On Bashing ESPN; US v Belgium & Developing an “American Style”
Posted on September 9, 2011 3:04 am
The guys discuss the complaints that ESPN has dissed US Soccer because of the recent interruptions via the Little League World Series, NASCAR and the US Open.
Discussion on US v Belgium game–the faux 4-3-3, and Jurgen Klinsmann’s boast to create “an American Style” of soccer.
Disagree that Donovan is better on the wing. He is a withdrawn striker. He is the little speedy guy you pair with a bigger guy.
He is also not Zizou. He is better on the wing than being asked to be Zizou. Shea and Rogers play like wide midfielders. So make them wide midfielders.
In other words, LETS FREAKIN PLAY A FREAKIN 4-4-2 already!!!!! I don’t care what all the cool kids are doing. It’s what we are good at.
Have to disagree with Brett here as well right now. I’d like to see LD given some freedom to roam as a reserved striker.
just depends on the formation. In bob’s 4-2-2-2 i thought his play on the “wing” was better then any time he spent up top.
Saying that i think LD could certainly do well as a withdrawn striker, assuming we have better winger options. With Shea doing well i could see him and Dempsey/Donovan playing on the opposite side with Donovan/Dempsey up top.
“LETS FREAKIN PLAY A FREAKIN 4-4-2 already!!!!!”
Ha! You sound like Derek during the Bob Bradley era when Bob tried tweaking things…
can you please keep putting “TSRC” in the title so we dont waste our time on the front page thinking the article might have something worthwhile in it, rather than just another TSRC link
No we won’t. And while you’re at it, quit being so whiny. Please let us know what you don’t like about the show. We’re all open to criticism, but not trite and numbnuttberry posts. If you’re not smart enough to know who posts what by now on the blog page, then perhaps you’re not smart enough to comment here.
have to agree with dwreck here. By now you should have noted that the blogs by dwreck have pretty much been TSRC.
Maybe do it for the other visitors that aren’t asshats about it? I listen to your podcasts from time to time, but the medium has a huge impact on the message. Written stuff is more deliberate, where as a radio broadcast is by default less pointed.
Or hey, assume your audience is just supposed to know who you are and anyone that doesn’t notice is a dumb ass. Do your best ESPN impression and alienate away!
kOd1: my comment wasn’t aimed at newbies to the blogs or people who go there infrequently, or people who accidentally click on it, but at a specific person who went out of his way to leave a dickish post with little feedback or any constructive criticism–just that the show isn’t “worthwhile.” Is that because its focused on MLS and US Soccer? Is it because he hates Brett? He made it clear it wasn’t about the medium–which is fair criticism–it isn’t for everyone, i agree. But that isn’t what Jadger said or even implied. I’m sorry if you felt my comment was critical to anyone else BUT him and that you feel alienated or that I am alienating others (I’m known for my sensitivity to others). But let me be very clear–it was not about anyone else. You’d think since Mr. Jadger thought the show was totally worthless, he might pay more attention to avoid it. Understand?
who doesnt hate Brett.
Despite being an asshat about it, he had a point. Dismissing the point just because he is a jerk about it is where the alienation comes in.
You have a comprehension problem. Ppl come here to read interesting articles and blogs, when they click on yours, it is not an actual article and instead merely a link to a radio show, thus including the name in the post title will let people know this is in fact just a video and not an actual post with words in it to read.
Whether the show is good or not is irrelevant(it’s not very good, maybe bring in some foreign ppl or something, it’s just kinda drab right now)
That was BESIDE the point of his comment. His point was to tell us the show worthless. That was pretty much it. he wanted us to name it so he could avoid its worthlessness.
Suppose that someone is a newbie or a person who doesn’t
like podcasts and is looking only for written words.
Suppose they click on this and then discover that it’s a podcast, something they didn’t want. Is their life
ruined at this point? What’s the big deal?
I love the dog. I want his patriarchal, drunken, inappropriate comments. However, this blog has been around a long time. I put up with DWreck’s handlers and their little podcast. DWreck understands that these guys have played the game and love the game and he lets them amuse themselves under his guise. If DWreck is ok with it, so am I.
I will, however, take issue with this blog skin. DWreck’s handler’s, in effect, worked themselves up from the minors. They were able to demonstrate their worthiness – well, they were ok for humans. This current blog skin does not permit any such opportunity. However correct I may be about Landon being a withdrawn striker, who should be asked which current target forward he would like to pair with, I have no opportunity to work myself up from the minors. http://www.bigsoccer.com/soccer/mateofelipe/2011/09/06/how-landon-donovan-and-jack-lord-are-alike/. Huss has to decide he likes me. I also cannot track comments to blogs the way I used to be able to. I am not sure about the humans who he allows to inhabit his world, but I am pretty sure DWreck finds this new regime objectionable.
If Mateofelipe is fine with me, then I suppose I’m fine with me too.
USASOCCER666: For those who know what TSRC is probably should have acknowledged by now that Dwreck posts TSRC and dwreck show videos.
I know what to expect from a Dan Loney or Bill Archer article. I dont think it’s that big of a shock when you click on a dwreck blog that there will be a video.
