It may be hard to believe, but Stuart Holden and Bolton are currently sitting in fifth place in the English Premier League, and could move into with a win against Blackpool today.
Bolton currently sit ahead of the likes of Tottenham (on goal differential) and Liverpool, and are doing so playing attractive soccer. Holden has become a key figure in the Wanderers attack as they look to stay ahead of Tottenham for fifth, and put pressure on Manchester City for fourth place.
Holden is one of several U.S. national team players in action. Clint Dempsey will look to help Fulham move further away from the relegation zone with a win against Birmingham City, while Tim Howard and Everton take on West Brom.
The biggest match involving an American team will take place at Toyota Park today, where the U.S. women's national team takes on Italy in the second leg of their World Cup playoff series. The Americans can clinch a World Cup berth with a win or a tie after beating the Italians on the road.
Wondering why Soccer Saturday was posted at 3:30am this morning? The Los Angeles Galaxy take on the Australian side Newcastle Jets in an exhibition in Australia airing live on Fox Soccer Channel at 3:30am.
If you will be watching today's action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today's TV Schedule is after the jump).
TODAY'S SOCCER ON TV
3:30am- Fox Soccer Channel- Newcastle Jets vs. Los Angeles Galaxy (Exhibition)
7:45am- ESPN2- Aston Villa vs. Arsenal
10am- Fox Soccer Channel- Manchester United vs. Blackburn
10am- Fox Soccer Plus- Stoke City vs. Manchester City
10am- FoxSoccer.tv- Bolton vs. Blackpool
10am- FoxSoccer.tv- Everton vs. West Bromwich Albion
10am- FoxSoccer.tv- Fulham vs. Birmingham City
10am- FoxSoccer.tv- West Ham United vs. Wigan
Noon- Fox Soccer Plus- Sampdoria vs. AC Milan
Noon- Fox Soccer Channel- Fulham vs. Birmingham City (Delayed)
Noon- GolTV- Real Zaragoza vs. Villarreal
12:20pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Burnley vs. Derby County
12:30pm- ESPN3.com- Borussia Moenchengladbach vs. Borussia Dortmund
1pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Brest vs. Lens
1pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Olympique Marseille vs. Montpelier
2pm- ESPN3.com- USA women's national team vs. Italy (World Cup playoff)
2pm- ESPN3.com- Sevilla vs. Getafe
2pm- GolTV- Defensor Sporting vs. Nacional
2:45pm- Fox Soccer Channel- Juventus vs. Fiorentina
4pm- ESPN3.com- Atletico Madrid vs. Espanyol
4:15pm- ESPN3.com- Sporting Lisbon vs. FC Porto
6:20pm- GolTV- Santa Fe vs. Atletico Huila
2am- Fox Soccer Channel- North Queensland Fury vs. Perth Glory
Can’t sleep either?
Interesting goal by LD. Nice presence of mind.
where can i watch online?
Juninho got robbed of a goal.
Galaxy need like ten new players in the off season.
The ESPN crew that calls these games are top notch. So enjoyable.
Villa’s defense is awful. Put in Lichaj already.
They are great – love listening to them. Hate ESPNs new live scores look. Not nearly as much information as before. Ugh.
Great goals by Arshavin and Nasri. Villa’s toast. Where’s Lichaj?
that goal should not have counted! Carew clearing screening Fabianski. this isn’t hockey
even that halftime segment on stadium food was entertaining. funny to see steve mcmanaman munching on a pie
Friedel comes out a tad too late and Arsenal back to a 2 goal lead. Several good match ups on paper. Clear and cold New England morning so will gets me some DD and enjoy FSC all day. Go Deuce and Stu.
(belated) Happy Thanksgiving to SBI Nation. Cheers
@ Ives: You missed the FC Bayern vs. Eintracht Frankfurt match at 08:25 on Gol TV. Kick-off in 20 minutes. Auf gehts Bayern!
why do Arsenal persist in pushing so many players up the park when they have a lead??!? it’s so obvious that constantly seeking another goal opens you up on defense. keep numbers behind the ball, Arsene!
This Villa-Arsenal game is great.
Now its crackin! Villa gets one back after some sloppy marking in the Arsenal box.
Villa with an excellent comeback in a really enjoyable game.
Holden not in the 18 for Bolton? Injured?
Ashley Young worth 80 million, wow highway robbery. That means MLS should try to get atleast 20 million for zakuani another fast guy who can’t cross.
Holden out with a slight thigh strain suffered in training. D’oh!
Holden failed a late fitness test, thigh.
Marvel Wynne’s agent should also renegotiate his contract if thats the case.
Wilshere! heck yeah. beautiful
Put a fork in it. Wilshere definitely showed compsure for all 90 and glad to see him bag one. Sucks for Freidel who made a couple of good saves but great match overall.
Agreed. Wonderful save to rob Nasri of a goal in the 40′.
I know right? He killed their build-up a few times and definitely ruined a pretty good goal scoring opportunity with an awful through ball. Where did you see that price quote? He has looked terrible in the games I have been able to watch this year.
Friedel played well, as usual. nothing he could do on those goals
thigh injury
hahnemann dropped to bench – could see that one coming last week while Edie Johnson dresses….
awesome shot by Dempsey. Just a yard or so of the goal. He is Fulham’s best chance to win this game
any chance to see these games on a mac without firefox?
