The CONCACAF Gold Cup started on Sunday, with four games already in the books. The USMNT kicks off its campaign tonight, taking on Canada at Ford Field in downtown Detroit (8pmET on FSC). US Soccer has produced an infographic with just about everything you need to know about “the region’s most important international tournament” (click to view a larger version):
We took a few weeks off from our guide to the upcoming weekend’s televised matches. It’s perhaps an odd time to resurrect it, just after the climax of the European club season–but actually perhaps it’s more necessary now that we’re asking ourselves–what exactly are we supposed to watch, now that they’re done playing in Europe?
Well, for starters, they’re not done playing in Europe–there’s a full slate of Euro 2012 qualifiers this weekend. Though to be honest none of the matchups qualify as must-see. We’re more interested in a pair of international friendlies that will end up being a tasty doubleheader on Saturday: Brazil hosting the Netherlands in a rematch of last summer’s shock World Cup quarterfinal upset, and USA hosting the World Cup winners, Spain.
(TV listings below pulled from the Washington Post’s SoccerInsider post of comprehensive TV listings for the weekend.)
Saturday, June 4 (all times ET)
England-Switzerland 11:30 a.m. FSC: We thought we should pick at least one Euro qualifier–and although we did have the intention of listing today’s Germany-Austria and Belgium-Turkey matches (both of which turned out to be interesting), we didn’t get around to writing this up in time. So we’re left with Saturday’s slim pickings, and so we’ll go with the cliche: England hosting Switerland. Just check any of the English papers for too much coverage from an Anglocentric perspective. We don’t know too much about the Swiss squad–the two most recognizable names for us are defender Johann Djourou, who really came into his own with Arsenal this past season; and 26-year old Swiss captain Gökhan Inler, who starred in the midfield for the exciting Udinese squad that finished 4th in Serie A.
Brazil-Netherlands 3 p.m. Univision, ESPN3.com: Luckily our man in Sao Paulo has stepped in to our recent posting void with a nicely detailed preview of the Seleção going into this friendly with the Netherlands. No doubt the Brazilians will be looking for revenge after they were dumped out of the World Cup by the Dutch last July. On the other hand, the brilliant Oranje haven’t let up since their run to the final last summer–their currently undefeated in their Euro qualifying group. It seems like the Dutch will be without a number of their established players–Wesley Sneijder, Mark van Bommel, Rafael van der Vaart, Maarten Stekelenburg are all out of the squad, due to injury or just fatigue after the long club campaign. But Robin van Persie, Dirk Kuyt, Nigel de Jong, and Arjen Robben are all in the squad, and we’ll also be looking for exciting up and coming Dutchmen like Ibrahim Affelay (Barcelona), Gregory van der Wiel (Ajax), Eljero Elia (Hamburg), and Luuk de Jong (Twente).
United States-Spain 4:30 p.m. ESPN, Univision, ESPN3.com:
USA hosts world champions Spain in Foxborough, MA–apparently US Soccer is close to selling out the 68,000-seat Gillette Stadium!. For a full preview, we’ll point you over to the Shin Guardian. As they remind us, the last time these two met, in the 2009 Gold Cup, the US shocked with a 2-0 victory; in fact, they include a link to a column from May 2010 by tactical guru Jonathan Wilson praising Bob Bradley’s tactics against Spain in that match.
We’re wondering who Spain will play? Xavi, Puyol, Cesc aren’t in the squad, but the rest of the big names are. Though we can’t imagine Spain will field their top XI, at least not for all that long, or that they’ll be putting forth full effort–especially the Barcelona players that were playing Man U just a week ago in London.
Actually, it will be interesting to see some Spanish players not from Barcelona or Madrid play–we’re pretty sure Joan Capdevila the only such player who featured regularly in the WC last summer. Here is the squad that has travelled to Boston–there is certainly a bit of footballing talent in Spain:
We lamented a bit last week over the close of the (European) club season, with most of the big leagues decided (and after the weekend, France (Lille) and the Netherlands (Ajax) also crowning champions). So what else is a CultFootball fan to look to, aside from the upcoming Champions League final (10 days away!)? Well, just today there are three tasty matches to watch.
