If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.
Download a full-size copy here.
Monday: The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team starts their World Cup campaign with a game against Australia.
Tuesday: Four World Cup soccer games, including regional rivalries, France vs. England and Mexico vs. Colombia complement Game Three of the NBA finals in the evening. Both of the first two NBA Finals games have gone to overtime, so Game Three will either push this series into legendary status or be a totally boring blowout.
Wednesday: Women’s soccer takes the day off and men’s soccer comes through the door to fill our soccer needs for the day. The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team plays a friendly game against Germany. At night, the decidedly unfriendly Stanley Cup Finals continue. The series is 2-1 in favor of the Lightning heading into Game Four.
Thursday: Germany and Norway have combined to win half of the World Cups in women’s soccer history. Surprising, right? This time around, Germany is the favorite but Norway might still have some tricks up their sleeve. Both teams come off big wins in their first match: Germany 10-0 over Ivory Coast and Norway 4-0 over Thailand. The NBA Finals are on at night — Game Four of the series. As of now, we don’t know which team will be up two games to one, but that team will be looking to get a stranglehold over the series and the other will be looking to even it up.
Friday: Date night! Celebrate this week by watching the U.S. Women’s National team play against Sweden and their former coach, Pia Sundhage at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
Saturday: The college baseball World Series begins and Miami vs. Florida seems like it should be a heated matchup. Not as heated as the Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 which will either be the first elimination game for the Blackhawks to fight off or a game to see which team can go up three games to two. The best game of the Women’s World Cup schedule is probably Brazil vs. Spain.
Sunday: Tune into normal Sunday sporting events: Golf and NASCAR car racing. Or stick with seasonal events like the College World Series and Game Five of the NBA Finals.
Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.