The Football Weekend

Welcome to The Football Weekend Classics series, where we’ll be sharing some of the best moments from the podcast all summer long. First up: Kasey Keller’s Millwall stories. The goalkeeper from Olympia, Washington played for the U.S. Men’s National Team at four World Cups, but he was also one of the first Americans to really cut it in Europe. His first move after college in 1992 was to head out to...

The Champions League final is upon us, the thrilling crescendo of the club football season. With no major tournament on the horizon this summer — and no, the Club World Cup does not count — this is the last big match for a while. There’s an announcement along those lines towards the end of this week’s show, but more importantly, we’ve got Rob Green on. The former England national team goalkeeper w...

If you watched the Netflix docuseries Sunderland ‘Til I Die , you saw a famous old English club that looked like dying. Two straight relegations for the Black Cats put these giants of the Northeast in a precarious position, and the man often tasked with guiding the viewer through all this tumult and heartbreak was Nick Barnes. As the Sunderland commentator for BBC Newcastle, he calls every game fo...

The FA Cup final is no longer the capstone to the English football season, the last match on the calendar with a weekend all its own. This one will have to share real estate with the Premier League, the promotion playoffs in the Football League, and of course everything going on beyond the shores of Great Britain. But this remains a showpiece match nonetheless, and this edition has its narratives....

It’s a game that needs no introduction, but there’s plenty of narrative coming into this one. BARCELONA just lost the greatest cup tie of all time to Inter Milan in a Champions League semifinal. REAL MADRID are enduring a horror season by their standards, culminating with a Copa del Rey final defeat to their Catalan enemies that had them going ballistic on the referee.  That makes the two con...

The Basque region is in northern Spain — well, a bit of it’s French — but most folks there just wish they were their own thing. It’s home to a distinct language, culture, and football tradition, the last of those most prominently represented in two teams from two different cities: ATHLETIC CLUB of Bilbao and REAL SOCIEDAD of Donostia-San Sebastián. This rivalry, the Basque derby, has had its nasty...

It was crushing defeat in the Coppa Italia this week for Internazionale, and to next-door neighbors A.C. Milan no less. With that semifinal exit, the treble that Inter were loudly pursuing this season has evaporated. Now there are merely two competitions they’re in a good position to win: the Champions League — if they can get past Barcelona in the semifinal — and Serie A. The latter is where they...

It’s the German clásico, Der Klassiker, though BORUSSIA DORTMUND are not having a classic season. After a recent uptick in form, they’re still eighth and just trying to get a ticket — any ticket — to Europe next season. Come to think of it, that 4-0 thrashing from Barcelona in the Champions League quarterfinals this week might have put them off the whole business. And then there’s BAYERN MUNICH ,...

It’s the Manchester derby, UNITED against CITY , but it’s certainly a strange one. Both of these clubs are in a bad way, though that means something different to each of them. City have fallen from champion grace but are still battling for a Champions League place. United, on the other hand, are 13th in the league with eight matches left to play. It’s an incredible state of affairs for one of Euro...

The international break is over, and club football returns with the Gran Derbi: REAL BETIS vs SEVILLA . This is one of the most vibrant rivalry matches in world football, Spain's greatest local spat, a true expression of Seville's colorful culture: the freewheeling social scene fueled by ubiquitous outdoor dining and Sevillanos who are impressively direct with one another; the searing heat of Anda...

There's a Super Sunday on the horizon, with tasty matches back-to-back all day long. Arsenal-Chelsea, title clashes in Italy and Spain. As always, you can get the lowdown on all the matches worth your time this coming weekend at TheFootballWeekend.com . But there’s one headliner here, because there's a trophy up for grabs: It's LIVERPOOL vs NEWCASTLE at Wembley Stadium, vying for the League Cup. I...

MANCHESTER UNITED vs ARSENAL is the essential Premier League rivalry for fans of a certain age. These two clubs battled for titles season after season in the early 2000s in what some might call the league’s greatest era. Then Arsène Wenger lost his magic touch, Sir Alex Ferguson won the war, and Arsenal fans had to listen to Patrice Evra come out after every encounter between the two and declare t...

After a frankly disastrous title defense last term, NAPOLI steamed back into contention over the first half of this season under their brilliant and tempestuous new boss, Antonio Conte. But after a bizarre January transfer window where they sold key attacker Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to PSG and brought in nobody to replace him, they’ve lost their way and dropped nine of the last 12 points available. R...

