So D.C. United had a 531 minute scoreless streak going into the San Jose game Saturday, which, coincidentally, was the Soccer Saturday game. Five minutes into the game, the drought is over courtesy of a good goal from United's new signing from El Salvador. Of course, I missed it, because the Deuce had stayed with a ridiculously long-running blowout in the Little League World Series. They cut in 12 minutes into the game. Adding insult to this injury was the fact that I still had to LISTEN TO JACK EDWARDS, who was calling the LLWS. Ugh. If United scored a goal and no one could see it, did it really happen?
Yeah, Lord knows ESPN had to stick with 9-2 blow-out... This is the clearest example of how little regard ESPN has for the league, if you had any doubts.
Oh for crying out loud, this tripe is so predictable. For once, ESPN made CORRECT decision to stay with a match in progress until the end. You know very well that if an MLS match went to extra time and ESPN cut away to show motocross or golf or Sportscenter, soccer fans would flip out. As long as ESPN is CONSISTENT in finishing the broadcast of matches they start, I have no problem. As much as it's warranted at times, the persecution complex can get tiresome.
Man oh man were you reading my thoughts after Jack said "lets go to San Jose where DC is beating the Earthquakes", you can't even make it up! Fully expected them to stay with the LL game though; doesnt mean it wasn't disappointing to miss our first goal in about 9 and a half hours of play...
I don't think that geordienation was as upset about the long running LLWS game as he was about not getting to see DC's only goal for the last three and a half years and being able to see Ben Olsen on the field at the start of the game in almost three decades..... okay, the exageration was a bit extreme, but it caught your attention, right?
As long as ESPN is CONSISTENT in sticking with games until the end, I'm happy. What about the Chicago-Metros game a few years ago that was like 4-0? Would you have been ok with them switching to golf or something? Didn't think so. FYI-I don't know how much little league you watch but there's no such thing as a blowout in progress. In LL, 9-2 is comfortable but hardly insurmountable. I think the team that won today came down from 6 runs behind in the regional final.
Sorry Geordie, I was responding to Claymore. I must've hit the reply button to the wrong post. My bad.
in all fairness ESPN just did the same thing to women's tennis to show us overtime of SJ-DC. I can't complian. Fair is fair.
I remember a time when they blew off an NHL game to show the playoff elimination rounds in a golf tournament. I was a bit upset about it, but that's the way it goes.
espn2 stayed long for the LLWS, and they stayed long for the MLS match that's what they do... and they will continue to stick with what they are already carrying, unless something major happens (i.e. a major league player found dead) personally, i think it's a smart move... a lot of games start off horribly slow, why not stick with the end of a game... which is 90% more likely to be exciting (making the number up, but who cares?) however, that was damn funny to have dc's scoreless streak snap, and no one could see it... i was chuckling pretty good about it... thankfully for dc fans, they scored again
Why not leave the LLWS on but have the soccer game showing in the upper left hand corner or something like that? This way everyone is happy.
This is going back a long time but we lost almost the entire first half of a Euro '96 knockout stage match between the Czech Republic and Portugal because a senior golf tournament went to extra holes. Man, I was screaming at my TV set. These two geezers were missing three-foot putts! I can't begrudge ESPN2 finishing the broadcast of a live event that runs long. What really gripes me is when ABC/ESPN switches a broadcast from one of its networks to another at the last minute. I'd wager you they've done that with soccer more than any other sport. If you're having to watch matches by VCR, you're screwed. And forgive me for drifting off-topic a bit, but they're showing too much of the Little League World Series as it is. I mean, we have 12-year-old snotnoses calling their home runs a la Babe Ruth now? Just watch -- a beanball war, or a bench-clearing brawl isn't too far off. Kids and Big Media are a bad mix. Do like they used to and just show the championship on Wide World.
I was equally dissapointed today. This is not the first time ESPN has snubbed us soccer fans. A couple of times when they were supposed to be showing UEFA Champions League games, they didn't show them at all. Instead they showed horse racing or NASCAR trials. Utterly devastating when you expect to see the game!
That's definitely a great idea. As much as I like to bash Univision, last year on October 7th they showed the Costa Rica and Mexico match. That was also the same day we began bombing Afghanistan. While Univision was talkiing about the bombings, they had the game in the corner of the screen. We should all e-mail ESPN about using this idea.
I just wish espn wouldn't put any baseball on before soccer-those games are interminable and always seem to run long. It's not like we get the satisfaction of watching soccer run 45 minutes into other programming. Forgive me if this is mean, but all I could think of when the chubby kid got thrown out at 2nd base to end the game was-if you played soccer kid, you might be in shape enough to run a little bit.
So since some of you think they should have cut away from the LLWS game at 4, how many think they should have stopped broadcasting soccer at 6, which is when it was supposed to end, regardless of whether the game was over or not?
Lay off Jack Edwards. He did a good job letting us know about the DC game and I thought he did his best to promote Soccer Saturday while the LLWS games was dragging on. Would Dan Patrick mention even once that MLS was coming up next and to stay tuned? Probably not. I was there the last time Ben Olsen started for DC. Telephones had cords! We put a man on the moon, and McDonalds hamburgers cost $.15
Forgive me, but I am new at soccer. Who is Ben Olsen? I have been watching MLS and the Nat'l team for 1 1/2 years and never seen this guy. What is it about him? What did he do for the Nat'l team? Is he even better than Sanneh at right back cuz Stone and Ty kept talking about him being part of the Nats soon.
bennie is a right mid, a very good one he was on loan to an english team when he first injured his ankles, they were already planning to do a surgery at the end of the season and then they had to do both the english team was still going to buy bennie, but then it was seen that he was going to need more surgery... that was a while ago earlier this season, bennie was training again and they discovered he needed more surgery.. the fact that he has played the last couple of games is incredible in my mind... dcu has been incredible in their dealing with him and his injuries, really standing by him... complete class on their part if he can come back most of the way, he should be able to make the national team and be a part of it once again when he first went down, he was about to become a regular and would have most definitely made the world cup team... it is a shame, but he can still make the next one -jim (if i have any of that wrong, i hope someone will correct it... feel free to add to it as well)
I beleive he was with Nottingham Forrest. http://www.dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=team&cont_id=player&personnel_id=442&roster_id=15