September 21, 2007

Cupcake Weekend Preview

Friday: The first league semifinal game since 1995 comes to Atlanta tonight as the Portland Timbers visit the RE/MAX. We're expecting much better weather this week (partly cloudy, mid-70's), so there has to be a big crowd. A big result for Atlanta here is key since Portland has the best defense in the league and hasn't lost at home this year. The game is available on USL (sort of) Live, as is the first leg of the Puerto Rico-Seattle series, at 8 pm.

Saturday: The day kicks off with our girl Hope Solo and her American teammates taking on England in a World Cup quarterfinal at 7:55 am on ESPN2. Hope Powell has drastically improved her England team, so this won't be easy. Kelly Smith will be a handful for the American defense. The US still hasn't put together a complete performance yet, let's hope it starts this weekend. In other women's action, Germany takes on North Korea at 5:00 am (also ESPN2), and it should also be a good game.

The best game from England is Fulham USA taking on Sven and Manchester City at noon on FSC. Let's see if Deuce can keep up his goal scoring ways for the Cottagers. GolTV has a nice game from the Bundesliga at 9:25 am as Stuttgart visits Werder Bremen. I need to follow the Bundesliga more these days, it has gotten a little more interesting now that Bayern was knocked off their perch last season.

GolTV follows that up with a huge match from La Liga, Sevilla heads over to Barcelona for a 4:00 kickoff. They had completely opposite fortunes in the Champions' League in mid-week, how will they fare back home?
Sunday: The big one is a not-so-special Chelsea traveling to Old Trafford to meet up with the defending champions. How will the Blues look without Mr. Mourinho? When will Alexi Lalas call up Jose? Mourinho to MLS, NOW! Sportswriters would love him. Back to the game, it's at 11 am on FSC.

Univision has Toluca v. Chivas at 1 pm, which should be a decent one. I'm interested to see how Chivas looks before their Sudamericana match in DC against United this week.

GolTV has a tripleheader from Spain with the highlight being Real Betis v. Valencia at 5 pm.

All that's followed up by the second legs of the USL semifinals. FSC has the Portland-Atlanta game at 8, while the Islanders fans are left hoping USL Live works for their match in Seattle.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am still waiting for the Roch-Atl replay of Sunday's match. I wanted to see how Vallow broke his ribs and how McManus broke his foot, but I guess it's not going to happen. That service has gotten worse as the season progressed. They are going to have to make some major improvements for next year.

Longshoe said...

I thought McManus breaking his foot was a secret, shhhhhhh!

Just kidding, that happened in the first leg in Atlanta. He was making a run off the ball and it happened without any contact, from what I could tell. He was overlapping Kandji, making a run to the outside, and went down off the ball.

It's a shame, he'll really be missed against Portland. Liendo has a tough task on his hands.

Anonymous said...

Liendo has some talent though.He played on the Bolivian National Team a few years back.

Longshoe said...

True (I know he played in '99 against the US), but that was a while ago. My main worry is that he's a different type of player than McManus, more technical.

If the Silverbacks use his skills in the middle of the field, it will work out well. If they're just expecting him to scrap and fight like McManus does, that isn't his typical game.

The difference could be a good thing, but we'll see.