TV Schedule for the Week of 10/17

Full league play is back around the world as World Cup qualifying pauses until mid-November. EPL, Serie A, and MLS return to normal action, UEFA and CONCACAF Champions Leagues resume and the USL1 Championship is concluded on Saturday.

Saturday (17th):
- EPL: Chelsea vs. Aston Villa - 7:30am - ESPN2HD
- EPL: Sunderland vs. Liverpool - 10am - FSC
- Serie A: Juventus vs. Fiorentina - 12pm - FSC
- USL1: Championship 2nd-Leg - Montreal Impact vs. Vancouver Whitecaps - 2:30pm - FSC
- MLS: New England vs. Chicago - 6pm - FSC

Sunday (18th):
- EPL: Wigan vs. Manchester City - 11am - FSC
- Serie A: AC Milan vs. Roma - 2:30pm - FSC

Monday (19th):
- EPL: Fulham vs. Hull City - 2:55pm - ESPN2HD

Tuesday (20th):
- UEFA CL: Inter Milan (ITA) vs. Dynamo Kyiv (UKR) - 2:30pm - FSC
- CONCACAF CL: Toluca (MEX) vs. DC United (USA) - 8pm - FSC

Wednesday (21st):
- UEFA CL: CSKA Moscow (RUS) vs. Manchester United (ENG) - 12:30pm - FSC
- UEFA CL: Real Madrid (ESP) vs. AC Milan (ITA) - 2:30pm - FSC

- CONCACAF CL: Metapan (SLV) vs. Houston Dynamo (USA) - 10pm - FSC

Thursday (22nd):
- MLS: Chicago vs. Chivas USA - 8pm - ESPN2HD

USA finished 1st in CONCACAF - World Cup Update

A wild and crazy day of soccer around the globe as the CONCACAF, UEFA, and CONMEBOL qualifying wrapped up the group stages. 23 of the 32 spots have been finalized, however at least 1 team from each of the six world regions still have qualifying matches to played on November 14th and 18th. Here is a look at teams who have qualified, teams who are still fighting, and the ones who now have to look ahead to 2014 (Brazil) for each region.

CONCACAF:
- In the final 30 seconds of the match in DC last night Jonathan Bornstein changed the entire group standings. Heading into stoppage time, Mexico was going to win the group on goal differential, Costa Rica had clinched a World Cup bid and Honduras, even with a victory on the night, would be forced into a play-off against Uruguay. However, Bornstein's last second strike pushed the US to the top of the group table, gave the South African ticket to Honduras and sent Costa Rica into a home-and-away series against Uruguay.
- Here is a look at the final CONCACAF Table
- Costa Rica will host Uruguay on November 14th, then travel for the return leg on November 18th in the Inter-confederation Play-offs

CONMEBOL:
- After all turmoil, resignation calls, and bad losses Argentina was still able to pull out a World Cup bid based on their own victory, instead of other countries failure to capitalize. Make no mistake about it, this team struggled and vastly underperformed during this group stage. But no team, from about region will want to see Argentina sitting in their group next June.
- Final CONMEBOL Table - Uruguay held onto the 5th place, play-off, spot despite losing to Argentina, since Ecuador loss to Chile, who moved into 2nd place overall in the table.
- Uruguay will travel to Costa Rica on November 14th, then play at home for the return leg on November 18th in the Inter-confederation Play-offs

AFC & OFC:
- New Zealand finished a top of the Oceania group and Bahrain finished 5th in the Asian group to qualify for an inter-continental play-off. The two teams met on October 10th in Bahrain and ended with a 0-0 draw. They will meet for the second-leg on November 14th in New Zealand. If Bahrain qualify they will be the smallest nation in the 2010 World Cup - population less than 800,00 (half the size of the metro-Raleigh, NC area).

CAF:
- In Africa three groups have already qualified - Ghana, Ivory Coast, & South Africa (host)
- Three spots remain open between Cameroon, Gabon, Tunisia, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt and matches being played on November 14th

UEFA:
- The European group stage wrapped up Wednesday night with nine bids secured thus far - Denmark, Switzerland, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy & Netherlands.
- The eight best second place teams advance to four home-and-away series to determine UEFA's final four bids - UEFA Second Round matches will take place on November 14th and 18th.

US Stiker Charlie Davies Injured

"U.S. national team forward Charlie Davies is in serious condition following a one-vehicle accident in which another person was killed. U.S. Soccer Federation spokesman Neil Buethe earlier said Davies' injuries were not life-threatening. Buethe was uncertain how they would affect Davies' playing career. Davies, also currently plays for the French first-division club Sochaux."

"The U.S. national team is in Washington to play a World Cup qualifying match against Costa Rica on Wednesday. The accident occurred at about 3:15 a.m. ET Tuesday in the southbound lanes of the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia. Davies was also not driving, police told the USSF, according to the Washington Post."

