USMNT weekend viewing guide: a cup quarter

A little adjustment this weekend as we’re making a slight change to the schedule moving forward. The weekend guide will now start with Saturday’s matches and the Friday matches will be included in the midweek guide. That’s enough preamble for me so let’s cut to the chase.

Saturday

Chelsea v Everton - 1:30p on the USA Network

Christian Pulisic continues to slowly increase his minutes, with 20’ last weekend in Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Leicester. It was Pulisic’s second appearance since returning from injury. Despite the lack of recent minutes Pulisic was called into the upcoming USMNT roster so will be hopping on a plane shortly after his clubs match on Saturday against relegation threatened Everton who have 25 points, which is good enough for 15th but just a point out of relegation position. Despite Everton’s struggles this season Chelsea will do well to not overlook their rival. The teams have split the last five matches 2-2-1, with all the matches being closely contested. Chelsea won the first match between the teams in August of last year, by a score of 1-0 on a Jorgino penalty in the dying minutes of the first half.

Other notes:

• John Brooks was back in the starting lineup but Hoffenheim continued their terrible loosing streak last weekend in a 2-1 loss to Freiburg. They now face Hertha Berlin at 10:30a on ESPN+ looking to snap their 15 match winless streak and crawl out of the Bundesliga cellar.
• Kevin Paredes picked up his second assist of the season to salvage a draw for Wolfsburg last weekend in their match with Union Berlin. Wolfsburg take on Stuttgart at 10:30a on ESPN+.
• Tyler Adams has been ruled out but Brenden Aaronson and Weston McKennie are likely to feature for Leeds United in their matchup with the Wolverhampton Wanderers at 11a on Peacock.
• Timothy Weah and Lille face Toulouse at Noon on beIN Sports. Weah was used as a rightback for Lille last weekend as he continues to appear though in positions that USMNT fans are not used to.
• Giovanni Reyna and Borussia Dortmund face Koln at 1:30p on ESPN+ now two points back of Bayern Munich for first place following last weeks draw with Schalke.
• Luca de la Torre and Celta Vigo have moved up to 11th place with last weekends 3-0 win over Ray Vallecano. They’ll look to widen the gap with the relegation teams when they face 15th place Espanyol at 1:30p on ESPN Deportes and ESPN+.
• The Seattle Sounders and LAFC kick off at 4p on Fox in a early season battle that could impact the Western Conference race down the stretch.

Sunday

Manchester United v Fulham - 12:30p on ESPN+

Tim Ream, Antonee Robinson and Fulham face Manchester United on Sunday afternoon in an FA Cup quarterfinal matchup. Man U are coming off a 1-0 win over Real Betis in Europa League action midweek and a scoreless draw last weekend against bottom of the EPL table Southampton side. The FA Cup is probably Manchester’s best shot at bringing home some hardware this season so expect them to come out strong. Meanwhile Fulham are coming off a 3-0 thumping at the hands of league leading Arsenal in which they did not look particularly sharp.

Other notes:

• Chris Richards and Crystal Palace will have their first match under new management as Patrick Vieira was relieved of his duties on Friday. A tough task gets harder on Sunday as they face Arsenal at 10a on USA Network.
• Erik Palmer-Brown and Troyes face Brest at 10a on beIN Sports in Ligue 1 action. Troyes currently sit in the relegation spots in the table but can draw even with 16th place Brest with a win.
• Jordan Pefok and Union Berlin need to get back on track quickly or they would go from challenging for the league lead to missing out on Champions League play altogether. They face sixth place Eintracht Frankfurt at 10:30a on ESPN.