Soccer FanHouse

The BBC: Slightly More Prepared Than ESPN

David J. Warner — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:44:00 EST

Filed under: Soccer, ESPN, European Soccer

When lightning struck at EURO 2008, most broadcasters around the world didn't have a backup plan to bring viewers details of the game. As this video clip shows, though, the BBC, had radio presenters in the stadium, so they could at least tell you what was happening. ESPN wasn't quite so lucky, though they're not nearly as angry about it as German broadcaster ZDF, who also had no one at the stadium and is threatening to sue UEFA over what they call "the most annoying balls-up imaginable." (Uh, guys? That might be the wrong part of the anatomy you're using.)

UEFA plans to use backup diesel generators to make sure this doesn't happen during the final. As for the outage itself, I prefer The Run of Play's romantic take on the situation: "Can you think of a more dramatic way for the mythic to anoint these three weeks than for a thunderbolt to fall on them from above?"

(H/T: 101 Great Goals)

The BBC: Slightly More Prepared Than ESPN originally appeared on Soccer FanHouse on Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:44:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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King Kaufman Doesn't Watch Much Soccer

David J. Warner — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:35:00 EST

Filed under: Soccer, ESPN, European Soccer

Over at Salon, King Kaufman called out ESPN for its handling of today's weather-related technical difficulties during the EURO 2008 semifinal between Germany and Turkey. In this column, Kaufman claimed that ESPN was somehow being dishonest because studio lead Rece Davis never made it clear that Derek Rae and Andy Gray were calling the game from a studio in Bristol, rather than from St. Jakob Park itself, and when the signal went out, the network had no way to describe what was happening.

As someone who has watched this competition from the start, I have to ask -- at what point did ESPN not make it perfectly clear that its announcers were all in Bristol?

When Tommy Smyth calls a game, then sits next to Andy Gray at the studio desk 15 minutes later, it should be fairly obvious to everyone what's going on. I recall at several points during the group stage when either Davis or Rob Stone came right out and said that Gray was about to move from the desk to the booth to call the next match.

What's more, this is not unusual for international soccer broadcasts in America. In fact, it's practically standard procedure.

When Max Bretos calls the big Boca Juniors v. River Plate Superclásico for Fox Soccer Channel, he's usually standing in front of a mic and an HDTV somewhere up in Canada. When GolTV's Ray Hudson tells people how much sex there's going to be in Madrid tonight, he's doing so from a studio just outside of Miami. For the most part, these are small TV networks that can't afford to send announcers out to international club matches. The technology allows them to stay at home.

ESPN has made little secret of the fact that they're doing the same thing. For all its glory, EURO 2008 is just mid-afternoon programming for the WWL, and that means cutting costs wherever possible. Bringing Andy Gray to Bristol was a lot cheaper than sending multiple announcing teams to Switzerland and Austria, and it's improved the quality of their soccer coverage. That's reflected in the Nielsen ratings, which suggest that ESPN is seeing a 64% increase in viewers over its regular afternoon programming.

Still, they're not pulling a million viewers for these matches, so they kept Rae, Gray and Smyth in Bristol, and when lightning struck, we were all left hanging. That doesn't necessarily mean ESPN is being dishonest. The loss of signal was a problem for the livebloggers at the BBC and The Guardian, too. Were they somehow being dishonest because they weren't in the stadium, too?

Admittedly, the practice of keeping play-by-play announcers at home is unusual in American sports. Someone's always on the scene to call big football, baseball and basketball games, among other events. We're going to see more announcers staying home for soccer games, though, because the big games are mostly in Europe, and overseas travel isn't cheap. Kaufman might have a lot of reasons to criticize ESPN, but this isn't one of them. The WWL's coverage of this tournament has been pretty good overall. The lightning was just unfortunate.

King Kaufman Doesn't Watch Much Soccer originally appeared on Soccer FanHouse on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:35:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ESPN, UEFA Could Use a Mike Pereira

David J. Warner — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:10:00 EST

Filed under: Soccer, ESPN, European Soccer

We've completed the first round of Group Stage matches at EURO 2008, and while numerous stories have developed -- the subpar performances by France and Italy, the rise of David Villa, the hard luck of the hosts, etc. -- the biggest topic of conversation continues to be Ruud van Nistelrooy's opening goal against Italy, and whether he was offside or not. Even after replays confirmed that van Nistelrooy onside, ESPN's Julie Foudy and Tommy Smyth were still debating it.

