Hello Soccer (and beer) Fans and Happy New Year!
All of the major leagues are starting to get back into action. The English FA is in the middle of Cup season with Carling Cup and FA Cup matches, and we have Scottish FA Cup as well.  Fox Soccer will be replaying the FA Cup matches from this weekend including Liverpool v. Arsenal and Manchester United v. Aston Villa. We also have several LIVE Copa del Rey games from Spain including Real Madrid and Barcelona with lunch-time kickoffs. GolTV is even showing the games from the Copa Dubai this week including the final which will replay Friday at 6 pm.
As always, we can tape any game for you to show later. I have our digital recorder set to tape all new EPL games and to keep the 2 newest Italian and Spanish League matches taped. Thursday, GolTV is playing the Milan derby between Inter and AC Milan from October, 2006, which is Lindsey’s favorite game of the season so far. I have put a link on the Friends page of the website to SoccerTV which lists upcoming games for the next 8 days on almost every channel. And if any of you follow the MLS, ESPN2 is covering the draft on Friday the 12th at 9 am (we won’t be open though).
So here is this week’s complete schedule (all games on Setanta unless noted):
1/8, Monday:
6:00 pm Benfica v. Bayern Munich, Copa Dubai – GolTVÂ
1/9, Tuesday:
11:30 am LIVE Liverpool v. Arsenal, Carling Cup – also at 5 pm
12:00 pm LIVE Athletico Madrid v. Osasuna, Copa del Rey – GolTV – also at 6 pm
12:00 pm Liverpool v. Aston Villa, Carling Cup – Fox Soccer – also at 8 pm
2:00 pm Lazio v. Marseille, Copa Dubai – GolTV
7:00 pm Dunfermline v. Rangers, Scottish FA Cup
1/10 Wednesday:
11:30 am LIVE Chelsea v. Wycombe, Carling Cup – also at 5:15 pm
12:30 pm LIVE Barcelona v. Alaves, Copa del Rey – GolTV – also at 6 pm
2:00 pm Manchester United v. Aston Villa, Carling Cup – Fox Soccer – also at 8 pm
3:00 pm Aberdeen v. Hibernian, Scottish FA CUP
1/11 Thursday:
12:00 pm LIVE Real Madrid v. Real Betis, Copa del Ray – GolTV – also at 6 pm
On Tape – Inter Milan v. AC Milan from 10-28-06 (I’ll keep this one around for awhile)
1/12 Friday:
9:00 am LIVE MLS Draft on ESPN2 (pub not open)
6:00 pm Copa Dubai Final – Teams TBA (two of the four from above) - GolTV
1/13 Saturday:
11:30 am Manchester City v. BoltonÂ
12:00 pm Fulham v. West Ham
4:00 pm Liverpool V. Watford (also on tape)
5:45 pm Manchester United v. Aston Villa
8 pm Arsenal v. Blackburn Rovers – Fox Soccer
On Tape – Chelsea v. Wigan – Fox Soccer
1/14 Sunday:
2 pm Tottenham v. Newcastle – Fox Soccer
On Tape – Everton v. Reading
If there are teams/leagues not listed that you would like to see, just let me know.
Carling Cup games resume on Wednesday, January 17th and the Champions League and UEFA Cup get back under way in February. Setanta and Fox Soccer will be showing all of the matches from the Quarterfinals LIVE.
As for beer, we have a cask of AleSmith IPA on Thursday, January 11th and our 13th Anniversary celebration kicks off next week with a different event each night. You can check out the regular news section for all of the details.
Look for more soccer news next week. Cheers, Tom