#3 - beckham's goal yesterday against chelsea. announcer introduced it as *i'm told some people actually do care about this stuff*... and then they proceed to show the clip of the goal... after the goal he said *and who is it that cares about this junk?*
Ooooh, that anchor is so cool. He is sooooo controversial. I yawn everytime I hear some sports anchor make a cliched comment about soccer. How about some originality?
Re: Re: 8/25/02 - espn play of the day agreed, just saw it and thought i would report about it. it was nice to see the clip on sportscenter though, i was kinda surprised..
Re: Re: Re: 8/25/02 - espn play of the day You should definitely report it. But you will be reporting on it for a long time in the future. I used to watch Sportscenter a lot but I then realized life is short. Sportscenter is all about beating dead horses in a very unentertaining way.
Is this on ESPN or ESPN news b/c Bob Ley is doing Sportscenter at this moment. If they could get to Bob ... they could get to any of us...
it was last night's 1am est sportscenter that they replay all morning...not the live one that is on now.
I saw it. It wasn't so bad. During the nightly Top Plays segment, they showed the Beckham clip at #3, I believe. One anchor, John Anderson, raves about it, then says in an understated tone of voice, "I hear that some people actually care about this stuff." The other anchor, Scott Van Pelt, says "And who is it that cares about this junk?" At which point, you can hear Anderson exclaiming in mock indignation, "HA!" At the end of the segment, Van Pelt looks at Anderson and says, "Was I off with that Beckham comment?" It was a gag, folks. The important thing is that a play in a sporting event that ESPN doesn't even have the rights to in the USA, that is a niche sport in the USA, got into the Top Plays segment. Frankly, they could've taken the easy way out and shown some really nice diving-shortstop-fields-the-ball-and-throws-to-first play that you see everyday and it wouldn't have been any big deal. Somebody actual had to (a) see that goal and (b) go out and get it to actually put it in the Top Plays. I'd say that it's a little more important than a couple of goofball anchors who are essentially lampooning goofball sports anchors. But don't let me stop you from writing whiny e-mails to ESPN.
I have to agree. The comment, "I'm told some people actually care, etc." Was definitely tongue in cheek, since it is the world's biggest sport. Scott Van Pelt's little comment was more your typical soccer bashing (this from one of ESPN's golf -yawn- beat reporters). Anyway, the real important thing to me is that the producers and powers that be of the show thought enough of the goal to put it in top plays at #3. Those are the guys that actually control the content...they realize that there is an audience for soccer in the US, and that the EPL, and David Beckham are actually somewhat known commodities. Now, if they would just show a few MLS goals on top plays...
When I saw this last night I was pretty mad too. I quess I have been reading too many posts about bashing sports reporters to realize that it was probably tounge in cheek. Who knows. It was cool to see the highlight though. Although he could have just announced the play, and saved us the time.
I was sitting in an English Pub in Dallas when this came on. Most of the patrons were watching and immediately cheered or gasped (ManU fans vs. ABU fans, I assume). I could not hear the announcers. I was happy to see a soccer highlight in the top 10 plays of the day. An EPL highlight, none the less. And, it making number 3 on the list.
I live in the hometown for ESPN and other than pay taxes, they ain't worth nothing to me. lol SportsCenter, for example, is only about sports I could give two shits about and if they cover anything international or forgein players, the anchors usually find a way to make fun of their names and sport. They better wise up, soccer is the most widely and most growing sport among youths today...
nice that it happened, but remember that it will continue to happen they are going to pick out things relative to their level of interest, there is enough interest in soccer to have plays make plays of the week (or day or whatever)... it's just that currently we aren't at basketball, football, baseball levels... so it won't be all the time like they are, but it will happen and there are guys that enjoy soccer there... bermin (reigning king of espn since keith olberman left) comes to mind
who cares about what they say anyway? baseball will be bye bye in less than a week, which means they'll have to fill space somehow. soccer seems like it could take up a little time on a saturday night and sunday morning.
For those of you who don't watch ESPN, they make fun of everything. Including soccer. ElJefe is spot on in his assessment. They put soccer on. That's the important thing. They treated it like everything else, and that included making fun of it. Is anyone else like me and getting to the point where you starting to WANT people to pick on Soccervictim as long as they're mentioning soccer?
This is the kind of stuff that makes me remind some here on BS how there IS a media bias against soccer. You don't hear clowns like this guy saying, "There goes Lance Armstrong up a hill. Remind me why we show this crap?". Unforgiveable and inexcusable.
That clip is a slap in the face of the WUSA. Mia Hamm scored a goal from a similar play in FC2, and it did not get shown. B@stards. Smash Vince Doria and his male minions!
I'd say the important thing is was the goal any good. I didn't see the show. Someone want to give a recap?
Scott Van Pelt and Brian Anderson were funny when they were Craig Kilborn and Kieth Oberman. Now they are just jack offs.
To steal a FOX News line .. the ESPN lampoonish rip of soccer would be just fine with me if it was remotely fair and balanced with legitimate soccer highlights. But, of course, it's not. So it's just another subtle rip at the game. Bashing soccer remains part of our U.S. sports culture. It's pointless. It's stinks and overall, it's not helping the game. I don't buy into the bad-publicity-is-good theory.
Not to mention one of those two said "Win something that matters." My wife saw that and she wants the names of those two guys. I have seen them before but I don't know how they are. She spent the next 15 minutes being mad. I have come to expect this stuff and I have a thick sking about it. Yes it better to be mentioned than not mentioned at all. But I still feel like kicking a soccer ball in their face. It would be one thing if were NBC people but this is ESPN - our supposed soccer partners. I wouldn't last too long at my company if I kept bashing our business partners and then claim I was just kidding. I can be mad can't I without being labelled a soccer victim / crybaby?
Yes Soocerfan should be sophisticated. He should be polite, well learned in the classics. Generally he should hold two or three degrees. He should always complain when someone doesn't like him. He should use big words like: 1. dork 2. punk 3. jerks 4. #@%&*$#@S!!!!!! This will surely stop "news anchors" from making off handed comments "listing" the "great" plays of the week. If we don't stop this now, soccer will surely vanish from the planet. Who would be there to take its place? Dodgeball? I can only hope.
Anybody know where I can find a clip of this play? Even a recap of the goal would be better than nothing.