Re: Much, much better. Count me in as preferring this format to Harksey's "analysis" --"Now, look at this, you see this? I mean, look at this. Twellmen scores on a nice shot."
Re: Much, much better. FYP Everything's "nice" with Balboa. Nice dive, nice cleat to the face - it doesn't matter as long as an American player is doing it. Harkes is a "brilliant" man.
Keep the format, but do away with Christian Miles doing the voiceover, and replace him with either Allen Hopkins or *gulp* Max Bretos. The piped-in crowd noise is obviously an abortion and must be rectified. In the end, all we really want are highlights, right? Harkes and Wheelock and their weekly ass-grabbing got old after 30 seconds.
Re: Much, much better. Last year's drinking game: Down one every time Harkes said "Great stuff!" and see if you can stay awake to the end of the show.
didn't watch it and i won't. the piped in crowd noise is too annoying. glad to hear wheelock isn't on it. he's about the only thing more annoying then the fake crowd noise. i'll check it out during the season, but for the most part, i watch the highlights on mlsnet.
I missed most of MLS wrap but I thought the preview show was awful. I couldn't wait to watch it but ended up fast-forwarding through most of it. Really no useful info or analysis.
This isn't the greatest show by any stretch, but it is definetly a step up from those 2 bozo's from last season. That show really sucked.
I like the concept... Show all the goals/big moments/short interviews and then move on. But Miles needs to get with it... As mentioned before he kept on saying Guppy made the cross on Gros' goal. In addition he was crediting Vanney instead of Talley on on eof Dallas' goals. As for the tables, I watched the replay on Sunday, and they did show the tables. Did they not on Saturday? That seems a no-brainer. And yes, cool music instead of ridiculous "crowd" noise!! It has potential, just needs to be cleaned up. I like the half hour as opposed to the hour length. Lee
Wheelock is still apparently writing a weekly column for FSC's website, but Harkes is gone. He'll just focus on his various duties for DC United.
I hope the first show is an aberration. I could've produced that in my garage with a Super 8 and a microphone.
That random whistle...tipped me off. They're using the sound effect from Winning Eleven Seven/Eight whatever, after a close shot. I know that sound effect because the game uses it during "practice" sessions. You miss a shot, the crowd goes "ohhh," then the ref blows for a goal kick. When you're practicing shooting you hear it a lot. <heh> Yeah, Harkes was a dreadful embarassment. To think he wants to coach one day, good lord.
Embarassingly low level of production. The poor and randomly placed sound effects make me want to watch with the sound muted. The highlights themselves are no better that a second or so pre-shot. Every other highlight package on the channel has the development of the play. This is missing almost entirely from MLS Wrap. SHOW US HOW AND WHY THE PLAY DEVELOPS... please!
Oh, the days when one couldn't find MLS highlights anywhere! I think some have been spolied over the past few years. While I'd prefer music or the actual game audio over highlights, I appreciate that this year's MLS Wrap provides highlights of every match and player interviews without the Sean & Harksie blather that at times was less than insightful. If time permits, I'd love to see player/team profiles. With MLS Wrap and GOLTV's American Soccer and Soccer Files, fans have 90 minutes/week of coverage of the US game. To all you complainers: It's never been this good.
The preview was indeed horrible. It wasn't even factually accurate, or at the very least was a little selective (I'm thinking the In/Out screens). It picked odd highlights for players and things - almost like they just picked the first footage of the player they found. And often repeated clips, even if they weren't particualrly noteworthy. In general though, I don't mind MLS Wrap, it's quick and deals with most of what I need to know. Not a lot of personality to the show though...
the idea is to inform fans what's going on in the league in that particular week end, and the show did just that. It's cheaper, less time consumed, probably the 1 hr show doesn't supported by the tottal amount of commercial ads.
Couple of my suggestions: - Introduce the game by showing lineups and formations for each team with special notations where appropriate (e.g. "Player A is back from his ankle injury," "Player B is filling in for Player C who is on international duty for..."). - Show substitutions being made in the highlights package. - Lose the fake crowd noise and annoying guitar riffs. - Use actual broadcast audio rather than Christian Miles voiceovers. - Show us the build-up of a play rather than just the final pass and shot. Seems MLS Wrap is produced with too little time and too few resources to make it a first-rate show. Heck, they sometimes start the show before the last match is over! To do it right, they'd probably need to air the show the next day. It's not uncommon for MLS Wrap to miss significant events in the last game. (This past week there was no mention of an important red card and two shots off the crossbar.) By simply including the lineups, any substitutions, the build-ups, more highlights, the league standings, top scorers, etc., the show would fill out nicely. I believe they could possibly go back to a full-hour show now that the league is expanded. But I wouldn't want an hour of the current quality.
The old show was so great, covers all aspects of MLS and US national team and both Hark & wheelock so charming and overall represanting US soccer in general, i loved it, too bad it's gone.
They should have the show following day (sunday) and make a better product out of it. It wasnt bad but if they have extra day to work, it would be better i assumed.
Sorry to quote my own post.... but i had to correct mysef.... Fox Sports en Espa~ol showed "MLS Wrap" (they call it "Resumen MLS", narrated by Mexican commentator Jacobo... ??? ) very early today (Wed) at 12:30 AM ET (or late night Tue, if it makes it better understood) At the end they advertised Saturday's game and said MLS Wrap-Resumen MLS will be shown on Sunday at 1PM .... So those of you with FSE, now you know where you can watch MLS highlights.... and oh, yeah, this highlights show has lenty of room for improvement....At least i finally got to see the best from KC-Colorado......
I think the old show was much better. The problem of the old show was letting the two hosts banter on or making short comments about their two old teams and their careers all the time. Lalas would have been a much better selection than Wheelock and the producer should have reined in Harkes Hubris about his old career all the time (Harkes does have alot to be proud of but no one wants to hear about harkes and the old days referred to all the time...). Harkes did have good technical analysis and would still be a good choice to co -host the show if they could get hime to stick to the present season / league. Keep Harkes, add Lalas, Keep the time slot at a consistent and reasonable hour, alter the format just slightly from the old. This new format of the 2005 season is too short, cheap, and not enough technical depth.
Classic. Face it - FSC is about one step up from a cable access channel. The only difference is they get satellite feeds of soccer. Listening to Bretos and whoever call an Argentinian game is one step up (or down, your pick) from using the EPL "Fan Zone" audio. Seriously, what a bunch of useless, rambling, verbal diahhrea. I haven't seen MLS wrap this season - actually, I have no idea why I should have to stay up until midnight - can't they just show it Sunday morning? If it's similar to the Bundesliga highlights, count me in - I'll get my analysis from Nick and Steve on FFF.