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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”):

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Adiós Roy, We Hardly Knew Ye

January 8, 2011 — by Sean — 1

In what should come as no shock to any of us, Roy Hodgson took the axe today as Liverpool replaced him with fan-favorite Kenny Dalglish. We’ve had a soft spot for Hodgson, what with his classy subdued demeanor and his leading of Fulham into the top six plus Europa final over the last two season.

Sadly, he never got it going at Liverpool. The players didn’t seem to want to play for him, and when you’re working with a squad of also-rans, you need to encourage them to perform above their level. His side seemed more willing to coast on Liverpool’s storied history, hoping the very thought of the team would upset opponents and win them games. That’s not to say Roy didn’t have a hand in their failure, and once he lost the support of the fans there was really no way he could continue on in the post.

Stepping in is Liverpool favorite Kenny Daglish, an eight-time league winner with Liverpool in the 70s and 80s as a player, including three titles as a player-manager. He was also on the side for three European Cup triumphs. He’s been out of the game for a decade, and it’ll be interesting to see if his take on current tactics will be up to par (though we expect he’s mostly been installed to inject some passion into a side more than capable of reaching a top six position by end of season). As for now he’s considered an interim solution, but we’ll see if good results suggest a longer term.

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What to Watch This Weekend (Oct 30-31)

October 29, 2010 — by Suman

We’re back once again with our recommendations on when exactly you should plant yourself on your couch or local pub stool this weekend.  Again using SoccerInsider’s full TV listing as a reference, here we go, with some notes from various members of the CultFootball collective:

Saturday Oct 30

Striker, Goal Scorer, Contortionist

Manchester United-Spurs 12:30 p.m. FSC: a matchup of the 3rd and 5th place teams in the EPL table, with goal-scoring players in form on both sides (Chicharito and Nani for Man U, Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart for Spurs)

Barcelona-Sevilla 4 p.m. ESPN Deportes: One of the more challenging La Liga games for Barca, especially since Sevilla seems to finally coming into form (6th in the table) after a slow start, and their Brazilian WC2010 star Luis Fabiano back in the lineup and finding the back of the net.

Those are the two matches to make time for, but if you need a couple additional matches to fill out your day:

Hercules-Real Madrid 2 p.m. GolTV: It’ll be interesting to see if Real Madrid can keep up their recent dominating form (well, last week’s scoreless draw against 3rd division Murcia in a Copa del Rey game excepted), or conversely whether Hércules can pull off another upset.

AC Milan-Juventus 2:30 p.m. FSC: AC Milan is 2nd in the Serie A table, and has an exciting set of big names in attack: Ronaldhino, Pato, Robinho, Ibrahimovic, Seedorf, while Juve is in 5th.  See Goal.com’s rundown of key individual matchups here.

And since the MLS playoffs have started, a Saturday night special…

San Jose-New York 10 p.m. Telefutura:  Sounds like Thierry Henry will miss this match due to an injury, but the Red Bulls have a number of players to watch: Rafa Marquez, the Mexican international recently arrived from Barcelona; Estonian Joel Lindpere; Jamaican Dane Richards; and Senegalese-American goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul (see this NY Daily News article about his journey from Senegal to the Bronx to high school in Manhattan, and eventually to the MLS).

Sunday Oct 31

Palermo-Lazio 7:30 a.m. FSP: Roman side Lazio sits atop Serie A, while Palermo is in 8th.  We’ll refer you to Goal.com for each side‘s rosters, recent team news, and standard formations.

Stan Cummins (sunderland) 1980's tyne-wear derby

Newcastle-Sunderland 9:30 a.m. FSP: The Tyne-Wear derby. Overlooked step-sister Sunderland have held their own against Newcastle on the pitch over the years, if not in international fame. Always good to share your name with a tasty brew.

Bolton-Liverpool noon FSC: Liverpool played well last week, and Fernando Torres finally scored, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can build on that—and work their way up in the table.

And one more—another MLS playoff game, featuring the star-studded Galaxy:

Seattle-Los Angeles 8 p.m. ESPN2

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UEFA Europa League – Matchday 2 Fixtures

September 30, 2010 — by Suman

Balon d'Europa

As we admitted a couple weeks ago (here), we don’t understand the how or why of the Europa League. And after 16 Champions League games over the past two days, we’re not particularly jonesing to watch more pan-European club matches today. But if you are, there are 24 games today (48 teams in the league, recall).

