Re: Wynalda-Twellman looking for a room My favorite part was Wynalda saying that the Revs were a Dynasty except for Championship games. That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard an announcer say, and I watched ESPN Sunday Night Football when Theisman was there.
Re: Wynalda-Twellman looking for a room Yeah, I thought the exact same thing. I was like, it's not just that they've never won MLS Cup. They've never won the Supporter's Shield. I think only 1 time they had the best record in their conference. This year they got their first hardware, the USOC. In the last 4 years, DC has 2 Shields and an MLS Cup. The DynaQuakes have 2 MLS Cups. Even the suddenly crappy Gals won the double in 2005, and of course have twice beaten the Revs in the MLS Cup final. A league of 12/13 teams can only have so many dynasties, and since the Revs are less worthy of that title than at least 2 teams, maybe 3, in the league, well, the conclusion is obvious.
Re: Zoom Out Camera Guy - ESPN sucks (Revs vs Chicago game) How is his team doing? Mine is doing awful.
Re: Wynalda-Twellman looking for a room That was absolutely absurd. I think the guy needs some time off to rejeuvenate or something. He is just trying way to hard to come up with one epiphany or another. Eric.. Make an observation on what you see, don't just make things up to fill air time. Silence, sometimes, is alright.
ESPN needs its soccer directors to have basketball experience, not football or baseball experience. (Obviously EPL experience would be best, but you take what you get). Basketball is a game where a team will make or attempt a basket and the action doesn't stop: a fast-break may be happening for the other side. You have to plan your replays judiciously - not necessarily right after the play. Instead we have action constantly interrupted by inappropriate replays. The replays themselves are good, but they should be inserted at natural breaks in play like throw-ins. And too many endless close-ups.
Re: Zoom Out Camera Guy - ESPN sucks (Revs vs Chicago game) I will not disagree with anything stated here because I am just an uninformed fan but this MLS on ESPN coverage is terrible- it reminds me of watching the Gold Cup on FSC this past summer- The Gold Cup broadcast were plagued by the same things and also super close ups anytime the ball made it to the far touchline, like someone behind the camera had just found a new setting on their camera and were trying it out. Since the summer time though I have watched MLS on HDNet and FSC and maybe I am wrong but I don't get as pissed off at the cameras in those experiences? Is the answer that we have to pressure MLS to change? Are they reluctant to do so for fear of looking too much like Europe?
It's hard to understand...the games the last two weeks on ESPN were pretty well done, at least in relation to the horrendous ones they had been doing most of the season. Glenn Davis was doing a great job as PBP and Wynalda did much better feeding off him and keeping things relevant to the game itself. Then last night they revert back to the same crappy angles, overdone closeups and ill-timed replays. Then Dave O'Brien is back at PBP and cannot add those little tidbits of information that Davis can because he just doesn't know the ins and outs of MLS (and soccer in general) like Davis does. DOB is not terrible, but he is missing the knowledge that comes from being immersed in the sport, rather than being told a nugget of info through an earpiece. That forces Wynalda to create topics, and he's not the best at doing that. He works better feeding off a knowledgeable PBP man. At least it seems they've committed to the two-person booth. Three is just too many.
Re: Zoom Out Camera Guy - ESPN sucks (Revs vs Chicago game) I agree with you, and I don't mean for my post to sound like I approve of the ESPN coverage. I have the same opinion of it that we all do, that it needs to improve a LOT. SO, I was surprised to learn a couple years ago (from two different sources, not just one) that the telecast we see is shaped largely by MLS' own broadcast supervision, and isn't just a matter of ESPN sending baseball guys out to cover soccer (which was my assumption becasue that's what it looks like half the time). Gold Cup coverage was AWFUL. I beleive all that came through Univision networks, right? I don't think there was any English-language coverage. It was ridiculously bad -- any three of us could have done that well with handicams and a laptop. AND, I also agree that watching FSC I feel like the telecast isn't laden down with so much superflous stuff as ESPN or the Spanish broadcasts, like graphics covering half the screen showing how Twellman's college alma mater has fared against Eddie Pope's alma mater for the last seven seasons, etc . . . Soccer's pretty simple, but it's pretty clear that ESPN has no desire to maintain a light touch on almost ANY of their telecasts . . . do we need three people in the booth and a sideline reporter? Why not just get two people who know soccer?
Re: Zoom Out Camera Guy - ESPN sucks (Revs vs Chicago game) With the advent of large HD TV's and technology there will be a point where we will be able to control what we want to see. If we want to get zoom ins on the players or certain shots, we will be able to control from our own home. I think a split screen or multi screen approach would be interesting then you can pick what angle you want to watch the game as opposed to it being dictated to you.
