If anyone needed more proof... well there you have it. ESPN either paid big bucks to both the NY Mets and Atlanta Braves, or pre-planned this stunt with MLB backing. Either way, ESPN made sure this baseball game went into extra innings just to overlap into the USA-Guatemala World Cup qualifying match so that America can't watch the rise of soccer. Coincidence that it happened right after USA qualified for the WC right after beating their arch-rivals, Mexico? Just imagine if I was right.
It's a good thing you're being sarcastic...otherwise, I'd have to conclude that you are a complete moron.
Well, we all know soccer doesn't matter, and there isn't anyone that was going to watch a game that late at night anyway, right? Besides, since we already beat mexico and are qualified for the WC, this game didn't mean anything to anyone anymore...sure.
Yeah looking at the new US Soccer section on Soccernet and the amount of new writers they have hired, I'd say ESPN really has it out for soccer.
Couldnt they speed up the baseball game just a little bit? Why not eliminate the commercials when the game exceeds its allotted time? Do they really need to take 10 minute break between each half inning? Do they really need to take a one minute break between each pitch? All I saw was a guy blowing bubbles and "athletes" sitting on the bench. Some game.
At least you guys got Braves/Mets. Us down here in Atlanta got Florida/Washington. I can understand not changing over when there's a good game, but the Florida game was a blowout. When it's bottom of the eighth and the score is 10-1, the game's over. Change it!
You haven't watched the Mets mcuh this year, have you The only thing the Mets hate is their fans to have low blood pressure
I never thought I'd say this, but the soccer game was the best 0-0 game. Ever. In recent memory, at least. Marcus Hahnemann is quite the stud. He proved to Bruce that he can still play and that he deserves that #3 slot. I thought that was great to see. He had a couple of poor outlets, goal kicks, but overall he was above-average. And the last 15 minutes when Landon and EJ went in ... well, let's just say, US wins this game 3-0 if they play the whole game.
You aren't serious, are you? Hey, when soccer exceeds its allotted time during the 2nd round of the World Cup, we don't we speed it up a bit. After all, they don't need the second overtime, right? Btw, between half innnings, the break is 1-2 minutes tops.
Now hold on a minute there..... There were some tense moments in the top of the 9th when it looked like the Marlins might pile on some more runs.... Think of all the poor Marlins and Nats fans that would have missed that.....
If you sat thru the end of the baseball game then it's your own fault. REAL soccer fans know that when there's a game on ESPN you don't turn the tube on until the 25th minute of the first half. Sheesh, rookies
My biggest problem is that they don't try and show the game on anyother of thier channels. They could have moved the baseball game to ESPN 1 and showed the soccer game.. It was showing the show "Hey Rookie" welcome to the NFL... Or they could have shown the game on ESPN News. Since they decided not to even show the first 20 mins. The US Soccer people need to make sure there are back up plans for these games, since things will go wrong..
Makes me wonder if they are going to cut off the end of a WC soccer match if it runs past the alloted time in order to replay the 2004 World Series of Poker reruns for the 10,000th time...THANKS IN ADVANCE ESPN!
Yeah, I'm sure that showing the 30 minutes of kicking around between the fullbacks was vital to the growth of American Soccer.
Maybe ESPN didn't orchestrate the extra innings session... which dragged on forever, like most baseball games do... BUT, THEY WERE TO SHOW THE US MNT WCQ LIVE!!! think of the priority of importance... A World Cup qualifier... part of the world's largest sporting event, which only happens once every 4 years... in the HEX there are but 10 Games over the span of a year and a half... or yet another match where the Braves beat the Mets... one of several times this year alone which these two divisional rivals faced each other and one of 160+ games on each of their schedules... which dont matter until a month and a half from now anyway in which the braves are clear out in front... and will win, like almost every year but the worst part about the whole situation EVERY BRAVES GAME IS ON TBS!!! AND EVERY MET GAME IS ON ANOTHER STATION AS WELL!! clearly everyone who had ESPN2 had TBS and couldve switched over to TBS for the extra innings... then to top it off... they didn't show the game on tape delay... they showed it live, and skipped out on the first 25+ minutes... Baseball isn't worth showing anyway... they cover anything worth seeing on all the highlight shows anyway specifically ESPN Sportscenter or Baseball 2Night You will only see a highlight of a David Beckham goal, or if the US wins a big game they will show a clip of a goal... but since there werent any, I'm sure they didn't mention a thing about the game nor do they have a US MNT WCQ 2Night show to cover this stuff that's the only time its on, they should've shown it in entirety and live
Think of difference in ratings! ESPN ain't a charity. And plenty of people think baseball is worth watching outside of the highlight shows. I consider myself to be one of them.
I had 3 ESPN 2's at the time. One on Mets/Braves, and 2! showing FLA/WASH. I was hoping they'd swicth one of the 2 10-1 games to soccer, so I could be one of 3 people or so in the country watching it live, but to no avail.
I knew I'd come here today and see this thread. One of the most basic rules in sports broadcasting is never leave a live event until it's over. It has nothing to do with soccer. When the Champions League final went OT in May, they stayed with that until the end. That's just what you do when you broadcast live sports in the post-Heidi world. Incidentally, I did think it was funny that when the baseball announcers were telling us that the US - Guat game was up next, they actually said that it didn't really mean anything. Great promotion, that.