It may not be the very biggest game across world football this weekend, but consider one important factor: I’ll be there.

Yes, The Football Weekend will venture to Goodison Park on Sunday as EVERTON host TOTTENHAM in the Premier League. It’s been a strange few years for the home side, no doubt about it. Farhad Moshiri’s tumultuous ownership of the club has ended, and the Friedkin Group is coming in. The Sean Dyche era is over, too, and former stalwart David Moyes has returned to the manager’s chair. Plus, it’s Everton’s last season at Goodison, their home since 1892.

Joining us to trace all this—and tell me what I can expect to see in the Gwladys Street End this weekend—is podcaster and Everton fan Rodger Armstrong of Blue Monday, a production of The Blue Room podcast.

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The glamour tie of the FA Cup Third Round is ARSENAL against MANCHESTER UNITED on Sunday, but this stage is all about the clubs who tend to get less ink.

The beauty of the world’s oldest cup competition is that it offers TAMWORTH FOOTBALL CLUB from the National League, England’s fifth tier, the chance to host TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR of the Premier League at their 4,000-capacity stadium, The Lamb Ground. That’s the first match we’ve chosen to highlight from this weekend’s fixtures with the help of Jonathan Day, host of The Tamworth F.C. Social.

Then we move to MILLWALL, the club from South East London that for all their fame from depictions in film and TV have rarely featured in England’s top flight. They don’t look like winning promotion from the Championship this year, either—they’re 14th—but what would an FA Cup run mean to the Lions? Omer Ronayne of That Millwall Podcast joins to offer a view into second-tier life, and to preview their tie with fellow Londoners DAGENHAM & REDBRIDGE on Monday.

Soon enough, we’ll know who might be this season’s Maidstone United, who made it to the Fifth Round in 2024 as a sixth-tier outfit. That’s where the Stones were beaten by Coventry City, who came within an inch of defeating Manchester United at Wembley in the semifinal. In fact, I’m still not entirely convinced that Haji Wright was offside…

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This is occasionally—OK, almost never—called El Otro Clásico. It’s a bit of a nod to the fact that these two clubs, BARCELONA and ATLÉTICO MADRID, have a shared enemy that they each hate more than their opponent here. Barça’s beef with Real Madrid is the Clásico, Atléti’s feud with their crosstown neighbors is a proper derby.

This match is just a meeting of two of Spain’s great institutions, a fixture that’s spawned wild scorelines and decided league championships. In this case, it’s a meeting of first and second in La Liga, and they’re tied on 38 points.

Joining us to preview the festivities is Ian Darke, the legendary commentator who’s called matches across the world in the Premier League, the Champions League, and the World Cup. American fans might know him as the soundtrack to Landon Donovan’s famous goal against Algeria in 2010, but he’s also called some of the biggest matches in club football—like this one. He’ll be behind the mic for ESPN on Saturday at 3pm Eastern Time, but first he’s here with us to look ahead to the match—and look back on that time he and Steve McManaman stuck around the Camp Nou until 2 a.m. drinking beers with the locals!

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