I haven't seen Deportes (although Univision had a gal during the Mexico pre-game - sitting next to Fernando Fiore - who had a cleavage of Jenna Jamison) much but, overall, ESPN is just awful with their women, be it Bernstein, Kolber, Tafoya, et al. Wendy Nix and Erin Andrews look great but it's hard to screw up those two. I thought Chris McKendry used to look real nice but she's got a face for TV. And, hey, ESPN is perfect for Pam Ward. She just asks for more flannel.
I think its you that needs to do the learning. US Sports Journalism does NOT equal International Soccer Journalism. STOP COMPARING SOCCER TO OTHER SPORTS! Especially US college sports. There is no connection. It is stupid. Watch any broadcast in another country and you will understand. In Ireland: Niall Quinn, etc explaining what "we" Ireland have to do better. England: Gary Lineker hosts the freaking half time show! And has people like Shearer, Ian Wright etc. commenting on what "we" need to do better.
As a USMNT Fan I want to hear USMNT centered commentary. Objectivity, Grant Wahl, and the Mexicans can kiss my ass. This isn't club soccer, or college basketball.
More Heather Mitts = female annoucing problems solved. Should start grooming Osbourne for a future role too while their at it....
I have always wondered if the US uses its version because of baseball, with the home team batting in the bottom half of every inning. That's my theory anyway. And isn't anybody going to criticize ESPN for not saying the game was to be broadcast on 6.2.08?
My only complaint about the scorebar is it needs to be one fifth the size.If it did not block so much screen maybe they could show us the near touchline.....
I wouldn't mind seeing that, but the problem is we'd have to listen to that. She was easy on the eyes during the Women's World Cup at whatever time in the morning that was, but she added nothing to the discussion. Whenever the coverage returned to the studio with Stone, Foudy and Mitts, I would just stare at her hair and wonder which side the part would be on the next time I saw her on television. //I know you were just trying to solve the eye-candy problem, but like everything else related to women on ESPN in this thread, I had to critique it. There's definitely something wrong with me today....
More precisely,having it on during Duke-UNC.I'm sure they calculated the markets for each game wouldn't cross,but at least there wasn't an America East game running till 9:30 followed by ESPN news leading to 10:00,then celebrity fishing,with the game telecast on delay at 11:00 ET. Remember those brave pioneering days?
Why the love for JP? He is so bland and unkowledgeable about soccer (Mexico 2 --- USA 2) or football (USA 2 --- Mexico 2). He messed up reporting the yellow card in the second half on Altidore for repeated fouling. He opined that it had to do with dissent in a situation where dissent was realy quite unlikely. The other fellow had to set him straight as the referee pointed to many spots on the field to indicate why he issued the yellow to Altidore. I believe that it was JP who asserted (well, gushed in a wave of hyperbole fueled by over-excitement over a friendly) during yet another annoying crowd shot that the game was just like the World Cup. Ummm, no. 1) This was a friendly --- or as much of a friendly that is possible between two rivals. Both teams were using it to prepare for World Cup qualifying. While a favorable score would be great, it was not the top priority. 2) Neither team brought their top-18. There were players there who would have needed to purchase tickets to attend the game if it were held in the World Cup. 3) Many players arrived very late to Texas and some didn't see much practice time at all. 4) The rules were relaxed to allow more than three subs. The three-sub rule is an important part of game strategy. 5) This could not have been a group stage game involving two CONCACAF teams. 6) This therefore would have been a round-of-16 game or better. It would have been HUGE, just like the round-of-16 game in Korea. In Texas, it simply was well-attended and intense from a rivalry viewpoint. The fellow betrays his naive, wannabe mentality by bringing up the World Cup. 7) This was not even like a World Cup qualifying game. Again, it was a friendly with nothing more than bragging rights at stake. Also, I doubt that the US would have agreed to hold a WCQ game in an area where there are so many Hispanics and, possibly, so many fans of Mexico. No. The US avoids places like Texas and Southern California and opts for places like Boston, Columbus, and Columbs for its last three WCQ games against Mexico in 1997, 2001, and 2005. 8) Most World Cup games are of course very seldom held in the host country of one of the two teams. A World Cup game in the round-of-16 or later between the US and Mexico that took place in the US or in Mexico would have been <supply appropriate gerund here> HUGE. It would have made the game in Texas feel like a friendly between Guatelama and Canada.
JP was building the hype.That's his job.On ESPN,I bet Dickie V didn't mention that Duke and UNC have overinflated rankings and will fold before (or in) the sweet 16.Kills the hype. I'd rather hear using soccer events to build hype at a USMNT game then DOB's frickin' baseball/gridiron references.
it's all about maxing ratings... espn doesn't care what's on, it's all about pushing whatever is, and bundling it as best they can...
Ummm -- he said the atmosphere was like the World Cup because there were 70 freaking thousand people there. That's one 7 and 4 zeros. That may somehow, I dunno, be connected to the aforementioned 'annoying crowd shot.' Dellacamera's not an idiot. Molehill < Mountain
I think she offers just as much as Rob stone or foudy. Of course I am biased.. Rob stone is just to giddy/goofy for my liking... It could be worse though..
Admittedly, the three of them were horrible and I feel the same way as you about Stone. It could have been a push. I was too busy staring at her hair and staying awake. I think Stone was too. I do recall him commenting on her hair a few times during the WWC while his pregnant wife was at home.... I still haven't gotten over how awkward that WWC plug with Stone, Foudy, and Mitts during that Friday night college football game was(I think ESPN made Youtube take it down). Mitts and Foudy on both sides of him, rubbing his chest, and rubbing their noses on him made me want to vomit. While not a woman, has Tony Dicicco done men's games?
All I have been asking for throughout the DOB era is for the commentators to call the game. JP & Harkes did that, and did it professionally. I have no complaints at all in that regard. I didn't agree with everything Harkes said, but I don't agree with everything anyone says. Nobody ever talked about Jack Edwards' hair or shoes...because it doesn't effing matter. Same for Foudy. She and Stone were fine--would probably be even better with someone like Hopkins or even Arena to add a little flavor. Did anyone watch the postgame show on espn360? It was really great...they interviewed the players, talked about the problems on set pieces, talked about qualifying & upcoming friendlies. Really solid stuff.
It didn't occur to me, I'm slipping. I probably also should have caught that they messed up and counted time up instead of down, like it is in every other American sport.