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What to watch this weekend: Feb 26-27

February 25, 2011 — by Sean

Born in Germany, plays for Turkey, Nuri Sahin will be key to breaking down the Bayern defense.

Standard fare with mostly mid-level clashes across the leagues this weekend, though there are a few standouts for which you should ignore all other matches and plans. We’ll keep it short and sweet (click the teams for channel info by country):

Saturday, Feb 26th

12:30 pm (2pm replay on Gol TV) Bayern München vs Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga This promises to be a wide-open match. After their complete domination of Inter mid-week, and with a squad that’s essentially full strength (yes first choice strikers Olic and Klose are out, but Gómez has something along the lines of 27 goals for his club this season…they’re just fine as-is), Bayern will be looking to earn back a few points against the league leaders. It’s unlikely they’ll actually catch them, as Die Schwarzgelben are a full 10 points clear at the top of the table, and 13 points past third place Bayern. But Dortmund are a pretty attractive attacking side themselves, and have performed better on the road this season than they have at home.

Saturday, Feb 26th

9 am (replay at 5pm on ESPND) PSV vs Ajax Eredivisie Two of the consistently best teams in the Netherlands meet, with the home side five points ahead of third place Ajax (Gooch’s Twente sits in between the pair). While this match doesn’t have the city rivalry background that makes a meeting with Feyenoord such a powderkeg of violence, the two Dutch powerhouses promise to put on an enjoyable show. Ajax need all three points, as they currently sit outside a Champions League berth.

11 am Arsenal vs Birmingham City Carling Cup Final Arsenal are without Cesc and Theo, but are still favorites to raise their first cup in five years. Of course, their manager has famously stated: “If you win the League Cup, can you honestly say you have won a trophy?” Sounds like the answer this season is, yes, yes you can. See our previous post about the history between Arsenal and Birmingham (including some not-so-awful footage of Eduardo’s hideous leg break) in our archive here! A dip in reveals: a quick historical assessment of Birmingham City vs Arsenal. The teams have met 116 times in all competitions, the first time being back in 1905. Aside for a spell in in the 1950s, Arsenal have dominated the meetings, and own a record of 54 wins and 34 draws to their 28 losses. Mostly known as a tough-tackling, defense-first side, the West Midlands club have been improving their football the past couple of seasons though they find themselves currently on the cusp of relegation.

 

Schedule

What to watch this weekend: Feb 19-20

February 18, 2011 — by Sean

Champions League knockout play now committed to memory, we’re back into the domestic leagues with a touch of cup action in England, and the rest of the world getting on with earning points. As you may know, faithful readers, we tend to look to the Soccer Insider for our weekend tv listings, but seeing as so many of us watch matches through variously legal web outlets, we thought of expanding the list a bit this week. Fascinating, we know.

All times Eastern US. Click the teams to see on which channel the games are being shown in your country. Fancy!

Saturday, February 19th

7:30 am Chelsea vs Everton FA Cup The pick of the round. Everton has become a second-half-of-the-season team, and though they’ve lost the speedy little Bafana Bafana Steven Pienaar to Spurs, they’re still a dangerous side. Though saying that,  Evra is out with another injury just when he was getting back into goal-scoring form—he was the man who put the Toffees ahead in the initial fourth round meeting between the teams. Chelsea struggled to equalize and bring the match back to Stamford Bridge, but they have…now let’s see if they can put it away.

9:30 am Hamburger SV vs Werder Bremen Bundesliga The Nordderby (or North Derby) sees the two most successful sides in Bundesliga history meet to add to what has been so far a pretty evenly matched rivalry. Neither team is setting the league on fire this year, and Die Werderaner is a little too close to the relegation zone for comfort, but over the course of the teams’  139 meetings, 48 have gone to Hamburger, 50 to Werder, and the remaining 41 ended in draws.

10 am Nottingham Forest vs Cardiff City England Championship Two teams separated by two points battling for automatic promotion through to the Prem. A quick primer for those of you who ignore all but the Barclay’s-shielded teams, positions one and two of the Championship earn an immediately place in next season’s Premiership, while the third through sixth teams meet in playoff rounds to determine the final addition to the top flight. Currently Cardiff sit in second with Nottingham in fourth. This one promises to be a battle.

12 pm Valencia vs Sporting Gijón La Liga If for no other reason than that we enjoy the powerful mustache of Manuel Preciado. We’ll also be watching to see how well Los Che rebound from the midweek draw with Schalke. Sporting Gíjon will look to surprise another top team after having drawn with Barça last week.