Blackburn are self-destructing
ATDHE.NET
use it you guys. it’s free. better on internet explorer though
argh. I never knew how much Fulham needed a true target man. So I guess they were right about Zamora. Pretty much their best striker since McBride. Hope Fulham can hold fast and get a least a few more pts til he returns. They’re in relegation zone. If all goes to heck, it’s good to know Dempsey will be safe.
Guess I picked a bad time for my coffee run. Think we’ll see a couple more goals in this one?
leToux
Man City is getting outplayed by Stoke.
Anyone else have the feeling Sam Allardyce might just be on Sir Alex’s payroll?
Blackburn just seem to be going through the motions at Old Trafford.
Blackburn excellently displaying the Bob Bradley ZONE D
Clint!!
Clint makes it 1-1 with a nice header.
Hannover over Freiburg 3-0 at 85 minutes. Couple really bad ref calls contribute to score. Cherundolo starts and Beasley on late.
Goal Deuce!
Ok, I want an investigation into this United match.
Watching this just screams fixed to me.
Dempsey almost scored a 2nd. He really does bring something Fulham sorely lacks. CREATIVITY.
EJ coming on.
Barcelona won 8-0 last week and I don’t hear a freaking word.
Wow EJ getting some minutes in a close game
How is that related?
It isn’t. Blackburn looks like they’re throwing the match.
I guess Berbatov was getting tired of all the criticism.
Ohhhhh, EJ so close there.
Because you talk about how brillant barcelona are when they win 8-0, no talk of the other team throwing the game.
You’re still not drawing a connection here bud.
In fact, you’re not saying anything other than that you don’t like me.
It just clipped the calf of Foster. He almost beat him five-hole on that breakaway.
Bolton’s second goal was awesome.
Great goal by Matthew Etherington in stoppage time for Stoke to beat Man City.
Berbatov had a nice season today
+1
In a single match, he tied DC United’s leading goal scorers for an entire season.
Haha
wow …
Ya and Blackburn scored to make it look less fixed. Teams lose confidence when they go down a goal in the 2nd minute. To say that that game was fixed is idiotic.
I think you mean “tie.”
what did Dempsey get booked for?
Damn Berbatov. He had a hat trick against my REDs like 2 months ago and has been quiet until today. You know I’d start him and Hernandez and bring Rooney as a super-sub with say 35mins a game. But that wouldn’t work of course cause he’s Rooney. anyway
gotta give props to the Bulgarian.
My man Deuce is man of the match. You just know it.
He lost the ball at midfield and fouled the guy to keep Birmingham from breaking. You could tell he had some tired legs.
Dammit! I just transferred Berbatov from my fantasy team
Ooh, that burns.
its difficult to like you. youve proved that recently.
me too. now im gonna pick him back up and hes going to go back to sleep.
Praise the Lord. I didnt drop him. 50 points.
No Gooch on the bench for Milan. If he does go back to Liege, I sure hope he gets plenty of PT.
Why didn’t Marcus Hahnemann start?
Cause he’s been giving lots of goals and Wolves are going to get relegated.
Couple hairy moments for the US women, but they look poised to qualify
USA! USA! USA!
And they do! Congrats!
PS – People who don’t watch high level women’s soccer are missing out on a highly techincal, tactically astute version of the game. I’ve coached both high level girl’s and boy’s soccer, and what I love about the girl’s game is that they have to play the game right, whereas boys try to over power everything. Both games are fun, but the women’s game maybe a “purer” form.
yawn…
Shoutout to Subotic who scored.
ruuuude
Proud of your idiocy and lack of class?
Without commenting on your post script, I will say: GO USA! Lady Nats!
This may be very true, but you can’t be talking about our WNT. They have played like tactical neophytes from the first time Anson Dorrence coached and all they had to do was overrun the other team’s midfielders with players like Michelle Akers, who was off the charts athletically. Twenty years later, they still have no ideas when it comes to breaking down a tactically sound midfield and defense.
Sounds like a WNBA fan
Marcus was great last season. Hennessey definitely isn’t any better, but yeah Wolves are for sure going down and Hennessey is only 23. Looks like Marcus will probably be heading to MLS then.
@Brent McD.
You don’t know what your talking about!!
Both goals today weren’t scored on the break so how do you figure we were open in the back?
First goal was down to poor marking because Clichy had to choose between picking up the man with the ball and watching young on the wing, while the two center-halfs didn’t close down in time, granted the goal shouldn’t have counted anyway. The second goal was scored from a corner kick.
Both goals had nothing to do with being left open in the back.
This is the Arsenal!!
Altidore needs to move
Why?
Enjoyable match, LA vs Newcastle.
Enjoying the commentary, too, not sure who these two guys are though. Especially appreciate the bits of love for the US national team.
I beg to differ. How many Arsenal games have you seen? How many times have they dropped points by failing to hold second half leads? Yes, the 2 goals today were not on the counterattack. But Villa did generate plenty of chances because Arsenal were pushing too many men forward, as usual.
Believe me I appreciate how the Gunners play, but I also think with the way they pass and possess the ball, they should be able to close out games more effectively.