Media coverage and buildup for semifinal

[Manolo]

Given the extraordinary circumstances around the U.S. qualifying out of its group, and the upcoming match against the European champions, it seems to me that NOW is the time for the soccer marketing guys to spend some late nights and really pump up the coverage for the match vs. Spain. This will surely be the highest-profile match the U.S. will be involved in before the World Cup. Plus the miracle underdog story is something people love.

Kudos to ESPN for its coverage of all these matches, and even having both ESPN and the Deuce soccered out yesterday. But I'm thinking there's a great opportunity here to garner some good ratings and general PR for the team and the sport. Has anybody seen any coverage outside of the usual soccer internet sites and highlights during the final 5 minutes of SportsCenter??

[Nyghtewynd]

SportsCenter has been absolutely blowing up this result all morning. Lalas has been live in studio for the morning broadcast, and they spent a good five minutes talking about it. I don't know who the male anchor is this morning, but I think he's a member of Sam's Army by the way he's been excited/hyping the result. It's been really good so far.

[VioletCrown]

Kudos to ESPN for its coverage of all these matches, and even having both ESPN and the Deuce soccered out yesterday. But I'm thinking there's a great opportunity here to garner some good ratings and general PR for the team and the sport. Has anybody seen any coverage outside of the usual soccer internet sites and highlights during the final 5 minutes of SportsCenter??

Not seen, but heard. On my way in to work today I had the Dan Patrick show on the radio, and they did have a short and 'witty' exchange about the US win. I use the quotes because it was primarily snarky cracks about 'Confederation' and equating it with the Confederate States (South). Nevertheless, there was almost a conversation about soccer.

And it was mischaracterized as the last chance for the US nats to get in shape before the World Cup next year.

But still, they did talk about it.

[VioletCrown]

SportsCenter has been absolutely blowing up this result all morning. Lalas has been live in studio for the morning broadcast, and they spent a good five minutes talking about it. I don't know who the male anchor is this morning, but I think he's a member of Sam's Army by the way he's been excited/hyping the result. It's been really good so far.

Well, that guarantees it. We're going to suck ass against Spain.;)

[schrutebuck]

SportsCenter has been absolutely blowing up this result all morning. Lalas has been live in studio for the morning broadcast, and they spent a good five minutes talking about it. I don't know who the male anchor is this morning, but I think he's a member of Sam's Army by the way he's been excited/hyping the result. It's been really good so far.

Josh Elliot maybe, who's a huge soccer fan?

[gettysburg32]

Something I posted in another thread a bit ago...


Just on ESPNnews....the espn.com "blog buzz" from yesterday (I'm not sure exactly what it's measuring, probably how many hits, posts, etc. there were on certain topics on espn.com yesterday? Anyway...)

1. U.S. Open - 38%
2. U.S.'s miracle yesterday - 37%
3. Brett Favre continuing to be be a douche - 8%
4. Matsuzaka (Boston Red Sox overpaid pitcher) is hurt again - 7%
5. Something about UFC - 5%

PS - On Sportscenter (which is live), Josh Elliott is genuinely all about some U.S. soccer this morning. He did the highlights with Lalas from yesterday and he was more fired up than Carrot Top. Now, at the end of one hour and the start of another hour, Elliott's promoed "U.S and Spain, Wednesday at 2:25 p.m. on ESPN!" about four times in the last 15 minutes.
Hannah Storm on the other hand, when Elliott's talking about soccer, seems like she couldn't buy a clue.

[Curva Nord]

Cowheard (who I rarely listen to) had quite a long segment on it. He bashed the team and a few players (Dempsey & Donovan) a bit, but didn't bash soccer in general. He had a few ok points but most of it was more of the same.

[gettysburg32]

sounds like fun (rolls eyes)

[tambo]

Cowheard (who I rarely listen to) had quite a long segment on it. He bashed the team and a few players (Dempsey & Donovan) a bit, but didn't bash soccer in general. He had a few ok points but most of it was more of the same.
What in the world would a soccer ignoramus like him be able to bash Donovan about, of all people?

[TabLalas]

Josh Elliot maybe, who's a huge soccer fan?

Josh Elliot is a douchebag.
If he's the one championing soccer on ESPN then we're doomed (mainstream America would never latch on to pretty boy).
I'd like to beat him with a sock full of nickels.

[gettysburg32]

Cowheard (who I rarely listen to) had quite a long segment on it. He bashed the team and a few players (Dempsey & Donovan) a bit, but didn't bash soccer in general. He had a few ok points but most of it was more of the same.