12:15 pm Manchester United vs Crawley Town FA Cup We can’t imagine this will be too much of a match, but good for you Crawley Town! The gate receipts and television earnings for this match alone will be enough to keep the tiny club afloat for a couple more seasons (they’d been in administration in the 90s and nearly went kaput mid 00s). Other fun fact, this match will see the meeting of the red devils and the red devils.

12:30 pm FSV Mainz 05 vs Bayern München Bundesliga Bayern started the season slowly but have now climbed to third (though still thirteen points behind league-leaders Borussia Dortmund). Die Roten have had a rough go with Ribery and Robben both out for significant spells due to injury, though they are slated to play together come this weekend even though Robben pulled up in training. Mainz sit just two points behind the visiting side in fifth. This is a squad with a long history of not playing in the top flight, but the last decade has been something quite different for the team, which saw them playing top flight ball 5 non-consecutive years. Now they’re challenging for a place in Europe after starting the season with eight wins.

1 pm Olympique Marseille vs Saint-Étienne Ligue 1 We never point to the French league, so in the spirit of fairness let’s all have a quick look at two teams fighting for a place in Europe. Marsielle host Man United in Champions League play next week so would normally look to rest a few key starters, but the less-monied St. Étienne side are only a few points back from last year’s Ligue 1 champions, and though they haven’t produced the kind of quality on display in the mid 60s-70s or even the 90s (when they developed the likes of Laurent Blanc, and Michel Platini) they are sure to put up a solid front at home.

7:15 pm Racing Club vs Boca Juniors Primera División It’s the start of the clausura (the Argentine season is split in two, with a start “apertura” and a closing “clausura” season), and the Boca boys are in last place after one game on a -3 goal difference. It’s sure to turn around, there is plenty of time to find the top of the table, but if you’re going to commit to some league play why not start at the beginning?

Sunday, February 20th

7:30 am Celtic vs Rangers Scottish Premier League Old firm derby: A massive tie with plenty of history behind it, either of these teams is generally a lock for the league title, and this year Celtic (playing at home) are a comfortable five points clear of their Glaswegian neighbours. Rangers being the Protestant side and Celtic having Catholic ties, the derby tends to dredge up all the conflict between subsections of the rival systems…any excuse to beat each other with a bat:

The Old Firm rivalry fuels many assaults and many deaths on Old Firm Derby days; an activist group that monitors sectarian activity in Glasgow has reported that on Old Firm weekends, admissions to hospital emergency rooms increase ninefold over normal levels, and journalist Franklin Foer noted that in the period from 1996 to 2003, eight deaths in Glasgow were directly linked to Old Firm matches, and hundreds and thousands of assaults.

10 am Fulham vs Bolton FA Cup We expect this will be a very even game, both teams being very organized in back and having a very even midfield between them. We’ll be tuning in from Stateside as some US faves (in the form of Stuart Holden and Clint Dempsey) will be facing off in knockout action. Stu, well known for his hairstyle, has been both breaking attacks and serving the ball well, while Clint has moved with some success into a central striker role (classic #9 stuff).

3 pm Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao La Liga You may have heard about Barça’s loss this week. Well they’re back at home and we’re wondering how they’ll react. Puyol is due back to shore up the center of their defense, and, well, what more can you say except that loss will probably just be treated as a blip. Though…of three teams to have never been relegated from the first division, the third is Athletic Bilbao (the first two Madrid and Barça, of course). Also, before their Basque neighbors started offering citizenship to foreign players to get around the max-three non-nationals on a team, Bilbao was a serious force, handing Barça a 12–1 loss, their worst ever defeat. There’s a lot of pride behind this match-up. Could be a shock or a blowout.

Schedule

Our Sweet 16 Starts Today…UEFA Champions League Knockout Phase

February 15, 2011 — by Suman

Round of 16 - Feb 15/16 & 22/23; March 8-9 & 15/16

Yet another advantage of being a soccer fan–our March Madness arrives a month early. The knockout phase of the Champions League starts today, with a sweet collection of 16 teams remaining. If you were one of the fans that was caught up by the World Cup last summer, but haven’t watched a game since Spain-Netherlands, now is the time to tune back in.

See below where and when to tune in. US-based fans, set your DVRs accordingly–or make plans to duck out of whatever responsibilities you may have in the afternoons (all matches kickoff at 20:45 CET = 2:45pmET/11:45amPT).

For tomorrow’s two games, see here for a preview of Milan-Tottenham by our resident Spurs fan, and here for a preview of Valencia-Schalke by Sean (who honestly didn’t know much about either side until researching this piece).

