While Dimitar Berbatov has been stealing most of the headlines during Manchester United's unbeaten league run, Mexican striker Javier Hernandez has also played a pivotal role, scoring seven league goals and threatening Wayne Rooney for a starting role.
Hernandez should get another chance to work his magic today as Manchester United takes on Southampton in FA Cup action. Everton faces Chelsea to kick off the FA Cup proceedings this morning.
The match of the day is in Qatar, where Australia and Japan will face off in the Asian Cup Final. If you can't watch that match, there are great matches in Spain (Hercules-Barcelona), Italy (Lazio-Fiorentina) and Mexico (Pachuca-Cruz Azul) to satisfy your appetite.
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
7:30am- Fox Soccer Channel- Everton vs. Chelsea (FA Cup)
9:30am- GolTV- Werder Bremen vs. Bayern Munich
10am- Fox Soccer Channel- Birmingham City vs. Coventry City (FA Cup)
10am- FoxSoccer.tv- Torquay United vs. Crawley Town (FA Cup)
10am- FoxSoccer.tv- Stevenage vs. Reading (FA Cup)
10am- No American TV- Australia vs. Japan
Noon- Fox Soccer Plus- Lazio vs. Fiorentina
Noon- DirecTV- Mallorca vs. Sporting Gijon
Noon- DirecTV- Levante vs. Getafe
Noon- GolTV- Real Sociedad vs. Almeria
12:15pm- Fox Soccer Channel- Southampton vs. Manchester United (FA Cup)
1pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Arles vs. Paris St. Germain
1pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Caen vs. Auxerre
1pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Lorient vs. Brest
1pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Saint Etienne vs. Toulouse
1pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Sochaux vs. Stade Rennes
1pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Valenciennes vs. Lyon
2pm- ESPN3.com- Hercules vs. Barcelona
2pm- GolTV- FC Kaiserslautern vs. Mainz 05 (Delayed)
2:45pm- ESPN3.com- PSV Eindhoven vs. Willem II
2:45pm- Fox Soccer Channel- Catania vs. AC Milan
3pm- FoxSoccer.tv- Lille vs. Lens
4pm- ESPN3.com- Deportivo La Coruna vs. Sevilla
4:30pm- GolTV- Ponte Preta vs. Sao Caetano
6pm- Azteca America- Jaguares vs. Santos Laguna
6pm- Telefutura- Queretaro vs. Necaxa
8pm- Telemundo- Tigres UANL vs. Toluca
8pm- Telefutura- Pachuca vs. Cruz Azul
10pm- Telefutura- Atlas vs. Club America
10pm- Galavision- Atlante vs. Puebla
1am- Fox Soccer Channel- Melbourne Victory vs. Gold Coast United
dan_bu
Michael Bradley to Aston Villa almost a done deal, according to “Kicker”. Would be a great move for him.
46 minutes ago
Saw that. Hopefully they stay afloat. Good move if goes through.
Well they’re currently 13th and just as close to Blackburn and Bolton above as to Everton and Fulham below….
Lots of glare at Goodison. Thank goodness Tim Howard’s not wearing a baseball cap….the most ridiculous practical “fashion” in sports history (looks good on the diamond — not so much a tall bald dude wearing shorts).
Although who could forget the German keeper’s newsboy look from the ’66 WC: link to farm5.static.flickr.com
Update on everton match?
Everton on FSC. 0-0 at half. Luke Cyphers of ESPN reporting Bradley loan a done deal.
I’m gonna wait for a quote. That’s all I’m going to look for from now on. “Journalists” pegged Bradley to Galatasaray yesterday and the whole time it was actually Fenerbahce that was in the lead.
Jeff Bradley tweeted ‘congratulations Micheal’ so I would assume it’s true.
bradley to Villa a done deal now
Just check ESPN.com
Ha, absolutely no serious mention of Villa from the media until the deal is (reportedly) done. This is why I hate transfer windows. Someone just wake me up when deals are inked….I despise the endless speculation — it does not make following this sport more interesting.
loan ESPN soccernet saying
link to espn.go.com
There you go.
Fantastic. Although I hate Houllier.
+1 hate Houllier but would love this move
Why do you all hate Houllier? Because Lihaj isn’t making the bench?
Lichaj. Sorry…
Not too familiar with Villa’s starting lineup… any idea how difficult it may be to crack the squad?
Ouch $30 to see Australia vs Japan….. Hdppv. Guess I will pass, should be a great game.
As much as I trust ESPN, no mention from Aston Villa and no quotes kinda make me distrust the article. Plus reports in turkey are that the deal to turkey was already a done deal…. I hate silly season so much and for Michael Bradley Ihope the AV news is true
Plus AV’s website has no mention of Bradley what so ever. Well at least ATM.
atdhe.net gets you it for free. i’m enjoying it so far
It’s looking pretty tough for him unless villa change their system… Currently they play 2 center mids, and it looks as though Villa captain Petrov and multi-million pound signing Makoun are ahead of him. Things could change if, for instance, they play any variation of a 4-3-3 with Bent, Young and Agbonlahor sharing the spots up top, freeing up 3 spots in central midfield, with Petrov being the creator type and Makoun and Bradley holding. However, there are still a few other players Houllier likes to play, such as Albrighton, Hogg, Delfouneso, and Delph. I don’t think it’s beyond Bradley ability to knock any of them down the pecking order, heck, he could even pick up a starting spot! I really like the kid. What I am saying is that it will be a struggle, which really will only make him better.
