Soccer on TV: Concacaf men’s World Cup qualifying starts, PSG-Lyon women’s Champions League showdown

Wednesday, 1 p.m. (beIN Sports)

Men’s club soccer takes the week off for a FIFA window, but the women’s game has some big games in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals. Unfortunately, the long wait to get the tournament’s broadcast rights into one package deal must still wait until next season — last year’s end-of-season tournament was an exception because it was at a neutral site.

So it won’t be easy to find the other three matchups: Barcelona vs. Manchester City, Chelsea vs. VfL Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich vs. Rosengård. But because beIN has a network in France (and perhaps because beIN’s Qatari chairman is PSG’s president), we get both legs of this epic French rivalry.

Lyon has won the last five European Cups. PSG has been a perennial bridesmaid, including losses to Lyon in the 2017 final and last year’s semis. This time, the plot has a major twist: PSG leads Lyon in the French league standings, and they’ll meet one more time in Lyon later this season.

Expect both teams to load up all their stars for this series. And let’s see if each team’s American player — PSG’s Alana Cook and Lyon’s Catarina Macario — get to be part of the action.

Wednesday, 3:45 p.m. (ESPN+)

World Cup qualifying begins in Europe with a cloud overhead due to coronavirus-enforced travel restrictions. But there are still many good games on tap, headlined by this one. Wales’ squad is led by Tottenham’s Gareth Bale and Liverpool’s Ben Davies; Belgium has a fleet of stars including Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku, Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne and Atlético Madrid’s Yannick Carrasco.

Wednesday, 8 p.m. (Paramount+, Peacock)

A few weeks after CBS’ Paramount+ landed English-language broadcast rights to most of the final round of Concacaf’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers, the network struck a deal for a package of first-round games too. On the Spanish-language side, NBC has again landed a package of rights for its Spanish-language channels — but this time most of the broadcasts are on Peacock, with just a few on regular TV.

The campaign begins starts with 30 teams divided into six groups of five, each in a single round robin — so four games per team. The six group winners will advance to one round of home-and-away playoffs, and the three winners of those playoffs will enter the final round in September with the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Jamaica.

Of the six games on tap Wednesday night, this is the most intriguing. Guatemala’s team includes FC Dallas youth academy-bred defender (and former U.S. U-20 player) Moisés Hernández. Cuba has made a rare move to bring in overseas based players including Norwich City’s Onel Hernández.

» READ MORE: Paramount+'s schedule of Concacaf World Cup qualifying broadcasts

Wednesday, 9:30 p.m. (FS1, UniMás, TUDN)

The group stage finale in Olympic qualifying is just for bragging rights and seeding, since both teams won their first two group games. But when it’s these two teams, there are a lot of bragging rights. The seeding part is wide open, because Group B — with Canada, Honduras, Haiti and El Salvador — won’t be settled until Thursday night.

Thursday, 1 p.m. (ESPN2, UniMás, TUDN)

A star-studded senior U.S. men’s squad gathers for the first of two friendlies in Europe. Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Gio Reyna, Josh Sargent, Sergiño Dest and Yunus Musah will give the Americans one of the most stacked lineups Gregg Berhalter has had in his tenure — with Pulisic set to play for his country for the first time since Oct. 16, 2019.

They’re joined by intriguing prospects in forward Jordan Siebatcheu and midfielder Owen Otasowie, the latter of whom plays for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the English Premier League. Medford’s Brenden Aaronson and Downington’s Zack Steffen should also see playing time. The only major absence is Weston McKennie, who’s getting time to rest and rehabilitate a minor injury.

Jamaica will be without the Union’s Andre Blake and Cory Burke and a few other notable players who are protesting against the Jamaican federation’s pay scale.

Thursday, 7 p.m. (Paramount+, Peacock)

Trinidad is the favorite to advance from Group F over Guyana, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and St. Kitts & Nevis. But if you still have nightmares about the Soca Warriors’ infamous 2017 win over the U.S. that knocked the Americans out of the 2018 World Cup, you can rest a bit easier. Trinidad likely won’t be a favorite in the playoff round.

Thurdsay, 7:55 p.m. (Universo, Paramount+)

After making its men’s World Cup debut in 2018, Panama faces even steeper odds to reach the big stage this time. 32-year-old forward Gaby Torres is the squad’s only player who has scored a goal in World Cup qualifying in his career. But there are still eight players from that World Cup team, including former New York Red Bulls right back Michael Murillo.

» READ MORE: Universo and Peacock's schedule of Concacaf World Cup qualifying broadcasts

Thursday, 8 p.m. (Paramount+, Peacock)

No team in the Concacaf first-round field has more pressure on it than Canada. The co-host-in-waiting of the 2026 men’s World Cup hasn’t qualified for a men’s tournament since 1986. Failing to do so this time — or at least to get out of Group B against Aruba, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Suriname — would be a disaster, especially with Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies leading the squad.

Thursday, 8 p.m. (Paramount+)

While Canada is the biggest-name team in the field of 30, Curaçao is the most intriguing. Yes, the vacation-spot island that’s technically a Dutch territory is its own nation under FIFA.

The squad has major talent in Columbus Crew goalkeeper Eloy Room and Cardiff City’s Leandro Bacuna, a legendary manager in Dutchman Guus Hiddink, and a terrific way of boosting team spirit: an old school bus that the team rides to home games. Don’t be surprised if this team makes the final round of qualifying.