On top of that, what did you lose by clicking on the blog and realizing its TSRC? You lost all of maybe 5 seconds of your life. Simple solution: if you dont like TSRC and you click on dwrecks blog just to realize he posted another TSRC clip, click the backspace or back button your your web browser and move on with life.
Also known as Jadg-ass.
You want to know what I don’t like about the show? well for one I cant make it through a single one without developing an overwhelming urge to punch myself in the head for listening to it.
Or I’ll put it more simply, TSRC is the audio-visual equivalent of the Yanks Abroad forum, great if you want to have a laugh at how clueless or out of reality some people are.
dude give up, you’re digging your hole deeper. hes asking for the reason you don’t care for the show, asking for constructive criticism and you say you can’t make it through the show without developing an urge to you hit yourself in the head???? thats it???? why don’t you hit play once more time and knock yourself out
I guess I shouldn’t have expected actual thoughtful disagreement! HOLY SHEESH!!! Maybe you’ve been punching too hard! I’m sure your over 30 years of experience covering American soccer far outweighs the inside view these guys have had… Ha! And Brian Sciaretta from Yanks Abroad (funny you mention them) he’s the guest next week–so I guess you better make sure you miss it!
you told USASOCCER666 he has a comprehension problem, then put words into other people’s mouths… He said exactly what I meant. But surely you know better than the actual poster, right? opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, and I am indeed an asshole on top of that, which makes it very tricky having two of them. but my personal opinion is that your show sucks, if you’re going to hate on me for it, go right ahead. I simply asked you to tag TSRC like you used to so I could avoid it in the future, please.
Well, if you think I’m gonna tag the show just for you, you have another thing coming! Ha! You got to be kidding. If you hate the radio show, you have yet to provide a single REAL reason why, except that it makes you punch yourself. Double Ha ha!
not for me, but for the thousands of bigsoccer posters that don’t want to waste their time, when they’d rather be contributing their great levels of intelligence to the betterment of the game in threads like this one:
http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1576368
Good analysis, I wonder if the 1 striker formation is a reaction to our lack of available talent at that position. Pontius was called up but I don’t think he was even on the bench. I would like to see Altidore and Agudelo on the field at the same time, but then at least one would have to play the entire match.
The thing about it is we could always use Donovan or Dempsey up with Jozy. We have a lot of young strikers who still need to develop. But the Lone Striker tactic doesnt really work for us.
Until recently I would argue that that strategy would weaken our midfield to the point that Jozy and Donovan/Dempsey would not be receiving the ball, but with the emergence of Torres (he was wearing the 10 shirt vs belgium…take that for whatever you will) and re-emergence of Adu, that may no longer be the case. I’m not one to put much emphasis on results from friendlies, but I do expect to see some experimentation from Klinsmann.
It’s not just ESPN constantly putting soccer games that are important to us on after things that may/do go into overtime. It’s that combined with their attitude.
The instance that sealed my hatred was the first ever LA/Chivas match. Instead of showing the first ever intra-city derby of MLS history, for 20 minutes or so I watched old fat guys TALK about the NFL draft that had already ended early in the evening.
They would every 5 minutes or so say that we’d have to wait for “chiv-uhs” and LA, tell us the score without an audible [R], and laugh as if it were absolutely ridiculous that anyone would want to watch soccer.
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me, not an isolated incident. Soccer fans in the US recall attitude like this that ESPN has exhibited for YEARS every time a baseball game/NASCAR race/etc stalls the viewing of our scheduled game.
That and when you make the effort to file a complaint online, you’re prompted to select a category and topic. In this case, the category is “Soccer – US Men’s Soccer”, but there are no topics to choose from for this category, you can’t add a topic, and they won’t process the complaint without a topic!!!
In other words, “Oh you’re pissed off? Here, file a complaint. Oh, sorry, you can’t”
Again, I agree with the show that there are plenty of things to bitch and moan about went it comes to some of ESPNs attitude towards soccer over the years–still they’ve stuck with the game through all the piss, hate and vinegar from haters out there. I like to think of ESPN as a bad GF… She says some things that piss you off, and does some things that drive you crazy, but in the end of the day, she’s still delivering the goods (in this case, an international friendly)…just maybe not exactly delivering when you wanted it…
There is a contact link on the ESPN soccernet web page. I emailed them to complain about the schedule change and actually got a nice email back apologizing. They did say that sports events are unpredictable and that isn’t something they can avoid.
Mentioning the defensive roles of the LM & RM in the 4-3-3 is one of the best things that’s been brought up on the straight red card.
I liked the whole Edu discussion and yes we have not had enough players stepping up into the box.
I think that we’ll see something closer to a true 4-3-3 as qualifying starts, but we’ll see how good of a guess that is next summer.
Yeah, they’re more like a LCM and a RCM or just 3 CMs with one playing like a CB!
Seems to me ESPN ought to have switched Little League/NASCAR over to the open channel. I’ve seen them do that to soccer before. People who are watching can easily make the switch so that people who recorded a time slot still get the game they want. Everyone wins.
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