The Soccer Week Ahead: FIFA Women’s World Cup, Copa America, MLS, Galaxy, Steven Gerrard, USMNT

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Weekend TV Soccer Preview: MLS, Mexico, Copa America and FIFA Women’s World Cup

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Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m. on BeIn Sports


Kickoff is 1 p.m. Pacific on Fox Sports 1


Kickoff is at 4:30 p.m. on Fox Sports 1

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FIFA Women’s World Cup Fox Soccer Video Highlights & Analysis: USA-China Quarterfinal

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Watch game highlights here.

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FIFA Women’s World Cup Quarterfinals Preview: Where are you going to watch the USA play China at 4:30 p.m. on Fox?

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Click here for a preview of all the quarterfinal match-ups.

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FIFA Women’s World Cup Video Preview: U.S. plays China live at 4:30 p.m. Friday on Fox

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Scoring goals has become a problem for the U.S. in Canada and with that has come criticism that you don’t often see directed at the USWNT.

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Weekly Soccer Column: Bad boys Neymar, Clint Dempsey and Arturo Vidal bid to upstage Hope Solo in worst way

NemarcopaWho Me: Neymar protests his innocence at this year’s Copa America (Associated Press Photo).

Like it or not, athletes are role models. It’s why they get the big bucks on the field and often big bucks off it, as sponsors seek famous pitchmen to hawk their products.

But when sports stars go off the rails — the substance abuse issues of George Best and Paul Gascoigne come to mind — the results can be tragic if no one is willing to tell prodigiously talented stars with egos to match to straighten up fast for the good of their careers and lives.

This week one notable sports site suggested that the recent actions of Neymar, for example, at Copa America were merely about boys being boys.

That’s a dumb, small-minded attitude that portends trouble ahead.

Accountability has sadly been missing of late in the corrupt world of soccer off and on the field.

For more, read this week’s 100 Percent Soccer column.

Updated

By coincidence, U.S. Soccer issued a ruling on the Dempsey red card this morning:

The U.S. Open Cup Adjudication and Discipline Panel has suspended Seattle Sounders FC forward Clint Dempsey a total of six U.S. Open Cup matches or the next two years of U.S. Open Cup competition, whichever is greater. The suspension is due to his actions during the U.S. Open Cup match between Seattle Sounders FC and Portland Timbers on June 16, 2015.

In addition, Dempsey has been fined an undisclosed amount.

The panel convened Tuesday, June 23, 2015 to review the evidence gathered in regards to the incident. Mr. Dempsey waived his right to an appeal.

Due to the suspension, Dempsey cannot play in any U.S. Open Cup matches in 2016 or 2017, and possibly longer depending on the number of tournament games in which Dempsey’s team participates in those years.

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Father’s Day Weekend TV Schedule: Copa America, FIFA Women’s World Cup and MLS

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The Galaxy face the Philadelphia Union at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on Time Warner Cable SportsNet

Mexico-Ecuador kicks off at 1 p.m. today on BeIn Sports, while Chile-Bolivia kicks off at 4 p.m. On Saturday the game of the day is Argentina-Jamaica at 2:30 p.m., while on Sunday Brazil-Venezuela is at 2 p.m. A complete schedule is here.

Fox Sports 1 Women’s FIFA World Cup schedule:

1 p.m. Saturday Germany v Sweden
4:30 p.m. Saturday China v Cameroon
10 a.m. Sunday Brazil v Australia
1:30 p.m. Sunday France v Korea Republic
4:30 p.m. Sunday Canada v Switzerland
2 p.m. Monday Norway v England
5 p.m. Monday USA v Colombia
7 p.m. Tuesday Japan v Netherlands

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FIFA Women’s World Cup by the numbers

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FIFA provided these figures today:

Attendance:

  • Total attendance: 885,369
  • Average attendance: 24,594
  • Biggest attendance: 6 June doubleheader featuring New Zealand vs. Netherlands and Canada vs. China in Edmonton – Canadian record set for any national team playing at home with 53,058 spectators.
  • Five of six venues had sellouts in the group stage with Montreal close to 90% capacity for Canada vs. Netherlands on 15 June played before an enthusiastic 45,420 fans.

Games:

  • Number of goals: 107
  • Goal average: 2.97
  • Marta (BRA, 10) became top scorer in FIFA Women’s World Cup™ history with 15 goals.
  • Fabienne Humm (SUI, 16) scored the fastest hat-trick in FIFA Women’s World Cup™ history, 3 goals in 5 Minutes.
  • Christie Rampone (USA, 39) became the oldest player in FIFA Women’s World Cup™ history.
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USA-Nigeria is third most-watched women’s soccer game of all time, but viewership still dwarfed by NBA finals

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Tuesday’s USA-Nigeria FIFA Women’s World Cup game attracted five million viewers on Fox making it the third most-watched women’s game of all time, but those numbers were still dwarfed by the sixth and deciding game of the NBA finals, which drew 23.3 million viewers over on ABC.

Only the USA-China 1999 Women’s World Cup Final (17,975,000) and the Japan-USA 2011 Women’s World Cup Final (13,458,000) were watched by more people than the USA-Nigeria game, Fox said.

About 52 percent more viewers tuned in for the third USA group game compared to its tournament opener.

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