Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Watch Dunga Build His Team

Word out of Fox Soccer Channel headquarters is that they have secured the rights to show twelve Brazilian national team friendlies through 2008. The deal lets FSC show two matches this year and ten more evenly divided between 2007 and 2008.

Tomorrow's going to be the first time I've been able to see them play since Dunga took over. It'll be interesting to see how he mixes the holdovers with the new blood he's trying to bring into the squad.

If anything, it's a coup for FSC. With a TV schedule that includes second choice EPL games and no German, French, or Brazilian league matches, it's been slim pickings for those that don't get GolTV or Sentanta. Hopefully this opens the door to more creative programming at FSC, there's only so many college games I can take. [Live Soccer TV]

In other eye-numbing news:
For those of you who didn't get the chance to see the goals from Cyprus v. Ireland, here you go. Until today, I had only read about the match. Let me tell you, the goals that the Irish gave up really are that bad. [A Northsider On The South Terrace]

Need more cowbell? Here you go. [Soccernista]

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I'll leave the Euro qualifiers to BL. These are the other games of note on TV through Sunday:

Today
Brazil v. Ecuador
2:00pm ET, LIVE
FOX Soccer Channel
FSC kicks off it's Brazil coverage with this one from Stockholm, Sweden. That's right, Sweden.

Friday
Boca Juniors v. Nacional
2:30am Eastern, Same Day Delayed
FOX Sports en Espanol
As a Boca fan, I'll have my eye on this one. La Volpe could be seeing the beginning of the end if he can't motivate his players and advance into the Copa Sudamericana quarterfinals.

Saturday
Bayern Munich v. Hertha Berlin
9:30am ET, LIVE
GolTV
One point separates these two at the top of the table in Germany. Can Hertha stake it's claim on first place?

Aston Villa v. Tottenham
9:55am ET, LIVE
Setanta Xtra (DirecTV Channel 670)
This one could be fun to watch. Villa are on a roll and face a Spurs side that finally won their second game of the season against Pompey.

Reading v. Chelsea
12:00pm ET, LIVE
FOX Soccer Channel
Could be the game of the day. Can Convey and Co. give Jose's men the Man U treatment?

Sunday
Atlante v. Toluca
12:00am ET, Same Day Delay
Galavision
If you've got a bit of the insomnia, tune in to watch two of the best teams in Mexico jockey for playoff position.

Barcelona v. Sevilla
1:00pm ET, LIVE
GolTV
La Liga fans get to see another top-flight match. Rijkaard's team look for a little revenge after getting thumped in the UEFA Super Cup.

Spain v. Argentina
1:00pm ET, Tape Delayed
Telemundo
This is a game that will be played a couple of days earlier on Wednesday. Aragones could be watching the rest of Spain's games on TV after this one.

Banfield v. River Plate
5:00pm ET, Same Day Delay
FOX Soccer Channel
River's flying high after Sunday's match, but it won't be pretty if they can't get the three points at mid-table Banfield.

As always, check your local listings for dates and times in your area.

-ac

3 comments:

Linda said...

I'm slowly but surely turning into an Aston Villa fan. Weird. They don't even play my type of football. It's just...Martin O'Neill is such an awesome manager.

I didn't know Sevilla had finally settled on a TV deal. Thank God for that. As for the match itself, I'm so goddamn nervous.

soccermad said...

Yeah, there's just something about O'Neill that I find interesting as a manager. He's really got the team believing in themselves, even when they go down, they never stop fighting.

As far as Sevilla, I'm not entirely sure, but I thought that the big to-do over the TV deal had to do with their home games. I wouldn't think that they have any control over away games, and this one's at the Camp Nou.

Have you taken a look at Barca's schedule? It's a pretty mean 3-game stretch coming up, and all without Eto'o.

-ac

Linda said...

None of Sevilla's league games have been broadcast in full so far, but I assumed they'd get the TV deal sorted before the Barca game, otherwise the men in suits over at the Camp Nou wouldn't be so impressed.

Yeah, the schedule's frankly frightening. Sevilla this week, Chelsea midweek, and then Real to cap it all off. I'd be very happy with a win and 2 draws, to be honest. If we had to lose one...Sevilla would probably be the least damaging. But I'm not optimistic at all.