(A rather detailed aside on the structure of the tournament: there are four games this week, two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday, featuring 8 of the 16 teams that advanced from the group stage; and four more games next week (again two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday) featuring the other 8 teams.  Together these 8 matches constitute the first leg of the Round of 16.  Each round of the tournament from here until the championship game (Saturday May 28 at Wembley) consists of home-and-away legs.  So we’ll see these same 8 matchups again in a few weeks time (on March 8-9 and 15-16) for the return leg.  For instance, Tottenham Hotspur play AC Milan tomorrow in Milan; in three weeks AC Milan will travel to London to play Spurs at White Hart Lane.  Which team advances to is determined by aggregate goals, with away goals as the tiebreaker.)

Here are details regarding this week’s four fixtures (pulled from UEFA.com–click thru for club/match pages), followed by next week’s four fixtures, and for good measure the eight fixtures of the 2nd leg of the Round of 16 following that:

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Milan AC Milan 20:45 Tottenham Hotspur FC Tottenham FSC, Fox Deportes
Referee: Stéphane Lannoy (FRA) – Stadium: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan (ITA)
Valencia Valencia CF 20:45 FC Schalke 04 Schalke MSG Plus, FoxSoccer.tv, Fox Sports Network
Referee: Aleksei Nikolaev (RUS) – Stadium: Estadi de Mestalla, Valencia (ESP)

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Roma AS Roma 20:45 FC Shakhtar Donetsk Shakhtar Donetsk Fox Soccer Plus, FoxSoccer.tv
Referee: TBD – Stadium: Stadio Olimpico, Rome (ITA)
Arsenal Arsenal FC 20:45 FC Barcelona Barcelona FSC, Fox Deportes
Referee: TBD – Stadium: Arsenal Stadium, London (ENG)
The four matches next week which complete the first leg of the Round of 16:

Schedule

What to Watch This Weekend (Feb 12-14)

February 11, 2011 — by Suman

Here are a bunch of matches to watch over the next few days–a few on Saturday, one Sunday, and one Monday.  Which takes you right up to Tuesday…and the start of the Champions League Round of 16.  Bananas.

As always, all times ET, and a hat tip to WaPo’s Soccer Insider for posting the weekend listings every week.

Saturday, Feb 12

England, Manchester United-Manchester City 7:30am FSC: Manchester derby! Early in the morning! This is a big one–City is but 5 points behind Man U, after the latter finally lost last weekend.  See here for squad sheets.  Also, Mancini denies he is Italian.

England, Arsenal-Wolves 10am ESPN2: Why?  Because we have so many Gunners fans among us, because it will be interesting to see how they rebound after the debacle last Saturday at Newcastle, and because it will be interesting to see if Wolves can pull off two upsets in a row.  They just might.

"If Villa comes anywhere near my touchline during the game, I might just bite him"

Spain, Sporting Gijón-Barcelona 2pm ESPN Deportes: Not only because one should watch this year’s Barcelona side at every given opportunity–but also b/c we have a thing for Gijón, Manuel Preciado, and his moustache.  Another storyline here: David Villa is from Asturias (the son of a miner) and started his professional career with Sporting Gijón B at the age of 18 (1999-2001) before playing for the A team (2001-2003), followed by stints at Real Zaragoza (2003-2005) and Valencia (2005-2010).  Read this column by Sid Lowe from April 2009 about Villa and his relationship with Gijón–no, really, read it now.  For instance: ” ‘If Villa comes anywhere near my touchline during the game, I might just bite him,’ declared Sporting’s coach, Manolo Preciado, ‘but before and after, I’ll give him a hug. He’s the best player in this club’s history, after Quini.’ ”

Italy, Roma-Napoli 2:30pm FSC: We told you to watch Inter-Roma last weekend, and hopefully you did, as it was perhaps the game of the year in Serie A.  Unfortunately the result wasn’t good for Roma, as they fell further back in the table, in 7th place–10 points behind AC Milan, and 7 points behind 2nd place Napoli.  Here’s a chance for Roma to climb back in the race–or conversely, for Napoli to keep the heat on Milan (and stave off Inter, who are now only two points behind them!)

Sunday, Feb 13

England, QPR-Nottingham Forest 8:30a FSP: Take a peak at the Championship. Why? Why not? Well, these two are currently #1 and #2 in the table, so there’s a good chance one or both will be in the Premier League next year.

Italy, Juventus-Inter Milan 2:30pm FSC: Derby d’Italia! Juve needs a win to stay afloat (they’re currently in 8th place, one point behind Roma).  Meanwhile, Inter is hot as fire since Leonardo took over in December, and he has them “playing a brand of Brazil-like attacking football

Monday, Feb 14

England, Fulham-Chelsea 3 p.m. ESPN2: Torres, Demspey & Dembele, Valentine’s Day..

