Your story is almost a mirror of how it was for me growing up. I saw my first match right around the time MTv started. It is a distinct memory because we didn't have cable and I was at my aunt's house eagerly playing with one of those old style remotes with the the row of about 10 buttons hooked to the TV by a cable. It was the US men playing someone I can't quite remember. Since I was playing soccer I was fascinated seeing a game on TV and it being the US I was naturally rooting for them. I've been hooked ever since. The sad things was you might be able to catch a US men's game maybe once a year if that and you happened to be lucky flipping channels at the correct time to see it. I remember having to write down dates the announcers would say their next friendly was just in the hopes it would get televised. Man what I wouldn't have given for the type of coverage we have today back when I was growing up. Well that and the internets. This ESPN announcement is just icing on the cake.
Bob Ley was still doing it the right way all the way up to the U.S. beating Argentina 1-0 on a late JMM strike, this was summer of '99 and I too wish he was back in the booth with an old Mick like Seamus or Tommy. FWIW, having a gripe with a passionate and off the wall commentator like Ray Hudson...jeez what next? You folks gonna tell us that Blazing Saddles isn't funny.
If I may be an insufferable pedant...in 1950, there was no "final." There were 4 teams in a group, sort of like the 1980 Miracle on Ice. Uruguay had to win that match against Brazil; a tie wouldn't have meant extra time, it would have meant Brazil would have won the group and therefore the Cup.
Of course. But all things considered that match can effectively be called a final. Even if you included all the matches in the group as a final, I believe only Estanislao Basora, who scored two goals against Sweden, and Jose Parra Martinez, who scored an own goal in a brutal 6-1 loss to Brazil, are still alive along with Ghiggia. I believe Swedes Karl-Erik Palmer and Stig Sundqvist are still alive, but I don't know Swedish so I can't fully confirm it. Anyway, it would probably be best to let the Uruguayan tell the story of that World Cup, which will be sure to send chills to many (I know it does to me every time I see stories about it).
I say Ray Hudson calls every single game involving Argentina. ESPECIALLY if Riquelme comes back to the national team after Dr. Cocaine gets fired (Just a matter of time).
Regarding the Olympics, this part worried me a little: So basically, we'll have to put up with the same human-interest stuff regarding a lot of the players, with their backstories, challenges they faced, etc. Stuff that appeals to chicks, basically. Guess I'm willing to put up with that as long as they have decent commentary and pregame/postgame highlights and analysis to boot.
Are you seriously trying to tell me that you think ESPN creates such segments purposely aiming them at women viewers? I didn't know they were such an important part of sports TV ratings.
The major networks have long been using that method for making the Olympics more appealing to a wider variety of viewers (I believe ABC pioneered this back in the 70s). I would not be surprised if ABC/ESPN went back to this methodology in order to increase the appeal of soccer and the World Cup to more Americans. Especially they have been rumored to be interested in getting the Olympics back from NBC after 2012.
Yeah. It's a chick thing, and honestly chick things don't bug me much as I produce chick stuff for a living and honestly enjoy doing so. But it does bug me when the analysis of the match and the fact that the match is the culmination of 4 years worth of soccer that we've been following gets overshadowed by the grand human drama (cue the violins) of the showdown between the guy who had to walk 12 miles uphill in the snow to get to practice versus the guy who had to work extra hard to get his first pro contract so that he could buy medicine for his mom's horrible disease. In other words, when the event overshadows the match and the sport, that kinda bugs me. But... I'll begrudgingly take it.
if they keep it OUT of the 90 mins ... they can do whatever "chick stuff" they want. my interpretation was that this stuff was going to be in the hours of pre-game, post-game and HT shows. i don't think they're going to DOB these stories into the 90 minutes, like they did in 2006. NBC can intertwine those sappy stories with the on-field/on-court/in-pool action ... because most of that stuff is usually taped anyway. can't do it with WC because it's all live, and soccer is continuous. the sappy "chick stuff" will be on off days and in pre game and stuff ... if you don't want to see it you won't have to watch.
I am not a chick, and I find those stories to frequently be interesting. I think ones that especially focus on smaller countries with players I know nothing of, it gives me some perspective and at least something to make watching those games more interesting. Granted a lot of them are over the top but that's gonna happen with these things. And as others have said, if it's not during the game, cool. I also think those stories help draw in casual fans, who don't spend hours a day on BigSoccer learning the most mundane things about every player every where.
When raising the salary cap gets talked about only slightly less than Seattle fan saying how great they are, yes, yes it was.
i agree, that's why i used the quotes. i think the american public could benefit greatly from learning about who these guys really are -- i mean guys like Messi, Kaka ... or even someone like Adebayour. american fans look at all these mega-popular soccer players as just caricatures. they don't see them as real people, because they are ignorant of the sport. i learned a ton about soccer and the world, in general, by watching the show Futbol Mundial. i would love to see ESPN do those types of features.
I honestly can't think of the stuff as a sappy chick thing as opposed to simply an over-dramatized account of the athletes and their accomplishments in the sport. Soap operas and romance movies are chick things. The pre-match segments are a warm up to the matches and the event, and given that this is soccer, will likely have a much bigger cultural aspect, something I find much more interesting than the American athletes who draw most of the focus during Olympic coverage, all of whom tend to have very repetitive stories. In the end, just don't worry too much about it, and don't think of it as a chick thing, because you're likely to get yourself far more angry than you should be when you see it.
+1. Futbol Mundial is a great show, segments like that would do well to show Americans with less exposure to the sport why it is such a big deal around the world.
Yes but unlike the Olympics where they can edit the events in the WC they will be showing the games whole and live so this will only be a minor distraction during avoidable pre-game shows.
Touchy, touchy. Have a xanax already. What's with the complex? When did I start telling you how great Seattle is...etc. You really need to examine some of your issues before you go off on somebody. I was merely saying the product MLS is putting on the field is not conducive to growing interest in our game outside of the hardcore MLS fans already devoted to their teams. Forgive me for not being up to speed on the MLS salary cap front. But seriously, take a chill pill.
Futbol Mundial can make a story about the Qatar national team exciting. I say that because I remember watching a story on there about ... the Qatar national team. best soccer show ever, for my money. i haven't really watched it since the mid 90s though. i think it's done a bit differently now. but i'm not sure.
Pretty close... "The Land of the Free...The Home of the Brave...is into the Round of 8!!!!!!!" Yeah, I'm reasonably sure he spent a day or two thinking it up...but our win over Spain was crying out for a line like that... I miss Jack...
I know what you mean with JP, but I could clearly hear Harkes mutter away from the microphone small bursts of jittery excitement after the goals we scored against Spain.