First, there’s the Europa League final taking place in Dublin between two Liga Sagres sides–the nearly Invincible Porto against Sporting Braga. And later in the day, two Copa Libertadores quarterfinal 2nd leg matches– Brazilians Santos hosts Colombian Once Caldas (Santos having won the 1st leg 1-0 on the road), and Paraguayan side Libertad hosts Argentine Vélez Sársfield in Asunción (Vélez Sársfield won the 1st leg 3-0 in Buenos Aires).
(US TV coverage is as follows: the Europa League final is at 2:15pm ET live on DirectTV and rebroadcast on GolTV in the evening. The Copa Libertadores matches will be on Fox Deportes.)
Regarding the Europa League final, here is the Guardian’s Sachin Nakrani intra-Portuguese
The first European final to be played between two teams situated less than 50km apart is noticeable for the sporting chasm that exists between them. Porto, two-times winners of the European Cup and 25-times winners of their domestic championship, face a club whose proudest moment in their 90-year history came last season, when they finished second in the Primeira Liga.
That changes in Dublin on Wednesday evening, however, as Braga look to defy the odds again and win their first European trophy (second if anyone is counting the 2008 Intertoto Cup). Few give them a chance against André Villas Boas’s rampant champions, but within a squad whose home ground is built in a quarry there is a belief that they can unearth a golden moment for themselves.
Not sure where Porto and Braga are located? Neither were we:
Porto in particular is worth watching. They’ve had a remarkable season: they won the Liga Sagres going away, going undefeated in the process (27 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses). They were also undefeated in their Europa League group, and marched through the knockout phase, beating a couple Spanish and a couple Moscow clubs along the way: Sevilla, CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow, Villareal. (Braga dropped down from the Champions League after finishing third in their group behind Shakhtar Donetsk and Arsenal, although they did defeat Arsenal 2-1 at home in November. In the Europa knockout phase, they beat Polish Lech Poznan, before upsetting Liverpool, then Dynamo Kyiv and finally another Portuguese power, Benfica, in the semis.)
For today’s match, keep your eye on the handful of rising stars on their squad, quite a few of whom are South American: the Brazilians Fernando and Hulk (yes, the Hulk); Colombians Falcao and James Rodríguez; Argentine midfielders Fernando Belluschi and Nicolás Otamendi; Uruguayan defenders Fucile and Álvaro Pereira. They also have a few Portuguese internationals (midfielder João Moutinho, winger Silvestre Varela, the Cape Verdean-born defender Rolando).
And of course there’s 33-year old first-year manager Andre Villas Boas–who everyone is hyping up as another Special One.
Here is the Guardian’s Dominic Fifield posting yesterday on Villas Boas:
His coaching career is not yet two years old but already his reputation precedes him. The domestic Primeira Liga title is his. This club’s first European trophy since 2004 and the Portuguese Cup could both have been hoisted by Sunday. These days he spends his time attempting to shrug off constant comparisons with Mourinho, the mentor under whom he cut his teeth but with whom he no longer speaks, and the links with Chelsea, Juventus and Roma which refuse to go away.
And here is Michael Cox (aka Mr ZonalMarking) contributing a column on Villas Boas to ESPN.com:
The similarities are clear — like Mourinho, Villas Boas is young, Portuguese, had no professional playing career to speak of, and is making his name at Porto. He is effectively Mourinho’s protégé, having worked under him at Porto, Chelsea and Inter.
Of course, Cox blesses us with detailed tactical notes on Villas Boas’s squad:
We’re approaching the end of club football in Europe, and while no fixture can be taken for granted at this point, there’s not a whole hell of a lot that’s particularly interesting this weekend. The games are important at the top and bottom of the table for sure, but will that make them something we want to watch? We think not.
The few exceptions are below, all times Eastern US, and click the teams for viewing information all around the world. Just think, with so few games to care about this weekend maybe you’ll actually get out there and have a kick about yourself? When’s the last time you did that afterall?