This is where ESPN should borrow a page from the NFL Network's playbook. When ever a questionable play happens in that league, NFL Network brings out Mike Pereira, the league's head of officiating, to break down plays and point to the spot in the rulebook that justified the referee's call.

That's what UEFA needed here -- someone to go on camera and point out why Ruud's goal way legal. As Jarrett Campbell of Triangle Soccer Fanatics points out, the laws of the game are pretty clear:

"A defender who leaves the field during the course of play and does not immediately return must still be considered in determining where the second to last defender is for the purpose of judging which attackers are in an offside position. Such a defender is considered to be on the touch line or goal line closest to his or her off-field position. A defender who leaves the field with the referee's permission (and who thus requires the referee's permission to return) is not included in determining offside position."

Italian defender Christian Panucci was knocked off the play by his goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, but he did not leave the field with the referee's permission. Thus, he was still part of the play and made everyone onside. Goal stands. End of discussion.

Except that it's not the end of the discussion. Clearly, UEFA needs someone in charge of officiating to go on camera and explain this to everyone -- especially Julie Foudy. Some of the venom being spewed at her on satellite radio might be excessive, but as someone who played women's soccer at its highest level, Foudy really should have understood this.

By the way, I hope ESPN keeps putting Andy Gray and Tommy Smyth in the studio together, because at some point, those two are going to get into a fistfight. And that would be awesome.

ESPN, UEFA Could Use a Mike Pereira originally appeared on Soccer FanHouse on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ESPN Classic Becomes Euro Soccer Heaven

David J. Warner — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Soccer, ESPN, European Soccer

How excited does ESPN want you to get over EURO 2008? Try this: this week and next, ESPN Classic is airing European Football Championship matches from the past four decades. The match replays will air every weeknight at 7:00 PM Eastern, and the full schedule is here.

So if you never got to see current UEFA president Michel Platini score the free kick that won France its first major trophy in 1984, here's your chance. I can already sense just how thrilled most FanHouse readers must be at that.

Interestingly enough, today's England v. USA friendly is also airing on ESPN Classic. Several EURO 2008 matches will be shown on ESPN Classic, too, as well as a EURO 2008 preview show hosted by James Richardson of The Guardian's Football Weekly podcast. Perhaps this gives just a bit more credence to those rumors that the Worldwide Leader wants to convert ESPN Classic into something else. Will we see an ESPN Soccer Channel soon after this?

ESPN Classic Becomes Euro Soccer Heaven originally appeared on Soccer FanHouse on Wed, 28 May 2008 12:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is ESPN Classic About to Become ESPN3?

David J. Warner — Sun, 18 May 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Soccer, ESPN, Premier League, Soccer Posts

About a year and a half ago, ESPN announced that it was shutting down production on original programming for ESPN Classic. Since then, the network has shown everything from old American Gladiators reruns to run-off programming from the other ESPN networks, and everyone has been scratching their head wondering what would happen to ESPN Classic.

ESPN Soccernet columnist Ives Galarcep, who keeps his own blog at SoccerByIves.net, may have leaked the Worldwide Leader's plans for its least-watched channel.

The word I just got from a source at ESPN is that ... ESPN has big plans for expanding ESPN Classic into potentially an ESPN3, with the English Premier League as one of the station's marquee draws. That whole scenario may wind up being wishful thinking but what is clear is the ESPN is interested in the EPL rights.

ESPN has taken plenty of interest in European soccer lately. Look no further than its heavy promotion of Wednesday's Champions League final during SportsCenter and NBA Playoff games, not to mention its big plans for EURO 2008. The WWL is expected to bid on the Premier League TV rights starting with the 2009-2010 season, and it need a place to show those games. Why not put them on the channel it's not using very much?

Obviously, ESPN can show "classic" sports events on any of its channels, so there's little need now for a whole channel devoted to that. If the Celtics and Lakers both reach the NBA Finals, an ESPN3 could broadcast a marathon of those classic NBA Finals of the 80s just as easily as ESPN Classic could.

