Just finally got a chance to watch the debut of MLS Wrap via my beloved Tivo... Just a couple of thoughts, but know that I reserve comment of Wheelock and Harkes for a few weeks. Doing this kind of broadcast is not easy and wheels will fall off in the first few shows so I will give some stuff a break.. My comments are more producer and director oriented. While I am a bit critical here, please know that I am very thankful and happy there is a MLS highlight show.... Although without Dir, it won't be as good. 1) For the love of god... PLEASE stop it with the side-to-side ever so slowly moving studio camera. I was going to barf on my coffee table after 30 minutes. speaking of 30 minutes takes me to: 2) Why in the hell is this show an HOUR LONG??? Good golly, they covered only four soccer matches! So much babbling, yapping, stroking of John Harkes, and repeated verbage. SHOW THE HIGHLIGHTS. I am willing to bet that if I went back and timed it, they spent maybe, at most, 20 minutes showing highlights and the rest was yammering. I don't have an hour to kill every week. Not for a measly 4-5 MLS matches. Cut it back to 30 minutes, cram in the highlights and cut WAY back on the Harkes-imitating-Jim-Carey-imitatiing-someone act... If you learn anything from ESPN, it is highlights-highlights-highlights....that is what the people come for. 3) Like the set. The vids running in the background are cool. Like most of the graphics and CG's, but there were errors in every lineup they presented. For some reason, probably to kill time, the graphics just are on screen way too long. 4) Note to whoever that is doing the play-by-play of the highlights: If you are going to use the ultra dumb line "Not enough mustard on that hot-dog" during a show, please don't use it twice. 5) Suggestion: Pre-tape the news segment at the beginning of the show and throw the voice-over onto video of the subject being talked about... Watching Sean Wheelock read the news while a graphic is above his shoulder is painful. Plus if he screws up, he can redo it. Overall, I give the show a "C". It deserves a lower grade, but I am a MLS homer and I am working off the curve here. The bigger problems with the show lay at the feet of the producer and director. The hosts are being asked to carry WAY to much for this to be entertaining for an hour. Looking forward to next week. peet
Beggars can't be choosers but I would like more highlites and less graphics. We don't need to see the game and then have a huge graphic that says the score again.
True. More highlights. The hot dog comment was lame. Wheelock reading the news from paper reminded me of teh SNL news. Can they afford a teleprompter? I liked it - I will watch them and I am sure they will get better. And I damn sure appreciate MLS and FSW for making the effort.
I liked it too. I didn't think one hour was too long at all. I watched it Saturday night and was a little shocked when I noticed 45 minutes had already gone by. Might drag more in the coming weeks, but the show moved well for me. Yes, highlights are important, but it is also nice to get different people talking about MLS and what is happening. By not rushing everything along, you give it some meaning. My suggestions for improvement: 1. More locker cams. Show me some halftime coach talks or some pre-game strategy planning. 2. Bring in a guest every week or so. Somebody like a Jeff Bradley or Marc Connelly, who can throw another bone into the commentary. This might be a budget problem for the young show, but it would help. 3. Standings at the end. Let us know the lay of the land. 4. A "More Mustard on that Hot Dog" award of the week to the shot or pass that just doesn't cut it (joking, of course). 5. A brief player spotlight would be nice. Focus on one guy every week.
I agree with JCUnited. There should be journalists like Connelly or Bradley there for a little aroudn the league segment and some chatter. In addition, it'd be nice to have a different coach or two on each week to talk about their team's performance and whats next.
Or add a weekly debate between two Bigsoccer.com members (different two every week). Might not be the most logical or positive discussion ever, but it would be damn entertaining.
Keep it an hour long. A 1/2 hours is way too short. I'd like to see more real soccer analysis, the kind you never see on American TV. Slow-motion replays of key plays, overlaps, how defenses missed the offside trap, whatever. Break it down so we get some serous insight as to what's going on in some of these games, some of the strategy that thsoe of us who don't pretend to know everything there ever was to konw about soccer would like to learn or see. Hopefully they got some of the stupid chit-chat out of the way and the glorification of "Harkesy". I think Wheelock will get better; at least he (and Harkes) seem like they're having a good time.
