FA Cup play resumes in England on Saturday, as a number of Premier League powers look to avoid the upset bug en route to the quarterfinals.
Regardless of whether the flu-stricken Landon Donovan plays, Everton will look to send the on-loan American out on a high note by taking care of League Championship side Blackpool in their fifth-round cup clash at Goodison Park. Chelsea and manager Andre Villas-Boas have come under fire lately, but they can keep their quest for silverware alive with a win over Jonathan Spector's Birmingham City.
Tim Ream eyes his debut with Bolton when the Trotters take on Millwall, while another English club who was interested in his services, Arsenal, meets Sunderland in the only cup meeting of top-flight clubs.
Outside of England, Charlie Davies has been included in the matchday 18 for Sochaux again as the club looks to climb out of the Ligue 1 cellar against Auxerre; Juventus has its eye on reclaiming first place in Serie A when it hosts Catania; and Santos Laguna and Monterrey clash in a meeting of two of Mexico's top teams.
If you will be watching any of Saturday's matches, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below. Enjoy the action (TV schedule is after the jump):
SATURDAY'S SOCCER ON TV
7:30 a.m. - Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv - Chelsea vs. Birmingham City
9:30 a.m. - ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes - Hertha Berlin vs. Borussia Dortmund
10 a.m. - Fox Soccer Channel - Everton vs. Blackpool
10 a.m. - Fox Soccer Plus/FoxSoccer.tv - Millwall vs. Bolton
10 a.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Norwich City vs. Leicester City
10 a.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Nottingham Forest vs. Coventry City
12 p.m. - ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes - Getafe vs. Espanyol
12:15 p.m. - Fox Soccer Channel - Sunderland vs. Arsenal
1 p.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Ajaccio vs. Brest
1 p.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Caen vs. Evian Thonon Gaillard
1 p.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Dijon vs. Nice
1 p.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Lorient vs. Lille
1 p.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Nancy vs. Toulouse
1 p.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Sochaux vs. Auxerre
2 p.m. - GOLTV - Real Madrid vs. Racing Santander
2:45 p.m. - Fox Soccer Channel - Juventus vs. Catania
3 p.m. - FoxSoccer.tv - Marseille vs. Valenciennes
4 p.m. - ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes - Sevilla vs. Osasuna
5:10 p.m. - GOLTV - River Plate vs. Independiente Ravadavia
6 p.m. - Telefutura - Queretaro vs. Tijuana
6 p.m. - Azteca America/Fox Deportes - Cruz Azul vs. Pumas UNAM
8 p.m. - Telemundo - Chivas de Guadalajara vs. San Luis
8 p.m. - Telefutura - Santos Laguna vs. Monterrey
8 p.m. - Galavision - Tigres UANL vs. Atlas
I never get tired of seeing that photo.
From gamecast of Chelsea-Birmingham
“You’re getting sacked in the morning…” – chants from Birmingham fans
HAHAHA
What is the score
Jonathan Spector subbed on. good for him.
I’m surprised Spector wasn’t starting. I thought I recently read that he’s started more games than anyone else at Birmingham this year.
man whatever happened to Torres? 4 years ago he was arguably the best striker in the world. should have never left Liverpool
O/T but are our boys leaving Rangers this summer?
Its looking probable anyone with a significant contract will be moving, and all 3 of our boys are making good money. That could all change if outside investment swoops in and buys them (the club). I hear the LA Galaxy owners are interested.
Rested. They gave Burke, Myhill, and Caldwell a rest as well and played some of their younger guys.
Yet another weekend of sadness for this Chelsea fan. It is amazing how fast AVB has destroyed this talented team. Drogba came back and looked a force today but it just seems like the players have no idea where they are supposed to be.
Ream starting
Donovan out
You could argue Roman destroyed it.
morales on the bench for hertha vs dortmund on espn3.com
Is Donovan on the bench?
possibly if you think that he has canned too many coaches. But this is the first year they’ve been a disaster (5th place) so it seems likely that AVBs selections and tactics have caused the problems. His ideas seem limited and his success in Portugal did not translate (as of yet).
Donovan not in matchday squad and Ream in starting XI.
Great goal from myachi. Ecstatic to see ream starting.
Hate that. It was fund to watch him.
His loss of form started long before his move. Look at how unnecessary he was in the World Cup. The end of the Benitez era was not good for Torres either.
Ream is starting???! yes. now i have something to watch instead of Everton’s game! (sorry, but no Donovan is a let down). GO RBNY!!!
How did Ream play for the first 20 mins? I’ve only been watching for the last several after watching Everton with a heavy heart.
Cut out a few runs, not been challenged to much, everytime they he gets the ball the crowd yells Ream
They want him to succeed more than Americans do. Pathetic.
To be fair yours is the only negative comment in here.
I havent heard any such thing. Its being played at the Den (Millwall) not Reebok. He has done exactly what he has supposed to which is what I’d expect. The real challenge & what I am very intrigued about is his 1st match vs EPL opposition.
Yeah i know it’s being played at Millwall, they have haven’t done it lately, and I am still guessing there are Bolton fans there.
Robbie Rogers on the bench for Leeds. they are down 1-0 at half. could see some time later in the game.
Bueller? Bueller?
Man, that’s a lot of extra time in the first half. Did anyone handcuff himself to a post?
to be extra fair the trolls don’t come out in the morning too often
Never mind (bueller…) Started wathing at the 46th and assumed it was still the 1st half. Duh.
Of course Bolton fans want him to succeed, they just bought him. What an absurd statement.
The Hertha-Dortmund match was pretty exciting. Hertha deserved better than a 1-0 loss.
The team was getting to old for a while and their style of play is in transition. Unlike in Italy or Spain big clubs can’t take a season to retool and still stay in the top 3. AC Milan has looked quite pedestrian and lacked direction for years and still always do just fine.
