the 11 o'clock est sportscenter is about to show high lights of the european super cup with real madrid in it in the top plays segment and a few days ago david beckham was #3 in top plays for his goal against chelsea i think.
they actually showed highlights of the game. 1st complimenting van hooijdonks free kick (hehe cuz he's dutch) and then saying roberto carlos is the man while showing his goal.
Just saw the highlights of Today's Best. Second after a quick Toronto Blue Jays clip are two goals from the Super Cup. The actually showed enthusiasm recognizing the "skills" as he put it. And then they showed Carlos with his rare left-footed strike. The other broadcaster quietly added, "Big year for Carlos, World Cup and now UEFA Cup[?]" Whatever, it was a good effort and i hope to see more of it in the future.
Who were the anchors? I've always thought that SC has anchors who are actually sports fans and anchors who are really frustrated comedians. The comedians found a joke in the mid-90's which amuses them to no end ("soccer players ... huh ... huh ... have names that I find hard to pronounce ... here, let me show you ... runaaald ... uh... ronuldolo ... uh ..."). SC is now a comedy sports show, so we shouldn't be surprised. But I'll take the bad comedy if we can also get a decent highlight or two.
They've been showing occasional soccer highlights from around the world for years. I can't believe folks continue to be surprised at this.
Andy...I feel pretty strongly that soccer is showing up more in plays of the day than they used to before WC '02.
Depends what you mean by "occasionally." SC showed highlights of Copa America 97, compatively lots of highlights of MLS in the early seasons, and, yes, occasionally, the odd Champions League or even UEFA Cup clip. Be all that as it may, I agree that they're certainly showing more highlights since WC 02 than they showed before this summer's pleasant ratings surprises. Does anyone really doubt that? Whether it should surprise you is an altogether different question.
It is frustrating! I never watch Sportcenter but I guess I would turn it on if I knew I'd see goals from MLS games.
Yep. The occasional soccer highlight used be enough to make me think kindly of the the rest of it, but no longer. Baseball highlights are boring, despite Derek Jeter, football hightlights have always given me the drizzling shits (oomph, sack dance, whoop, touchdown dance, who GIVES a flaming ************ up the ass?). Festinger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance has ceased to apply to me. Intemittant rewards are no longer enough.
I agree that the increase in soccer highlights is great. Maybe next year they will ahve a weekly MLS highlight show. Like MLS This Week or something like that.
That I can see, there are two separate issues involved here when we hear/use the term "respect": 1) the amount of sports news coverage soccer receives, and 2) the attitude of the announcers commenting on that coverage. These two things are interrelated, but we do need to realize that they are distinct (despite what some around here would lead you to think ). Point #1 is moot, since media outlets are going to cater to what the public wants. The media business is just that, with them supplying where they see the demand (and where their sponsors deem there's demand). Is there a difference in the amount of respect soccer now gets on ESPN compared with a few years back? Well, of course there is. Is it on par with the more popular sports here in the US? Not even close. Of course not. It's a slow process. Have patience. Point #2, when we're talking about ridicule, is much less excusable -- but there's not a lot of deep thinking going on there, to put it kindly. So, complaining isn't going to help unless we go about it the right way. The positive we can take from this is it's reasonable to assume that the "redneck element", as I like to call it, will eventually get old. It will seem more and more pointless as people begin to realize how lame it is to ridicule soccer. Yeah, soccer players are the ones who couldn't make the high school baseball or football team. Right. Read: I feel threatened by something I don't understand, or I'm a lemming, or I can't extend my intellect to appreciate a new type of sport, or whatever the reason, so I'll feel better laughing at soccer. Not a very enlightened way of looking at things, is it? I think it's nice when we see traditional media outlets recognizing soccer in the same way they do other sports. I think the best way to foment this is by promoting the virtues of the beautiful game, and perhaps the occasional e-mail to ESPN politely requesting more coverage, or a REAL explanation, in the case of ridicule -- and that you expect a reply. Except for Jim Rome. He's just a stupidface.
Right on! COme on, espn's going to do whatever helps them get ratings and what helps them project an image. Some occasional highlights from the big games helps them establish an image of knowing everything about sport everywhere.