Understand that I am not saying the show needs to be a 1/2 hour only, in fact I want an hour....but not if they are going to goof around and let it be Sean & John's jerkoff happy hour. I want real soccer analysis...not cutesy yammering.
if you dont have the hour to 'kill' for a 'measly' 4-5 mls matches, then dont watch, its that simple.....i dont think anyone would notice or care
Actually, I sort of agree with Hitman on the length issue. One hour is too long if they're only going to show highlights of five matches. So much of the show was just Wheelock and Harkes playing grabass. I'd rather they cut down on the grabass and do a little bit more analysis, or show more extended highlights, or both. For example, during the Dallas-LA highlights, they showed Jeff Cassar in goal at the end, but only mentioned that DJ Countess got injured. Well, how about you show us HOW he got injured, or the two subsequent plays that brought the Burn trainer out to care for Countess. And it seems to me that they devoted more highlights to the Dallas-LA game than the other three matches of the day, and they didn't show all the highlight-worthy plays of the other matches. I know that at the end of regulation of the KC-DC match, there were a couple of absolutely brilliant saves that didn't make MLS Wrap. So if they're going to use a full hour for the show, they should give us a bit more meat.
Isn't that incredibly silly considering that was the most widely available TV game. Any chance this is because of the turnaround time? Maybe they just don't have the people or quality of people to whip this thing together by midnight.
Which will be an even bigger issue with next week's game in San Jose that might not even be over when MLS Wrap starts. There are some good points here - In depth analysis/breakdown segment(s) would would nice - Better highlight voiceovers - Better choice of highlights - Pretaping of certain segments - Guest commentary (a la JB on ExtraTime) - and I would throw in spend 30 seconds of the news segment to mention the WUSA scores. Just a thought.
I loved the show and am thrilled that it's an hour long. I'm sure it will only get better and better as they have more time to work out the kinks. On the content side, the one thing I'd really like them to add is a segment with previews of the following week's match-ups, including predictions on game results. In the first show, the only future game I remembered them mentioning was the one being shown on FSW.
This is MLS Wrap...I don't know about most MLS fans but I don't follow what happens in the WUSA or really care to. Spend the time on MLS, if WUSA wants a highlights show let them produce their own.
What about the interactive part?? What about the interactive part, it suposed to have an E MAIL element, for sugestions, about the time I think one hour is just perfect, somebody got the E mail???
you can email comments to FSW about mls here: http://foxsportsworld.lycos.com/named/FSW/EmailTheBooth/MLS or go here for other email addresses: http://foxsportsworld.lycos.com/named/FSW/Soccer/MLS/showPage
i thought the show was great...just nice to have an MLS wrap-up show, period! just one problem, how could they pick Brown's melee-in-front-of-the-net goal as the Goal of the Week. O'Brien's was MUCH better, what a ROCKET!!!
Well that is your problem if you don't an hour every week, the problem is not with the duration of the show but its production. But you have good points, and one has to hope they will improve and make changes accordingly. One suggestion that I like to make is for them to bring in each week soccer experts and soccer figures. They could have a few players, coaches, managers, even Dan Graber and the President of our Soc Fed and so on. have them discuss the weekly highlights, and talk about other soccer issues, referees, expansion, nat team even take a few live phone calls. Maybe even discuss some of the issues raised by some of the BigSoccer members.
Very good point.... If they show all the video clips of all the goals they could set up a internet poll and the viewers can select the GOAL OF THE WEEK....
Re: Re: FSW MLS Wrap review This is getting good by the day of what?? Yea I would like to ask Dan Graber who is in charge of hiring some of these burn our foreing players....
Re: Re: Re: FSW MLS Wrap review You guys should see some of the wrap up shows they have in other countries, coaches , managers, former players , yealling and screaming at each other, very intense definetly they don't mind asking the hard questions and stepping on some toes. When will we have reporters like that I'll never know. One doesn't have to go to far, but right here on this boards most of you will never say it as it is but try to make belive everything is just peachy. And why shouldn't we be allowed to ask those questions? we are the paying customer.
Re: Very good point.... actually, they do have this, though it doesn't appear to be working correctly yet. http://foxsportsworld.lycos.com/named/FSW/Soccer/MLS/showPage i click on it in the upper right, but it only seems to reload the page.
Well...very simple! Well...very simple they show everything peachy because many fans still have the recreational mentality that star soccer here in USA... you know suburbia, suv's,yuppies....About the hard question I am use to ask them, I have been a construction foreman for 20 years and been politically correct is not one of my virtues, beside the only thing I care is about to see REAL AMERICAN SOCCER....
Re: Re: Very good point.... Actually it also launches a RealPlayer window with the Goals of the Week or whatever segment of the show replayed. Another question, does this show air on any other Fox Sports Network except FSW? Thanks.