9:00am Inter Milan vs Lazio Lazio sits in fourth and Inter in third, with the sides separated by three points and automatic champs league qualification hanging in the balance. Inter does have a better goal difference though so even a loss would keep them in current places, but with Udinese breathing down the necks of the Rome side this match could have larger ramifications.
12:00pm Valencia vs Real Madrid Second place travels to third (though there are 14 points between them). Valenica will look to keep ahead of Villareal, while the Madriders are still keeping the faith for league glory. Highly unlikely on that later bit? Indeed.
8:30am Feyenoord vs PSV It’s all very tight at the top of the Eredivisie. Psv is currently in first position ahead of Twente, but only on goal difference, with Ajax siting third one point behind both (and with a better goals-for record than Twente). It’ll be a race to the end, and while Feyenoord aren’t the powerhouse team that challenged Ajax for the title so many times in the past, they’re no slouches either and could cause the champion’s league slots to shuffle this weekend.
Today is the final day of the Interlull matces which began last Friday, and we pick out a handful of matches in Europe that may be of interest. We’ll be back later today with previews of a couple Americas-based matches with later starting times.
France-Croatia in Saint-Denis; Lithuania-Spain in Kaunas; Netherlands-Hungary in Amsterdam (all on ESPN3.com starting at 2:30pmET): A choice of three intra-European matchups for you.
Lithuania-Spain and Netherlands-Hungary are both Euro2012 qualifiers, featuring the two finalists of WC2010 and probable favorites for next summer’s tournament in Poland/Ukraine. Spain is coming off a closer-than-expected 2-1 home win over the Czech Republic on Friday, and have had to travel far north and east to Lithuania. On the other hand, the Netherlands won convincingly 4-0 on the road in Hungary on Friday, and return home to take on the Hungarians in Amsterdam.
France-Croatia is a friendly match (un match amical); here is France24 reporting with some comments by French manager Laurent Blanc (“Mardi soir, les Bleus retrouvent le Stade de France à l’occasion d’un match amical face à la Croatie. Après une victoire sans éclat au Luxembourg dans le cadre des éliminatoires de l’Euro-2012, Laurent Blanc pourrait enfin dessiner son équipe type”):
But the one we’re more looking forward to is England against one of its former colonies–with the latter having surpassed the former in terms of recent footballing success:
England-Ghana at Wembley in London (FSC, 3pm): Although this is a friendly (read: meaningless) match (made even less compelling by the fact that England manager Fabio Capello let John Terry, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney released back to their clubs), the Ghanaians may be up for coming to Wembley. For a comprehensive set of pre-match material, see ITV’s match page, which includes a match preview by African football expert @GaryAlSmith; a look by Opta at England’s unbeaten record versus African opponents; and Michael Cox (aka Mr @ZonalMarking) profiling “England new boy” winger Mike Jarvis (Wolves)
In fact, @ZonalMarking and @GaryAlSmith were having a bit of back&forth about this match on Twitter over the past couple days. E.g., here is Mr Al-Smith @-msg’ing Ghana’s likely starting XI to Mr Cox:
@garyalsmith: “@Zonal_Marking Kingson – J Pantsil, D Addy, John Mensah, Vorsah – Annan, Agyemang-Badu, A Ayew, K Asamoah – D Adiyiah, P Tagoe”
Here is an excerpt from Al-Smith’s ITV match preview:
Asamoah is the hub – his dribbling ability, off-the-ball movement and distribution will be key while Ayew covers and provides crosses for the forwards.
Capello may employ the thriving Jack Wilshere to thwart such flowing moves and that is where Stevanovic may place Annan to keep tabs on the young Gunner. Wilshere’s vision and range of passing, coupled with his excellent ball retention, makes him very similar to Annan. The potential to cancel each other out is high. Annan’s experience in the climes of Africa, Scandinavia, the World Cup and now Germany should counter any talk that Wilshere is technically the better player.