NewsSchedule

International Friendlies Today – France v Brazil, Argentina v Portugal, Denmark v England

February 9, 2011 — by Suman

A More Meaningful France-Brazil Match Than Today's (12 Juin 1998, Paris)

There is a full slate of meaningless international friendlies today, with the European and South American powers in action in some attractive matchups (Guardian blogger Paolo Bandini, in a bit of hyperbole: “Is this the best night of friendlies ever?“).   Moreover, most of those matches available for viewing here in the US (at least on ESPN3).

We may peek in on France-Brazil, Argentina-Portugal, or even Denmark-England.   Especially since the storyline for that latter one, at least from the English point of view, seems to be young Jack Wilshere’s first start.  Fabio Capello did nothing to manage expectations of a nation looking for yet another savior by mentioning “Baresi, Maldini, Raúl” when asked about Wilshere.

Such expectations which have been building his performances in the early stages of the Premier and Champions Leagues last fall. For example, here is another Guardian columnist back in October, writing that he’s “nervous about Jack Wilshere, teenage midfield scamp and current bearer of the title of most promising young footballer in England. Watching Wilshere set up Arsenal’s first goal against Partizan Belgrade [in September] with a brilliant backheel, two thoughts sprang to mind. First: Wilshere is really good. And second: how are we going to ruin him?”

(We’ve indulged this tangent about Wilshere since its further fuel for our ongoing internal debate about his role in the Arsenal lineup; see here.)

Here’s a list of some of the matches of interest:

2:15pm Denmark vs England ESPN3.com
2:30pm Netherlands vs Austria ESPN3.com
2:45pm France vs Brazil ESPN2ESPN3.com USAESPND
2:45pm Germany vs Italy ESPN3.com
3:00pm Argentina vs Portugal FIFA.comGolTV,
3:30pm Spain vs Colombia ESPN3.com

A France-Brazil matchup is a good reason to look back at the famous Final Coupe du Monde 1998, which took place on the 12 Juin 1998 in the Stade de France (Paris):

Update: For reference, here are the squad lists for a few of the matches, which are now in progress.

France-Brazil:

France: Lloris; Sagna, Rami, Mexes, Abidal – A Diarra, M’vila – Menez, Gourcuff, Malouda – Benzema.
Subs: Mandanda, Carrasso, Réveillère, Koscielny, Sakho, Clichy, Cabaye, Matuidi, Diaby, Gameiro, Hoarau, Rémy
Brazil: Julio Cesar; Dani Alves, Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Andre Santos; Elias, Lucas, Hernanes; Renato Augusto, Pato, Robinho
Subs: Gomes, Neto, Breno, Luisao, Marcelo, Rafael, Anderson, Sandro, Jadson, André, Hulk

Denmark-England:

Denmark: Sorensen, Christian Poulsen, Jorgensen, Agger, Simon Poulsen, Jacobsen, Kvist, Eriksen, Krohn-Delhi, Rommedahl, Bendtner.
Subs: Lindegaard, Wass, Kjaer, Silberbauer, Schone, Vingaard, Junker, Lorentzen, Enevoldsen, Pedersen.
England:Hart, Johnson, Dawson, Terry, Ashley Cole, Lampard, Wilshere, Walcott, Rooney, Milner, Bent.
Subs: Green, Walker, Cahill, Lescott, Baines, Downing, Parker, Barry, Young, Defoe,
Carlton Cole, Stockdale.

Schedule

What To Watch This Weekend (Feb 5-6)

February 4, 2011 — by Suman

But will King Kenny be this happy at Stamford Bridge this Sunday?

A handful of viewing options for the weekend, culled from the full set of televised matches.  If you have to pick just one to watch, it’s got to be Chelsea-Liverpool on Sunday, with the £50m man Fernando Torres set to debut for the Blues against his former Liverpool teammates and manager Kenny Dalglish (pictured to the right, celebrating after scoring at Stamford Bridge to clinch the title for Liverpool in 1986).

As usual, all times ET:

Saturday, Feb 5

England, Newcastle-Arsenal or Manchester City-West Brom 10am, FSC/FSP respectively: Take your pick to see whether the two teams right behind Man U in Premier League table can keep pace.  Arsenal are on 49 pts, Man City on 46, while Man U are at the top with 54 (and still undefeated, which we expect them to maintain later in the day against cellar-dwellers Wolves)–so neither Arsenal nor Man City can afford to drop points.

Spain, Barcelona-Atletico Madrid 4pm GolTV: Atletico have been severely underachieving this season, especially given their South American star strikeforce of Diego Forlan and Kun Agüero.  Barcelona should get a La Liga-record 16th consecutive victory in front of their home crowd, breaking the record set by Real Madrid in 1960-61 (the legendary squad that featured di Stefano and Puskas in attack, and that had won five European Cups in a row).

