MLS wrap 5/3/ 2003

A few things ...

Wheelock and Harkes need to talk less about themselves or at least less about Harkes. It's just getting way too precious.

Those question stank. And they were made worse by the fact that Harkes didn't even seem to know what one of the questions was asking. It was the quetion about transfer fees and Harkes answered it as if it were a question about the salaray cap. Now as I understand it every MLS team actually does have a set amount available to them to use on the transfer market - or at least I seem to remember something like that when DC acquired Reyes. Anyway, Harkes totally blew that question and missed a real opportunity to educate viewers about the way that MLS actually conducts itself.

The other question was just too open ended. And it was just plain stupid. What's more, Harkes acknowledged the stupidity of the question when he questioned its very basis. Why aren't the Crew scoring? Harkes basically said, what are you talking about they (at least he didn't say we) are scoring. Why did that question even make it on the air?

Frankly, if I wanted to expose myself to stupid questions and stupid answers to good questions I'd read BigSoccer.com. Stupid questions are usually posted by newbies ... or trolls. And stupid answers we often call "off-topic" and sometimes they're excised from the threads because they're of no relevance.

And Harkes - strike the words "you know" from your vocabulary at least while you're on TV.

What I really found myself wanting for this week is expert analysis. I'd much rather see a round table discussion moderated by Harkes or Wheelock or a guest interviewed by one of them than to hear Harkes answer questions from viewers - especcially if he's going to totally blow the answer. Bring in anybody decent - college coaches, former MLSers - anybody with half a brain and some good soccer knowledge. And then choose the questions for discussion yourselves and actually analyze what's going on around the league. I want The McLaughlin Group of soccer - just smarter and without all the performance art.

The clips were better this week - marginally. But I am going to complain about the ponderous line-up charts that are hemmed and hawed over before the match reviews commence. I just think that's a waste of time that could be disposed of somewhat more quickly. I suspect it's supposed to create the aura that nobody really knows what's going to happen in the clips - as if what was being shown was a condensed mini-game. But that's not what's shown. They're just clips. The buildup time could be better spent on other things like more clips and more analysis.

And the weird porno-esque music that plays in the background while the lineups are announced kind of freaks me out. (Not that I'd know what that kind of music actually sounds like. )

What else! I don't know. Maybe I'll think of something more later.

... Nonetheless, I did enjoy the show ...

 

Good points, all, Knave. While he's at it, Harkes could also learn a few more adjectives than "great." Example:

"He's a great young player, great for the league, and great for American soccer."

I think this week's was a step back from the improvements made in the past few weeks.

One thing I'd like to see is a bit more in depth analysis of an individual matchup - a d-mid against a playmaker, or a defender against a forward - to show the game within a game, to use an old cliche. It doesn't have to be for each game, but showcasing one matchup a week would be nice. Next week has a few good ones in Williams v. Etcheverry, Mastroeni v Martino, Twellman v Califf.

 

What I was doing awake on Sunday morning at 7:30am I do not know. Nonetheless, I did the unthinkable and watched MLS Wrap again. Oh my ...

I'd missed it on the live broadcast but I like the music in the intro. More jazz. Less jock rock and much less porno-tunes.

Here's a word to the wise ... When you're announcing the news that reports have just come in that a player has broken his ankle you really shouldn't open your statement with language about breaking news.

Yes, Ching's interview was vapid but does Harkes need to be so condescending about it? And if it was that dull (it was) then why was it even on the air? (I know, he scored the goal but still ...)

Following up on an earlier comment: There were four games this week. (Some weeks there are five.) MLS Wrap takes about a 1 1/2 minutes to go through the lineups for each match. That's a total of 6 to 7 1/2 minutes per show devoted to lineups (and porno-music). This time could surely be better spent. For instance, instead of telling us what various players do why not show us what players do with additional clips and commentary.

I also noticed this ... About 2 1/2 minutes of clips were shown for the DC - Dallas match. (I guarantee the other matches got a similar allotment) Mulling the lineup for 1 1/2 minutes when you're only showing 2 1/2 minutes of clips strikes me as rather disproportionate. I'm pretty sure we'd all be much happier with another 30 seconds of clips and 30 seconds less of lineups.

Frankly, if one spoke more economically the same information could be conveyed in 30 seconds less time. As it is, half the time we're not even told what these players do on their teams while the lineups are on the screen. I'm glad that Frankie got a haircut too. He does look more respectable. But is it really worth talking about his hair on MLS Wrap? Aren't there better things to do?

Aren't there any synonyms for the word campaign?