Note that it doesn’t look like Ghana will start it’s Premier League stars Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, or Asamoah Gyan–although Panstil and John Mensah will start in defense. We’ll be watching for our favorite French-based Ghanaian, Andre Ayew. The Ghana squad had to travel to London all the way from Brazzaville and will be playing on only one day of rest, after they crushed Congo 4-0 in Brazzaville on Sunday. Scoring for Ghana in that game: Prince Tagoe, Dominic Adiyiah and Sulley Muntari (who came on as a sub in that match). Tagoe and Adiyiah both play for Partizan Belgrade.
We’re past the halfway point of the Interlull. We saw some interesting matches Friday and Saturday. There’s less to watch today–then no games tomorrow, but a whole slate of interesting ones on Tuesday. Here are the two we choose for today,
Sunday, March 27:
The one getting all the attention is Scotland hosting A Seleção..in London (?):
Scotland-Brazil at Emirates in London (ESPN2, 9amET): See our Sao Paulo-based correspondent’s rundown of the newish Seleção here. We don’t much about the Scottish side. If you really want a preview of them, listen to the segment on this week’s Guardian Football Weekly Extra pod, wherein they get Scotsman Ewan Murray on the phone in order to discuss the match.
But we’re equally intrigued by this match in Brazzaville–we’re just not sure if we’ll get to watch it:
Congo-Ghana in Brazzaville (no US TV): An interesting Cup of African Nation qualifier. Ghana may be looking past the Congo to Tuesday’s match against England at Wembley.
Note that this match is being hosted by the Republic of Congo in the capital city of Brazzaville. As Wikipedia points out the Republic of Congo is “Not to be confused with the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.” Which is exactly what we did at first, thinking we’d refer you this post we did on TP Mazembe back in December, when they surprised the footballing world by advancing to the finals of the Club World Cup. But TP Mazembe is of course in the DR Congo. So all we can do on Congo is excerpt Goal.com’s match preview:
Congo are a team under construction hence a lot of young players with few experience faces. Captain Christopher Samba of Blackburn Rovers would have a lot on his shoulders as they meet the ever popular Black Stars. They are just a point adrift the west Africans and a little effort from his troops coupled with the home support could do the trick for them.
Coach Camille Ngakosso would also rely heavily on striker Ibara Franchel, the 2007 CAF Young Player of the Year award winner and Switzerland-based Matt Moussilou to frustrate the current Africa best team at the Alphonse Massamba Debat Stadium.
For info on Ghana see our copious coverge of the Black Stars: here (for the Ghana starting XI vs Uruguay in the World Cup last July); here (for video of the Asamoah Gyan Dance); and here (for background about young up-&-coming striker Andre Ayew–son of the greatest Ghanaian player of all time, Abedi (Ayew) Pele). We may see Gyan and Ayew partner up front in an exciting Ghanaian strikeforce (if not in Brazzaville, then maybe in London on Tuesday).
Ghana is clearly the highest profile side on the continent, after their inspiring showing in South Africa last summer. They boast a squad filled with players playing club ball at the highest levels: Michael Essien, Asamoah Gyan, Sulley Muntari John Painstil, John Mensah, Richard Kingson (all Premier League); youngsters Kevin-Prince Boateng, Kwadwo Asamoah and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu (all Serie A, the latter two at Udinese); ; Isaac Vorsah and Anthony Annan in the Bundesliga (Hoffenheim and Schalke 04, respectively); and Derek Boateng in La Liga (Getafe). See here for a list of the full squad.
Since there doesn’t appear to be any US television coverage (not sure about Europe?), one way to follow the match is via @GaryAlSmith’s Twitter stream–he is all about African football, and it appears he’s actually in Ghana. Here is his Twitter bio:
garyalsmith: AFRICA = African Football Remains In Corrupt Administration….but…All Football Remains In Correspondence Always.
The Interlull is upon us. Just when the domestic and Champions leagues are hurtling towards their conclusions, getting us all hot and bothered…they take a break so the best players can fly all over the world to risk injury playing for their respective national teams in largely meaningless international games. (Full disclosure: we picked up the “Interlull” terminology from the indispensable Arseblog.)
