Can't Miss: The End Is Nigh
With Totti bowing out, the most lucrative prize in world football up for grabs and a Coupe de France final to decide, this weekend promises to be an emotional rollercoaster.
beIN SPORTS (by Tim Stannard)
SATURDAY
COUPE DE FRANCE – FINAL: ANGERS V PSG – Live on beIN SPORTS from 3:00PM ET / 12:00PM PT
PSG look to memory-wipe Monaco marvels in cup finale
Monaco, Schwonaco!
That’s the memory PSG want to leave in the minds of the French footie fanatic.
After an iffy campaign - by Unai Emery and PSG’s very exacting standards, anyway - the Parisians would very much like to have the final images of the French season to be one of their players lifting a trophy rather than those celebrating upstarts from Monte Carlo. To do that, PSG are going to have to take down Angers, a midtable outfit that have put together a run against the likes of Bordeaux and Guingamp to reach the Stade de France.
Form is on PSG’s side with a couple of 2-0 wins against Angers in the league this season, but a cup is a cup is a cup and anything can happen on the day to put a very different spin on the close season for PSG. A victory, and the nightmare against Barcelona can be moved into the musty wardrobe of the past while the eminent success of Edinson Cavani can be celebrated as well as big money summer swoops to reinforce the team’s recent domestic dominance in France. Antoine Griezmann anyone?
A defeat? ‘Oh dear’ would be the initial sensation from the PSG camp to leave a campaign with just the single League Cup victory and a summer of watching Monaco stake a claim to the French throne for the next few years by reinforcing an already dazzling Mbappe-stuffed squad.
SUNDAY
SERIE A: ROMA V GENOA - Live on beIN SPORTS from 12:00PM PT / 9:00PM PT
Totti looks for final farewell as Roma fight to secure second
Roma boss, Luciano Spalletti, has quite the dilemma on his Italian hands in the big Serie A finale weekend.
For the club’s supporters and the nation’s media, Roma’s clash against Genoa will be the end of a truly illustrious career for Francesco Totti who is set to play his 784th and final match for Roma after announcing his intentions to seek a final challenge after 24 years at the club. Possibly either in Dubai or in NASL with The Miami FC.
For the hamstrung Spalletti, the match is no time for a testimonial for a footballer who has had just the single start in Serie A this season. There is still serious business to be tended to for Roma who are trying to secure second spot in the standings with a victory and avoid being leap-frogged by Napoli and lose Italy's only other automatic Champions League spot.
In an ideal world, Roma would have the tie done and dusted early on against a Genoa side that are jammed near the bottom of the table but with nothing to play for with Crotone and Empoli looking to avoid relegation. If anyone deserves a centurion's send off in the center of Roma, it's Totti.
MONDAY
EFL CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL - READING V HUDDERSFIELD: Live on beIN SPORTS from 10:00AM ET / 7:00AM PT
Two teams, one place, 90 minutes and $250m as the prize
Thankfully, real life doesn't follow English Championship economics as the price of the simple coffee the column is using to fuel this Can't Miss bonanza would cost upwards of $156. And it's not even a Grande Latte.
Year-on-year, the value of a place in the Premier League goes up and up, as the TV and marketing revenue in England's top flight increases for those teams plucky enough to prevail in a 46-match regular season to go up.
Two of those teams this year were Newcastle United and Brighton who finished first and second to win automatic promotion. The last spot in the Premier League and revenue estimated between $200m to $250m for a single season will go to either Huddersfield or Reading, two teams that not especially equipped for the rigors of battling Chelsea and Arsenal, week-in, week-out - well, Chelsea anyway - but won't really care due to the riches to be beholden.
This makes the pressure on the players of both teams almost unbearable in a packed Wembley Stadium. 49 games - including play-off semis - boiling down to a one-off encounter. The touchlines is the place to see for Championship talent spotters. Huddersfield - a modest club from Yorkshire- are marshaled by David Wagner, once of USMNT fame, despite the very German accent.
A Manchester United and Netherlands legend, Jaap Staam is coach of Reading proving that being both a novice in the world of coaching and England's second tier is no barrier to success.
It would be fair to say that Staam would be getting a statue were he to lead Reading on a campaign through football's historic and economic riches.