World Football Challenge Opens Wednesday

World Football ChallengeThe World Football Challenge is a series of 14 games — 5 involving M.L.S. clubs — that begin Wednesday when Manchester United opens the tournament against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. The games continue until Aug. 6 when Barcelona plays Club América of Mexico at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX. Here’s some background on the evolution of the series, now put on by SUM. I’ve also added the TV schedule as it’s known at the moment to my calendar. Follow the event on Twitter or Facebook

WEDNESDAY, July 13
7:00 pm – NEW ENGLAND-MANCHESTER UNITED – ESPN2/ESPN3.com

SATURDAY, July 16
9:00 pm – LOS ANGELES-REAL MADRID – ESPN2/ESPN3.com

MONDAY, July 18
9:00 pm – VANCOUVER-MANCHESTER CITY -ESPN3.com

WEDNESDAY, July 20
10:00 pm – REAL MADRID-CHIVAS -ESPN3.com

Champions League Quarterfinals Tue-Wed

chelsea_v_manuThe 1st leg of the UEFA Champions League Quarterfinals kick off on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The 8 teams remaining will play their home-and-away series this week and next. The winners move on to the semifinals the last week of April and 1st week of May. The games are being broadcast on Fox Soccer Channel.

Tuesday, April 5th
REAL MADRID-TOTTENHAM (live) 1 pm.
INTER MILAN-SCHALKE (delay) 4 pm.

Wednesday, April 6
CHELSEA-MANCHESTER UNITED (live) 1 pm.
BARCELONA-SHAKHTAR DONETSK (delay) 4 pm.

I think the Chelsea vs ManU game might justify a late lunch at Farmer’s Gastropub on Wednesday. Feel free to join me!

20 Players to Watch at Beijing

The World Cup blog is doing Olympic duty and offers their Top 20 list, broken down between 10 you know and 10 you may not know. It includes Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore from the US (known/may not know respectively).

The US Men’s team plays in Group B against Japan, Nigeria and the Netherlands. Here are the players from those teams that made the list.

Taye Taiwo (Nigeria) – left back
Takayuki Morimoto (Japan) – striker
Jonathan de Guzmán (Netherlands / Feyenoord) – winger
Royston Drenthe (Netherlands / Real Madrid) – left winger/left back

They’ve got video for half a dozen of them, including Taiwo and Morimoto. Thoughts?

UEFA Champions League Returns Today

Don’t forget to set the recorders on your way to work today as the knockout round (Sweet 16) begins today with the broadcast of Liverpool vs Inter Milan.

1:30 pm ESPN2 – Liverpool vs Inter
4:00 pm ESPN Classic – AS Roma vs Real Madrid

and tomorrow brings
1:30 pm ESPN2 – Arsenal vs AC Milan
4:00 pm ESPN Classic – Celtic vs Barcelona

Does Pretty Futbol Matter?

The fan of international ball that reads this site is familiar with Fabio Cappello, recently chosen to lead England’s national team. How familiar are you with his previous position as head of Real Madrid? Goal.com looks at the beautiful game as it’s played in Spain and compares and contrasts the approaches being taken by Real, Barcelona and the others…

Sexy football. A Liga manager will usually need to at least pay lip-service to the idea, while those higher up the table may need to put it into practice.

Spanish Debate: Does Pretty Football Matter?

Hat tip to Bob.