Positives in the World Cup (besides the US)

Discussion in 'USA Women: News and Analysis' started by kolabear, Jun 24, 2015.

  1. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Although I would've preferred seeing France in the semifinals, having England make it probably isn't bad as far as the general audience is concerned. It also led to the Queen showing up on the Fox World Cup Tonight program (was that for real?!). It will probably lead to more people watching the other semifinal, where , hopefully, at least some of them will also appreciate what Japan's team brings to the tournament.

    Also, Jodie Taylor played a starring role, not that Portland has a problem getting fans interested in coming out to the stadium.

    Of course it was good that Canada, the host nation, made it to the quarterfinals to help keep interest high.

    By the way, is it just me, or does it seem like Fox, despite their extensive coverage, is a bit skimpy when it comes to the highlights? Like there should be a lot more besides the goals - what about the near misses and beautiful passes?
     
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  2. SaintNdaCity

    SaintNdaCity Member

    Oct 24, 2012
    Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey!
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Fox doesn't want to show highlights... they want talking heads to talk....but not for very long... so they can go to commercial.
     
  3. McSkillz

    McSkillz Member+

    ANGEL CITY FC, UCLA BRUINS
    United States
    Nov 22, 2014
    Los Angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I know, how short are the panel discussions? I feel like sometimes when it commercials are done, they show a few highlights and just when I'm curious what they have to say next, it cuts to commercials.... I don't know what I think of Eric Wynalda, he obviously knows the game and brings his knowledge, but I feel like he puts women's soccer down between the lines and treats the female player panelists like they don't know how to play soccer. I cringe whenever they go to that stage field and he's surprised that they kick the ball well.
     
  4. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Probably we should have a poll asking what we think of the commentators. (That'll show 'em) That's too bad if Wynalda comes off that way (I haven't heard enough to have an opinion on him)

    By the way, France/Germany was the most-watched non-US game according to the Nielsen Ratings. I think the estimated audience was around 1.5 million, which pales next to the US games but still seems a substantial audience to me.
     
  5. cpthomas

    cpthomas BigSoccer Supporter

    Portland Thorns
    United States
    Jan 10, 2008
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Getting back to positives, many US fans have traveled to spend some time in Canada. And, for the first timers, they've found out what a great country Canada is and how really nice the Canadians are.
     
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  6. Longtimesub

    Longtimesub Member

    May 18, 2009
    It is nice that Telemundo and Fox decided to air some games on regular over-the-air channels in US...

    That way someone, with no cable, could easily watch games...

    In 2011, no game was on ABC...Games were all on ESPN...
     
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  7. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It will be quite a positive if the news media also starts talking about tomorrow's semi-final (between Japan and England) as something important and if a good number of people become interested enough to tune in the game. Supporting the US is all very good but the growth of women's soccer depends a lot on whether more people can develop an interest when it's not just the national team, the US national team, playing.
     
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  8. Cliveworshipper

    Cliveworshipper Member+

    Dec 3, 2006
    Wynalda shooting on Carina in a dress....

    Doesn't wait for her to get on the line
     
  9. BrooklynBaby

    BrooklynBaby Member

    Jun 17, 2015
    Memphis
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Wynalda did describe how Hope contributed to Sasic's missed penalty kick, not only by delaying for 50+ seconds, but by jumping to her left early to get Sasic to change her mind at the last second and kick to the side of the goal Hope was vacating. He said a player kicking with her right foot would tend to hook the ball into the goal when kicking to her right, and could hook the ball outside of the post when kicking to the left, which is what happened.
     
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  10. BlueCrimson

    BlueCrimson Member+

    North Carolina Courage
    United States
    Nov 21, 2012
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    Club:
    Sydney FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Hope totally got in Sasic's head. She did something no other keeper has done- cause Germany to miss a PK in the WC.
     
  11. FawcettFan14

    FawcettFan14 Member+

    Mar 19, 2004
    Colorado
    Just adding to the skimpy highlights point. I get that the network changed from ESPN to Fox, and Fox only has rights to show their own content, but you do lose a little of the WWC history with the change. They have, to my knowledge, shown no highlights from past tournaments. Especially when two teams match up who have played in significant matches before, it's nice to see a glimpse of those games in the lead up. For example, showing highlights from 1999 quarterfinal and 2003 semifinal would have been a nice touch before the USA and Germany kicked off. Or how England was the only team to beat Japan in 2011 with a couple lovely chipped goals.

    The way they are covering it, it seems like this tournament is taking place in isolation, with no history behind it. Maybe they would show more from the past if they could, and rights issues prohibit it. I don't know.
     
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  12. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I expected another beautiful performance by Japan to add to the positives, along with a game effort by England, but from what I saw of the match, England had much of the better chances and some great shots even if most were just off target.
     
  13. BlueCrimson

    BlueCrimson Member+

    North Carolina Courage
    United States
    Nov 21, 2012
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    Club:
    Sydney FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is not really a positive, per se, since it's coming from one of the cruelest moments ever in sports, but the overwhelming support on social media for Bassett is the one decent thing to come from that.
     
