Old Man Withers Has A Bone To Pick

Aren't there more important things to criticize FSC about? While I have plenty of issues with Rupert's Murdoch's soccer channel, one of them is not their advertising. Yes, they might go a little overboard with their claims of the EPL being the most exciting, riveting, pants wetting, etc. But top to bottom, where is there a better product? Italy, Germany, Spain, France?

Watch a Reading v. Bolton or Blackburn v. Fulham equivalent from any of those countries. Is that game more exciting to watch than their EPL counterpart? If you say yes to that, please get your head checked. While not always great viewing, EPL matches, pound for pound, are the most exciting to watch in the world. In general terms, the pace and resulting end-to-end play makes for a potentially good game for the viewer. The same can't be said for the likes of Catania v. Udinese.

Regarding Paul Gardner, I was a subscriber to Soccer America for many years. It was my first exposure with soccer media of any kind and I'll always remember those days with fondness. I would eventually give up the subscription after growing bored with the weekly, mostly after realizing that there was more to the world of soccer than soccer camps and reports on NCAA matchups.

Towards the end, part of my frustration with the magazine was Gardner's weekly columns. While I didn't have a problem with his prose, I began to feel that his writing represented the ravings of an old timer that was pissed off about the wayward progress/direction of his beautiful game. It's nice to see that some things never change.

Hat tip to The Gaffer. [The New York Sun]

In other eye-numbing news:

• For those of you interested, there's a trophy up for grabs on December 17th. [Live Soccer TV]
• ITVN adds GolTV to its lineup and The Gaffer wonders if it's a good thing. [Yahoo!, EPL Talk]
• Looks like FSC and Setanta have held on to their golden goose through 2010. [soccerTV.com]
• I hope those are dolphin-safe nets. [Soccernista]
  

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BL has got the Champions League covered below. Here are the other games of note on TV through Monday:

Thursday
Chivas Guadalajara v. Toluca
10pm ET, LIVE
TeleFutura
First-leg of the Mexican final. Chivas will need a good result, Toluca are tough at home.

Saturday
Manchester United v. Manchester City
7:40am ET, LIVE
Setanta Sports USA
Where's Roy Keane and Alf-Inge Haaland when you need them?

Sevilla v. Real Madrid
3:58pm ET, LIVE
World Sport HD
[Delayed on GolTV: Sunday, 9:30pm ET]
Third hosts second to get a leg up on chasing Barcelona.

Sunday
Chelsea v. Arsenal
11am ET, LIVE
FOX Soccer Channel
Second great derby of the weekend. Will a Henry-less Arsenal do Man U a favor?

Schalke 04 v. Borussia Dortmund
11am ET, LIVE
GolTV
Third great derby of the weekend and the best Bundesliga match this week.

Toluca v. Chivas Guadalajara
1pm ET, LIVE
Univision
Second-leg of the Mexican final at Toluca's Nemesio Diez stadium.

Lazio v. Roma
2:30pm ET, LIVE
FOX Soccer Channel
Fourth great derby of the weekend, the Derby della Capitale.

Boca Juniors v. Lanus
4pm ET, LIVE
FOX Sports en Espanol [Delayed on FSC: 5pm ET]
Boca can't screw this up, right?

Monday
Ajax v. AZ Alkmaar
3am ET, Delayed
Setanta Sports USA
This is a good place to start if Ajax hope to climb up the table to compete with PSV and AZ.

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

-ac