This was once the match in the Premier League, the perennial title bout, but MANCHESTER CITY have veered perilously off-course this season. LIVERPOOL have cruised to the top of the table, but they’ve started coughing up points in recent weeks and Arsenal have become more than just a speck in the rearview mirror. By kickoff here, it could be a five-point advantage at the top. If City find a way to...

BAYER LEVERKUSEN are no longer invincible. In fact, they’re eight points behind perennial powers BAYERN MUNICH in the Bundesliga table. The Werkself need victory when Bayern come to the BayArena on Saturday if they want to keep the title race a race, and there are a few points in their favor: Xabi Alonso has not lost any of his five matches managed against his old employers, and the visitors have...

It’s first against second in La Liga, as REAL MADRID lead ATLÉTICO MADRID by just a point at the top of the table. Barcelona have fallen away somewhat from their hot start under new boss Hansi Flick, and now Spain’s capital quarrel may answer quite a few questions around who will be crowned champions in May. It’s all happening just as managers Diego Simeone and Carlo Ancelotti —egged on by the tem...

It’s a title clash—well, it was the last two seasons. ARSENAL and MANCHESTER CITY duked it out for the Premier League crown from 2022 to 2024, but now the Citizens have gone off a cliff and the North Londoners have had their struggles, too. Injuries have played a role for both, while poor refereeing decisions and bad luck have hampered Arsenal just as Liverpool have gone steaming to the top of the...

It may not be the very biggest game across world football this weekend, but consider one important factor: I’ll be there. Yes, The Football Weekend will venture to Goodison Park on Sunday as EVERTON host TOTTENHAM in the Premier League. It’s been a strange few years for the home side, no doubt about it. Farhad Moshiri’s tumultuous ownership of the club has ended, and the Friedkin Group is coming i...

The glamour tie of the FA Cup Third Round is ARSENAL against MANCHESTER UNITED on Sunday, but this stage is all about the clubs who tend to get less ink. The beauty of the world’s oldest cup competition is that it offers TAMWORTH FOOTBALL CLUB from the National League, England’s fifth tier, the chance to host TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR of the Premier League at their 4,000-capacity stadium, The Lamb Ground....

This is occasionally—OK, almost never—called El Otro Clásico . It’s a bit of a nod to the fact that these two clubs, BARCELONA and ATLÉTICO MADRID , have a shared enemy that they each hate more than their opponent here. Barça’s beef with Real Madrid is the Clásico, Atléti’s feud with their crosstown neighbors is a proper derby. This match is just a meeting of two of Spain’s great institutions, a f...

Have you seen the news? Manchester City are losing football matches. A lot of them. They lost to Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday, their seventh defeat in 10 matches across all competitions. They lost to Bournemouth, Sporting Lisbon, Brighton, Tottenham (twice), Liverpool. They’ve won just once since October 27. It’s almost unspeakable turmoil for a Pep Guardiola team, unprecedented i...

EVERTON host LIVERPOOL at Goodison Park for one of the great old rivalries of English football. Liverpool are flying coming into this one—or at least they were. Top of the league (and the new Champions League table), they did have a blip in midweek with the draw at Newcastle. Everton are reeling as usual this season, though they did smash Wolves 4-0 on Wednesday. Can they take heart from that, and...

A.C. MILAN host JUVENTUS at the San Siro on Saturday for a big-fish encounter in Serie A, though these two are currently sixth and seventh in the league table. Milan in particular need a result to ensure they're not left behind by a Top Six pack that's tightly packed: just two points separate Juve from resurgent leaders Napoli, but the Rossoneri are already eight points back. Alasdair Mackenzie jo...

MANCHESTER UNITED host CHELSEA in a vintage Barclays encounter that happens to be the first Premier League match since Erik ten Hag's dismissal as United manager. The Dutchman is the latest casualty of the club's disorder and decline since Sir Alex Ferguson's departure a decade ago, but how much is down to his poor decision-making? How much is down to the players? And will the new ownership and fo...

Arsenal-Liverpool, the Derby d’Italia, Le Classique…it’s a serious Football Weekend. But all that takes a back seat to the big one: El Clásico, REAL MADRID vs BARCELONA , the premier grudge match in world football. Nobody does technical quality and steaming spite quite like these two, and the storylines abound heading into this 258th meeting of Spain's great powers. One Brazilian from each side— V...