Football Saturday: March 27, 2010

The last Saturday of March 2010 is shaping up to be a big day of football across the globe. The first matches in England kick off a little before 10:00 central time this morning, with Chelsea hosting Aston Villa on ESPN Classic, Birmingham hosting Arsenal on Fox Soccer Plus, and Tottenham Hotspur hosting Portsmouth on Fox Soccer Channel. The West Ham United - Stoke City match kicks off at the same time but is not televised live in US.

The match with probably the biggest table implications in Europe this weekend kicks off in the Eternal City at 11:55 am central time as Roma hosts Inter. While a Roma victory won't push them into first place in Italy, it will put them only 1 point behind Inter. It's not clear if Inter has pulled out of the draw mode they had been in for several weeks, but they've had some solid victories against Chelsea and Livorno; however, Roma, coming off a strong victory at Bologna on Wednesday, have won 12 of their 15 matches at home this season. While Mourinho would surely love to prevail over Ranieri, he still has to look ahead to his team's Champions League match with Red Army Moscow on Wednesday. The match will be live on Fox Soccer Plus. Today's other Serie A match, Palermo hosting Bologna, will be on Fox Soccer Channel at 2:30 central time this afternoon.

This is also the first Saturday of the 2010 MLS season and Telefutura will be treating us to the Texas Derby at 3:00 central time this afternoon as FC Dallas hosts Houston Dynamo. The new RedBull Arena will get its MLS debut at 6:00 central on ESPN when New York hosts Chicago, and Fox Soccer Channel will have a double header tonight featuring Real Salt Lake at the San Jose Earthquakes at 8:00 central and the LA Galaxy hosting New England Revolution at 10:00 central.

Down in Mexico, Pachuca hosts Morelia tonight at 8:00 central on Telefutura while Chivas and Santos will be on Telemundo.

So, football fans in the United States have plenty of opportunities for watching the beautiful game, live, today.

Here's a few little videos to enjoy before the matches get started:

A video Roma fans made to chronicle Lazio's bad season:



Move over U2, Ireland has a new super group - here's Crystal Swing from their performance on RTE One's The Late Late Show:



Fox Soccer Channel Preview of the 2010 Houston Dynamo:



Never too early to get ready for the World Cup Finals in South Africa:

Eddie Pope Discusses New MLS CBA on 1560 The Game's Orange Slice

Eddie Pope joined the Orange Slice on Tuesday night to discuss the new MLS CBA. You can listen to the Orange Slice live on the streaming audio available at 1560 The Game's website every Tuesday night from 7 to 9 central time.

Eddie Pope on 1560 The Game's Orange Slice

The Zygo Soccer Report

David Beckham on a Mobile - 1560 The Game's Orange Slice

I'm going to start using this blog to promote The Orange Slice on 1560 The Game more by posting up podcasts from the weekly show. To listen to the show live, you can stream it from this website every Tuesday night from 7:00 to 9:00 central time. This is from last week's show, a little humor special.

David Beckham on a Mobile - from 1560 The Game's Orange S...

The Zygo Soccer Report

Houston Dynamo: Quick Notes before 2010 Season - plus Red Bull Arena Video

Apologies for the long absence, but it's been a busy time for me at my day job, but with the 2010 Major League Soccer season about to begin, thanks to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, it's time for me to get y'all some information.

First of all, the big news is that on Saturday MLS and the MLS Players Union announced they have reached a new 5 year CBA. The bulk of the details regarding the new CBA have not been released, but we do know that the cap has increased, slightly, most players will have guaranteed contracts, and there will be a "rentry draft" for players who get released by their clubs or who are out of contract and the former club is not interested in resigning them.

Click here for the AP article on the CBA at SI.com.

The Houston Dynamo wrapped up their pre-season schedule of friendlies on Saturday with a 3-1 over Chivas USA in Santa Barbara, California. On the whole the Dynamo went 7-0-4 during the pre-season, with a 2-0-3 record over MLS teams.


There was much concern about the Dynamo's midfield coming into pre-season because both Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden made their ways to Frankfurt in the Bundesliga and Bolton in the EPL, respectively. Despite these losses, there are only a handful of new faces on the 2010 squad: Francisco Navas Cobo (m), a signing from the team's academy; former Dynamo player Adrian Serioux (d), and Jamaican International Lovel Palmer (m). While it make some time for Cobo to see some playing time, I would not be surprised to see Palmer and Serioux in the starting lineup, though I think Palmer might be a sub in the first few matches. The addition of these two more defensive players suggests that Geoff Cameron will be freed up for a more attacking role in the midfield.

The Dynamo open the 2010 season at FC Dallas at 3:00 pm central on Saturday March 27th and then have their home opener at 8:00 pm central on Thursday April 1st when they host Real Salt Lake.

On Tuesday March 23rd, Geoff Cameron will be joining us in studio for the Orange Slice on 1560 The Game. The show airs from 7pm to 9pm central time and you can click here for information on the live stream.

The other big news in MLS this past weekend was the unveiling of RedBull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey this past Saturday when RedBull hosted Santos, in which RedBull won 3-1. Here's a video from the Grand Opening: