Though the game is being played while much of the United States is still asleep, the Club World Cup Final between Barcelona and Santos is promising to be must-see football.

The battle between the reigning European and South American champions will feature some serious star power, with Lionel Messi and Neymar grabbing most of the headlines.

Friday, December 9
Hertha Berlin v Schalke 2:30pm ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com
NCAA men's College Cup semifinal, Charlotte-Creighton 6pm ESPNU, ESPN3.com
NCAA men's College Cup semifinal, UCLA-North Carolina 8:30pm ESPNU, ESPN3.com
Wellington v Perth 11pm Fox Soccer Channel

Saturday, December 10
Southampton v Blackpool 7:30am Fox Soccer Plus, foxsoccer.

It's the final day of the UEFA Champions League group stage, meaning that there is high potential for drama across Europe.

Much of the focus will be centered on St. Jakob Park in Switzerland, where FC Basel will try to do the unthinkable and prevent Manchester United from making it to the knockout round.

It's do-or-die for Chelsea and manager Andres Villas-Boas, as the Premier League giants need to secure a result against Valencia in order to avoid an embarrassing early exit from the UEFA Champions League.

Even with that, Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres are starting the game on the bench, and Juan Mata gets the start against his former club, which played Chelsea to a 1-1 draw in their previous meeting.

It's a big day for Andre Villas-Boas' current team and his former one as well.

Chelsea's Portuguese manager is already on the hot seat just months into his first season at the helm, and the questions about his future will only get louder if the Blues can't knock off Valencia in Tuesday's UEFA Champions League group stage finale (Fox Soccer Channel, 2:45 p.

Chelsea square off with Liverpool for the second time in ten days, at The Bridge no less. Can the result be better than the first go around? I don't see why not- with both sides expected to send out younger squads for the rubber match, everything is up in the air. More, after the jump:

All to play for

While we may have exorcised the demons of lore this weekend, we're still not out of the woods.

There are top-quality UEFA Champions League matchups all over the schedule on Wednesday, but none will command as much attention as the AC Milan-Barcelona battle at the San Siro. Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic faces his former team for the first time, adding plenty of juice to an already intriguing game.

With much of the drama removed from Wednesday's UEFA Champions League matchup between Barcelona and AC Milan (2:45 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel), the focus can turn to one of the more glaring subplots of the group stage.

Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will go up against his former team for the first time since leaving two summers ago.

The penultimate matchday of the UEFA Champions League group stage kicks off with a number of teams poised to clinch berths in the knockout stage, cement their place atop the group table or at the very least stay in contention for a third-place finish and a drop down to the Europa League knockout stage.

Manchester United and Manchester City both look like solid bets to reach the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League, and both can take major steps to securing their spots among the final 16 teams with victories on Tuesday.

United hosts Benfica (2:45 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel) in a meeting between two teams tied for first atop Group C.

I'm nervous. You should be too. More, after the jump:

Oh, the hair ..

Welcome back. It's quite possible many of you fell asleep during this snooze-fest of an international break. And here's the deal- I honestly tried to give a shit about the matches over the last two weeks.

The NCAA men's college soccer season wraps up pre-NCAA Tournament play today on what is essentially conference championship Sunday, with most of the country's biggest conference crowning champions today.

The Big East, ACC and Big Ten are among the conferences that are holding championship games today, and along with the conference titles up for grabs, there are also the automatic NCAA berths that go along with them.

With both Manchester clubs, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich all taking to the field in Wednesday's UEFA Champions League matches, there promises to be some high-quality action as plenty of clubs look to take a step closer to the knockout stage.

Manchester United will look to avoid being upset by Otelul Galati at Old Trafford to keep pace with Benfica in Group C, while Manchester City looks to deliver a final blow to Villarreal's hopes in Group A, the tournament's Group of Death.

