest of your life. But for me that case is closed. As I never met Thon again after that, I never had the occasion to apologize.” Apparently, upon returning to Amsterdam as Euro champions after defeating the Soviet Union in the final and following a water-born parade thru the canals of the city, Michels said to the massive crowd gathered in Dam Square: “We won the tournament, but we all know that the semi-final was the real final.”

If instead of the Germany-Holland “friendly” you’d rather watch some matches that ostensibly “matter”, the four Euro playoff 2nd leg matches are all on ESPN3.com:

Commentary Schedule Tactics

What to Watch This Weekend: Athletic Bilbao-Barcelona, Guardiola Visits Bielsa

November 6, 2011 — by Suman

We’ve been remiss in posting our weekend TV guides the past couple weeks. This weekend we offer a belated and truncated version, consisting of a single match that’s kicking off in just a few hours: La Liga’s late match on Sunday, Athletic Bilbao hosting FC Barcelona, kicking off at 8pm in “la Catedral de futbol” Estadio San Mamés (which corresponds to 2pmET; televised in the US on ESPN Deportes, and also available via ESPN3.com).

Why only this match? Well, there weren’t any other matchups in England or across the continent this weekend that stood out as must-see TV. But this one is interesting on multiple levels.

There is the fact, of course, that it’s Barcelona, who we maintain you should watch whenever you get a chance. As we’ve heard ad nauseum, they are the greatest side of our era, featuring the best player of our time. Actually, featuring a number of the best players of our time—eight Barca players were among the 23 on the shortlist for this year’s Balon d’Or . In addition to the 3 finalists for last year’s award–Xavi, Iniesta, and award-winner Messi–also on the shortlist are Cesc Fabregas, David Villa, Dani Alves, Gerard Pique and Eric Abidal. (To be fair, Real Madrid wasn’t far behind with 5 nominees–Cristiano Ronaldo, Iker Casillas, Karim Benzema, Xabi Alonso, and Mesut Ozil.)

But it’s not only Barcelona. It’s also Athletic Bilbao–the Basque team which aspires to be one of the “alternatives” to the Barcelona/Madrid axis of hegemony in La Liga, which is newly managed by a crazy genius Argentine whom Pep Guardiola considers one of his managerial inspirations–to whose house in Argentina Guardiola made a pilgrimage when he was considering a career as a manager.

His name is Marcelo Bielsa, his arrival in Bilbao was highly anticipated, and his tenure there started terribly: two draws and three losses in their first five league matches. But they started to turn it around at the beginning of October, which prompted both of the Guardian’s cerebral football columnists Sid Lowe and Jonathan Wilson to devote columns to Bilbao under Bielsa.

Here is Sid Lowe’s column from Oct 3:

Marcelo Bielsa is a little less loco this morning. His Athletic Bilbao team won a game on Sunday and not just any game but the Basque derby:Real Sociedad versus Athletic Bilbao under the midday sun on the Bay of Biscay, Euskadi’s biggest match and one of Spain’s, too.

For the Argentine manager’s nickname is “loco Bielsa”–an eccentric genius who before this season had not managed in Europe, aside from an aborted stint at Espanayol back in 1998. But in the intervening 12 years he made his mark managing first his country’s national team (1998-2004) and then rival Chile’s (2004-2011); he resurrected the latter, taking them to 2nd in South American qualifying for South Africa, and Zonal Marking called “Bielsa’s Chile the most tactically-exciting side” going into that World Cup.

But Lowe describes how although Bielsa’s arrival was highly anticipated in Bilbao, Athletic has a formidable tradition and identity that he’s had to adapt to:

Spaniards are fond of telling you – if you are English anyway – that Athletic is the most English of clubs.

Visit San Mamés and it is hard to disagree. Athletic is the home of the giant defender and the battering-ram striker, of rain and mud, and roaring fans, of long balls and powerful headers. It is summed up in arguably the most famous remark ever uttered in Spanish football history, when José María Belausteguigoitia shouted: “Give me the ball, Sabino, I’ll flatten them” and promptly flattened them.

That was at the [1920] Antwerp Olympics and came to define the “Red Fury”, the Spanish style that was Basque. Bielsa was trying to change the approach; he was also trying to change one hundred years of history, and at the proud club that probably feels its history more keenly than any other.

Jonathan Wilson’s Guardian Sport Blog post addresses “The Question: Is Marcelo Bielsa’s model right for Athletic Bilbao?” and in typical Wilsonian fashion focuses on Bielsa’s tactics. Though he also alludes to Athletic Bilbao’s identity as the most English of Spanish clubs:

Athletic is a club with a clearly defined style of its own. The bowler-hatted figure of Fred Pentland, the Englishman who coached them through the glory years of the 20s and early 30s, still looms over the club, as an exhibition in the museum at San Mames makes clear. He first instituted a direct approach, favouring a robust, “English-style” centre-forward, a tradition that endures in the shape of Fernando Llorente, a remarkable combination of finesse and muscularity.

