Okay, the highlights guy on MLS wrap is going to be a source of amusement. So far the most egregious have been Bonseu, and surprising, Mike Magee. Post 'em if you got 'em. Go back to the match broadcast, too, if you want. Obviously, I love that the show exists. That doesn't mean we can't poke fun. Later, COZ
At least he didn't call him Arthur W. Magee. That highlight guy is absolutely terrible. Maybe it's the ex-Iraqi Information Minister. I just sent this e-mail to FSW and MLS: ----------------- Hello! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for the beginning of the eighth season of Major League Soccer. I can't help but believe this is the year my Columbus Crew will finally get over the top. I must commend MLS and its television partners for the terrific coverage the league will have this year. Between the Fox Sports World contract and the best $49 I spend every year, the Shootout package, I'll be in soccer heaven throughout the season. As I type this e-mail, I'm watching the debut of the MLS Wrap on Fox Sports World. It's a fantastic show - I'll definitely be watching all season. The one criticism I have of the show is the pre-voiced highlight packages of the games. To be perfectly blunt, it sounds like FSW had an intern voice the highlights. I'm finding myself cringing quite a bit listening to the "disembodied highlight voice". It's really not good. As I said, the show is terrific. It's a great way to end an MLS Saturday. But please let somebody else do the highlights. Thanks.
Oh yeah, and this isn't really the same, but Max Bretos called Marco Etcheverry "Carlos Valderrama" once during the DC-KC game. little confused on his latin-american veteran MLS players.
Ever watch CNN International? (Or is it BBC World news) It's like the guy translating the Chinese news broadcasts.
Well...you know...Latin American playmaking midfielders who don't really run very much, wear number 10, and have tragic hair. I can see how he'd confuse the two. I mean, it's not like they're famous or anything.
Mike May-jee. Guy must be on the moon never to have heard the name Magee. Guess he figured he had to distinguish it from "McGee". Bizarro. I didn't think the recap guy was bad, but I thought the background music was distracting and awful. Dump it. The soccer speaks for itself, doesn't need the hype. Wheelock, and Harkes especially, did a good job though, and the show is just loose enough to be fun and at the same time take the soccer seriously. MLS Timeline was cool, going to be a good feature, along with the Goal of the Week bit. Good job overall; dump the stupid highlight music and it'd slay.
Well I'll admit that I'm now actively pimping this show in multiple threads, but I think it honestly deserves it. The FSW MLS Wrap Up show just seals the deal that FSW is "our network". I'm extremely pleased with all of it, warts and all.
A bit OT but still about MLS Wrap: Ha ha, he said "climb the ladder"! Loved the highlight show all the same, though.
      Dunivant (to differentiate him from his teammate Donovan, I suppose).       Great highlight show, though. -G
Last week on one of their weekend shows, the announcer - not Max or Wheelock - referred to the the Crew's goalscorer, Edward Bundle. I thought that was pretty bad till I heard May-jee. Still, I'll gladly take a few butchered names in exchange for all the MLS highlights. Harkes is a natural - though he wussed out on taking a stand on Hristo's suspension - and SOOOOO much better than Ty.
Because the combined resources of ESPN/ABC/Disney is worth more than all the money that God the Father could possibly have at one time, and as such, it's not too big of an expenditure to take soccer seriously with correspondents, live telecasts, highlight reels and in-depth analysis on an national scale. On the other hand, I don't have to dip too far into my credit line to pay for the production costs of FSW. It's much easier to slap on the FSW graphic on a world feed of Bundesliga than to get the LA studio running live and pay two anchormen and a maximum of five correspondents for their time and energy. As the network is so far down in the News Corp food chain, it's a wonder they breathe the letters M-L-S at all.
...not mls related...but during the fsw broadcast of the newcastle/manu game we had "jinAHS" for jenas, and something to the effect of solkfdsjggffjdkal for solskjaer. good times.
My favorite was A-Jacks for Ajax in one of their promos. Massive props for the "Soccer Nation" promos though -- those were what's been missing with ESPN.
Harkes was mostly composed, Wheelock has more work to do. It should get better over the coming weeks.
Bigsoccer observers? Did anyone catch Wheelock or Harkes calling Clint Cletus? Is that a bigsoccer nickname or did that originate somewhere else?
My pet peeve is Carlos Machado on the FSW Report calling the Maracana Stadium the "Marra-CAN-ah" Stadium instead of "Ma-ra-ca-NAH". Also, on ESPN2, I will scream the next time I hear Rob Stone mispronounce Alexi Lalas' name. His name is "Lalas", NOT "Lawless"!!!
The good news is that its great to have an MLS highlight show. The better news is that there is a hell of a lot of room for improvement. Sean Wheelock needs to reign in the ************-eating grin and must stop referring to John exclusively as 'Harkesy'. For all his praise, I can't remember Harkes making one useful or interesting tactical/game management comment. It's only one show, but he's no Dave Dir yet. I enjoyed the show immensely, but I had to look away a few times in second-hand embarassment. My favorite moment other than the Mayjee pronunciation was when Sean, having already anointed Tony Meloa as MLS' best keeper, stated that its very rare to see Meola beaten to the near post. Pure comedy.
Sean Wheelock is a verified and admitted BigSoccer lurker...plus one of the PA for the KC metrosports broadcasts (Wheelock's usual gig) is a wizards board regular, and is friends with sean.
I just finished watching the Fox Sports Report on Fox Sports World and one of the shows host (who's name I believe is Carlos Machado) introduced MLS as: Major....(pause)...Soccer..League The second time around after showing some highlights of the matches played this weekend he got the name right. On the brighter side, I was just happy that they were covering the league.
Not related to FSW, a local channel reporting the DC/KC game kept screwing up Etcheverry with Olsen with Quaranta with Alegria (they all have long hair) and Convey with Petke. I love stupid people like that. It just goes on to prove my theory that I am really smart.