Just a note that the draw for the Group Stage takes place on Thursday, August 29th at 11:30am ET. There will be live coverage on FoxSoccer-Plus & Fox Deportes (as well as UEFA.com). The event also includes European player of the year awards... SA www.soccertv blog.com
The FS1 and FS2 schedules are terribly worse than the old FSC and FSCPlus schedules to navigate through. What sucks is that I feel that the groups fell in a way that all the good groups play on the same day. There are 4-5 games on that first Wednesday that I want to see and maybe 1 on the Tuesday.
Really hoping that FS+ will be showing more group stage matches this year. I think 5 was the most you got without dtv last year.
That's only really the case on Matchdays 1 and 5. The other MDs look pretty balanced across the 2 days in terms of highly appealing matchups. Although Group "F" guarantees 2 matches worth watching on every matchday. After that group "A" looks the most interesting/competitive.
FoxSports-2, FoxSoccer-Plus, Fox Regionals & Fox Deportes are now listing the schedule for Matchday #1. Its easy to deduct which match FoxSports-1 will have (and confirmed by seeing the match as the first delayed broadcast on FSC+). So here is the LIVE schedule for Matchday #1 (I have the delayed broadcasts listed on my calendar pages on the site but still 1-2 blanks to be filled there): MATCHDAY 1 - (all matches kickoff 2:45pm ET) Tuesday, September 17, 2013: Manchester United v Bayer Leverkusen..........FoxSports-1 Galatasaray v Real Madrid..........FoxSports-2 + Fox Deportes Bayern München v CSKA Moscow..........Fox Sports Regional Networks Viktoria Plzen v Manchester City..........FoxSoccer-Plus FC København v Juventus..........DirecTV Olympiacos v Paris Saint-Germain..........DirecTV Real Sociedad v Shakhtar Donetsk..........DirecTV SL Benfica v Anderlecht..........DirecTV Wednesday, September 18, 2013: Barcelona v AFC Ajax..........FoxSports-1 + Fox Deportes Chelsea v FC Basel..........FoxSports-2 AC Milan v Celtic..........Fox Sports Regional Networks Marseille v Arsenal..........FoxSoccer-Plus Atlético Madrid v Zenit St Petersburg..........DirecTV FK Austria Wien v FC Porto..........DirecTV Napoli v Borussia Dortmund..........DirecTV Schalke 04 v Steaua Buchurest..........DirecTV SA www.soccertvblog.com
So aside from my interest in Scottish Prem matches, I have found a use for fs+. They have woken up and will show the remainder of the matches from each match day that FS1 or FSN wont be showing. So between those 3 channels all 8 matches will be shown in delay at the least. Im pleased with this as it is one of the few things Fox has done of late that is poitive for football fans.
Yeah, if these FS+ matches end up airing on delay on FS2 then there's no reason to mess with FS+. Hopefully that will be the case. I wish Fox would have dumped FS+ instead of FSC since FSC had better coverage and on DTV is in HD. I don't know if they had a choice in the matter but it would have been better. I also would love to see UEFA follow the EL model with the CL and have 2 different start times to create a chance to watch more games. Although, it would be nice if UEFA put 30 minutes or more between the matches to avoid problems with games running long and into the 2nd games.
Not so much in the group stage, although there are times when a lengthy stoppage due to injury or crowd disturbance stretches an early game into the start of the second set of matches. The problem mainly arises in second leg of the knockout rounds (Round of 32 and 16 in the Europa League) when the aggregate is level and extra-time is required in one or more of the early kickoffs. For Champions League games the staggering of kickoffs when a Russian team is playing at home works out well. Russian home ties kick off around 18:00 or 18:30 CET and have rarely if ever crossed over into the 20:45 CET kickoffs. Early Europa League fixtures kick off at 19:00 and the late games start at 21:05.
Channels 480 thru 488 are the so called "UEFA" channels. Games not shown live on FoxSports-1, FoxSports-2, Regional or FSC+ are available exclusively on DirecTV. Channel 480 is actually a "Mix" channel with 8 screens with all the games. Same channels are used for the Europa League. Its the only way to see 4-5 matches live on any given day (twice as many games for the Europa League). Keep in mind that ALL of these matches do make their way to FoxSoccer-Plus and most will make it to FoxSports-2 on a delayed basis. Coolest thing about the channels is that its FREE to ALL DirecTV customers (no need for a Sports Package or any other tier). SA www.soccertvblog.com
Never 30 minutes of injury time--although I am sure this has been the case during odd scenarios--but lights go out, rain delays start times, a combination of late start and injury time. As it stands, there have been multiple instances where an EL game that is supposed to start at Noon does not end before the 2:05 kickoff time of the second matches. It seems to me that if they follow that same schedule (Noon US time kickoff for early games) but start the other game with a 2:45 kickoff time, they will be in good shape except when there's knockout games that could go to PSO. Additionally, a 30-minute gap between matches gives broadcasters time to do a proper setup. The point is that they figured something out about trying to maximize air time for games in the EL but haven't applied that same approach to the CL, which seems odd when this is the most important club tournament going. Even if they did 4 early and 4 late games per matchday, they would likely increase viewership. I get that such a move makes it slightly more difficult for fans attending matches, but the late games could happen in countries where late games are the norm: Spain, France, Italy.