Chicharito is a good example of how some quality players are able to reach the highest levels of human performance within the proper environment. Chicho gets the perfects passes from his mates and this elevates his talent.
HC
Bobby Wood made his first team debut today for 1860 Munich against MSV Duisburg, he came on in the 81st minute. Congrats to him on his professional debut! I didn’t watch the stream but espn gamecast has no mention of him other than the substitution. Unfortunately for 1860 Munich, Duisburg equalized in the 86th min, 1-1 draw is how it finished.
Hey Ives about that Brazilian midfielder Houston were looking at, I remeber reading some were about this and one person left a comment about a player whoses twenty and plays for Botafogo. I looked him up in wikipedia (I know not credible at all) and it says he lived in the US and played high school ball here. Interesting.
what does this say?
Los jugadores del Villarreal Jozy Altidore, Jefferson Montero y Cristóbal Márquez, todos ellos con opciones de salir del club en el mercado de invierno, no han entrado en la convocatoria del equipo para visitar mañana
link to abc.es
supposedly, he dislikes americans. The brad friedal move away from liverpool, the lichaj benching and…that isn’t enough to really justify he’s biased against americans.
great game.
translate.google.com
all the above mentioned strikers have options to leave during the january market and will be speaking to those respected teams soon.
It says that either Altidore, Marquez, or Montero could leave the club before Monday. The article says that only one will leave though and that none of them were included in the team for tomorrow’s game
Japan VS. Australia needs to be watched!
The Pan-Pacific Tournament was the greatest idea ever conceived MLS.
If we can’t win the Concacaf tourney there’s no way we should be playing in the copa libertadora, so why not carve out our own tourney between exciting growing domestic leagues.
tim and brian, thanks
He’s also insanely fast, which helps a lot.
(an exaggeration, i know, but i particularly loved it)
He is employed by an American and just took on an American so we can’t just say he outright hates Americans.
If true (??) then I guess that would pacify those who hated to see him going to Turkey cause they couldn’t watch him on TV.
What would Jeff know about Micheal?!?!?!?!
Oh, wait…..
Rumors that they could be loaned to Levante.
Tim Howard and Everton conceded a late goal from Kalou…so there will be a replay. He has made 130 straight league appearances…solid!! Aussie/Japan is scoreless but enticing. The feed is great too…vipstand.net is amazing!! Sorry to hear about Rico, unlucky. What else? How excited is everyone about our youth coming up, both in Europe and domestically? Exciting times for U.S. football (soccer).
Bolton ties Wigan. Stu Holden was booked, but the call looked questionable. It seems like Bolton is losing a bit of steam.
Bound to happen. If they can finish top 10, it’ll be a success of course. They have a relatively thin squad. Not really many good options to come off the bench. But they definitely play a great brand of soccer and it’s pretty nice to see on smaller teams.
Soooo Bradley is on loan to end of the season? Say he plays in like 12 matches and maybe scores a goal or 2 or assists, what if he’s not given a full contract? Would he then go to Galatarsaay or would he try for Palermo? Just curious cause you know for sure BMG are sure to be relegated now.
Damn, what a goal by Japan in extra time.
Maybe they meant Bradley Sr. to Villa …seeing as he was considered prior to the season….
Wow. Japan…get some.
If he scores a goal in league play? Why then he’d tie Jozy Altidore and Brad Friedel for total amount of goals in the PL.
Japan wins AC 1-0. Great game by both teams.
The Aussies had a few chances, but overall Japan looked like the stronger team, IMO.
Southampton are outplaying Man Utd in the FA Cup. 1-0 HT. Looks like both teams are playing a 4-2-4. Fairly open game that could open up more.
What a stunning winner by Lee that was! The Aussies must have tired out as he was all alone at top of the box when that cross came in. Great volley.
Wow, ManUre is down 1-0 to a league 1 team? 47 places between the two teams? The Tricky Trees play at 9am Eastern tomorrow against West Ham.
Commentators clearly upset that United are now ahead. lol.
he’s not that fast. He just has great positioning so all he needs is one great sprint and he’s set up nicely
+1
so, how do we give him US citizenship?
i would pay big bucks to see JPN vs. USA in an exhibition–that would be a really exciting and wide open match.
I’ve been waiting for that day for a long time.
The Aussies had their best chances on headers. Their game plan was pretty simple:
Absorb the pressure by Japan, get the ball out wide and cross into the box.
On the other hand, Japan played a beautifully fluid game with great passing.
Keisuke Honda was terrific.
And the game winning goal by Tanadari Lee. Spectacular.
Nagatomo really did some damage on the left. He probably should’ve started the game at left mid, instead of fujimoto being out there.
The Frenchman who coaches Qatar called Japan “the barcelona of asian football”. While their not at that level yet, I don’t mind that comparison at all.
Ganbatte Nippon!
Haha chicharito scored the winning goal and the commentator are upset about it they seem sad that no one can beat man united