That said, some of these games aren’t completely meaningless–included on this weekend’s are a handful of Euro 2012 and African Cup qualifiers featuring some nations/players we like to watch. And some of the meaningless international friendlies shouldn’t be completely uninteresting–particularly USA hosting Argentina at the (New) Meadowlands (Saturday), Brazil playing Scotland at the Emirates (Sunday), and Ghana playing England at Wembley (Tuesday).
But you’ll have to come back for our previews of the latter matches. There are so many fixtures (over 100) spread out over so many days (Friday thru Tuesday) that we’ve been forced to split up this weekend’s viewing guide into a multi-installment day-by-day affair. As in the past, we’ve relied upon WaPo’s Soccer Insider for a complete listing of matches, times, and US television options. Here our choices for…
Friday, March 25
Hungary-Netherlands in Budapest (3:30pmET, ESPN3.com; 7pm on ESPND): A Euro 2012 qualifier between the two teams at the top of the Group E standings.
For the Dutch, no Arjen Robben nor Huntelaar due to injuries. But still plenty of talent to watch in midfield, on the wings, and up front: Schneijder, van der Vaart, van Persie, Kuyt, Elia, Affelay. Plus watch for up-and-coming right wingback Gregory van der Wiel. Barcelona was said to be keeping an eye on him in case they were unable to resign Dani Alves. Now that Alves has turned his back on a potential big money transfer to Man City and signed on for a few more seasons in Catalonia, Man City has apparently shifted their focus to van der Wiel.
We’re really not sure who to watch for on the current Hungarian squad–but after watching this match we should know for the return fixture in Amsterdam on Tuesday (see below).
Saturday, March 1911am: Manchester United-Bolton (FSC) and/or West Brom-Arsenal (FSP & foxsoccer.tv): Man U seems to have righted themselves, with victories against Arsenal (FA Cup) and Marseille (Champions League) in the past week. Arsenal, on the other hand, have been in a free fall over the past few weeks. From 4 competitions to just 1–and they’ll need to keep winning to keep pace with Man U and stay in that one.
1:30pm: Borussia Dortmund-Mainz (ESPN Deportes & ESPN3.com): After a tremendous start, newly promoted Mainz is now in 5th–so still in contention for a spot in Europe. Borussia Dortmund is almost a lock to win the league–9pts ahead of #2 Bayer Leverkeusen.
1:30pm Everton-Fulham (FSC): Americans in action–Tim Howard in goal for Everton, Clint Dempsey in the midfield for Fulham.
5pm: Atletico Madrid-Real Madrid (ESPN Deportes & ESPN3.com): El derbi madrileno. It will be a shock if Atletico win–but you never know.
12pm: Chelsea-Manchester City (FSC): Two teams battling to finish in the top 4. Whose oil money wins here?
2pm: Athletic Bilbao-Villarreal (GolTV): #6 vs #4: Villareal have been slumping lately, with only 6pts from their last 7 league matches (and they weren’t dropping them against La Liga powerhouses either: losses to Depo and Levante, draws with Malaga, Santander, Gijon). But they’re still comfortably in #4, 8pts ahead of #5 Espanyol, 9pts ahead of Bilbao–and only 3pts behind Valencia. Players to watch: de Rossi, Cani, Llorente
4pm: Marseille-PSG (FSP & foxsoccer.tv): Le Classique!
4pm: Valencia-Sevilla (GolTV): #3 vs #7; Sevilla seem to be finally coming on, holding Barca to a draw in what was apparently a scintillating game. Valencia dumped out of the CL, but look to hold on to the #3 position to return next year; Sevilla hoping to move up to make a return to Europa at least. Players to watch: Kanoute (Sevilla), Aduriz, Mata
4pm: Schalke-Bayer Leverkusen (ESPN Deportes): A team that’s in the final 8 of the Champions League (but is languishing in the 10th spot in the Bundesliga) against a team that just got eliminated from the Europa League–but that’s #2 in the Bundesliga and so may be in the Champions League next fall.