Im doubting that FS2 will show all 8 matches like FS+ is doing. I should say Id be surprised if they were. Im just really happy to see fs+ doing it this season. It really made no sense that they didnt do it last few years. They had 2 fully dedicated football channels and would only show 5 matches live or on delay. Glad to see that they are putting them all out there within 24 hours of the matches being played. Also Im aware of the Dtv situation which is awesome. I do t have it I have Fios. Not being like Schapes here Im just putting this info out there before one of you dtv guys rubs in the fact that you get all 8 live and can dvr like 6 of them. Lucky bastards!
A lot of people don't get Fs2 in HD which is pretty much the same as not having the channel at all. So I'm glad that FS+ is reshowing all the matches.
I dont get either in HD but Im glad to be able to see any of the matches with about 4 of them being in hd.
I figure it's because they wanted to start "FXX", could do that by renaming FSC, but not by renaming FS+
Has anyone found a decent guide for FS1 and FS2? The guide on the Fox Web site relies on TV guide, which doesn't show any CL matches when Soccer is selected as the sport for next Tuesday. I'm wondering which games will repeat/air on delay on FS1 and FS2.
Thanks. Good site. I see it doesn't have beIN's schedule though (for this weekend). Granted neither does the beIN webpage (although they are advertising the matches they're showing this weekend on their actual channels).
Complete schedule for Matchday #1: Times CET/US Eastern - Tuesday, September 17, 2013: 20:45/2:45pm Manchester United v Bayer Leverkusen …..LIVE: FoxSports-1 …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/5:00pm + Fox Dep./5:00pm + FoxSports-2/8:00pm 20:45/2:45pm Galatasaray v Real Madrid …..LIVE: FoxSports-2 + Fox Deportes …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/10:00pm 20:45/2:45pm Bayern München v CSKA Moscow …..LIVE: Fox Sports Regional Networks …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/Wed.-12:00am + FoxSports-2/Wed.-10:00am 20:45/2:45pm Viktoria Plzen v Manchester City …..LIVE: FoxSoccer-Plus …..DELAYED: FoxSports-2/Wed.-12:00pm + Fox Deportes/Thu.-4:00pm 20:45/2:45pm Olympiacos v Paris Saint-Germain …..LIVE: DirecTV/481 …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/Wed.-2:00am + FoxSports-2/Wed.-8:00am 20:45/2:45pm FC København v Juventus …..LIVE: DirecTV/482 …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/Wed.-4:00am 20:45/2:45pm Real Sociedad v Shakhtar Donetsk …..LIVE: DirecTV/483 …..DELAYED: Fox Deportes/7:00pm + FoxSoccer-Plus/Wed.-6:00am 20:45/2:45pm SL Benfica v Anderlecht …..LIVE: DirecTV/484 …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/Wed.-8:00am Wednesday, September 18, 2013: 20:45/2:45pm Barcelona v AFC Ajax …..LIVE: FoxSports-1 + Fox Deportes …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/5:00pm + FoxSports-2/8:00pm 20:45/2:45pm Chelsea v FC Basel …..LIVE: FoxSports-2 …..DELAYED: Fox Deportes/5:00pm + FoxSoccer-Plus/7:30pm 20:45/2:45pm AC Milan v Celtic …..LIVE: Fox Regional Sports Network …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/Thu.-12:00am + FoxSports-2/Thu.-8:30am 20:45/2:45pm Marseille v Arsenal …..LIVE: FoxSoccer-Plus …..DELAYED: FoxSports-2/Thu.-10:30am 20:45/2:45pm Napoli v Borussia Dortmund …..LIVE: DirecTV/481 …..DELAYED: Fox Dep./7:00pm + FoxSoccerPlus/Thu.-2:00am + FoxSports-2/Thu.-6:30am 20:45/2:45pm Atlético Madrid v Zenit St Petersburg …..LIVE: DirecTV/482 …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/Thu.-4:00am + Fox Deportes/Thu.-2:00pm 20:45/2:45pm Schalke 04 v Steaua Buchurest …..LIVE: DirecTV/483 …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/Thu.-6:00am 20:45/2:45pm FK Austria Wien v FC Porto …..LIVE: DirecTV/484 …..DELAYED: FoxSoccer-Plus/Thu.-8:00am SA www.soccertvblog.com
Very Impressive lineup of matches. Those who tape games from their log cabins should be very happy with this coverage - every game live or delayed on a FOX channel, and no cut-down versions
I wish I had DirecTV (or a provider who had Fox sports 2) for this round--I'd love to see Napoli-Borussia Dortmund.