US vs. Mexico -- The ESPN2 Broadcast [R]

Schalke fans have been leaving that stadium lately in a quite euphoric mood.

PS. I am glad Soccertom seconded my point about Conrad.

And, as a side (footsitter) note, Univision gave their MoTM award to Donovan.

 

The intensity of Stone's Bradley propaganda is....well....disturbing. It seemed as if he was actually trying to change Gulati's mind about the US coaching job during the halftime interview. Surreal.

Arena, I thought, was much, much better this game. I disagree with some of the things he says, but he's spot on with others (the necessity for concentration over 90 minutes in US/Mexico matches). I frankly thought he was pretty bad in the Denmark game - complete 180 degree turn around in this one.

Wynalda is just brutally honest, which I appreciate even when I disagree. His obvious delight in the scoreline and remarks about being the "marked man" on the US team (remember, Wynalda briefly played in Mexico, and swiftly had his knee fubar'd by a bad tackle) were very entertaining.

The other guy was fine.

IMO, Stone's got to lose his agenda (he's becoming a one-trick pony) or be cycled out. His credibilty at this point is suspect.

The camera work was awful, just awful - but I've come to expect this about ESPN. I recall at one point Wynaldo talking about mastroeni, and the camera zooming in on Pablo, who was about 50 yards away from the ball and simply walking into position, and completely ignoring for 15 seconds or so any action going on in the game. The obligatory fan shot every twenty-seconds has now become a staple of ESPN camera work. Oh well...

 

not to harp on this point, but the camera work was generally fine (clear shots of the action, ball, and players). the directing and shot-calling and holding (the selection of which cameras to go with at each moment of the live broadcast) from the production truck is the main area of soccer production problems for ESPN. the producers and director need to realize that soccer is two 45-min sets for pretty much non-stop action. you can't present the game (and use camera shots) as if it is just like other popular US sports (that have so much down-time and periods of inactivity). hopefully the directors/producers will learn this and improve, now that ESPN is devoted to it's USMNT/MLS production and presentation.

 

Completely agreed. That was just great television.

 

Agreed.

But they've had some time to work on it. It just seems like they don't get it.

It's almost as if they assume that watching a 90 minute soccer match is either to boring or demanding for us (I'm not sure which), so therefore they must break up the action intermittently with random shots like player closeups, coach closeups, fan shots, etc.

These interrupt the flow of the game like visual non-sequitors. Sometimes so-much-so that it's almost painful to watch.

 

they've had some time, but in my opinion ESPN was never really committed to improving their domestic soccer coverage, because they were not financially invested in US Soccer/MLS. ESPN over the previous decade or so was more interested in cheaper content and original programming (like the X-games and Poker for instance).

but now, a new VP in Bristol (John Skipper) is a guy who likes soccer and is steering the programming toward more game content (in all main sports) and less novelty/filler programming. the new tv deals that SUM signed with Disney (in large parts because of Skipper) and Univision for 2007-14 are fantastic for many reasons.

chief among them, imho, is that ESPN will now devote itself to learning how to improve its telecasts, since they are paying for the rights. before, they weren't the producing entity, and the games appeared as time-bought (or time-bartered) content for them. now, they want the league and the sport to do well, and they want to draw in more viewers, and they should start to improve in all aspects of their production. we have seen good strides being made with these first two friendlies of 2007, but some things will take more time to properly learn and improve.

Univision does this less, and that's why their coverage is preferred by many. hopefully if ESPN realizes their competition is doing something better, they'll work to equal or surpass them in those specific areas. ESPN doesn't want viewers watching their same content on other channels, if it is being presented in a better manner.

 

BTW, I assume that the non-HD broadcast was due to the ESPN HD having the Duke-NC game on at the same time, not to the unavailability of HD trucks.

At this time, they have only one HD channel, so incurring extra production costs on a game without the ability to broadcast it wasn't feasible.

 

I'm mixed on the three man booth. Two is fine for me. But if they are going to keep Arena, then tell him to keep to the analysis. Saying things like so-and-so coming on for so-and-so should be left to the play-by-play guy, regardless if you like DOB or not.

Also, they need to keep the flow simple. PBP guy can always talk, Wynalda as #2 chimes in at will, and Bruce, the #3, should wait better for his moments and/or wait to get prompted by Dave (which he can signal to him in the booth).

But, all in all, getting better.

 

I agree with most of what's been said in this thread. I get so wound up and zoned in on the game itself (especially when it's the national team, and especially when it's vs Mexico), that I don't pay a lot of attention to the quality of the broadcast. The only things that bother me are the really major mistakes and annoyances. This broadcast was very well done overall, and it is SUCH a relief to not have to listen to Marcelo Balboa. It's unfortunate that O'Brien is still seen as the best pbp option for a match like this, but he wasn't as bad as he was at the WC. Wynalda doesn't bother me, nor does Arena. Sure, I think they could do better, but they have enough knowledge and experience to cover a match without being embarassing. I like Stone, I like JP, I even thought Keough was okay most of the time. I don't care for Balboa, Messing, and... I can not believe that there have been entirely favorable comments here about Jack Edwards. Now, that guy was embarassing. The whole pre-meditated "Land of the free, home of the brave", and "Mine eyes have seen the glory" schtick still makes me cringe; and even worse, the way he shrieked when the U.S. scored... sounded like a 14 year old boy. PLEASE don't bring that guy back.

I really have to repeat what someone said above... Allen Hopkins needs to relax and lighten up a little. He totally ruined Jimmy C's fun in the postgame interview.

 

i don't think Bruce is likely to be in ESPN2's booth for USMNT games while MLS is in season. but once he's done coaching RB, i'm sure he could get some kind of full-time soccer coverage gig with ESPN.