The ones we would watch, if we were forced to sit down and do so, are the following (pulled from UEFA’s Europa League page, “all times are CET“–you do the math for your timezone)

Dortmund 19:00 Sevilla Sevilla FC More »
Referee: Mike Dean (ENG)
Stadium: BVB Stadion Dortmund, Dortmund (GER)
Utrecht 19:00 Liverpool Liverpool FC More »
Referee: Duarte Gomes (POR)
Stadium: Stadion Galgenwaard, Utrecht (NED)
Atlético 21:05 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen More »
Referee: Paolo Tagliavento (ITA)
Stadium: Estadio Vicente Calderón, Madrid (ESP)
Man. City 21:05 Juventus Juventus More »
Referee: Eduardo Iturralde González (ESP)
Stadium: City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester (ENG)

Commentary

Berbatov wins over the Old Trafford faithful

September 20, 2010 — by Sean

You like what you see then, yes?

You know you like saying the name Dimitar Berbatov. Say it out loud and experience that staccato sing-song quality of Eastern Bloc phonetics. Like his name, the man is deceptively smooth, though his subtlety of movement and quality on the pitch haven’t quite shone through since his transfer from north London side Spurs. The Manchester fans haven’t exactly been the most supportive of his play, but the one man who matters, his manager, has kept the faith and now everyone is feeling the payoff.

The Bulgarian hit-man netted not once, not twice, but thrice in United’s 3-2 victory over Liverpool, scoring three quality goals with his second bound to be in the top goals of the season (a bicycle kick that nestled into the corner of the net as Reina stood and watched).

The game itself was mostly boring until the second half (only because United were so dominant in the first 45 mins), when it did look like Liverpool might walk away with at least a draw. The Reds picked up the pace and Torres seemed to be finding his so-far-missing stride. Play opened up and the game became stretched. It was gripping for a good 30 minutes there. Then Berbatov headed home his third, and set himself up for a standing ovation for scoring the first hat trick in the tie in some 60-odd years.

Berbatov is often described by commentators as laconic. He does indeed create much though seemingly doing very little. He’s an athlete who makes it look easy, the sort of player who seems like he has more time to work with the ball than the other players around him. Sir Alex has described the man as having a “touch of genius“, and it’s nice to see him finally putting all the pieces together in his new home.

Commentary

ARSENAL & LIVERPOOL, REVISITED

August 25, 2010 — by Tyler

Eating my Delicious Words as a Snack

Hours after the EPL season kicked off, Sean wrote about the Arsenal/Liverpool game. I agreed and disagreed. Let’s glance at these teams a week later…

Arsenal, capable of the dominance they demonstrated this week, will always scare me with their predictable unpredictability. 6-0 vs. Blackpool was a hearty meal, but they could so easily starve me with a loss or draw at Blackburn next game.

The goalkeeper saga continues for the Gunners. What a gossip-mill conundrum! To buy or borrow Schwarzer or Given? My money is on Arsene offering for neither, which could be a mistake. At the very least, please buy another center back, Professor!

Commentary

Is Man City that Good?

August 24, 2010 — by Sean

The answer: probably! Though Liverpool looked mostly clueless through yesterday’s meeting, it may well have been because City were seemingly everywhere, winning the majority of 50/50 balls, pushing the attack up both flanks and through the middle while meeting limited resistance, and suffocating the Reds’ front line on their counter.

Yes, Torres is still recovering and clearly doesn’t have that explosive speed we’re used to seeing from him, and yes the Mascherano drama (with him refusing to play while waiting to be transfered) didn’t help at all. But maybe it was more about Liverpool’s rigid 4-4-2—that Hodgson employed so well at the cottage—that was their main undoing. Gerrard sitting back and tasked with picking up runners through the midfield is not the best use of the man’s talents (and he’s no good at it), and Pool clearly have no left back option. Ngog and Torres at the point have absolutely no chemistry, and where was Kuyt yesterday?

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