WEEKEND WATCH GUIDE
Bundesliga: Bayern Munich at SV Darmstadt, 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Fox Sports 1. Darmstadt is the best underdog story going, even in the remarkably egalitarian Bundesliga. The club had gone 33 years without playing in the top league, and as recently as 2013 was in the third division, fighting relegation to the fourth. Two successive promotions have the team up to the big time, and it's performed admirably, earning three draws and a win in four games. A visit from European powerhouse Bayern Munich, though, may be a tall order for the underdogs.
NASL: New York at Minnesota, 7 p.m. Saturday, Ch. 45. United's latest effort to break through against the Cosmos comes at an important juncture of the season. Minnesota finishes the year with five of its last seven games at home, where it has lost just once all season. That said, the Loons have won only five of 10 games at the National Sports Center; in the other matches they've taken the lead, only to give it back late in the game. If they're to clinch the fall season, those wobbles at the end of home games must be corrected.
Bundesliga: Bayer Leverkusen at Borussia Dortmund, 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Fox Sports 2. Dortmund is off to the best start in the history of the Bundesliga, with four wins in four matches and 15 goals scored against just three allowed. On the other side, Bayer Leverkusen won 4-1 over BATE Borisov in their midweek Champions League meeting, with new arrival Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez scoring one goal and setting up another. Dortmund's flying start means that every game is a trap game; it already may be looking forward to an Oct. 4 trip to Bayern Munich.
MLS: New York at Portland, 4 p.m. Sunday, ESPN. New York's loss Wednesday to New England, in a performance that head coach Jesse Marsch called "one of our worst of the year," also moved the Red Bulls off the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Portland, meanwhile, is struggling to keep pace in the West, in part because it is again having trouble scoring goals this season. The Timbers' 29 tallies in 28 games rank ahead of only the punchless Colorado Rapids.