"Davies has four goals in 17 international appearances and started Saturday when the U.S. won 3-2 at Honduras to clinch its sixth straight World Cup berth. He was a member of last year's American Olympic team."

"U.S. striker Davies injured in car accident" October 13th, 2009. Associated Press. ESPN Soccernet. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=685080&sec=us&cc=5901

• ESPN Video Report - on the Charlie Davies incident.
  

Table Update as of 10/12

Quite weekend for league play as everyone paused for World Cup qualifying. The US however did not get the memo and decide to keep playing anyway. The English Premiere League, Italy's Serie A, and Champions League play across the globe were all idle and thus the updated standings will not be covered here. Lets take a look at how the top two leagues in the US - MLS & USL1.

MLS:
- Past week's Results - Toronto could only manage a 1-1 draw against San Jose - Columbus topped New England 1-0 - Chivas USA continued their strong form with a 2-0 win over Kansas City
- Current MLS Table - Houston, LA, Chivas & Columbus have already locked up 4 of the 8 playoff spots - If the season ended today the final four teams would be Chicago, Seattle, Colorado, and New England - Toronto, DC & Dallas all sit at 36 points, 2 points behind New England for the final spot. Dallas has a tough schedule in their final two games - Seattle & Colorado, but their current form is among the best in the MLS.
- Real Salt Lake still has a game at hand at 34 points, make sure to catch their match against San Jose Wednesday night at 10pm on ESPN2HD after the World Cup Qualifier at 7:30.

USL1:
 - The All-Canadian final started this weekend with the first leg match-up in Vancouver Saturday night. The home team game up an own goal and then received a red card within a 6 minute span. The match ended 3-2 in Montreal's favor as they now head home for the second leg with a lead and away goal advantage. The second leg match will be Saturday (17th) at 2:30pm on Fox Soccer Channel.
- You can also watch the match live on Saturday at USLLive.com
- Interesting note is that the Monday following the match both teams, Montreal and Vancouver, regardless of the result could receive paper work from the USL front office announcing their removal from the USL1 league next year. More on that to come later this week.

World Cup Update

World leagues took a break this weekend to make way for another FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying round. Eight new teams clinched spots in South Africa next year - Germany, Italy, Serbia Denmark, the Ivory Coast, Chile, USA, and Mexico. Here is an update on the current standings for each region.

CONCACAF:
- Current Table - The US and Mexico both qualified yesterday with wins over Honduras and El Salvador, respectively. Costa Rica sits two points ahead of Honduras heading into the final matches on Wednesday. The third place team will get an automatic bid and the fourth place team will head into a home-and-away playoff series with the 5th place team from South America.
- Wednesday's match-ups - USA vs. Costa Rica - 7:30pm - ESPN2HD

CONMEBOL:
- Current Table - After 17 out of 18 rounds of matches, 3 teams are in (Brazil, Paraguay, & Chile), 3 teams are out (Colombia, Bolivia, & Peru), and 4 teams are left to fight over the final two spots (Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, & Venezuela).
- Wednesday's match-ups - Argentina and Uruguay face off, a win clinches South Africa, a loss could knock that team out of World Cup qualifying, but a draw could save both teams. Ecuador and Venezuela both will have a hard time moving up in table with matches against Brazil and Chile.

OFC:
- Current Table - New Zealand finished 1st atop the group table and is currently in a home-and-way playoff series with Bahrain.
- Next match day - After a 0-0 draw the two teams will face off again November 14th in a winner takes all match-up. Note with 0 away goals from New Zealand, Bahrain has the slight edge.

AFC:
- Current Table - Australia, Japan, North Korea, and South Korea already have their tickets to South Africa. Bahrain beat Saudi Arabia in a playoff to advance to play New Zealand (see above).

CAF:
- Current Table -
Group A: Cameroon sits 1 point ahead of Gabon, with Togo (ManCity's Adebayor) out of the running.
Group B: Tunisia is ahead of Nigeria by 2 points.
Group C: Algeria has nearly clinched a bid with 3 points over 2nd place Egypt and only 1 match to go. Egypt can only advance if they defeat Algeria in their final match by at least 3 goals.
Group D: Ghana has already secured their spot with 1 match to go.
Group E: The Ivory Coast led by Chelsea's Drogba and Barca's Toure won the group with 16 goals in 5 games.
- Notable games for the final match day for CAF (November 14th) are: Gabon v. Togo, Algeria v. Egypt, & Nigeria v. Kenya.

