us "soccer"

pjuk · 07 Mar 2003, 10:37 AM

Great to see so many Americans embracing the beautiful game! What's it like watching football in america?

usa1950 · 07 Mar 2003, 10:47 AM

It's great. We can watch games from many different countries.

Do they have Television in your part of England?

tcmahoney · 07 Mar 2003, 10:55 AM

If you're talking about on TV, it's much, much easier than it was five, 10 or 20 years ago. 20 years ago, we only had the occasional World Cup broadcast, a show called Soccer Made in Germany and one other English highlights show whose name escapes me at the moment, and both of the last two were shown on public television only.

Nowadays, we have Fox Sports World which brings us matches from around the globe, and while ESPN is maligned by many, they're still showing MLS on ESPN2 as well as US team matches for both genders. It takes some doing to get through to unaware customer service reps, but this year it's going to be possible to watch all MLS matches for just $50 on cable.

In person, MLS is in its eighth year and while virtually all the other professional sports on this side of the pond are experiencing declining attendance, MLS is slowly building its attendance figures despite a nasty recession. At the lower levels, franchises still come and go, but it's heartening to see that there are still plenty of investors determined to make a go of professional soccer at the lower levels in this country.

Hope that answers your question.

Motterman · 07 Mar 2003, 10:55 AM

I met a United supporter last month who is here till summer as an intern. He's very impressed the amount of football shown here. We get 5-8 EPL matches a week, as well as 2 to 3 Serie A and La Liga matches each weekend. He seemed extremely impressed how knowledgable some of the supporters who live over here are. And is quite happy with the enthusiastic cheering and singing at the pubs we watch the games at. I think we do quite well over here actually.

pjuk · 07 Mar 2003, 11:07 AM

wow 5-8 EPL matches a week, i don't think we get shown that many over here. We're not a third world country here so we do have television. I live in a largely populated "city", altho not officially a city (another story). I watch football on satellite tv and i think we must get 4 EPL matches shown a week maximum on sky tv. including pay per view. although there are cup games shown on national tv as well. Whats it like actually attending matches in America, like the MLS. I've watched some MLS football on TV as its sometimes shown on channel 5 late at night. It's always interested me since we had Ian Feuer playing for Luton, he was a fantastic player for us and still haven't replaced him!

mosler · 07 Mar 2003, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pjuk
Great to see so many Americans embracing the beautiful game! What's it like watching football in america?

Many folks have FoxSportsWorld which is available throughout most of the country if you are willing to pay for the top drawer cable/sattelite service. Those lucky enough to be able to afford this and have it available enjoy FSW coverage of matches from the UK and Germany at least and maybe others. They also have covered domestic cup matches during the MLS season and occasionally the Junior National teams (U-17, U-20 etc.) when they are participating in a tournament. FSW is the life-line for the soccer fan in the US. However it is worth noting that FSW does not carry any of the MLS games. Our domestic league play is covered by ESPN/ESPN2/ABC. Both ESPN channels are available with most basic cable packages and ABC is available for 99% + of all TV's in the US.

For those of us without FSW things are grim. The only coverage of the world game we get is one Champions League match on ESPN2 for every leg of the tournament. It is broadcast live (I think?) which makes it 2:30 pm here when most of us are at work. So we set the VCR and watch it in the evening. Some of the cable stations that broadcast is Spanish will carry a game from the Mexican Football League each weekend. And some places carry a game from Serie A each weekend. So if you can catch a few more games if you are ready to listen to Spanish or Italian commentary (or none at all). But again these stations are not avaiable for everyone across the country.

During the MLS season ESPN2 has one game a week, ussually a live broadcast on Saturday afternoon. The few games that are played on weeknights or at night are not covered nationally. The MLS has a playoff structure where league standings determine which teams will play in the year end tournament to determine the league champion. Oddly enough TV coverage seemed to dissappear last year as the playoffs progressed. I can only guess that there were difficulties planning ahead regarding which games would be played where. The end result is that most fans could not watch their club's most important matches of the whole season. Changes have been made to the playoff system with aims at providing a more secure schedule and hopefully better coverage.

Many markets have a "local" sports channel on their cable. Many of these channels will carry the local MLS games and even the WUSA games. But coverage is spotty and soccer gets a very low priority in the programming schedule. When I lived in Washington DC I remember that once the Hockey PRE-season games started, the hockey would get coverage over the soccer on the local channel.

If one wants to see more MLS games, some of the top drawer cable/sattelite systems offer "package" coverage of the MLS season, where you pay a lump sum (maybe $150?) and you have access to a majority of the league's matches throughout the season. I haven't ordered this in the past (but want to this year) so maybe someone else has the specific details. But even this package is not available to everyone and my cable provider still doesn't know if they will offer this deal for the upcoming season which begins in 4 weeks!

The World Cup saw every game covered, almost all were broadcast live, again on the ESPN/ESPN2/ABC networks.

Many of the US friendlies are covered on ESPN2, but not all. The ones that aren't covered are sometimes shown on the spanish speaking networks mentioned above.

Other notes:
1) When there is actually a game on the TV, many people seem to agree that the commentary is horrendous.

2) Even during the MLS season, almost all sports highlights shows ignore soccer completely. You will almost never hear or see anything about soccer in the TV media. An exception was during the World Cup when they may show the goals from the day. The US's run this summer earned them some more air time than usual and even a 3-4 minute highlights clip complete with inspiring music that was played on ESPN's SportsCenter program, which is far and away the most widely viewed and influential sports news show in the US.
Another exception is that goals from the campionship match my be shown on TV a bit.

Motterman · 07 Mar 2003, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pjuk
wow 5-8 EPL matches a week, i don't think we get shown that many over here. We're not a third world country here so we do have television. I live in a largely populated "city", altho not officially a city (another story). I watch football on satellite tv and i think we must get 4 EPL matches shown a week maximum on sky tv. including pay per view. although there are cup games shown on national tv as well. Whats it like actually attending matches in America, like the MLS. I've watched some MLS football on TV as its sometimes shown on channel 5 late at night. It's always interested me since we had Ian Feuer playing for Luton, he was a fantastic player for us and still haven't replaced him!

You have to go to bars and pubs to see that many EPL matches but they're here. (it's easier than searching all over London for a pub that has a pirated feed from Norway or something)

As for MLS games. I've been to several matches in Los Angeles and Washington DC. The Los Angeles matches are predominately Latin American in feel. Drums, whistles, et al. The support is pretty good - when they have Mexican players on the pitch anyways. The DC matches are a refreshing mixture of both the Latin and European style support. Most fans get along with other pretty well, with "friendly" banter being more the norm than brawls and fisticuffs.

bostonsoccermdl · 07 Mar 2003, 11:43 AM

it is gradually getting more and more popular espe. since our good performance in the wcup..
I jogged by 3 bars on the way to the gym in NYC and they were showing EPL on a random evening which made me realise that its gaining a prescence..

The only problem is (here in NYC at least) foxports world is only available with a special cable package so until it goes on a major network, it wont get as much exposure as it could....