Frightning Friday Football: Weekend Preview

Boo!

Now that the zombie-like MLS regular season is over, it's time for the um, meaty part of the season.

New England and the Fire kicked things off Thursday with a tight 0-0 contest, setting up a winner takes it all showdown this coming Thursday in Chicago. Rolling Hills Estates' John Thorrington (who had a nice shout out to the South Bay as the lineups were announced before the game) made two key, well-timed tackles for the Fire inside their own penalty box; Revs goalkeeper Matt Reis earned his eighth career shutout, after a Brian McBride goal was called back for offside. BTW, Is it just me or did the bundled up former Bruin look like the character on Dilbert who wanders around with the coffee cup all day? (I have to be careful here; Matt's mother-in-law lives just around the corner from the Daily Breeze office in Torrance).

More on Saturday's Chivas USA-Real Salt Lake playoff opener is here.

A complete playoff schedule is here.

Other TV options this weekend include:
*8 a.m. Saturday Chelsea-Sunderland on Fox Soccer Channel.
*10:30 a.m. Saturday Tottenham Hotspur-Liverpool on Fox Soccer Channel
*3 p.m. Sunday Tecos-Club America on KAZA

Local college games this weekend include:
*No. 10 USC (12-3-1, 2-2-1 Pac-10) take on California (10-5-1, 3-2-1) in a 3 p.m. match today at McCalister Field. The game will be shown on tape-delay at 1 p.m. Saturday on FSC. The Trojans' final Pac-10 home match is set for 1 p.m. Sunday against undefeated No. 2 Stanford (16-0-1, 6-0-0) at the Coliseum.

*Two doubleheaders this weekend for the Bruins. The No. 3 women play second-ranked Stanford at 5 p.m. today at Marshall Field and are followed by the surging UCLA men who host No. 8 California. At noon Sunday it's the women against Cal followed by the men against Stanford.

*The LMU men host St. Mary's at 3 p.m. today in Westchester.