Yeah, in the Prem, the addition of ManCity money and Tottenham strength have put Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool on the edge of missing the Champions League next year.
I don’t agree with you about the team getting old but I do concur that the change in style does not suit the older players (although Drogba could still be useful as he has different aspects to his game). Lampard, Terry, Essien (injuries have destroyed his game), Mikel all play too slow to thrive in AVBs intended style.
How DOES AC Milan keep staying up there with that geriatric lineup?
Cheers,
It was a hell of a good game and the announcer really made it even more fun. Excitable boy.
Good for Ream! Clean sheets are always the way to go in your first start.
ROBBIE SCORES!!!!!!!
Clinical finish off a cross. Slots it in the lower righthand corner
ROGERS!
Findley that is.
Amazing misdirect.
Aw, the commercial cut out half way through the second time. First time I’ve seen a discount double check commercial during a soccer broadcast.
Robbie Rogers serious injury – had to be replaced in 90+
Ah jeeze. Subbed off for injury. What happened?
Sounds bad
Haha, not intentional I assure you.
Robbie Rodgers taken off due to serious injury.
Diskerud is starting for KAA Gent.
feed for the gent game?
firstrowsports dot eu /webmaster /Links2football /108370 /1 /watch-sporting-lokeren-vs-aa-gent dot html
insert dots for dot and get rid of spaces
Kinda random question- what was the name of the guy who chose to play for the Belgian national team instead of the US a couple years ago?
wtf guys so how did ream play?!?!
Maybe old was the wrong word, but I was thinking of the same players you listed as being the problem. Not only are they poor fits for AVB style, but they also just cover so much less ground than they used to.
Soccernet said Rogers was knocked out.
Davies starting out on the bench.
Re: Ream
Commentators stated that they were impressed with his positioning (during the run of play), vision, heading, and distribution. He was clearly beaten on a corner where his marker missed the ball. I would give him 6.5 or 7 out of 10. A good debut.
Diskerud’s been good if a bit quiet.
Just came close to scoring.
and whenever I say this something always happens: gets a rebound inside the box about 6 yards out, strikes it into a block, possible hand ball not given, no goal, keeper collects.
you beat me to it by half a second.
Can I get some love for the only American to score so far today: Robbie Findley (that most classic of finishers)!
That makes up for one of the two sitters he has missed in the past month or so. He needs a left foot.
tough love it is then
Yep, him and Tommy Spur of Doncaster had a clash of heads late. Both were stretchered off after a 10+ minute delay. Rogers was only on for a few minutes. Hope he’s OK.
Davies on bench for Sochaux
“As the game hit the 90-minute mark, and the fourth official displayed five minutes of added time, there was a lengthy and worrying stoppage after Rogers and Tommy Spurr had a clash of heads and both were stretchered off.” – From the Leeds website.
does anyone know what happened to robbie rogers, he came in then was later subbed out and it said before major injury
Not trying to be a jerk, but how exactly does this type of url encoding “hide” from web bots? It would take about two lines of code to search and replace spaces and “dot”.
What do the “bots” do? A denial of service attack on feeds? If they are so sophisticated, searching for simply encoded url’s would be trivial.
Please help me understand.
Clash of heads with oppenent. Both players stretchered off after a 10 min delay.
dunno – I was just doing what others here recommended.
Awesome, thanks.
He was knocked the f out.
Diskerud is off. He was solid with the one big moment, but most of the game was being played around him.
Well for a defender or a goalie they are. If you’re an attacker then not so much. I this case, yes since Ream is a defender.
I’m happy for Findley. I hope he finds his form and helps keep Forest up.
Wow. Arsenal. Wow. About to be knocked out of every competition with 3 months left in the season. Is mid-table respectability enough?
For the last 15 min he was on, he looked good – and so did Gent. He was fluid and attacking with nice one touch passing and runs.
Mix had a real tough time finding the game tonight, hopefully he just needs more time to get comfortable with his teammates because he was very ineffective
LOL Arsenal
Such an epic fail. Out of all competitions now with months remaining. Do they even finish in a Europa spot at this point?
No subs at all of Sochaux and we’re reaching the 75th minute. They look like they could use that last bit of energy in the final 3rd cause they’re dominating possession now.
Dude was hurt. Played all through WC hurt.
Not making excuses for his lack of goals, but I think th emore accurate point is that the trade to Chelsea has been a disaster for him. Chelsea does not play a style conducive to him. Imagine him playing at a club with a style like Arsenal, Tottenham Bayern or Real. Problem is Chelsea paid so much for him they’ll never see that investment back even if he goes on a tear, so now what?
I still say he’s one of the best strikers in the world, just at the absolute wrong club for him. it’s a real shame.
and Sochaux subs on a guy named Camara who absolutely mangles a sitter in front of goal.
it’s time to axe AW. and I am a fan.
Zip-Zip, no Charlie. Seems like a really strange decision to me, but, then again, I am a homer.
Anymore updates on Ream’s game today?
I hope he becomes the CB of the future as his distribution is next level stuff.
Thanks for clearing that up for us.
I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I honestly believe that Newcastle United, at this point in time, has the best shot at getting 4th place, mostly due to the fact that they don’t have to worry about other competitions, and they have a pretty favorable schedule down the stretch. Now, admittedly, Arsenal (and probably Chelsea as well) are going to be done with UCL soon, and they are now done with FA Cup, so they can focus more on the league. Still, Newcastle really only has to worry about Man City at home, and then Arsenal and Chelsea away. It would be a nice story if they were able to sneak in…
Wow… Everton’s kit has come a long way in a couple of years.
Blue garbage bag to really slick looking!