UEFA:
- Note: Each group winner advances, with the top 8 out of 9 2nd place teams advancing to a final playoff round.
- Current Table -
Group 1: Denmark finished first, with Portugal sitting 1 point ahead of Sweden for 2nd place.
Group 2: Switzerland can only finish 2nd in the group, at worst, but Greece & Israel still have a chance to advance.
Group 3: Slovakia and Slovenia sit atop the group, with the Czech Republic looking in from 3rd place and 2 points out.
Group 4: Germany defeated Russia on Saturday to clinch the group, however Russia has advanced to the final round playoff of 2nd place teams.
Group 5: Spain ran through the group undefeated, with Bosnia topping Turkey for the 2nd place spot.
Group 6: England dropped their match this weekend to the Ukraine, a man down, but had already won the group. The victory moved the Ukraine past Croatia by 1 point into 2nd place.
Group 7: Serbia were the surprise group winners, with France earning the 2nd place spot.
Group 8: The 2006 Champions Italy, will be in South Africa to defend their title, Ireland earned a spot in final 8 playoff round.
Group 9: The Netherlands won UEFA's smallest group.
- Notable games for the nextmatch day for UEGA (October 14th) are: Switzerland v. Israel, Czech Republic v. Northern Ireland, Kazakhstan v. Croatia

TV Schedule for the Week of 10/10

Limited number of live games this next week due to the World Cup Qualifiers. As you may already know by now the US match tomorrow in Honduras will not be available for viewing at home in the US. Only on closed circuit television in select cities across the country. So you best bet is to follow the game on ESPN match tracker.

Saturday (10th):
- AFC WC 2010: Bahrain vs. New Zealand - 11:30am - FSC
- UEFA WC 2010: France vs. Faroe Islands - 3pm - FSC
- MLS: New England Revolution vs. Columbus Crew - 7:30pm - FSC
- USL 1: 1st Leg of the Championship - Montreal Impact vs. Vancouver Whitecaps - 9:30pm - FSC

Tuesday (13th):
- U-20 WC: Semi-Finals - Teams TBD - 1:30pm - ESPN2HD

Wednesday (14th):
- UEFA WC 2010: England vs. Belarus - 3pm - FSC
- CONCACAF WC 2010: USA vs. Costa Rica - 7:30pm - ESPN2HD
- MLS: New York Red Bulls v. Real Salt Lake - 10pm - ESPN2HD

Friday (16th):
- U-20 WC: Finals - Teams TBD - 1:30pm - ESPN2HD

MLS announces 2010 season openers

The MLS recently announced the home openers for the 2010 season for each team. 2010 will kick-off on March 25th when the Seattle Sounders host the new expansion Philadelphia Union in Quest Field. This game will  air live on ESPN2 at 9:30pm ET). This is a great decision by the MLS front office. First game of the season, on national television, Seattle (the leagues highest attended team) will bring a great crowd, and the MLS will get to introduce the new Philly team. The only downside to this match-up is that if Philly struggles (as most teams do, except Seattle), it may not help kick-off strong support for the Union at the start of the season. The remaining week 1 match-ups look like this:

Saturday, March 27, 2010
Toronto FC at Columbus Crew, 4 p.m.
Chicago Fire at New York Red Bulls, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
D.C. United at Kansas City Wizards, 8:30 p.m.
Houston Dynamo at FC Dallas, 8:30 p.m.
Real Salt Lake at San Jose Earthquakes, 9 p.m.
New England Revolution at LA Galaxy, 11 p.m. (Fox Soccer Channel) 


Sunday, March 28, 2010
Colorado Rapids at Chivas USA, Time TBD (TeleFutura) 


Three TV games in the first two days of the season is a good start for the MLS. The New England vs. LA game most likely will be more entertaining than the Fire vs. Red Bulls, but unfortunately LA's game doesn't kick off until 11pm ET which will hurt the ratings. 


The MLS also announced the home openers for each team which is playing on the road week 1, and for a few teams week 2 as well. 

REGULAR SEASON - WEEK 2

Saturday, April 3, 2010
Chicago Fire at Colorado Rapids, Time TBD
New England Revolution at D.C. United, 7:30 p.m.
Kansas City Wizards at Houston Dynamo, 8:30 p.m.

REGULAR SEASON - WEEK 3

Saturday, April 10, 2010
D.C. United at Philadelphia Union, 3 p.m. (Fox Soccer Channel)
Toronto FC at New England Revolution, 7:30 p.m.
San Jose Earthquakes at Chicago Fire, 8:30 p.m.
Seattle Sounders FC at Real Salt Lake, 9 p.m. 


Philadelphia Union will kick-off their season playing against DC United in the Eagles stadium, with a 3pm start time and Fox Soccer Channel broadcasting. One final note of interest for the 2010 season is that for the first time ever, the MLS will take a two week break from June 11th to June 25th while the FIFA World Cup Group stages are taking place next summer in South Africa. This is a step in the right direction for US Soccer and the MLS which has always been at odds with the FIFA calendar. 