Hat tip to Dave Laidig for sending a couple of interesting business stories this way. We'll start with an extremely comprehensive look at Premier League viewing by SportingIntelligence.com. This site typically focuses on American soccer stories, but this analysis is so detailed, that as fans of the business side of the game, we think this breakdown is definitely worth the read.

STARTERS
Barcelona has clinched their place in the knock out stage of the UCL. See details below.
dN
Just got an email from DirecTV saying that they reached an agreement to keep Fox Soccer on their system!!! Their deal ended today and they had been in a large disagreement.

It's around the fourth matchday of the UEFA Champions League that things start to really take shape atop group tables and those with ground to make up feel the pressure even more as their European hopes start to tick away. That's where plenty of teams stand entering Tuesday's critical matches.

Arsene Wenger knows Olympique Marseille quite well from his years in French soccer, and the Arsenal manager will hope to turn that knowledge into points for his side when it faces Marseille in a key UEFA Champions League battle.

Marseille and Arsenal are in the top two positions, respectively, in Group F, and their meeting is one of the more intriguing matchups on Wednesday's slate.

Belgian side Racing Genk visit Stamford Bridge on Wednesday in what appears, at least on paper, to be our simplest European match of the season. A win here and a win in the subsequent trip to Belgium would probably wrap up advancement for us into the knockout stages. Lots to play for today, then, plus it's a chance to get a proper look at the young attacking prospect below.

Today's UEFA Champions League schedule is loaded with some tasty match-ups, as well as some classic David vs. Goliath clashes. Whatever your preference, there is likely to be a match to your liking.

Whether it's Napoli taking on seemingly unstoppable Bayern Munich, or Real Madrid facing familiar foe Lyon, there are good tilts on deck.

Danny returns to the place where he somewhat realized his full potential. Bolton, in a league free fall, will not be interested in seeing his face again. Well, that is unless he joins Gael Kakuta in that egregious Wanderers garb on the hosts' side of the stands. Stop day-dreaming, Owen.

Dreaded

The draw in midweek was a not-so-mild disappointment.

Juan Mata has made a nice impression since joining Chelsea this past summer, but if he is to influence the Blues' next match, he'll do so at the expense of his former employer.

Mata and Chelsea take on his former club, Valencia, at Estadio Mestalla in one of Wednesday's high-profile UEFA Champions League group matches.

One thrilling UEFA Champions League match is already in the books on Tuesday, but the remaining slate of games promises to entertain as well.

Inter Milan already atoned for its stunning loss to Trabzonspor in its opening group game by topping CSKA Moscow, 3-2, earlier in the day.

Forget about it is like if you agree with someone, you know, like Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass, forget about it. But then, if you disagree, like a Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Forget about it! You know? But then, it's also like if something's the greatest thing in the world, like mingia those peppers, forget about it.

Subscribing as we do the just-in-time philosophy, here's your weekend TV guide for today's matches, with the first one kicking off in 15 minutes at Ewood Park. Check back tomorrow morning for Sunday's picks.

(As usual, we've included US TV coverage, and listed kickoff times in terms of ET.

After watching their counterparts get group play underway on Tuesday, the remaining half of the teams in the UEFA Champions League field take to the pitch on Wednesday to start their quest to reach the knockout stage.

Both Manchester United and Manchester City are in action, with City making its debut on this stage against high-octane Napoli.

Tuesday is certain to be a special European night at Stamford Bridge. Whether or not the guest of honor plays a prominent role is up for suggestion.

This has been spoken of at length, but it bears repeating. Michael Ballack is returning to London. The old man the legend will be part of a quite good Bayer Leverkusen side that will be making its first trip to the Bridge since, well, ever.

This international break is over. Thank the lord almighty. More after the jump:

Things done changed

Rejoice, friends. The break is over and we're back to our regularly scheduled programming. NFL Football (aka Throwball) jumps off this weekend stateside, but who cares about that?

