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CommentaryEurope

Weekend Wrapup: Falcao Supercup Hat-trick

September 4, 2012 — by Suman

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The weekend began Friday afternoon (for those of us on this side of the Atlantic--it was Friday night in France, where the match was played) with the UEFA Supercup between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid. By the time we tuned in to check the score, it was halftime, and the score already 3-0--via a hat-trick for exactly who you would think would be lighting it up.  His 2nd hattrick in five days, given that he scored three against Athletic Bilbao in Madrid on Monday! The Colombian kid is making a case for being one of the best few strikers in the game right now. Here are the goals, each of them spectacular. Commentary pulled from the Guardian MBM: 6 min: GOAL! Chelsea 0-1 Atlético Madrid. Chelsea are rocking alright. Chelsea's back line is ripped apart by a simple pass down the middle. Falcao romps after it, picking up possession down the inside-left

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CommentaryPreview

What To Watch This Weekend (Sept 1-3)

September 1, 2012 — by Suman

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Sunday's Liverpool-Arsenal match at Anfield is the marquee matchup of the weekend, but there are a bunch of games worth checking in on if you're looking for something to watch.  Especially if any of the transfer activity shows up on the pitch. Here are our picks--a few games each from the Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A (plus one from the Eredivisie): Saturday, Sept 1 10:00am Tottenham Hotspur vs Norwich City Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Deportes 12:30pm Manchester City vs Queens Park Rangers Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Deportes 2:45pm Bologna vs Milan beIN Sport 1 USA, RAI Interna.. Will Dempsey play for Spurs? Maicon for City? Granero for QPR? de Jong for Milan? Probably not. The City-QPR fixture is of course the one that decided the Prem League title in such dramatic fashion last May. We've included it here partly only so we could repeat James Richardson's plea that this fixture should really

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CommentaryEnglandPreview

Ducks To Shatter To Duck Dust At Anfield; Liverpool Preview, Stoke Post Mortem

August 31, 2012 — by Rob Kirby — 5

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Arsenal has a crunch match against Liverpool up at Anfield on Sunday (8:30 EST, Fox Soccer Channel). Both teams have yet to win a game this season, although it’s not quite crisis intervention time, as it's only the third game in. Still, Arsenal has yet to score a goal, which is worrying since we just sold the player who scored 40% of our goals last season. Coupled with that, we sold the one who provided the most assists. Also, Liverpool nearly beat the champions last weekend in their 2-2 home draw with Manchester City. I don’t know that we could have done the same. In fact, I’m pretty sure we couldn’t. However, I don’t know that Liverpool could do so again, either. Liverpool get Daniel Agger back from suspension, while reports have Laurent Koscielny in contention to return to the central defence, with Wojciech Szczesny facing a fitness test on

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Commentary

It’s Transfer Deadline Day!

August 31, 2012 — by Suman

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It's TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY! Deals can get done until 11pmBST tonight (= 6pmET), and no doubt there will be plenty of last minute wheeling and dealing. Follow along via the Guardian's liveblog if you're so inclined. Amid all that is some actual action on the field. The European super cup is today--the UEFA Champions League winner vs the Europa League winner, so Chelsea vs Atletico Madrid. A couple subplots: Fernando Torres vs his old club, and Atletico Madrid's goalkeeper Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois vs the club that might call him back next season to finally succeed Peter Cech (both subplots picked up via scanning Guardian headlines: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/aug/30/chelsea-atletico-madrid-super-cup http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/aug/30/thibaut-courtois-atletico-madrid-chelsea (the latter being a Sid Lowe interview)). Other transfer rumors picked up from Guardian Football homepage: Chelsea to add even more attacking talent, in the form of German André Schürrle from Leverkeusen? With potential domino effects of Sturridge off to Liverpool and Andy Carroll to West Ham? Who knows, better

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CommentaryEnglandtransfers

Late-Breaking Walcott Defection

August 29, 2012 — by Rob Kirby

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For my first Arsenal match in August 2006, covered in the 10 am yell spit and spilled beers of fellow patrons at Nevada Smith's in New York, I saw Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott come on as subs after Thierry Henry had done something or other phenomenal. My buddy Roland, who deserves all the blame for me being a Gunner, had filled me in on the Walcott World Cup call up fiasco and considered van Persie his favorite player. I was intrigued to see RvP play, and he pulled off an incredible shot on goal within minutes. Walcott did not. But then, he was still 16 at the time. Van Persie now seems as if he’s been off for ages, though it’s only been a couple weeks and we will face him domestically for seasons to come. Alex Song’s deal transpired in seemingly days, though the recriminations linger on

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PreviewSchedule

What to Watch This Weekend: Aug 24-26

August 25, 2012 — by Suman

Second round of Premier League and La Liga matches this weekend, while Bundesliga and Serie A are also getting underway: Friday, Aug 24 2:30pmET, Borussia Dortmund vs Werder Bremen (GolTV USA): Dortmund begins its quest for a 3rd consecutive Bundesliga title. For the 2nd straight year, they've lost a star to a bigger and richer club abroad--this summer it was Shinji Kagawa to Manchester United, the previous summer it was Nuri Şahin to Real Madrid (although looks like he will end up in England as well, at least for a season, on loan--to Liverpool?). But Dortmund are looking to pick up where they left off, with young star Marco Reus newly arrived from Borussia Mongengladbach.   Saturday, Aug 25 10amET, Manchester United vs Fulham (FSC, Fox Deportes): Two teams that got off to surprising starts last weekend, in opposite directions. MUFC lost at Everton 1-0, despite bringing on Robin van Persie as a

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EnglandPreviewSchedule

Kicking Off 2012-13: What To Watch This Weekend

August 17, 2012 — by Suman

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Another season of European club football is upon us, and so we here at CultFootball are back from a couple-month hiatus. Over at PoliticalFootballs, John Lally has a Premier League preview which runs to a few thousand words. And here on CultFootball, Rob Kirby devotes almost as many words to just Arsenal's chances this season. Without further preamble, here are our picks for opening weekend in the EPL--plus one match from the opening weekend in La Liga: As usual all times ET, and all listing from (and links to) the very useful livesoccertv.com: Saturday, August 18: 10:00am West Bromwich Albion vs Liverpool Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Deportes 10:00am Arsenal vs Sunderland ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3 12:30pm Newcastle United vs Tottenham Hotspur Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Deportes Sunday, August 19: 8:30am Wigan Athletic vs Chelsea Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Deportes 1:00pm Real Madrid vs Valencia beIN Sport 1, beIN Sport en Español* Monday, August 20: 3:00pm Everton

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EnglandPreviewtransfers

New Arsenal Attack for 2012/2013

August 16, 2012 — by Rob Kirby — 2

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If you've hardly seen Arsenal's new signings in action, let alone live up to the hype on a frequent basis, you may be at high risk for getting carried away. But you’re excited, because they're names you recognize, they're each coming off great seasons, stats-wise, and your best player has just signed for Manchester United, so you really need this right now. Speaking for myself, I've really only seen these guys in highlights clips or in international tournaments since 2006. One 90-minute preseason match against FC Cologne dominates perception of how these players fit, because it represents the sum total of captured footage of the new signings together in action. From this background of minimal familiarity with our new saviors comes this perspective.  Robin has finally made his move, so we can now focus on players who are actually on the team. The new players have had one collective preseason runout with

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