14 days until FIFA 2010

We are only two weeks away from the release of FIFA 2010 by EA Sports, the Madden for the rest of the world. Last year was the first year I actually bought the game (for the Wii), before I had only played demos or at a friend's house. I instantly became in love with the game, everything from the Manager Mode to the expansive number of leagues, teams, and players to the incredible sound track. 5 or 6 months later I had unlocked everything, gone through 15 seasons as a Manager (forced into retirement - after all that I had done for them), and played with each team I was interested in I decided to trade in the game. Why? Not because I didn't enjoy it anymore, but because I wanted to enjoy FIFA 2010. If I had kept FIFA 09 all year, playing here or there when time permitted there would be no build up for the release of the new game. No missing the game play, decision making and goal scoring. Now that its been months since I last had the game I am eagerly awaiting this new release. So enough about my thoughts on trading in games or not, lets get to the latest news on the game.

FIFA 2010 official website now contains:

(1) Updated screenshots showing the Netherlands and Germany national teams playing against one another.

(2) A new promotional video featuring Bayern Munich's Brian Schweinsteiger

(3) A tutorial video on advance shooting techniques - shots with the inside or outside of the players foot, giving the shot more curve & chip shots over the goalie

(4) A tutorial video about Game Face - for the first time players will be able to upload photos of their face to the FIFA EA Sports website and create their own avatar to play in all modes within the game. 

Those are just four the latest updates to the official FIFA 2010 website. Look for more over the next two weeks as the release date gets closer - October 20th, 2009. Enjoy.

Table Update as of 10/5

MLS:
- Past week's results - LA Galaxy topped Chicago 1-0 - Seattle ended Columbus' 20+ match home winning streak 1-0 - Chivas USA beat DC United 2-0 in a match-up between playoff contenders
- Current MLS Table - The Galaxy have tied Houston atop the Western Conference table - Columbus, Houston & LA have all clinched the playoffs - New England sit 2 points ahead of DC United for the final playoff spot (with a game in hand).

EPL:
- Past week's results - Portsmouth gets of the skid with their first win against Wolves - Tottenham & ManU get held to 2-2 draws - Arsenal continue their hot scoring streak against Blackburn 6-2 - Chelsea take 3 points from the match-up of the weekend against Liverpool
- Current EPL Table - Chelsea sits atop the table with 21 points - ManCity jumps into the top 4 over Liverpool - Burnley continue their strong start at 9th place - Fulham are out of the relegation zone with West Ham replacing them

Serie A:
 - Past week's results - Inter beats Udinese 2-1 - Milan draws yet again - Sampdoria draws 1-1 - Juventus is upset by Palermo 2-0
- Current Serie A Table - Inter jumps from 3rd to 1st, beating out 2nd place Sampdoria on goal differential - Roma climbs to 8th and AC Milan falls to 12th in the table

World Cup 2010:
- As we head into the next two rounds of World Cup qualifying match-ups, here is an update on the current standings - UEFA (Europe) - CAF (Africa) - AFC (Asia) - CONCACAF (North America) - OFC (Oceania) - CONMEBOL (South America)

TV Schedule for the Week of 10/3

TV lineup of all the live games on ESPN2 and Fox Soccer Channel over the next week:


Saturday (3rd):
- EPL: Bolton vs. Tottemham - 9:55am - ESPN2HD
- EPL: Hull City vs. Wigan - 10am - FSC
- EPL: Manchester United vs. Sunderland - 12:30pm - FSC
- Serie A: Inter Milan vs. Udinese - 2:30pm - FSC
- MLS: San Jose Earthquakes vs. New  York RedBulls - 11pm - FSC


Sunday (4th):
- EPL: Chelsea vs. Liverpool - 11am - FSC
- La Liga: Teams TBD - 12:55pm - ESPN2HD
- Serie A: Palermo vs. Juventus - 2:30pm - FSC
- EPL: West Ham vs. Fulham - 5pm - FSC
- USL: 2nd Leg Semi-Final Playoffs Vancouver vs. Portland - 7pm - FSC


Monday (5th):

- EPL: Manchester City vs. Aston Villa - 2:55pm - ESPN2HD


Wednesday (7th):

- U-20 World Cup: Knock-out round match-up (teams TBD) - 1:30pm - ESPN2HD
- Friendly: Real Salt Lake (MLS) vs. Chivas Guadalajara (MEX) - 9pm - FSC
- MLS: San Jose Earthquakes vs. Dallas FC - 10pm - ESPN2HD


Friday (9th):
- U-20 World Cup: Knock-out round match-up (teams TBD) - 1:30pm - ESPN2HD
- NCAA: West Virginia vs. UConn - 8pm - FSC