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.
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"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."
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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 ...
He was interviewed on the one eyed hypnotist last week and he just grinned and said he had not decided yet. He was very charismatic and well spoken.
NBC used English speaking Univision announcers for it's Olympic soccer coverage, and they used veteran curling announcer Don Chevrier who always curling coverage on CBC many years ago.
Yeah, I was just trying to find out if he's committed to playing for the USA yet and saw that article too. Also something about how Michael Essien is trying to convince him to play for Chelsea and Ghana. Very bad news if it happens. Seems like he's a little miffed that he was left off the US roster for Germany '06. If I were Arena I would have included him for that reason alone.
American women play soccer?
I think he would be mad to go to Chelsea. Great place to go if you want to stifle an upcoming talent.
Thats what I was told.
I remember one fine soccer playing woman was so excited she tore her shirt off after the game and newspapers around the world showed the pic.
Ah, yes . . . the girl with the sports-bra contract. I remember her.
Which brings up a question: is there a radio feed one can get (in East Tennessee) during the day Saturday and Sunday, to listen to REAL football announcers while watching the only feed on my TV? Or is there an online feed to tune in?
So you don't like College Football? ... College season starts regular play in August, dude/dudette.
Have been doing that for years ... if the University I want to watch play is a Mussberger mess, I tune in the local radio feed and turn down the TV volume to get that obnoxious whine out of my house! BTW, does Brent have some close connection to Notre Dame and or Southern Cal?... He is the most Irish/Trojan biased fool I've ever heard!
What all do we need to know? You run by putting one leg in front of the other, you kick a ball and hope the crowd hasn't gone to sleep so that they can make some noise when a goal is finally scored. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I actually ran across a Brent Musberger drinking game on the web a few years back. It's hilarious. I don't drink, so I have never played it, but it was good for several laughs.
There, I fixed it. You're welcome.
What they mean is the number of interesting events that have happened in the game up to that point.
And IIRC, the Bucs stunk up pretty bad last year too. Which means he has no clue.
Yeah, that's all there is to it.
Lets try American football...For most of the game, nothing happens, but every minute or two, you get 10 seconds of actual play. This consists of a bunch of big black dudes pushing each other, and a white guy trying to throw the ball over them to two small fast guys. And that's mostly it. Except that every second is counted and it takes four hours to get through 60 minutes of "play."
How about baseball... You get 5 seconds of action every minute or two. Mostly this consists of a guy throwing a ball and a guy with a bat missing said ball. Occasionly, the guy with the bat will actually manage to hit the ball, and then he'll try to run 20 yards to a white mark on the ground and stand there. And then we start again. Except that before we do that we have to put up with an annoying organ player trying to create a bit of passion in the bored crowd and videos of fat white guys trying to dance when the stadium cameras focus on them.
Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with the coverage... most of what I've seen has been in noisy pubs in San Fran/and the People's Republik of Berkeley and in air ports.
The only thing I'd change is that I'd have a spy camera constantly searching for hot Euro-trash ladies in the stands all made up to look pretty just for me ;-)
Go Azzurri... beat the heck outta the Frenchies.
Not really on topic but something to watch for if you get bored with World Cup coverage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVIsl3OEczE&search=world%20cup%202006
No, I didn't think so.
Chelsea are #1 in the EPL and it's now owned by a Russian. Americans were putting together a bid to take over another EPL team as well, but I cannot remember which one.
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