Well, the last couple of days have been one of those stretches. First, the match yesterday gets switched to ESPN2. No worries I think to myself. I pull out my handy DirecTV phone app and DVR the game on ESPN2 just as the match is set to start. I was only able to catch bits and pieces of the game at work, so I planned on settling down to watch the full match last night and provide a full writeup.

This man could be living on your TV soon In a desperate bid not to be relegated to the U.S. soccer broadcast shadows by NBC's recent MLS mega-deal, Fox Soccer reached out to the Europa League this week and cast its lot for a three-year TV deal that includes a staggering 205 EL matches. Fox Soccer elbowed out GolTV and DirecTV to be the sole US provider of the second tier European club

Four more spots remain in the draw for the UEFA Champions League group stage, and Arsenal is hoping that it will secure one of those places to be a part of Thursday's festivities instead of having to drop down to the Europa League.

The Gunners have dealt with plenty of loss, between on-field results and important personnel bolting for other teams, and they'll look to hold on to a 1-0 lead over Udinese as their tie shifts to Italy.

Five spots in the UEFA Champions League group stage will be claimed on Tuesday as the final play-in round winds down in Europe.

Bayern Munich will look to hold on to its 2-0 aggregate lead over FC Zurich, while Villarreal will try and overturn a 1-0 deficit to Odense BK in two of the more intriguing second-leg matches.

Another busy week/weekend in American soccer. Before we get to the attendance picture, here are a couple of other business notes from the last few days. We'll start in the world of television, where Fox Soccer Plus has announced a free preview from August 22 to August 28. The week long preview will include matches from Champions League, EPL, Ligue 1 and Serie A.

For 20 teams, the UEFA Champions League group stage is within reach, and half of those teams will try and take the first step to getting there on Tuesday.

The final qualifying round for the Champions League kicks off with Arsenal and Udinese stealing the spotlight with the first-leg of their encounter in London.

Raise the curtain. Hit the lights. Let's get this show on the road- literally.

Watch the Throne.

Alright, we made it. Yeah, it's been a pretty meh summer and sure there have been enough rumors and speculative stories to whet your proverbial appetite, but now we no longer have to entertain ourselves with listless journalistic pandering.

Jack Bell of the New York Times reported last Thursday that Fox has finally reached an agreement with Comcast to broadcast Fox Soccer Channel in High Definition.

In an interview with Fox Soccer's General Manager David Nathanson, he stated that his channel had reached an agreement with Comcast, the largest cable provider in the US.

French League leaders Lille will look to lock up the Ligue 1 title today in a home showdown against Paris St. German.

With the English Premier League, German Bundesliga and Serie A all having already decided their champions, Lille will look to be the next in line to lift a trophy (or drop one off a bus), but with PSG having its own European aspirations to fight for, it won't be a cakewalk for Eden Hazard and Co.

FC Porto didn't lose to a single team from Portugal all season en route to an undefeated domestic championship campaign. Sporting Braga would love nothing more than to snap that streak today.

The two Portuguese sides meet for the UEFA Europa League championship in Dublin, Ireland (2:45 p.

Despite European leagues winding down and no MLS games until the weekend, there's still an ecclectic array of soccer on Wednesday.

Between the UEFA Europa League final, Copa Libertadores quarterfinals, a U.S. women's national team pre-World Cup friendly and Canadian championship, there's plenty of entertaining soccer to go around.

The English Premier League title will go a long way toward being decided today when Manchester United plays host to Chelsea at Old Trafford.

A Manchester United win would all but lock up the title for United, while a Chelsea victory would put the Blues in the driver's seat with three matches remaining.

Giuseppe Rossi and Villarreal need somewhat of a miracle to keep their hopes of European silverware alive.

The Yellow Submarine enters Thursday's semifinal second leg against Porto down 5-1 after being trounced in the first leg in Portugal. If Villarreal can't pull off a large victory, the Europa League final in Dublin will be guaranteed to be an all-Portuguese event.