Soccer Culture: Prawn Sandwiches At Old Trafford?

While on a small vacation recently, the missus and I were driving through the beautiful state of Oregon. I picked up the local paper last week and saw this nugget in the sports section. I guess Green Street Hooligans is a popular rental at the local Blockbuster these days. Why else are high school administrators in the Portland suburbs referencing "soccer culture"?

It seems that there have been a couple incidents at the high school level that have the community at large scratching their collective heads. As of October 31st, three referees had been attacked or threatened. Instead of assigning blame where it belongs (overbearing parents and the offspring they incite), hey, let's take a closer look a those silly soccer fans in foreign countries. They like beating on people, right? [The Oregonian]

In other eye-numbing news:
Our buddy Daryl has got this juicy bit of info. It is yet to be confirmed, but folks in the Phoenix area could very well have a reason to plunk down some of their hard-earned coin. I went down to San Diego a couple of years back to catch a game between these two, and let me tell you, there's just as much action in the stands as there is on the field. If this match does take place, look for it to get picked up live by either ESPN or FSC and/or delayed on Telemundo a couple of days later. [The Soccer Weblog]

If you like it Brazilian, but don't get enough of it, it's your lucky day. Start boning up on your Portuguese because you've got over 300 matches to watch. [Live Soccer TV]

Bayern Munich jumps onto the copyright violations bandwagon. [FOX Sports]

----------

These are the games of note on TV through Sunday:

Wednesday
Gimnasia de La Plata v. Boca Juniors
3:00pm ET, LIVE
TyC Sports USA
Martin Palermo is back from injury to face Gimnasia. This will be the last 45 minutes of the match that was suspended at halftime on September 10th. The game will be divided in two, a 23 minute first half followed by a 22 minute second half. Boca will extend their lead at the top of the table to four points if they can turn around the 1-0 deficit.

Barcelona v. Badalona
4:00pm ET, LIVE
GolTV
Tune in to see if Frank can get his team back on the winning track. A tough patch has seen them lose to Real Madrid and take only one point from two matches against Chelsea. Barca's third division neighbors, Badalona, could be in for a world of hurt in this second-leg round of sixteen Copa del Rey match.

Saturday
Everton v. Aston Villa
10:00am ET, LIVE
FOX Soccer Channel
How many times will the word scrappy be used to describe this fixture in the coming days? Either way, this could be a good one.

Blackburn v. Manchester United
12:00pm ET, LIVE
FOX Soccer Channel / FOX Sports en Espanol
Mark Hughes' team has secured only one point from their last five EPL matches. Not a great record, but I get the feeling that they'll play tough against Man U and come away with at least a point.

Middlesbrough v. West Ham United
12:30pm ET, Same Day Delay
Setanta Sports USA
The Hammers will be sky high coming into this one. I have a question though, what happened to those two guys from Argentina?

AC Milan v. Roma
2:30pm ET, LIVE
RAI International
Milan have to start picking up some points in Serie A and find some support for Kaka.

Monterrey v. Toluca
6:00pm ET, LIVE
Galavision
The best matchup of the week from Mexico. There's some good soccer played in Mexico's top flight, take a look and see for yourself.

Sunday
Ajax v. PSV
6:00am ET, LIVE
Setanta Sports USA
Expect a lively match with only two points separating the two teams at the top of the Dutch Eredivisie.

Arsenal v. Liverpool
11:00am ET, LIVE
FOX Soccer Channel
How will the EPL's grumpy bunch take it if they can't beat the Reds at home? What are the odds of Rafa celebrating a goal on the touchline?

Houston v. New England
3:30pm ET, LIVE
ABC
The only MLS match I'll watch all season. It will likely be Clint Dempsey's last game before he $hip$ out to Europe.

Estudiantes La Plata v. River Plate
4:15pm ET, LIVE
TyC Sports USA
The weekend's big match in Argentina, played in the shiny new Ciudad de La Plata stadium. Both teams come into the match tied for second, one point behind Boca pending the result of Wednesday's game.

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

-ac