Re: No Rob Stoney or Wynalda Did you see at the beginning and end of the broadcast, Foudy had to leer at the camera and make her point of solidarity with Rob Stone's wife? Nobody the ******** knows Lynn Stone. Rob Stone is the guy we've seen on a million ESPN soccer games. It is right to explain his absence and send congratulations and well-wishes to him and his wife Lynn. We know the twins are coming out of Rob's wife. What is your intention Julie - to be militantly banal? This cutesy insider sister-power thing makes US women's game commentary unbearable for me, and I wish Foudy would stay away from men's soccer telecasts. You want to force a US women's nat into the broadcast? Ugh. Well, Brandi seems less smarmy, more genuine and insightful in her appreciation of the actual game in front of her - not so into herself. She's less slick but she's into the game like a dude.
Re: Zoom Out Camera Guy - ESPN sucks (Revs vs Chicago game) Balboa played baseball? Actually, I enjoyed last night's broadcast more than usual. I still don't like Wynalda, but he didn't seem as 'chatty'. and I still don't understand why Foudy is the token WWC player on the broadcast.
ESPN's mangling of MLS broadcasts is completely unforgivable. The fact that MLS itself might be making some of these decisions is even worse. The idea that this upstart league and cable network with almost no football experience can just walk in and reinvent the soccer telecast is so hubristic it makes me want to puke. The sad thing is that the MLS/ESPN crew could learn a lot just by watching a typical Rae/Smyth Champions League telecast. I know people bag on Smyth for his leprechaun schtick, but at least he can give you a sense of the game's momentum and rhythm and feel, instead of clogging your ear drums with Wynalda's "I'm a former player, so I know what I'm doing" routine. Plus the camera operators REALLY struggled to follow crosses and passes back to the keeper during the New England/Chicago match, which was infuriating.
I was looking for my missing thread and found it in this one. Man, am I glad there are other people that feel as I do, about ESPN and MLS coverage. I thought after last night I was alone on the poor coverage. I think ESPN should read this string as some of you have made OUTSTANDING points that are extremely valid and would resonate well at the highest levels in Bristol. I have three friends from college that work at ESPN and all of them have told me that the middle managers and below love soccer, but the exec's don't get it and don't want to. "the hate the sport" is the word on the street .. and man, watching last night, it shows. Beast Eddie
This is an excellent point raised . . . the Champions' League broadcasts that come from the European feeds are TERRIFIC examples of how good the technical coverage CAN be, but when ESPN handles an MLS game, we get all the shortcomings that we're citing in this thread. Like the World Cup, the CL games have a master feed shot by one technical crew, then all the different airing networks in all the different countries have their own commentary. I've heard that Rae & Smyth do it from a studio in Bristol, but that was surprising to me, I'd think they'd send guys to the actual game (???). Anyway, covering soccer isn't rocket science . . . sure, it helps to understand the game but even non-soccer people should be able to do a pretty decent job of it just by watching some of the CL games as a "how-to". INSTEAD, the ESPN MLS telecasts have this distinctly different (inferior) style, and the worst part is that it's NO ACCIDENT. Someone at MLS and someone at Bristol is deliberately making the decision that THIS is the coverage viewers sould see, as opposed to the style of the CL games that are right there on ESPN2! Why would ESPN or MLS have to mess with it, when the CL games offer a virtual blueprint on how a game SHOULD be shown?
Re: Zoom Out Camera Guy - ESPN sucks (Revs vs Chicago game) THAT would be sweet! Instead of a graphic covering half the screen comparing Beckhams's endorsement money with Barry Bonds', we could get picture-in-picture of six different angles along the bottom of the screen, then choose the frame you want with your remote!
Re: Wynalda-Twellman looking for a room Only 2 Cups in the 2002-present period that Wynalda was talking about. Which is why I didn't say DC has 4 Cups.
>> Why would ESPN or MLS have to mess with it, when the CL games offer a virtual blueprint on how a game SHOULD be shown? Good point JimmOdonnel ! I totally agree that GREAT coverage is within our reach and for some crazy reason, executives don't see it. I pray that I do not die before knowing what goes on in the Bristol board rooms around this topic. If ESPN could read one thing from this entire string, let it be this: "Dear ESPN - catering broadcasts to a non-soccer audience ignores the core fans and results in, well, no fans." Beast Eddie
Re: No Rob Stoney or Wynalda What is Heather Mitts up too? Even if she is a poor announcer, that would be some nice eye candy.
I wish that I recorded the game, just to clock the amount of time the ball was out of frame. The camera people were constently behind the run of play and/or showing shots of anything but the game.
I don't think she would be a good replacement, but what has Brandi been doing? I remember seeing her do football games, but can't remember anything recent. What happened to the woman they had before Foudy? During the WWC, I was always more interested in her hair than what she had to say(which was little or nothing). Rob Stone seemed more interested in her hair as well. The first shocker was when she changed the part. When she cut it some, even Stone had to mention it on air - several times.