While the marquee game of the weekend, Sunday's African Cup of Nations final between Zambia and Ivory Coast, is not being widely televised throughout the United States, there is still plenty of top-rate action to catch.

This weekend has the potential to be a landmark one for a number of Americans looking to make their mark on the European game.

A big snowstorm hit England on Saturday, threatening to jeopardize the slate of matches set for today, but the big headliner between Chelsea and Manchester United will go on as planned, and it will serve as the marquee match of a busy day in the soccer world.

While the Super Bowl dominates the American sports landscape today, soccer fans here will have plenty to choose from for their viewing pleasures, topped off with the big Chelsea-United clash.

Newcastle managed to keep all their top players during the January transfer window, and even bring in top Senegal striker Papiss Cisse for £9M from SC Freiburg. The Senegal strikers Demba Ba and Papiss will not however be available for tonight's game at Blackburn, and the big problem we have about this game is who is [.

Aston Villa will be the host team of yet another Philadelphia Union player on trial, according to soccer agent Richard Motzkin.

Former first overall SuperDraft pick Danny Mwanga will train with Aston Villa, of the English Premier League, for ten days. Mwanga joins Freddy Adu (Rayo Vallecano), Michael Farfan (Sunderland), Zac MacMath (Everton), Amobi Okugo (SC Freiburg), Sebastien Le Toux (Bolton Wanderers) and Zach Pfeffer (Hoffenheim) as members of the Union that have spent time training with overseas clubs prior to the 2012 MLS season.

Virginia's Brian Ownby, a U.S. Soccer Development Academy alum from the Richmond Strikers program, was selected by the Houston Dynamo during Tuesday's first round of the 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft.

The U.S. Soccer Development Academy was well represented during Tuesday's Major League Soccer Supplemental Draft as 15 alumni were chosen in the three-round selection process by MLS's 19 teams.

Danny Simpson has said the Newcastle players were delighted at the coup that brought Papiss Cisse to Tyneside. Danny Simpson after scoring at Nottingham Forest in Carling Cup It seems Newcastle and Budesliga club SC Freiburg agreed the deal at 8:00 pm on Monday night and Cisse was told to be at the airport at 10:00 pm, and he then [.

Vancouver Whitecaps striker Omar Salgado and Real Salt Lake midfielder Luis Gil are among the 36 players called in by head coach Tab Ramos to the U.S. Under-20 national team camp in Fort Lauderdale this week.

Molde fullback Sean Cunningham, Liverpool signee Villyan Bijev, Nuremberg midfielder Tyrone McCargo and SC Freiburg midfielder Caleb Stanko were also among the pros called into the week-long camp in Florida.

Wir sind nicht als Klub bekannt, der sich leichttut, was Trainer-Demissionen angeht. Aber wir wollen auch auf der Trainerposition einen Impuls setzen.

Dirk Dufner, Sportdirektor des SC Freiburg, über die Entscheidung, Trainger Marcus Sorg zu entlassen.

Philadelphia Union midfielders Amobi Okugo and Zach Pfeffer are currently training with Bundesliga clubs, according to multiple reports.

Okugo, a first round SuperDraft pick by the Union in 2010, was today revealed to have flown to Germany today to train with Bundesliga relegation zone side SC Freiburg.

The MLS playoffs take center stage this weekend, with the first legs of the conference semifinals on tap for Saturday and Sunday.

Real Salt Lake and Seattle kick things off Saturday night in a highly anticipated clash of league powers, followed by Sunday's triple-header of Los Angeles-New York, Philadelphia-Houston and Colorado-Sporting Kansas City.

Currently in 17th place in the German Bundesliga, Sport-Club Freiburg, commonly known as SC Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg in the Breisgau district of Baden-Württemberg. The club is in its third consecutive season in the top tier of German soccer following its promotion from the German 2.

After watching the top teams in England and Spain steal the headlines over the last few weeks, Italy's biggest clubs are set to make an impact of their own.

AC Milan already kicked off its campaign, and Inter Milan, Juventus and the rest of the Serie A teams get their 2011-12 season underway after a temporary resolution to the players' strike allowed the season to commence this weekend.

It has been a quiet summer transfer window in the Bundesliga. Except for Bayern's usual trophy-less hangover spending spree, there really hasn't been much to report. Most teams were content to add a fresh batch of unknown youngsters, while trying to get some of their older personnel off the wage list.

The Bundesliga is back in its 49th incarnation and Friday's curtain raiser was both wonderful and frightening frightening at least for Bayern, Leverkusen and who else might have had vague hopes to win the league next year.

Dortmund 3-1 Helpless SV. Defending champions Dortmund kicked off the new season in style and with a promise of beautiful football, only they seem to be able to deliver this season.

English speaking BVB fans are on cloud nine. Their German speaking counterparts are on cloud seven. But maybe there's a way to bring the two together for the big party on May 14th. Roman Weidenfeller will volunteer as a translator. A 2-0 victory over Nuremberg clinched Dortmund's seventh German championship and the first title after nine years, thanks to Leverkusen doing, what Leverkusen does best.

Dortmund need to postpone their lap of honor through the Bundesliga. Manuel Neuer may have made the "next big step" in his career from one Europa League bound club to another. A wild winning spree at the bottom of the table leaves Cologne and St. Pauli as this weekend's biggest losers.

Leverkusen 2-1 Hoffenheim.

By FRANCO PANIZO

Like many of the Championship and League One teams, Derby County has two games in a span of three days this weekend, meaning Conor Doyle is likely to get a chance to score his first goal at the club level.

The U.S. U-20 national team striker has not played for Derby County since assisting in the March 12 win against Swansea City, but that should change as Derby faces Burnley on Saturday and Norwich City (and American centerback Zak Whitbread) on Monday.

It began with coaches, it continues with goalkeepers. The Bundesliga is in quite a reshuffling mood at the moment.

• Manuel Neuer to Bayern. This isn't really a rumor anymore, but rather a foregone conclusion, now that Neuer announced his Schalke exit during a teary eyed press conference.

Arsenal will be looking to keep it's title hopes alive while Liverpool will try to stay ahead of rival Everton in the Premier League standings when the Gunners and Reds face off in today's top match-up.

Arsenal can close the gap behind Manchester United to four points with a win tonight against Liverpool, while Kenny Dalglish's side is now just a point ahead of Everton for sixth place in the Premier League.

Time to slowly boot this blog up again starting with some links...

• Prince Poldi turns into Prince Carnival. (Dirty Tackle)
• Marcell Jansen scores a proper Wembley Goal. (101 Great Goals)
• Raphael Honigstein dissects Bayern Munich's wonderful world of lame ducks and uninspired football.

Players facing their former teams is nothing new. Facing a former team just days after forcing a highly-publicized and shocking transfer move is rare and provides the perfect ingredient for an already important Chelsea-Liverpool clash.

Fernando Torres is set to face Liverpool today at Stamford Bridge in a match sure to be an emotional and intense battle.

Bundesliga 2010/11 Team of the 'Hinrunde' is a post from: Just Football

With the Bundesliga season recently getting back underway, rejuvenated after a healthy 4-week winter break, we thought it about time to take a look back at the first half of the season ('die Hinrunde') and pick out a team of the league's best performers.