Avoiding the Drop

In Cleveland right now, we’re expecting rain and a muggy 85 degree day. Personally, I don’t handle the heat all that well; anything over about 75 degrees makes me start longing for air conditioning and the crisp, cool days that autumn brings.

What that means for me is that I have absolutely no desire to go outside today. Fortunately, only five days into the season, soccer has me covered. Let’s take a look at who’s playing whom today.

First off, we have the Champions League. Earlier in the week, we tried to give you Fox’s TV schedule for the upcoming games; in the comments, starred commenter White Speed Receiver fleshed out the schedule for all of us. Note that all of the matches take place at 2:45 PM EST today; the time given is the time that they’ll be aired on FSC according to their online TV schedule (thanks to WSR for doing the extra research on this):

• Olympique Lyonnais v. RSC Anderlecht – 2:45 PM EST (Live)
• Panathinaikos FC v. Club Atlético de Madrid -  5:00 PM EST
• FC Salzburg v. Maccabi Haifa FC – Thursday, 2:00 AM EST
• FK Ventspils v. FC Zürich – Thursday, 4:00 AM EST
• PFC Levski Sofia v. Debreceni VSC  – Thursday, 11:00 AM EST

Next up is the Premier League. It kind of sucks that there are no games for months and then, in the first week, teams start to get fixture congestion; most teams are playing three games in a week in the first week of the season. That really kills any team with injuries. That’s life, though, right?

Here are today’s fixtures. One of these fixtures – Liverpool v. Stoke – will actually be aired on Fox Soccer, but since it’s not as important (for some of you) as a Champions League game it’s being bumped to tomorrow at 8:00 PM, where it will be shown tape delayed to anyone interested. I’d imagine the ratings won’t be that great for it, since a) the result will be more than 24 hours old and b) there may be other ways (by which I’m obviously referring to tape exchanges with loyal fans in the UK who overnight games over to fans in the US) to watch the game anyways.

If you’re a member of one of those, um, tape exchange programs, than this is the schedule for what’s going on today (everything’s at 2:45 PM EST, except for Liverpool-Stoke, which is at 3:00 PM EST):

• Birmingham v. Portsmouth
• Burnley v. Manchester United
• Hull City v. Tottenham
• Liverpool v. Stoke City

About a month ago we would’ve killed to have one of these leagues playing midweek; today, though, we’re only halfway through our game slate.

See, the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League kicks off this week too. Tonight, Fox Soccer will be treating us to Houston-Isidro Metapán at 9:00 PM EST, but there are a bunch of other matches going on:

• Houston v. Isidro Metapán – 9:00 PM EST (FSC)
• Árabe Unido v. Pachuca – 9:00 PM EST
• Cruz Azul v. Saprissa – 11:00 PM EST

And if that isn’t enough, there’re two more fun little matches for you, both (again) on a derivate of Fox Soccer:

• WPS Semifinal – Saint Louis Athletica v. Sky Blue FC – 7:00 PM EST (FSC)
• Copa Sudamericana – River Plate v. Lanús – 8:00 PM EST (Fox Sports en Espanol)