But he describes Bielsa’s model as potentially complementary to this direct approach–a style of “vertical football” defined as “getting the ball forward quickly without necessarily resorting to aimless long balls”–but combined with hard pressing high up the pitch (more on this tactical philosophy much further down below, and also in a Zonal Marking post from August titled “Bielsa set to thrive in Bilbao“).

Preview Schedule

What to Watch This Weekend (Oct 15-16)

October 15, 2011 — by Suman

Gerrard-Anderson — Gerrard & Anderson: Facing off in midfield again today?

We choose a handful of matches to tune in for, out of the hundreds being televised this weekend, highighted by the early kickoff today at Anfield:

Saturday, Oct 15

England, Liverpool vs Manchester United (7:30amET; ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com): Read John Lally’s Political Footballs post on this heated rivalry, which ranges from the Industrial Revolution to the current Premier League era.

Netherlands, Ajax vs AZ Alkmaar (12:45pmET; ESPN3.com): AZ Alkmaar has been pushing over the past few seasons to be counted among the Eredivisie’s elite (traditionally Ajaz, PSV, Feyenoord, although lately FC Twente must also be considered). Indeed, AZ sit atop the Eredivisie table with 21 points after 8 games played, followed by PSV (17), Twente (17), Ajax (15), and Feyenoord (14). Among the players to watch: American striker Jozy Altidore has been lighting it up for AZ, and resurrected his career in the process. For Ajax, Dutch international defender Gregory van der Wiel, young Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen, and Serbian striker Miralem Sulejmani have all been tapped as the next Ajax products to make big money transfers to the big clubs of Europe.

Sunday, Oct 16

England, Arsenal-Sunderland (8:30amET; Fox Soccer Plus, foxsoccer.tv): Both teams need to win–Sunderland to keep from falling towards the relegation zone, Arsenal to try to climb back to the top half of the table.

England, Newcastle-Spurs (11amET; Fox Soccer, Fox Deportes): Also via the above-linked-to Political Footballs post: “Spurs have won their last four games, having started the season with two defeats to the Manchester clubs, and will be looking to strengthen their own quest for a top four spot this weekend in the North-East”–against a surprisingly successful (so far) Newcastle side which currently sites 4th in the English table.

Italy, Lazio-Roma(2:30pmET; Fox Soccer, Fox Deportes, ESPN3.com): Just in the nick of time, we received some notes on today’s Derby della Capitale from nostro amico romano, supplemented with some links of our choosing:

Ciao amici miei!!!
Struggling to meet a deadline for a grant right now and trying not to think to Derby….
Some thoughts:
1) I hope no fights between fans, especially after what happened yesterday in Rome
2) not having Totti can be an advantage, he feels the game too much, like De Rossi
3) Lazio is the favorite for me, not a good thing when u play the derby
4) I like Bojan, young and talented, the fans like him….Osvaldo is also potentially devastating…but it will be a battle of nerves and Luis Enrique should set up the team to press very high but not too high because Klose and Cisse can hurt with counterattacks
5) hey, how about the Tigers? I don’t know what happened yesterday…

Forza Magica Roma!

Preview Schedule

What to Watch Today (Part 1 of 2): Final Day of Euro2012 Qualifying Round

October 11, 2011 — by John Lally

[Editor’s note: Today is the final day of the qualifying round for Euro 2012. John Lally provides us with a rundown of which of today’s 22 fixtures actually matter for qualification. Click through the “Group X” headings to see the group standings on UEFA’s site, click thru the hyperlinked fixtures for further TV info and match previews on livesoccertv.com]

wpid-Belgium-vs-Germany — Germany vs Belgium - today in Dusseldorf

Group A: Germany vs Belgium (1pmET ESPN2, ESPN Deportes,ESPN3.com) & Turkey vs Azerbaijan (1pmET, foxsoccer.tv): Germany already topped the group, Belgium is but a single point above Turkey in race for playoff spot. Turkey should win at home against Azerbaijan, meaning Belgium has to go into Dusseldorf and win against their powerful neighbors.

Group B: Republic of Ireland vs Armenia (1:45pmET ESPN3.com) – If Armenia win, they get the playoff spot, an Ireland win or draw gives them second place (Russia is in 1st place only 2 points Irealnd them but have a gimme against Andorra at home)

Group C: Serbia vs Slovenia (2:45pmET foxsoccer.tv) – Serbia need a win for the playoff spot, if they lose or draw, Estonia take that (Italy already won the group)

Group D: France vs Bosnia-Herzegovina (3pmET ESPN3.com) – France 1 point above B&H, win or draw they top the group, lose and B&H win it and other is in playoff (actually they might be best runner up anyway)

Group E: Decided Netherlands 1st, Sweden 2nd. So although it’s meaningless, you could tune in to watch Sweden vs Netherlands (2:15pmET ESPN3.com) .

