- Barcelona at Real Madrid (12:00 PM EST, Saturday): The soccer world always effectively comes to a halt when the two greatest collections of talent meet while carrying the baggage of the best rilvary in sports. This year's first match between the two clubs carries added significance since it will mark the debut of Luis Suárez, who will give Barça an attacking trio along with Lionel Messi and Neymar that looks like a potential all-time great on paper. But we of course need to see how it actually works on the pitch. The added benefit of this match being about Suárez is that we get a one-time reprieve from the unending Messi vs. Ronaldo debate, even as the latter is playing on a whole another level to begin this season.

Barcelona enters the weekend four points clear of Real Madrid after eight matches with Sevilla between them. Both Barça and Real Madrid looked impressive in attack during their Champions League matches, while also showing vulnerabilities in defense. There will be goals.

- Bayern Munich at Borussia Mönchengladbach (12:30 PM, Sunday): With Borussia Dortmund already basically out of the running in the Bundesliga, 13 points behind Bayern, second place Gladbach probably represents the main obstacle standing between Pep Guardiola clinching the league in March rather than April.

Gladbach had a remarkable Bundesliga run bewtween 1970 and 1977, winning five times, but it had been three decades of irrelevance and relegation until Lucien Favre became manager in 2011. Gladbach has allowed just four goals over their first eight matches while scoring 12. Max Kruse has scored five goals to go with two assists in five Bundesliga starts and will almost certainly be the source of any Gladbach goal to get past Manuel Neuer.

Granit Xhaka, Julian Korb and Fabian Johnson (if he gets in) will also be noteworthy to keep an eye on for Gladbach.

- Chelsea at Manchester United (12:00 PM, Sunday): How this match has lost its significance over the past season and a half, but feel free to tune into the first 30 minutes while waiting for the aforementioned Bundesliga showdown. Or better yet, follow this match entirely on Soccer Twitter, as it serves as the perfect medium for a United side trying to find themselves.

José Mourinho is unlikely to allow Chelsea to leave Old Trafford without a result, even if Diego Costa doesn't play.

- L.A. Galaxy at Seattle Sounders (2:30 PM EST, Saturday): The past few weeks have not been very good for the MLS from a public relations perspective. Instead of giving the Twitter criticism of one of their beat writers and the comments of the national team coach the Streisand Effect, they should be confident in this Sunday's showdown of two of their signature franchises playing for the Supporters' Shield in front of 60,000 serious soccer fans in Seattle. The quality of the soccer will be better on the other channel in Germany, but there's a lot of talented players in this one, though it may not look like it since it's an MLS match following Barça/Real Madrid.