Sunday, Feb 6

England, Chelsea-Liverpool 11am FSC: The main event of the weekend, following last Monday’s transfer madness.  Fernando Torres became the £50m man–that’s how much Chelsea paid Liverpool for the Spanish striker, and now he’ll play his first game for the Blues against his former side. Liverpool used all that money plus a bit more to replace Torres with an odd couple of effective, exciting and infamous strikers: Luis Suarez (£23m) and Andy Carroll (£35m!).

But aside from all the recent transfer drama, this is a rivalry with a good deal of history to it–some of it featuring King Kenny Dalglish, a legendary Liverpool player, then player-manager, and as of the past couple months, manager once again.  That’s him pictured above, as part of the current installment of the Guardian’s Joy of Six: “great Chelsea v Liverpool moments and matches”; here’s the video that goes with that photo (“Kenny Dalglish chesting down Jim Beglin’s clever dink down the inside-left channel and guiding it past Tony Godden. It was one of the most famous title-winning goals, the first half of a famous double sealed”):

CommentarySchedule

Matches to Watch This Weekend (Jan 21-23)

January 22, 2011 — by Larry

The Monsters of the Midway

Our picks for the weekend–a couple Premier League games, a couple Serie A games, a USMNT friendly, and the final of the Copa Centroamericano.  As usual, culled from SoccerInsider’s comprehensive listings, and all times ET:

Saturday, Jan 22

England, Wolves-Liverpool 7:30 a.m. ESPN2: This exact sort of fixture continues to bedevil Liverpool.  Can they fix a two-year problem visiting the grounds of England’s lesser lights?  If not, will Daiglish snap?

England, Aston Villa-Manchester City 12:30 p.m. FSC: Darren Bent’s debut for the Villans as they begin their campaign to avoid the drop.  Gotta believe Kompany will have his hands full paired with the useless Lescott if Kolo Toure not back from injury.  Can Dzeko grab his first or even play nearly as well as last time out?  Who will Manciin rest after the FACup replay in mid-week?

Friendly, USA-Chile 10 p.m. Telefutura, ESPN3.com: Almost exclusively young, uncapped players for Team USA.  A good chance perhaps to see who will take over for the current team, but only available on Telefutura/ESPN3 means very little chance of actually doing so. (Why is the game only on Telefutura and ESPN3? Details here)

Sunday, Jan 23

Italy, Udinese-Inter Milan 6:30 a.m. FSP: Inter on a roll after Leonardo replaced Rafa; a player to watch for Udinese: Alexis Sanchez

Italy, AC Milan-Cesena 2:30 p.m. FSC: it should (might?) be interesting to see how Italian teams approach being near relegation.  We are all familiar with the English “Route One”, but how Cesena approach travelling to the leaders.

NFL – NFC Championship, Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers 3pm: For only the 2nd time, we expand our listings to include an contest of the “other” football.  Why this one?  Because CultFootball’s prehistory can be traced back to when we were (a variety of) the Monsters of the Midway.

Copa CentroAmericana final, Costa Rica-Honduras 6 p.m. GolTV

Schedule

Matches to Watch Midweek (Jan 18-20)

January 18, 2011 — by Suman

Kick back & watch some footy this week

We’ve been pretty regular about putting up a “what to watch this weekend” post Friday of every week.  Given all the good midweek fixtures (especially with the Champions League knockout matches starting in about a month), we’re going to add a similar weekly feature that will go up Monday or Tuesday.

So here’s your viewing guide for this week, today thru Thursday.  A handful of good matchups–two FA Cup replays involving two Premier League heavyweights hosting Championship League sides fighting above their weight; two Copa del Rey matches, one involving our new must-see Spanish team, the other a Derbi Madrileño; and a Coppa Italia match, also a capital city derby–known, in fact, as Derby della Capitale.

As usual, all times ET:

Tuesday, Jan 18

2:45pm
Man City v Leicester
England FA Cup
Fox Deportes, FSC

4:00pm
Sevilla v Villarreal
Spain Copa del Rey
ESPN3, ESPND

Wednesday, Jan 19

2:45pm
AS Roma v Lazio
Coppa Italia
GolTv

3:00pm
Leeds United v Arsenal
England FA Cup
Fox Deportes, FSC

4:00pm
Real Betis v Barcelona
Spain Copa del Rey
ESPN3, ESPND

Thursday, Jan 20

4:00pm
Real Madrid v Atl Madrid
Spain Copa del Rey
GolTv