Group F: Georgia vs Greece (1pmET ESPN3.com) – A point for Greece means they top the group. If they lose, a Croatia win at home against Latvia would give them top place and put Greece 2nd

Group G: Decided – England 1st, Montenegro 2nd

Group H: Denmark vs Portugal (2pmET ESPN3.com, tape at 7pmET on ESPN Deportes)- If Denmark win, they top the group, else Portugal do. Most likely group for 2nd place auto-qualifier to come from anyway

Group I: Spain vs Scotland; Lithuania vs Czech Republic – If Scotland match Czech result, they go into playoffs, if they lose gain few points, Czech Republic take 2nd place. Given that Czechs should beat Lithuania, Scotland has to win against the defending World Cup and Euro champions on their home turf (in Alicante, on the Mediterranean in the southwest of Spain)

Preview Schedule

What To Watch This Weekend, Interlull Edition (Part 1 of n)

October 7, 2011 — by Suman

Another interlull upon us–no club matches, as the top players are jetting around to join their national sides. There’s a full and relatively interesting slate of Euro2012 qualifiers, given the that qualifying group stage finally wraps up on Tuesday: 20 fixtures today, out of which we’ve picked 5 to keep an eye on, and then 22 more on Tuesday.

We start with five Euro qualifiers plus one friendly; we’ll be back over the course of next few days with picks for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday (hence the “Part 1 of n”, where n is somewhere between 1 and 4).

In fact, all five of the matches we’ve chosen are between the top two teams in their respective group tables–which is what’s important of qualification. The 9 group winners qualify directly for the tournament in Poland & Ukraine next summer, as well as the runner-up with the best record. The other 8 group runners-up get paired for a 2-legged playoff round, yielding 4 more qualifiers. Add to that the hosts, and we’ll finally have our 16 team field for Euro2012 set by the end of November.

The five matches to watch today, which have some interesting group dynamics, as you can infer from the top of the current group tables:

Turkey vs Germany 2:30pmET foxsoccer.tv: The top of Group A looks like this: Germany way ahead (perfect 8-0 record so far for 24 points), Turkey in 2nd (14 pts), Belgium close behind (12 pts). And Belgium is playing cellar dwellers Kazakhstan at home in Brussels–so basically Turkey needs to knock off the big dogs of Deutscheland.

A potentially interesting set of matchup in midfield, as Hamit Altıntop will have to deal play against his Real Madrid teammates Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil. This matchup of course always puts extra focus on Ozil, given that he’s a rising superstar who born in (West) Germany but is of Turkish descent (3rd-generation Turkish-German, in fact–which points the long but complicated socioeconomic relations between these two nations).

Czech Republic vs Spain 2:45pmET ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com: Exact same dynamic in Group I–Spain is perfect (18 points), Czech Republic in 2nd (10 pts) but only 2 points ahead of 3rd place Scotland (8 pts)–with the latter playing minnows (Lichtenstein in this case)

Serbia vs Italy 2:45pmET ESPN3.com, foxsoccer.tv (tape at 7 p.m. on ESPN Deportes): Similarly in Group C–Italy close to perfect (22 points), but Serbia (14 pts) trying to hold off Estonia (13 pts)

Greece vs Croatia 2:45pmET ESPN3.com (tape at 9:30 a.m. Saturday on ESPN Deportes): A bit different in Group F, where it looks like these two teams will finish in the top 2–but it’s not clear in what order. Current standings: Croatia (19 points), Greece (18 points), Israel (13 points).

Montenegro vs England 3pmET ESPN3.com: England need just a point to clinch the top spot in group, while Montenegro needs to make sure they don’t allow Switzerland to catch them for 2nd place (England 17 pts; Montenegro 11 pts; Switzerland 8 pts)

For all the other group standings and fixtures, head over to UEFA’s Euro2012 site.

And finally, here’s one friendly to watch:

Costa Rica vs Brazil 10pmET ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com: CONCACAF’s Costa Rica hosts the Seleção.

Preview Schedule

What to Watch This Weekend, Part 2: Sunday Sept 18

September 18, 2011 — by Suman

Belatedly posting our guide to today’s matches to watch. In fact, the first match is already in progress–it’s 1-1 at halftime in Eindhoven, where PSV is hosting Ajax:

Sunday, Sept 18

Netherlands, PSV-Ajax 6:30aET (ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com): We said it last year, and we’ll say it again: if you’re only going to watch one Eredivisie match all year, might as well be this one. A surprising fact that kicks off the excellent The Swiss Ramble’s (“Usually writes about the business of football”) excellent essay about Ajax (“Why Ajax are no longer Dutch masters”): “Ajax’s star has been on the wane for many years. The cold, hard facts are that they have only won the Eredivisie twice in the last 12 years, the most recent occasion being way back in the 2003/04 season, while PSV Eindhoven have won the league seven times in the same period.”

England, Spurs-Liverpool 8:30aET (Fox Soccer Plus, foxsoccer.tv):

England, Manchester United-Chelsea 11aET (Fox Soccer, Fox Deportes; tape at 5 on Fox main network): The big one in England this weekend. Read our Spurs man on this match, on his recently-launched Political Footballs blog.

Germany, Schalke-Bayern Munich 11:30amET (GolTV)

Italy, Napoli-AC Milan 2:30pmET (Fox Soccer, Fox Deportes, ESPN3.com)

France, Lyon-Marseille 3pmET (Fox Soccer Plus, foxsoccer.tv)

Newer Posts Older Posts