Still, this begs the question of what kind of channel ESPN3 might become. Would it become an ESPN Soccer Channel of sorts to compete with Fox Soccer Channel? Would it have a more general focus on international sports? (Anything that brings Aussie Rules back to ESPN is okay by me.) Or would it just blend in with ESPN and ESPN2 to allow more events in all sports to be shown on basic cable and satellite TV?

Then there's the most important question -- would an ESPN3 be broadcast in HD?

Given the growing interest in this country in the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, which ESPN already airs, it wouldn't surprise me to see an ESPN3 become their primary channel for all things soccer. Then again, Premier League soccer on Saturday morning and college basketball or Arena Football on Saturday nights wouldn't surprise me either. If ESPN ever decides to get those NHL TV rights again, it would need a place to broadcast those games, too. Perhaps all that's left is to ask just how big ESPN's reach can get.

(H/T: EPL Talk)

Is ESPN Classic About to Become ESPN3? originally appeared on Soccer FanHouse on Sun, 18 May 2008 12:00:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After Cuban Soccer Defections, ESPN Writer Is Criticized for Criticizing the Defectors

Michael David Smith — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:35:00 EST

Filed under: Soccer, ESPN, Soccer Posts

When Cuba's under-23 national soccer team traveled to Florida two weeks ago, seven players defected.

In the United States, media coverage of athletes who defect is almost always favorable: We Americans view Cuban athletes who come here as heroes seeking freedom. But Andrew Hush wrote a column for ESPNsoccernet that took a decidedly different approach. Hush wrote:

The events of the past few days have raised a number of questions. The most obvious one concerns security around the Cuban team. Of course, 24-hour surveillance is neither possible nor preferred - these are free men after all - but their escape seems to have been accomplished with minimum effort. The team bus was given a police escort to and from the stadium for the match against the USA, but it is believed that little extra security was in place at the hotel.

Furthermore, the decision to place Cuba in Florida for its qualifying group matches is also, in hindsight, questionable. Although the examples of Martinez, Delgado and Galindo suggest that defection is possible wherever you may be in the USA, these are a young group of men that may have had second thoughts about the choice they made had they been in a less familiar environment. It is no surprise that their rumoured destination while they seek to establish themselves is Miami, a city whose population is one third Cuban.

Consideration must also be given to the players and coaches left behind. The fact is that Cuba's draw with the USA was a result that greatly enhanced the nation's chance of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics. Though the defectors have their reasons for doing what they did, the fact is that they have betrayed the players with whom they boarded the plane to America.

If you find it shocking that people who left Cuba to come to America would be described as having "betrayed" their Cuban teammates, you're not alone. John Steigerwald of the Beaver County Times wrote:

Do you believe that?

How dare those selfish players trade the opportunity to bring honor and glory to one of the worst hell-holes on earth by playing a game in another hell-hole for something as trivial as a chance to live in freedom for the next 60 or 70 years?

And a blogger named Gusano writes:

What really is sad is that Cuban athletes are treated like property, chattel, (c)astro's slaves, and the rest of the world not only accepts it as normal but begrudges them when they make a run to freedom. What's really sad is that the sympathy lies with the captors and the victimizers and not with the enslaved and exploited victims.

Obviously, Hush's discussion of the Cuban defectors was absurd, and Hush himself came to realize that, e-mailing Gusano, "I am a soccer writer with no political drum to beat. My original (and perhaps naive) intention was simply to bring to the attention of a wider audience the events of the past few days. In hindsight, I admit that my knowledge of the subject is not such that I am in a position to comment on the situation in Cuba."

There's no reason that a sports writer can't tackle international politics while writing about sports. In this case, Hush dropped the ball, but it's to his credit that he has acknowledged it.

Photo caption: Leonel Duarte of Cuba wears a makeshift captain's sleeve while taking on Honduras during the CONCACAF U-23 Tournament - Olympic Qualifying at Raymond James Stadium on March 13, 2008 in Tampa, Florida. Duarte filled in as captain after seven players from the Cuban team went missing.

Previously at FanHouse:
Cuban U-23 Players Go Missing in Tampa
USA 1-1 Cuba: Miranda Rights Ship for Cuba

After Cuban Soccer Defections, ESPN Writer Is Criticized for Criticizing the Defectors originally appeared on Soccer FanHouse on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:35:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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