Setanta North America has confirmed its first seven pre-season matches the network will be showing in the United States and Canada in the buildup to the new Premier League season. Five of the matches will be friendlies
involving Liverpool and Sunderland, while the other two matches will bring us Aston Villa’s 3rd round UEFA Intertoto Cup tie with Danish side Odense Boldklub. The winning team of that tie will receive a spot in the 2nd qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.
Here are the announced matches and first air times:
Wednesday, July 16- Luzern v Liverpool, 1:35 PM ET (live)
Saturday, July 19- Odense Boldklub v Aston Villa, 2PM ET (live);
Wizla Krakow v Liverpool, 8PM ET (same day delay)
Tuesday, July 22- Hertha Berlin v Liverpool, 1:45 PM ET (live)
Saturday, July 26- Aston Villa v Odense Boldklub, 11:45 AM ET (live)
Monday, July 28- Cobh Ramblers v Sunderland, 2:30 PM ET (live)
Wednesday, July 30- Nottingham Forest v Sunderland, 2:45 PM ET (live)
In addition to these seven matches, Setanta North America has also told us that it will be showing several Chelsea friendlies through the network’s partnership with Chelsea TV, though nothing specific has been announced. Chelsea is spending their pre-season touring Asia and playing in a tournament in Moscow. Setanta may also announce more friendlies making its way to North America in the future. At present, Setanta in the UK are showing about 30 friendlies over the next month, so there are more matches that could eventually make the jump across the Atlantic.
So, English soccer fans in America, get ready; you are only a few days away from seeing your teams take to the pitch yet again.
Thank you to the people at Setanta North America for their assistance in this article.
Any news on Setanta making it to Comcast’s sports package by August? Far-fetched, but I’m still hopeful something can done at some point.
Will Fox Soccer have any friendlies? Doubtful but jw?
Ryan:
Sorry I didn’t reply back sooner. So far, FSC hasn’t announced any. I don’t recall them really showing any last year, but I could be mistaken.
Unfortunely, Setanta has now removed the most interesting of the announced matchups, leg 2 of the Intertoto clash between Aston Villa and Odense.