Maybe its just me and the intensity of the game and the size of the crowd,but something about last nights telecast of the "friendly" against Mexico on ESPN2 seemed better than most telecasts. I particularly liked the pregame solo commentary by Rob Stone and especially liked the way he didnt let Gulati off the hook concerning BB as permanent coach......... More cameras .....a more serious attempt to treat soccer as mainstream... the many panoramic views of the crowd ....all of those things seemed to create a more professional and entertaining show..... I loved the last replay of Donovans goal......the one from field level...it was great to see him cut those guys up and then put it in the net........ The replay of his goal exposed Sanchez' cheap shot against EJ and I pray he is punished severely for that...... Just curious to see what the rest of you think about the coverage.....Overall I really enjoyed it and thought the quality was much more like a huge College or Pro football game than a "little ol' soccer match"....... Alot of people critisize Arena but I like his insights..........early on in the game he all but predicted we would score on a counter.....he regularly makes concise and revealing comments about tactics and players....no he isnt polished but who cares .He says things that shed light on the match....... the person who I have a problem with is Wynalda......he seems to stumble over his words alot and it starts to get a little frustrating at times....... O'Brien.......welll....................
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... I watched it on Univision,so sorry. Oh, Univision sucks but atleast they don't turn the crowd noise down.
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... I was very happy that they showed the teams walking out and the anthems. Other than that I have no opinion since I watched at the Mezz and I couldn't hear a word that was said and I didn't really pay attention to camera shots.
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... I thought the coverage was great. Wynalda is a tool, but hey, that's what happens when you use Prell. O'brien is good and I like Arena's insights. It seems that Arena is getting more comfortable up there. Stone is a bit of a flake, but he never really bothers me. It just appears that he tries too hard, but he has good knowledge of the game. I also appreciate that they can appreciate the opposing teams plays and tactics. They may be homers, but they are not as biased as some of the commentators I've listened to in the Mexican channels, Portugal and England when covering NT games.
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... I switched back and forth between Univisión and ESPN, I really liked ESPN too this time, I was impressed with their pregame and postgame. You're right, it was a much better show than usual. Arena does drive me crazy, he talks so slowly.
More $$$ = better coverage Now that ESPN paid for the rights to televise MLS/USMNT games, they have to pump some money to improve the quality. 5 commentators for the match: Wynalda, O'brien (still sucks), Arena, Hopkins & Stone. An actual pregame (& postgame!) show with introductions & national anthems (this should always be the case and not the exception for national team games). Wicked camera angles (it's about time!!!). Overall, much improve in quality and delivery. I know O'Brien has a "commentator's" voice, but the man should not be covering soccer matches.
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... 1. Finally! Offside cameras! Took you long enough, ESPN. Next: Get the NFL 1st down guys to automatically draw a yellow line at the last defender during all replays. 2. ESPN finally figured out how to use the skycam in soccer. They had it at HDC for a Chivas opener a couple of years ago, but they had it too low and moved it too much, so it fell down. The skycam last night was higher and was very tastefully used (i.e. not very often). Just like constant displaying on score on TV (did you know that was a US innovation during WC94?), I think Europeans should adopt this technology. Can you imagine watching Ronaldinho's free kicks from his point of view? In general, this is hands down the best ESPN broadcast of soccer I've seen. (WC doesn't count because they don't set and operate the cameras.)
Re: More $$$ = better coverage DOB will improve, and has gotten better since his debut. More to the point, the group seems to be jelling. Wynalda is being himself, which works for me, and getting responses from Bruce and Dave. Eric as the sparkplug, Bruce as your knowledge and Dave as straightman. I think it will come together very well for them. This is how the deuce will be carrying MLS 2 and a half hour blocks for all games allows forpregame.postgame, and some cushion in case the previous program runs long. Stone was ok on his island, but I think he got a wee touch of the jitters during the pregame. Hopkins sucks, but he does try. Jimmy Conrad was really funny during his interview, and it seemed to be lost on Allen. I prefer that to clueless eyecandy, but not as much as intelligent eyecandy.
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... I was definitely impressed by the pre-game coverage. It made it feel like a World Cup match - lets the emotion build up with the national anthems and such - a real "event". Plus they got rid of that cheesy intro music they used to use. Did anyone else see that about 10 minutes before the broadcast started during the college basketball game, they did a quick cutaway to a shot of Landon in the locker room and did the whole "coming up next" bit with the 2 basketball announcers. They then proceeded to actually talk about soccer during the next minute or so of the basketball game - they were talking about that Hispanic soccer announcer Andre something (can't recall his name right now) -- the one who does the extra long "gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaall" and the one basketball commentator actually tried to imitate it. It's little things like that that I'm sure ESPN is now encouraging and can help begin to build bridges between fans of other sports and soccer. I like Bruce's commentary during the match but please keep him off camera. He looks so awkward. I like Wynalda's commentary, too. He just tells it like it is, admits when he's wrong, and brings some emotion to the booth. They've gotta find someone besides DOB. If he calls the goal a "cage" one more time I'm gonna scream. I loved the overhead camera angles, but sometimes the cuts to and from various cameras came at inappropriate times. They camera guys and the producer need to learn the game better so the can better know when it's ok to cut to a close-up or to the overhead cam and when they need to stay on the main came so we can see the play build up without having to readjust our point of view. I definitely like the overhead on the replays, though. I'd almost say to just keep the overhead for replays only and then maybe the dead time during set pieces...otherwise it could break the flow of the game like it did quite a few times last night. Overall I'm very impressed and glad to see a similar effort put into soccer as they do for football. My grade: B- (gotta get rid of DOB to get anywhere close to an A) P.S. Is it just me, or does Sunil Gulati creep you out like he does me?