Actually, what that sort of sounds like is...

ESPN program manager - "Hey Colin, how was the weekend?"
Colin - "Nice. I got out on the links on Saturday. The wife and I checked out a new Thai place. What's up?"
Manager - "Did you see anything about the U.S. soccer game Sunday? We want to play that up a little between now and Wednesday."
Colin - "Um, no."
Manager - "Well, check out a few of these articles. This was something that is a pretty rare, freak thing, plus now the U.S. is playing No. 1 Spain on Wed. afternoon on ESPN, so we want you to talk it up a little. We'll get a guest on for a segment Wed. morning right before the match and we want you to chat it up a little this morning."
Colin - "It's soccer. What's there to talk about?"
Manager - "Yeah, we know, and we're not talking about in depth stuff here, and the U.S. team pretty darn lucky, so you can run a bit with that. Check this though, online yesterday, this match had four times the interest of Brett Favre and the Boston Red Sox, so people are talking about it."
Colin - "Okay, I get paid every two weeks."

[russ]

He's a big picture guy.

In the big picture he likes getting paid to hump the Mouse.

[TabLalas]

I would seriously pay 500 bucks for 1 minute alone with Cowturd.
I'd beat him so bad his mother would weap.

To be fair, the tardies at ESPN had the highlights for the U.S-Egypt match on inside 10 minutes of the beginning of the show which was pretty impressive and the highlight package that they did was probably about 4 minutes where they actually explained all of the scenarios for the U.S to advance.
There is probably not gonna be all that much from them leading up to the Spain match but they'll probably spend some decent time on the highlights (or lowlights) of the game.

[gettysburg32]

He's a big picture guy.

In the big picture he likes getting paid to hump the Mouse.

True. I'm not even saying anything's wrong/crummy/crappy with my skit. Just saying it is what it is.

[equus]

Monday night on ESPN Radio, Bob Valvano ended the 9 o' clock hour with some analysis/promo of the Confed Cup and the upcoming Spain game.

He said he played college soccer but is not a hardcore soccer watcher. He prefaced the piece by saying if you're not a soccer fan that's fine and no one's trying to convert you, but that what happened Sunday was pretty amazing for the US program. He seemed to know his stuff when talking about it.

Slightly off-topic, you hear or read about those who played soccer but don't necessarily watch it. I think for a lot of us 30- and 40-somethings who played as a youth during the 70s heyday and on into the 80s in high school, club and college, there really wasn't a lot out there on TV to watch really. And I think a byproduct of that was that many of those would dismiss it somewhat when it was shown.

I know that other than World Cups and the occasional USMNT friendly in the 90s/early 00s, I wasn't a huge watcher of the game, even though I was a soccer fan.

Now that I coach my kids and there are more games on TV and the Web (sometimes too many :D), I've really grown to appreciate the game more and are more entertained by watching it than I ever was in the past.

I don't know how many others out there feel the same...

[FC Matt 90]

Josh Elliot is a douchebag.
If he's the one championing soccer on ESPN then we're doomed (mainstream America would never latch on to pretty boy).
I'd like to beat him with a sock full of nickels.


I don't know what you have against Josh Elliot, but personally I'm just glad to have a Sportscenter anchor who loves soccer and knows the game. Sometimes it seems like Josh is the only person actually promoting these games; his enthusiasm is appreciated by at least one person.

[loofa]

Cowherd was ripping US soccer last week after the loss to Italy. He had no clue what he was talking about and was pronouncing FIFA as FIGH-FAH instead of FEE-FAH. I regretted listening to that as it was a waste of time.

[Adam Zebrowski]

saw PTI abd around the horn...

both shows complained about the tie breaker...

italy beat usa...a true guys...

but egypt beat italy and it was a 3 way tie...

complete blockheads on both those shows...

good to see espn is doing la liga though..

[Nyghtewynd]

Agreed on the people on ATH and PTI, but Tony Reali, the host of ATH and a fact-checker on PTI, is a fan and actually apologized for the soccer idiocy of the hosts on Twitter this morning: "Also: one last try at US Soccer. I apologize in advance for their stupidity."

[tab5g]

now we must continue with this stage (of more apologies about certain media people's stupidity) and move on to the stage where the media (for the most part) isn't so uninformed, disinterested, or stupid about the sport.

it's a long slog.

but it's nice to see that Disney has these Fifa rights and they're promoting/discussing the US's involvement in these tournaments.