Subscribing as we do the just-in-time philosophy, here’s your weekend TV guide for today’s matches, with the first one kicking off in 15 minutes at Ewood Park. Check back tomorrow morning for Sunday’s picks.
(As usual, we’ve included US TV coverage, and listed kickoff times in terms of ET. If you live elsewhere, do the timezone math, and check your local listings–or rather check livesoccertv.com.)
Saturday, Sept 17
England, Blackburn-Arsenal 7:30aET (ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com): Venky’s boys host the Gunners. Arsene’s revamped squad is still a work in progress, but at least they’ve produced a Premier League win and a Champions League draw (on the continent against a good team, no less). They should really beat Blackburn, given that the Rovers are sitting dead last in the table, with only a single point from 4 games. But we’ll see..
Spain, Gijon-Valencia 12pET (DirecTV 477): We like Gijón, because it’s the hometown club of un amigo (y un periodista…y un buen jugador). Plus we like Manolo Preciado (and his moustache). But we also like Valencia, and would like to see them do more than just finish 3rd in the league again this year. We think they could make some noise in the Champions League, even though they only managed a draw against Genk this week. There’s no reason they shouldn’t advance out of their group (along with Chelsea, most likely–so they will need to beat Bayer Leverkeusen).
Spain, Barcelona-Osasuna 2pET (ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com): Barcelona are coming off two consecutive disappointing draws–against Real Sociedad last weekend and then against AC Milan mid-week. In both cases they were leading before defensive lapses allowed the opponent to draw level–indicating that Guardiola’s squad may indeed have a weakness, with a lack of depth in defense. In addition, both Alexis Sanchez and Andres Iniesta are out for a number of weeks due to injuries, so all of a sudden the midfield is looking a little thin too. On the bright side, that means we’ll see more of Cesc, Thiago, and Ibrahim Affelay–and perhaps even a more competitive La Liga race (though probably not the latter). Today they travel to Estadio Reyno de Navarra (formerly El Sadar) in Pamplona to take on Club Atlético Osasuna. Again, like with Arsenal, it should be a match that the big club should win–as recently as three years ago Sid Lowe described them as ” the worst top-flight side in the whole of Europe.” [*]
Italy, Inter Milan-Roma 2:30pET (Fox Soccer, Fox Deportes, ESPN3.com): An important match for both clubs, which are both struggling mightily in the early going. Inter has opened the season with 3 stinging defeats: in the Italian Super Cup to rivals AC Milan, in their Serie A opener to Palermo (a stunningly entertaining match), and in their Champions League match on Wednesday, shockingly, at home to Turkish Champions League fill-in Trabzonspor. But we’ll be rooting for la magica Roma, out of loyalty to nostro amico Romano. Plus we’re rooting for Barcelona imports Luis Enrique and Bojan Krkic to do well in Serie A.