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... Andrés Cantor. I love it when he's announcing the games. I was impressed with the camera shots, especially when they used the sky cam to show Donovan's goal. I was at the Mezz and couldn't hear a damn bit of the game (fine with me), but if I could, I would've preferred listening to Spanish coverage. I cringe when I have to hear the game in English. It just doesn't cut it.
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... very nice summary Chris......I think from now on when I have an idea for a thread Ill just post it and wait for you to fill in the blanks...You are a good communicator and say what I want to say in a much better way...... Yes Gulatti gives me the freakin creeps...........he looks like some kind of humaninsect hybrid................but........he seemed to refer to waiting until the European season is over before making his decision on the full time coach.He also said there were conversations still going on with some people... this leads me to wonder...........If we could get a big name coach with a proven trak record in international competition to coach the MNT and use BB to prepare our younger players for the future NT that could be a good arrangement....Not suggestion BB is not big time but .......
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... Yes, it was interesting on his "waiting for European coaches". Was that an excuse to get people off his back for a few months or was it real? I think Sunil has a myspace.com page with Crapidman. 'Ware the children!
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... How much of the camera setup is ESPN & how much is based on the stadium design? Obviously UOP Stadium was designed with TV in mind. They just hosted 2 BCS Bowl games. The Super Bowl is on its way. So obviously they have good setup for TV. Also you would think that since ABC did a Monday Night Football game there already, they were familiar with the setup. I guess I'm just wondering outload if any of this will translate to MLS on ESPN. And in my own way, I'm saying that I'll be surprised, at least this year. They haven't done much beyond a very basic setup at any MLS stadiums besides Rice-Eccles & Giants Stadium. And I wonder if some stadiums could handle SkyCam. Hopefully in 2008 they will be ready in a big way (with the offside line, SkyCam, & Stro-Motion).
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... Just for the record, the name of this technology is "Stro-Motion" "Stro" as in "Strobe" and "Motion" as in...well..."Motion".
Did anyone else love the fact that they showed a few highlights of other friendly matches from the week at halftime? Granted, Linda Coehn (or whatever her name is) couldn't pronounce a name correctly if her life depended on it...but I was quite pleased with the attention paid to other games.
I think ESPN did a really good job with the game. I will say this though, I hate that Arena is in the booth. He is so boring and there is no emotion when he calls a game. Wynalda is full of emotion and O'brien does an ok job with the play by play. This those two could call a good game by themselves, they dont need Arena. I also would have loved to see Eddie Robinson get into the game, if only for a few minutes to throw some elbows.
This was by far the BEST soccer coverage I have seen from ESPN outside of the world cup. People who don't follow soccer that regularly commented during the game at how well it was presented.
The Bruce either is gaining weight or his suit is too small because it looked like he was about to burst out of the suit he was wearing.
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... Does Cantor speak English? That would be cool if he could do a one-off play-by-play of a Thursday night ESPN2 match between Chivas-LA or Chivas-Houston or LA-Houston. "De Rosario from 22....GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!"
Man, how long did this ESPN coverage go for because i watched it on one of ESPN international stations, down under, and i noticed that they cut out a bit of half time, because they said they would cross over to sport center but they never did, and as soon as the game was over they went to ads came back for about 30 seconds said all there copyright stuff, and then had the next program on which was Australian version of Sport Center
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... Yes, Cantor speaks English. I think his focus is on Futbol de Primera and announcing for Telemundo. Maybe he'd do stuff if it were for NBC.
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... dude, I was watching ESPN and I couldn't even hear the broadcasters during the entire second half because of the crowd....so I don't really know what you are talking about.
This was the best non-world cup broadcast of a soccer game on ESPN. I was not too happy with the follow up today on sportscenter. In the A.M. they did not have any footage or mention of the game. You would think this soccer game would have fit in somewhere between the regular season college/nba/nhl game coverage.
Re: ESPN 2 what did you think of their coverage..... yes! arena looked like a total D-bag every time he was on camera. eric and DOB would be talking(to each other, to give a conversation feel(which I like)), having good body language and faces, while Arena would sit straight forward and look stiff as a board. AND he still looks like some kind of monkey...a gorilla perhaps. stupid looking arena has great things to say though. my non-soccer loving friend hated hearing him talk...too slow, but I hung on every word. he's quick to dish out criticizm to the USMT when he sees it is deserving. respeck. I wondered aloud during the match to a lady friend of mine, "who the hell would marry Gulati? he's got a normal size head on a 10 year olds body. such weak shoulders." she laughed. then asked to have the station changed because he was creeping her out. I told her to close her eyes or leave the room.