 

I just watched the second half again - and to be honest, I found that O'Brien was not as offensive as I remember him being. I know I was shouting at him to be quiet in the beginning of the game, but I think in the second half he did an OK job.

 

I can't stand this group of announcers. Arena is just boring, and I can't stop thinking of what a pu$$y he is sitting there with Wynalda after what Wynalda said. Wynalda is just an idiot, always has been, always will be. And O'Brien? Hey Dave, show us one person who walks in with a mexico shirt on, and if they start losing takes it off to reveal a US shirt. That was one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. And oh yeah, the two mexicans who play for stuttart, a "midtable" type team. Oh really.

O'Brien is just not a soccer guy, which is fine for him, except he's doing soccer broadcasts.

On the positive side, I agree, the camera work was pretty good. Also, Allen hopkins is the best soccer announcer we have, I wish we heard more of him.

 

definitely one of espns better coverages of a USA match.

applause for showing the walk out and both national anthems.

i didnt mind DOB. he's play by play. i dont need him to say smart things. just say what you see in front of you. he mostly called the game and didnt try to chat with the other guys.

wynalda was just straight up PAINFUL. almost as painful as marcelo. it was like he tried to make everything sound so extreme, but he could only think of 3 and 4 letter words. -that was really bad. bad and ugly.. just plan bad.-

my favorite part was when arena mentioned that only Howard and Boca are actually in form, since they've been playing. he then mentioned that convey has been injured and mostly sitting out for Reading...

...only for Wynalda to follow up saying that he doesnt understand why Convey is moving so slowly, the EPL is so fast. he should be doing better, thinking faster, etc.... then he asked bruce for his opinion.

i also hate sideline reporters who dont report information that can only be found on the sideline. tell us who's warming up, who's about to check in. conversations between the managers and the players, 4th official, etc..

i dont care if they spoke to so and so before the game... wow. pablo ordered 60 tickets for his friends. couldn't have figured that out unless i was on the sideline.


overall, better than the WC coverage.. not as good as Rae and Smyth... although it kind of reminded me of when espn put balboa in teh booth with Rae and Smyth for the Champions league final last year. if Tommy could have thrown balboa out a window. he would have. i felt that DOB and Arena were just letting Wynalda read his cards, waiting for him to finish up.

 

O'Brien is ok, I guess, although he keeps drifting away from the game that is going on in front of you, to discuss things like Bob Bradley's tenure, how will this affect Mexico and Sanchez's future, etc. etc. Watch the friggin' game! He also gets so caught up in these sidebars that he misses stuff--at one point Arena said, early on in the first half, "This is likely to be a 1-0 score." But DOB was yammering on about something else, instead of asking "Why do you say that?"

Arena and Wynalda are very good on the game; huge improvement. Wynalda has calmed down with Arena there, trying to show that he (Eric) also knows something about the game. It's taken some of Wynalda's inflated edge off his commentary, and made him much more focused.

 

IIRC, they have ESPNHD and ESPN2HD.

 

Just wanted to chime in and agree with the above comments that what astounded me the most was Linda Cohn at halftime doing highlights/scores of the UNC/Duke game and ... the other international friendlies! Nice job - and she even got all the pronunciations right (OK, almost all - she tripped up on Ricardo Carvalho, I think).

DOB is fine as long as he sticks to PbP and doesn't stray into analysis - and the 3-man booth, with two knowledgable analysts, pretty much keeps it that way.

 

For us it isn't. But for people who haven't watched massive amounts of soccer on TV, a constant sideline view is very boring.

Mixing up the camera angles and incorporating closeups helps, although it's obviously best to do it in ways that don't involve missing much action.

 

that's the key. Premiership broadcasts i see on FSC cut away all the time to show some fans, Roman Abramovich in his shadowy luxury box, Sir Alex madly chewing on 9 pieces of gum (these ones actually linger the longest... freaks me out), or they'll switch to the sideline steadicam as the wing takes it to the corner. but their directors know to switch to the non-field cams during stoppages in play. ESPN productions always switch to a closeup after the player has given a thru ball and his teammate is about to take on a defender 1v1.

 

I had to de-lurk for this thread:

Here's the link so everyone can send a 'thank you & keep up the good work' comment to ESPN

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?page=contact/espntv

I need Eric Wynalda to shut the hell up. I tried to tune him out after I heard, "Yeah, Landon just needs to get in there and do something." - Alrighty Eric, thanks for that insightful comment. He also went on too long with the 'Well, when I was on the team..." While that's interesting for a moment or two - it gets tiring...

Bruce was a little stiff but made relevant and interesting comments. I hope they keep him on. He's the only one that made DOB and Eric stay on track.

 

that is true, but do they have the bandwidth or satellite capabilities to program concurrent remote HD feeds on both of those stations?

i don't know, but there could be a technical reason for their current limitations and HD/SD programming decisions.

 

Didn't they do simultaneous HD during the World Cup?

 

they may have. and they may have deemed the WC (and the ratings it would pull in) as worth the investment in the simultaneaous HD broadcasts. this would have only been for the concurrent group stage 3rd games, correct? does anyone know if they actually did that in June?

I don't know if they think a US Soccer friendly (even one vs Mex) is worth that extra expense at this time. maybe it is, and maybe more people should write to ask them why they didn't/couldn't provide a USA/Mex HD broadcast at the same time there were doing HD for UNC/Duke. i would like to know if it was a technical issue, or an economic decision.

they are showing HD content on both ESPNHD and ESPN2HD tonight at the same time. although the ESPN2HD content looks to be Bristol-based, and may even be taped at an earlier time. don't know all the details.