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  14. Cliveworshipper

    Cliveworshipper Member+

    Dec 3, 2006
    The positive for me is they expanded the field and except for a couple blowouts, the bottom third performed generally above expectations.

    The most notable was Colombia handling France pretty well. In past cups, they wouldn't have even been in Canada at all.

    And fox has been miles above ESPN in coverage.
     
  15. cpthomas

    cpthomas BigSoccer Supporter

    Portland Thorns
    United States
    Jan 10, 2008
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Unlike the disgraceful attacks on Sessleman.
     
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  16. SaintNdaCity

    SaintNdaCity Member

    Oct 24, 2012
    Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey!
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There is nothing preventing Fox from using highlights from past WC -- I think the rights are with FIFA -- Fox would just have to pay ESPN some amount for their broadcast.
    Fox has just spent all this money getting the rights to soccer, and golf. By not showing the ESPN hightlights, they create the illusion that FOX is the only ones who show soccer (to the uninitiated -- which is the market that Fox wants to add) They know the true football junkie will show up to watch,... but they are gearing their broadcasts to the "new" viewer of soccer -- they want them to buy the advertisers product
     
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  17. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #42 kolabear, Jul 2, 2015
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2015
    Germany/England - that's an attractive 3rd place matchup, probably one of the best from a general viewer interest standpoint that we could hope for.

    I haven't seen yet ratings for Japan/England, but did I not mention that Germany/France was, as of Friday, the most watched non-US game in the World Cup? Average viewership of 1.7 million.

    Is it actually a positive? I think so But I don't know what context to put the numbers in. Obviously it's much lower than the ratings for US games, about half the least-watched US game , which was, of course, one of the early group stage games.

    Maybe more of a positive - England/Canada was the most watched sports program on cable for Saturday - at least there's a concrete context for that. Australia/Japan was 3rd behind England/Canada and a boxing program.

    (sidenote - the ratings for the World Cup are being noticed in high-profile business news media. Of course, it's the USA games that have attracted the most attention, but they're being reported in places like Forbes, possibly the Wall Street Journal. )

    I haven't figured out what to say about this but I think this may well be one of the more significant stories from the World Cup. Something significant - and it has nothing to do with me and what I say about it - gee, what a concept...(!)

    I may well say something later though, but in meantime, I'm curious, besides the social media, what's happening in the general news media back in the Home Counties?
     
  18. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As an aside to the TV ratings for the non-USA games, I'm very curious to see what are the top markets for some of those games. They've been reported for the US games but I haven't seen it for the non-US games.

    Now it could simply reflect ethnic demographics (high ratings for Cameroon games where there are lots of Cameroonian immigrants, for example...) but I also suspect that they may tell us where there are more true women's soccer fans or fans-in-the-making, as opposed to rah-rah pro-USA fans.

    For USA games, the St Louis and KC markets have been very strong as well as Washington DC. I'm not accusing those areas of simply being areas of America boosterism. I certainly hope we see a big surge of new Becky Sauerbrunn fans at the KC home games. (and on another sidenote, I think we will. That and a surge of Julie Johnston fans up in Chicago. It's rather remarkable, and welcome, how much attention has been given to the US backline)

    But which areas are tuning in strongly to France/Germany, Australia/Japan, England/Japan, etc? Plop a NWSL team there!?!
     
  19. dna77054

    dna77054 Member+

    Jun 28, 2003
    houston
    Holland- they reminded me a little of France 4 years ago, just not as good. I can see them becoming a semi-force in the near future.

    Colombia- really good ball skills and nice passing game. If they keep at it they may be able to become a lesser version of Japan in the near future.

    Biggest negative for me is the massive difference in both size and athleticism between many of the teams in WWC and how much those differences, when noticeable, affect the outcomes. In men's soccer there are many smaller technical teams (Mexico, Chile, Spain, etc..) that can both defeat and outplay larger teams. In women's soccer it is currently limited to Japan. Would be nice to see the other East Asians up their game. North Korea played well last time. The 1999 China team was IMHO the best women's team ever. Some more team like those 2 and Japan, especially in the same tournament would make it much more entertaining.

    Also a shame that the wheels have come off Brazil.
     
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  20. kolabear

    kolabear Member+

    Nov 10, 2006
    los angeles
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #45 kolabear, Jul 3, 2015
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2015
    The Japan/England semifinal was the most watched sports program on cable TV on Wednesday. The Fox Sports Live program that followed it came in #2.

    average 2.33 million viewers. I think that's the most watched non-US game in the tournament.

    source: SportsTVRatings.com
     
  21. jackiesdad

    jackiesdad Member

    Apr 13, 2008
    Colombia is quickly becoming Brazil Junior and I hate it. I agree they have dazzling individual ball skills but, like Brazil, they have started flopping after the slightest touch, committing dirty fouls themselves, and spending more time bitching at the refs than actually playing soccer. I, for one, am not disappointed at all with Brazil's rapid decline and hope that either Colombia steers away from this cynical approach or experiences the same decline themselves.
     
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  22. jackdoggy

    jackdoggy Member+

    May 16, 2014
    Big D
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Brazil......flopping? NNNNNNNNNNNnnnnnoooooooooooooooo:D:D:D
     

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