The Spanish Supercopa, which matches the winner of La Liga against the winner of the Copa del Rey in a home and home series, is heading to FSC for the first time.

The matchup pits Real Madrid against Valencia on Aug. 17 and 24 at 4 p.m. EDT. The first leg is at Valencia, with the return at the Bernabeu.

This is a nice pickup for FSC, as they really could stand to expand beyond England. The Serie A matches last season were a nice addition, and while France isn't the best in Europe for club matches, it's always nice to have more.

Considering the battle between Dish Network and GolTV, which owns the rights to La Liga in the U.S., this provides a nice little bonus for those 13 million households.

Now, if only we could get games in HD...

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I got a nice little treat today while surfing the channels on Dish Network. Sure, I don't have GolTV anymore (although I do now have Fox Sports en Espanol, so it's not like I'm totally without soccer on channel 407), but now I have 24 hours a day of Olympic soccer.
As part of the 10 billion hours of coverage by the Peacock net here in the U.S., there is a 24-hour soccer channel in HD. It's ONLY in HD, so if you're old-school, you're out of luck. When there isn't a game live, there are highlights of qualifiers, and Dish says there will be rebroadcasts throughout the day.

The Olympic Soccer channel is on channel 98 or 367, depending on your system. So far, it's been showing the women's qualifying rounds, including the U.S. women vs. Norway (yeah, nice result).Over on DirecTV, instead of having dedicated channels for soccer and basketball, they're putting events, including all gold-medal games, on demand. I don't know what the timeframe will be for getting a game online, but it should be interesting to watch.
Comcast originally was planning to offer the Olympic Soccer channel to its customers, but it appears that it will only be available to its highest-tier customers. If you know any different, please let me know!
Cable customers, what are you getting for Olympic soccer? Sure, it's not the Premier League, but it should be fun to watch until the big boys start again next week!
UPDATE: Comcast nationally did sign a deal with NBC, according to a network statement, but it is up to individual Comcast systems to launch the channels. So if you're not getting Olympic soccer, call your Comcast system! Also, it's confirmed that Cablevision does NOT have the channels. 

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As of August 1, GolTV - the 24/7 soccer network - has been removed from DISH Network due to a contract dispute.

According to GolTV, "this occurs despite efforts to continue GolTV's availability to Dish customers." DISH Network, in retort, inserted this message when you hit the INFO button where GolTV's channel used to be: "GolTV has removed this channel after asking for unreasonable terms to renew the contract and we're working to solve the problem."

In the meantime, DISH Network is offering free previews of both Setanta Sports and Fox Sports Espanol to its customers. However, even if DISH Network customers subscribed to Setanta and Fox Sports Espanol, that won't replace the void that's left with GolTV gone because GolTV has exclusive license rights in the United States to La Liga and Bundesliga, as well as many 2010 World Cup qualifiers and this weekend's Emirates Cup featuring Real Madrid, Hamburg, Juventus and Arsenal.

For DISH Network, the decision to remove GolTV is idiotic. Hopefully this a short-term disagreement between GolTV and DISH Network that will be resolved soon, but the timing couldn't be worse and soccer fans will want to make a decision soon whether to leave DISH Network before the new seasons begin. My gut instinct says that this issue won't be resolved soon especially when GolTV tells readers on its homepage that "You can find GolTV on our current distribution partners," which includes DirecTV.

If you love GolTV, my recommendation would be to simply cancel your DISH Network subscription and move to DirecTV where you get GolTV there instead. If you're upset about the situtation, vote with your dollars by leaving DISH but don't forget to send them an e-mail too to let them know why you're cancelling and moving to their biggest competitor.

DISH Network can be contacted here.

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