Soccer on TV: Belgium-Italy and Brazil-Chile start the weekend with fireworks

Friday, noon (ESPN, PrendeTV)

After ousting World Cup champion France from the European Championship, Switzerland faces a Spain team that finally found its footing in a wild round-of-16 win over Croatia. If Alvaro Morata can play as well in this game as he did in the last one, the Swiss will have a real hard time mounting the kind of late comeback they did against the French.

Friday, 3 p.m. (ESPN, PrendeTV)

The best of the four Euro quarterfinals will be a great test for Italy’s dynamic young team. Will they keep playing the free-wheeling, attacking soccer that got them here? And will Belgium batten down the defensive hatches the way it did against Portugal, especially if injured stars Kevin de Bruyne and Eden Hazard can’t play?

Friday, 4:30 p.m. (Fox Soccer Plus, PrendeTV)

Concacaf’s Gold Cup preliminary-round games start this weekend. Twelve teams from across the Caribbean and Central America have gathered at Inter Miami’s Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for two rounds of one-game playoffs. In the end, three teams will qualify for the tournament group stage that starts next weekend.

Fox will have three preliminary games in English on Fox Soccer Plus and six on FS2. Online streaming will only be available from Fox if you have the channels in your TV subscription, which means the FSP games will be hard to get for many viewers. But Univision will have all 12 games on PrendeTV, its free-of-charge streaming service, so it’ll be easier to check them out there.

» READ MORE: The full schedule of Gold Cup preliminary games

Friday, 5 p.m. (FS1, Univision, TUDN)

The Copa América quarterfinals kick off with a game that’s an undercard for star power, but has many names familiar to MLS fans.

Peru’s squad includes Orlando City goalkeeper Pedro Gallese, New York City FC defender Alexander Callens, and San Jose Earthquakes defender Marcos López. Paraguay’s squad has Chicago Fire midfielder Gastón Giménez, former New York Red Bulls playmaker Alejandro “Kaku” Romero Gamarra, and former Atlanta United star Miguel Almirón.

Friday, 7 p.m. (Paramount+)

Gotham brings a three-game unbeaten streak into its first home game since June 5, and its first game against the NWSL’s newest team. Margaret Purce is primed for a big summer after coming up just short of making the U.S. Olympic team.

» READ MORE: This weekend's NWSL schedule

Friday, 8 p.m. (FS1, UniMás, TUDN)

Now comes the star power. Brazil romped through the group stage with a tournament-high 10 goals on home soil, led by Neymar and Gabriel Jesus. Chile surprisingly struggled, amassing just five points. But in knockout games, you can’t count out Arturo Vidal and Charles Aránguiz.

La Roja hasn’t beaten Brazil since 2015, hasn’t faced the Seleçao in a Copa América since 2007, and hasn’t beaten Brazil in a Copa América since 1993. Can Vidal lead the way to an upset?

The winner of this game will play Peru or Paraguay in a semifinal on Monday (7 p.m, FS1, Univision and TUDN).

Saturday, noon (ESPN, PrendeTV)

The Czechs looked good in ousting the Netherlands in the round of 16, but the Dutch also looked pretty bad in losing. Denmark looked really good in a 4-0 rout of Wales. Can the tournament’s best story keep going into the semis?

Saturday, 3 p.m. (6ABC, Univision, TUDN)

The raucous scene at Wembley Stadium during England’s round-of-16 win over Germany was an explosion of catharsis 55 years in the making. That’s how long it had been since the Three Lions’ men last beat the Germans in a major tournament knockout game, going back to the 1966 World Cup final. Raheem Sterling was brilliant once again, as was 19-year-old Bukayo Saka.

Now England will play away from Wembley for the first time in the the tournament, and also the last. If they win, they’ll go back to London for the semifinals and potentially the final. If they lose, their tournament will be over. But they should win, even though Ukraine showed some moxie in upending Sweden with a 121st-minute winning goal.

Saturday, 5 p.m. (ESPN, ESPN Deportes)

Twenty-two years after opening the first soccer-specific stadium in MLS, the Crew christen the new $314 million, 20,000-capacity Lower.com Field near downtown. Columbus opened the old Crew Stadium against New England, too. This year’s version of the Revs is in first place in the Eastern Conference, led by Carles Gil’s seven assists in 11 games.

» READ MORE: The rest of this weekend's MLS schedule

Saturday, 6 p.m. (FS2, Univision, TUDN)

Luis Suárez, Edinson Cavani and Uruguay will be favored to beat a Colombia squad whose bosses made a big mistake by not including star playmaker James Rodriguez.

Saturday, 9 p.m. (FS1, Univision, TUDN)

Lionel Messi and Argentina got off fairly easy with this quarterfinal matchup. But they’ll know rival Uruguay will likely await in the semis.

Sunday, 3 p.m. (Paramount+)

In São Paulo, Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte, they’ll tell you their teams have Brazilian soccer’s fiercest rivalry. But in Rio de Janeiro, they know they have the country’s most famous derby. Fla-Flu is always must-watch TV, even when the stands of the the legendary Maracanã are closed due to the pandemic.

It’s even must-watch TV when it’s not at the Maracanã, as is the case with this game. Brazilian authorities moved it to São Paulo because Rio’s soccer shrine is preparing to host the Copa América final.

Monday, 5 p.m. (ESPN)

This will be the Americans’ last game before flying to Tokyo to prepare for the Olympics. U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski was buoyed this week by the news that the IOC is allowing alternates to play in the tournament as long as game-day squads are kept at 18 players. That means goalkeeper Jane Campbell, defender Casey Krueger, playmaker Catarina Macario, and forward Lynn Williams will be available throughout the tournament, a big boost to the U.S.’ depth.

Andonovski was also buoyed by Tobin Heath’s return to the field in a 4-0 win over Mexico on Thursday. Heath scored a spectacular goal just 52 seconds after coming on to the field.

» READ MORE: Carli Lloyd, Kristie Mewis make U.S. Olympic women’s soccer team