Soccer: A real man's sport.
ping
"Soccer", what's that?
I thought ESPN was pretty good.
Is there an ESPN announcer who knows anything about anything?
And I don't speak a word of Spanish.
I've replayed the Univision feed (and announcer's call) of the 2 Italy goals in the semi-final about 4 times already.
Almost gives me goose-bumps, and I was actually rooting for Germany (a little).
It's like bringing in a rookie broadcaster to call the World Series. O'Brien was over his head, had little to no history on the teams and players, and emphasised the wrong things. In our house, we turned off the sound and my teenaged soccer playing daughter made the calls.
Eastcoast Sports Propoganda Network
Saying the Spanish stations are getting a lot of viewers because of the poor ESPN announcing overlooks that fact that the Spanish audience is more into soccer than the anglo crowd is and also overlooks all the people who watch the games on the Spanish stations simply because they don't have cable.
If the non-Spanish-speaking viewers were wanting to avoid the ESPN announcers I would think they would be more likely just to turn down the volume rather than switch to a station where they can't understand the language at all.
Here in Canada all the games are televised, split between CTV and TSN. One network runs a game live and the other does the repeat later in the day. It's actually a warm up for how they'll team up for the next Olympics. The play by play is the ITN feed from England and the coverage has been excellent.
“During an earlier game, an announcer referred to a team in Scotland as Glasgow United. The correct name is Rangers.”
Heh, he’d better steer clear of any Celtic fans for a while :o)
“During a first-round match, ESPN nearly missed a goal by Mexico because a producer had cut to videotape of the U.S. team practicing.”
Oooh, that is really bad.
I have to say, watching soccer with foreign commentators really doesn’t hurt that much if you know the game. You might miss the odd detail but not having to listen to bad commentary is adequate compensation.
They should have the Brit and Irishman do the games, especially the semi-final and final. They did a much better job than the US announcers.
Thats because ESPN and Soccer sucks. So its like two ugly sisters fighting over the bathroom.
I really didnt have a problem with Obrien, and I watched a a lot of matches. Seamus was the best color man of the tournament. What I had a real problem with was the technical difficulties ESPN had. There were times when the screen would freeze as if the satellite lost the feed. When I switched over to Univision, thinking it was a Charter issue, the signal was fine..
At least if they are going to hire guys who have never called a soccer match before, at least get hockey analysts.
Soccer is Dull squared.
I really tried to like it, but it failed me.
Football doesn't start till September
What's there to know? Zero to zero for 90 minutes, take a couple of no-doze, and then the shootout. :-)
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.