Soccer fans: ESPN World Cup coverage earns penalty

post gazette ^ | July 05, 2006 | Stefan Fatsis

[dfwgator]

And Posh is challenging Ann Coulter for the most anorexic looking celebrity.

[FostersExport]

Do you mean ‘tell me about it’?

[FostersExport]

I though ‘goal’ was – GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAL!!!

[jimbo123]

[Invincibly Ignorant]

They're trying to give us all this information to show us how much they know

What's there to know? Zero to zero for 90 minutes, take a couple of no-doze, and then the shootout. :-)

[stainlessbanner]

Does ESPN use a pair of commentators?

Yes. Dumb and Dumber

[hoyaloya]

My qualm with ESPN's coverage was that they constantly focused on the negative and not what many around the world call the "beautiful game."

That, and John Harkes' man love with France. He's betrayed his countrymen's loyalty before and is at it again.

[Sam's Army]

Thx for the ping.

I agree on the whole that the coverage hasn't been what I would want. I do, however, think the coverage has improved vastly over what we had to endure say during the '86 WC when they would actually leave the games in progress to have commercials.

[kabar]

They use an announcer and a color commentator. The color guys are ex-US National Team players. They have the knowledge, but their comments are not all that insightful.

[Dr._Joseph_Warren]

Soccer may be many things, but it certainly isn't for 'girly-men'.

[FostersExport]

Funnily enough, the best game of the tournament was 0-0 after 90 minutes.

[OldFriend]

95% of my WC viewing is on Univision and I barely understand a word of Spanish.

[BurbankKarl]

Man, they lifted this entire story from the Wall Street Journal

[Lexington Green]

Soccer may be many things, but it certainly isn't for 'girly-men'.

Did I mention ''drama queens''?

[OldFriend]

I noticed that the French team did not let up until the final whistle blew. And then they were clearly making sure it was over before they let down. They deserved the win.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Is there an ESPN announcer who knows anything about anything?

Peter Gammons. Baseball. 'Nuff said.

[dfwgator]

And you noticed how when Henry scored against Brazil, he didn't celebrate wildly. Shake a few hands and get back to business.

[Blessed]

>I actually found the lady they had in the ESPN studio(Julie Fowdy?) for the World Cup to be quite knowledgable about the game.<

You just put yourself in the same class with the ABC announcers.That "lady" was a starter on 2 World Cup teams and the Olympic Gold Medal team.

[You Dirty Rats]

metric football

Actually the field dimensions are based on yards, but why let facts bother you?

[SALChamps03]

Soccer is the most boring sport in the world to watch. For the majority of the game (I refuse to use the term "match") the ball bounces back and forth with very little chance of a goal occurring. If someone has the audacity to get between everyone else and the goaltender with control of the ball, he is generally whistled for being offside. The clock runs forward (what the hell is that all about) and instead of stopping the clock for an injury, they add time at the end, so you never have any idea when the game is actually over until the referee blows the whistle.

That being said, I played soccer as a youth. It's fun to play. It's just not a spectator sport in my opinion. The same goes for golf. I love to play it, but can't stand to watch it on television.