Posted on 07/06/2006 8:55:05 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
The World Cup is generating record television audiences for soccer in the U.S. But some diehard fans think the coverage deserves a red card.
Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN and ABC have been hit with complaints from soccer devotees that their telecasts are unsophisticated and mistake-ridden. The popular Web site Big Soccer has a thread titled "Pick your favorite insane thing said by the announcers so far."
A major gripe: ESPN selected an announcer, Dave O'Brien, who had never called a soccer game before this year to serve as the tournament's lead play-by-play man. Some English-speaking viewers have switched to Spanish-language Univision, which has out-rated ESPN and its sister cable network ESPN2 on average for the tournament in Germany.
< snip >
"They're trying to give us all this information to show us how much they know," says Steven Cohen, who has bashed ESPN on his "World Soccer Daily" show on Sirius Satellite Radio. "All they're showing us is how much they don't know."
< snip >
The soccer executives opposed the appointment of Mr. O'Brien. Their argument: using an announcer unfamiliar with the sport might not help ratings but certainly could hurt them. "Would you ever put a guy who had never called a sport before ... in the World Series, the Super Bowl or the Olympics?" a senior U.S. soccer executive says. "Never."
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
How true.
You can tell what their main problem is by just watching their stupid promo-commercials.
It's all about them, the coverage, the announcers. The actual event means nothing. Which, makes them ideally suited to cover MLB, the NFL, the IRL, etc.
That being said, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the ONLY reason to watch the Cup on ESPN/ABC--HDTV. If you ain't seeing it on the Big Screen in HD, you're missing alot. It's tough to turn down the 5.1 sound, so you just have to suffer.
Let's see a show of hands of those folks with some throw-away sign-in accounts that are going to hi-jack the NFL threads.
Me too, almost. I watch in Spanish in my own home, but when I watch at a bar or someone elses house, I'm stuck with ESPN/ABC. I particulary detest their graphics which sometimes pop up over where the ball is being played, and always obscure 10% or so of the screen. The stupid commentary can be pretty annoying too.
ML/NJ
>.More kids play soccer than any other sport. Guess your kids just sucked at soccer.<<
No. They played soccer as KIDS. Then when they went to high school, they went on to other sports. Virtually all their friends did too.
Do you not notice that dynamic in your area. It's obvious as a wart on your nose here in Seattle.
Oh, my youngest lettered in Basketball and currently plays on her college team.
The best part is hearing the excitement in the announcer's voice as the player works his way up the field toward the goal!
I'm watching the Final at home, so I'll tune into Univision. I also recently discovered (too recently) that Fox Soccer Channel shows the Sky Sport pre-game show right up until game time. So I watch that first, then switch to Univision for the game itself.
Oh those GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLl calls are the best!!!! Wouldn'nt mind having that call as my house phone ring!!!
LOL.....Mia does get around!
(s)
but ESPN is supposed to be the ALL KNOWING sports channel line up!!!!
(/s)
Seriously, I think sports announcers really believe their own PR.
Says he the originator of GOOOOOOOOOL!
These Euro worshipping mutoids should just be happy ESPN lowers itself to run that idiocy at all.
What makes me laugh is that whenever the camera shows some dignitary in the crowd, there is a painful silence from the commentators. ESPN must be getting some international pool video feed.
A true story: 3/31/91, I was living in Boston. Right around 5 o'clock I looked in the phone book and called a company with CBS in the name in Boston, and left a message that CBS should fire Brent Mussberger (because he is and always has been the worst announcer in professional sports-- ever since in the '70s he would say "Coming up, it's the Bucaneers and the Seahawks [the two worst teams at the time] and it's gonna be a dandy.") Next day, April Fools, right before the NCAA hoop semis, they fired Brent! I'm not sure if my message got through or even went to the right dep't of CBS, but I will never forget. Sometimes your prayers will be answered.
Your trick worked with Dan Rather, too!
If Brent is calling a game I really want to see, I turn down the sound. He is annoying beyond comprehension.
-A8
And this in a nutshell shows everything that is wrong with Soccer. Germany Played a GREAT GAME --- A GREAT GAME!!!!. And what was the score after 118 minutes of them playing so GREAT --- 0 to 0. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Hmmm let's see; watch the games on ESPN via 106" screen in high definition or my 27" Sony on Univision.
Okay, I watched Univision since 86, but I'll just have to cope.
The Harkes team wasn't so bad.
It's just they don't let you enjoy the players more at the end of matches.
That and soccer babes. What's a world cup without international soccer babes?
Any other obvious points in life we can point out to you, Einstein?
Not a big surprise, but I'm not sure it's to any major extent. In '02, if I recall, Univision had a significant ratings advantage also.
Much of the problem is cultural in nature. The European stereotype of Americans as garrulous, overly friendly near-rubes is, to some degree, based on fact. Our sports commentators have this tendency to chat away, spouting facts and rumors, and often making the coverage more about them than about the game. I can remember the early years of Phil Schoen doing MLS, when he ran an online bulletin board asking for viewer comments. They were, almost uniformly, "shut up." Other viewers asked him to carefully listen to the Premier presenters and try to emulate them. In the end, Phil pulled back on chattiness, and became a bit more reserved, and he's considerably less irritating to listen to now.
There's also a lack of awareness on the part of most American announcers of the theatricality of the game. If you listen to English coverage, or to Univision, you'll hear a clipped, tense, style. Primarily it's focused on who has the ball, and what the last official's call was. The result is that you build the tension in the audience that's released when there's a goal. If one views a game with ex-pats in a pub, one will notice that it's almost like a religious service. There's an intense focus on the game, not a lot of happy talk and chattiness, then an explosion of sentiment when a goal is scored. That whole atmosphere is lost if there's a running free-form commentary.
So, to me, the whole issue is 'less chat, more focus'. If they could get that right, you could almost forgive the limited knowledge.
Oh... and...
Then there's those flippin' graphics!!!!
And the hugely excessive number of replays.
I often watch Univision's coverage just so I can see what's happening on the pitch.
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