Dellacamera needs to shut up with his "we expect to see Mia play,we expect to see Mia play,we expect to see Mia play" crap. It's like it is not a real soccer game without her!! World class team, no class coverage, as always.
Well, seeing as yesterday's US match was on Telefutura ... I have gotten to like Pablo Ramirez! I give him a big GOLAAAAAAAAZOOOOOOO! for his work this month.
Re: Re: I love Mia Hamm BUT..... You make that statement as thought everyone gets Galavision and Telefutura. They are not offered in my area. After watching Tom Stone and Erika whatever her last name is do the broadcast of two games, I'm giving JP and Wendy lots of slack.
It is not just JP. I was at the game yesterday and the "We want Mia" chants I thought were extremely disrespectful. Hamm is the greatest women's playyer on the planet. I am sorry I did not get to see her play yesterday. But our girls were busting their backsides against a very strong Korean team, and doing an excellent job. It was very disrespectful to them. And I am sure Hamm would agree.
Re: Re: Re: I love Mia Hamm BUT..... Exactly. People make this annoying argument all the time--"just switch over to Telefutura." Dude, believe me Detroit cable ain't getting Galavision or Telemundo even, much less Telefutura, any time soon. We are lucky to have Univision.
Yo, yo, yo. Waitaminute. Many of those fans and supporters paid $100 per ticket to see that match. They were well within bounds of appropriate behavior to call for the player they all came to see. Many of those chanting were young girls and soccer moms who may not have entirely grasped April's decision and strategy behind it and the fact that Norway is on the horizon (and in the crosshairs). Now if they had chanted something about April in bad taste, that would have been disrespectful. Or if they would have screamed "Pull Millie" and alternated "We want Mia!", then we would have a disrepectful request.
What he said, I don't get either, plus I don't think it is too much to expect to get competent announcing in English.....
Can't agree with this. It's great that Mia is so big, but the rest of the players are working thier asses off in a tough game and all the fans care about is Mia playing. I thought it was pretty uncool. By the way to the intitial post complaining about JPD talking about Mia playing: She was one of like three or four players who put on a bib and starting warming up, so I'd say he had good reason to say this.
the announcers make fun of Korean and chinese names at times...and they pronounced wrong each an every name, they say the last name first, like wen sun, or Jie Bai etc ...
but i think we can't blame Mia on this one, she often reffered to her team mates accomplishments during the interviews, she is a star with great personalities, thats what her team mates love her
That's because Jie is Bai Jie's first name. Isn't it? Its Chinese tradition to give your family name first and your given name second.... I blame Pin Yin for the problems with pronounciation. Its a great system once you learn it but its not empirical for English speakers. The letter combinations just don't make sense to be pronounced the way they look until you get an intro to Pin Yin..... An aside, as everytimeI heard Mi I I cringed. Don't know if the Koreans adopted Pin Yin but, Mi Ae (Korean name) is pronounced Me Eh.
If the late '90s were resting Micheal Jordan during a signifigant but all together throw away game, you'd hear the same type of reaction from reaction and broadcasters. It might not be the best analogy to compare her to Jordan, but she's absolutely an iconic figure.
I am one of those people who paid alot of money for a ticket to the match. Plus plane fare, car rental, hotel, and parking in Chicago. I wanted to see Hamm play and was disappointed she was not in. But I say what I said before. Those players were busting their backsides out there. And playing well too. Maybe we were missing some midfield possession and Hamm has been playing incredibly well of late. But they were giving it their all and winning too. It was extremely disrespectful. As sadie pointed out, Hamm is the first to talk about how great her teammates played. My guess is that she was embarassed by the chants.
Unfortunately, to an admitted outsider, this thread seems to me to be a pretty good example of why the Women's game in its current configuration isn't a sustainable business. Does anyone really think this sort of argument would come up if the Men had just won a WC game 3-0 to advance to the next round? How about if a Jordanless Bulls had advanced to the NBA finals. No way. Maybe there are enough people out there who just want to "see Mia Hamm" or whomever the next star is, to make a difference. However, my sense is that for the longterm health of the sport you need a fan base that cares about it in the same manner the fans of other sports do--meaning 100% focused on who wins and who loses. Not saying this to be incendiary... just an observation.
Oops, it looks like somebody spilled the troll bait. Back to our conversation. I am sure that the members of the USWNT know that Mia's top billing is part of the gig. I am sure that is the first question on the survey Ape gives them when the step foot in camp. Mia appears to handle it graciously and her teammates seem to handle it well. It appears that there a few upset supporters. Now, if the chants happened in 2007 without Mia on the roster, I would be offended. Let's check back in four years.
Being in the stands I must say I was somewhat uncomfortable with the chants for Mia, particularly after all the subs had been used and there was no chance of her getting in. That said, we should remember what demographic started and participated in most of the chanting. Most were almost certainly under the age of 18 and probably the biggest percentage under 14. I think we can forgive a large contingent of young soccer players wanting to see their hero. My daughter did not join in the chant, but she certainly was disappointed not to see Mia play...although she was still very happy to get the 3 points and into the next round;-).
Why wasn't David Beckham playing? Oh... sorry, wrong, 'We only came to see one player, not the team" thread.
Chinese names I am afraid you are wrong here. Sun Wen's last name (surname) is "Sun", and Bai Ji's last name is "Bai." The Chinese put their last name first.
I highly doubt these chants effected Mia of the other players at all. They aren't very professional if they let it effect them.
I liked it when Jorge Ramos used a player's name in the commentary: "La derecha Pu, la izquierda Pu, se complica Pu, se pega Puuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" It's part of the chatter and patter of Latina American soccer announcers. It's better than, what an American would say in the same situation: "Here's Pu Wei ... strikes it! Over the bar." Yawn.
I agree, simply chanting for a player to come in is not bad. A few Sams Army people gathered along the rail above like 134 in the second half to try and make some noise after discussing over halftime our disappointment that there was no SA group. When the WWM chant started we joined in... in fact a responsible for one of them. We figured hey at least they are chanting something.
I have to give the midwest fans a lot of credit. Many of them drive many hours (Michigan 6-8, Wisconsin 7.5, Columbus 1-oops that's getting out of the parking lot ). They don't get to see Mia play in the WUSA unless they drive to the coast. So I understand the desire to see Mia play, especially when she uses that dirty word - Retire. Mia and the team are used to dealing with the screams of Mia. Personnally, I think that Julie likes to tease Mia about it. The vast majority of the chanting was from kids - go for it. I don't think that it shows any disrepect.
And Nomar came all that way too. The bottom line is to win the whole thing and if rest help so be it.one more thing how was SLATON watching Heather at half is killing me