This weekend has a number of potentially great games. You can add your predictions, thoughts and comments over the weekend. For viewers of Fox Sports World Canada it will be wall-to-wall FA Cup action.
Saturday Middlesbrough vs. Manchester United (12:30 EST)
Sunday Chelsea vs. Tottenham (8:30 EST) Blackburn vs. Manchester City (12:00 EST) Plymouth vs. Watford (2:00 EST)
I normally try to keep predictions to a minimum - for the obvious reason that I am not very good at them (Jeremy claims I think too much) - but seeing that it looks like being a rather special weekend are some predictions for this weekend.
Chelsea - Spurs 3-2 Boro - Man. Utd.1-1 Blackburn - Man. City 2-0 Plymouth - Wattford 2-1
Celtic - Rangers 1-2 Bayern M.- Werder B. 1-1 Barca - Real Madrid 2-0 Inter - Milan 1-2
Finally Barcelona are in the team spotlight this week.
And finally the draw for the quarter finals of the FA Cup…..
Middlesbrough or West Brom vs. Manchester United or Reading. Arsenal or Blackburn vs. Manchester City Chelsea vs. Tottenham Hotspur Plymouth vs. Watford
Plymouth lost to Watford in the semi final in 1984 and narrowly missed out on becoming the only Third Division side to make it to the Final.
A consequence of the burgeoning interest in the Premiership around the world is the trickle down effect on the Championship. As teams are relegated from the Premiership, fans who have taken these clubs to heart stick with them hoping for a reversal in fortune.
And there are a significant number of these cases when you consider that after fourteen seasons of the Premiership only seven teams - Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur - have been ever present. Reading will, in a couple of weeks, become the fortieth club to play in the Premiership when season fifteenth gets underway.
Fifteen of the twenty-four Championship sides that kick-off a new season on Saturday have at one time or another competed in the Premiership (marked P). That leaves five former Premiership sides unaccounted for and there in lies a cautionary tale. Far from being a launching pad for a return to the Premiership the Championship can often turn out to be another trap door to an even lower level or worse.
Bradford City, Nottingham Forest and Oldham will all start the new season in League One while Swindon Town has plummeted even lower after being relegated from that division last season. The one remaining club Wimbledon is defunct.
For what it is worth here is my take on how the 2006/07 edition of the Championship might shape up.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
Thank you to all who take time to visit this blog and especially to those of you who post your comments and thoughts.
PS - If you have questions please post them on the regular Monday blog. I am unable to answer e mails posted to the inbox on this site.
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