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 ...
And Posh is challenging Ann Coulter for the most anorexic looking celebrity.
Do you mean ‘tell me about it’?
I though ‘goal’ was – GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAL!!!
What's there to know? Zero to zero for 90 minutes, take a couple of no-doze, and then the shootout. :-)
Yes. Dumb and Dumber
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.
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.
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.
Funnily enough, the best game of the tournament was 0-0 after 90 minutes.
95% of my WC viewing is on Univision and I barely understand a word of Spanish.
Man, they lifted this entire story from the Wall Street Journal
Soccer may be many things, but it certainly isn't for 'girly-men'.
Did I mention ''drama queens''?
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.
Peter Gammons. Baseball. 'Nuff said.
And you noticed how when Henry scored against Brazil, he didn't celebrate wildly. Shake a few hands and get back to business.
>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.
Actually the field dimensions are based on yards, but why let facts bother you?
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.
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