On review, I noticed that Harkes didn't answer two questions - not just the one that I noted in my previous post. He also fumbled the average goals question. That was a question about trends in MLS. Is it becoming a more offensive or defensive league. It wasn't about whether teams are currently totally together or whether they're still working out their early season kinks. An appropriate answer would have compared the first few MLS seasons with the last few MLS seasons. But, alas, Harkes seemed totally unawere of what the question was actually asking.

It's unclear to me why we had to conjecture about what KC's problems may or may not be. Why not actually diagnose some of them? Show some clips. Show where a problem is. Don't just hypothesize.

"The Shirt Off My Back" ... It's very unclear to me why kissing John Harkes's ass is a good MLS fan story.

All that said, I enjoyed the show even the second time.

 

Maybe they could cover go to something closer to the EPL Highlight show format? They can have some studio commentary, but with extended match highlights. I also like how the EPL show doesn't do a separate voice over but uses the commentator's voice, which MLS Wrap should at least be able to do for the FSW match of the week if not for all of them.

And maybe spend a couple minutes at the end for WUSA/USL highlights/scores.

 

I have yet to see this show, but I like the idea of highlighting the 'game in the game' matchup aspect for any highlight show. Just make it the soccer version of NFL Primetime, and I'll tune in every week.

 

It seems clear that they simply do not have enough time to put together a quality program for a Saturday night broadcast. The program should air later in ther week. Otherwise I fear we'll have this amateur hour stuff all season long.

I like both Harkes and Wheelock. I'm sure that both know a lot about MLS that I would be interested in hearing. But it's simply not going to come out in this format (kind of like how I've heard that Ty really does know a lot about soccer, but you'd never know it from hearing him on TV.). I pretty much agree with Knave's analysis. "Analysis" is what I want. Something serious. What we see now could easily go into a 30 minute program.

Can't help but compare it to MLS ExtraTime. And I'm afraid that MLS Wrap doesn't come across well in the comparison. Remember that play of the week analysis that Lalas used to do on the old show, where they used some sort of computer composite of the camera shots to come up with a 3-D image of a play. Neat stuff. Then there was Jeff Bradley's MLS Insider segment. Wrap has nothing like this.

Two other points:

- For God's sake Harksie, it's "MLS," not "The MLS." Then again, most players I hear interviewed call it "The MLS" too. And didn't Rob Stone call JMM "Max Moore" on Saturday? Yikes!

- Until FSW manages to get it's hands on some decent photos of the MLS stadia, they should drop the satellite imaging intro to each set of highlights. Is that really a photo of the new Foxboro stadium? It looks like hell. I know they're ripping off the way the EPL does it on their FSW broadcasts, but it comes across as a VERY cheap imitation.

Bottom line: delay to a Tuesday night broadcast time and do a decent job. Whatever happens though, I'll remain a devoted viewer.

One last thing on a related note: I really liked how on the espn2 broadcast, Wynalda, Stone and Keogh seemed to be working together as a 3 person team this week. Wynalda's almost constant presence seemed to really spice things up.

 

i honestly thought that this was the best show yet. with the format that they have it right now they're really starting to smooth everything out within that format. i really liked how they broke down the Rev's own goal. i would love to see more analysis like that. i liked the post game interviews. seemed to work really well. still work to be done but i think they're just chipping away at it each week. lets get the highlight guy on set, make the highlights longer, and more analysis. I absolutely love watching this show though. for someone who's relatively new to MLS this shows really helping my knowlege of the league.

i agree thogh with the ESPN 2 crew that ith Wynalda chiming in on a regular basis really seemed to work. it wsa like they were having a constant conversation about the game. although Stone seemed to get a little drowned out with the pbp.

 

nice little McBride interview, if even just to see his everton goals again.

 

This is actually annoying the hell out of me, in part because he is doing it from the sidelines. If they want Wynalda in the conversation, then throw him in the booth and eliminate the God-forsaken "Coach's Corner" segment. Otherwise, like you said, the play by play gets drowned out.

Can we just take JP and Tommy and place that team on MLS games? While I don't always agree with their commentary, they have it down where they let the game speak for itself.

To stay on topic here, I actually think the best place for Wynalda would be in a wrap show.

 

I thought this show was the best one yet, but the "improvement curve" is definitely slacking. I think this may be about as good as it gets, given the short turnaround time.

I doubt they'll change it this year. But I'm hopeful they'll address this for next year. I don't know, tho, if they'll have to wait until Tuesday. I would think making the 10:30 Sun. airing live would give them enough time to make the highlights package better.

 

Yeah, then Harkes and Wynalda can talk about who's doin whos ole lady? Or maybe a celebrity death match might work!

 

it's a highlights show - they should show more highlights.

there were at least THREE significant plays in the Dallas - DC game which they didn't show - 1) Earnie on the breakaway in the 1st minute which he muffed; 2) Kreis receiving the trhough ball which Rimadno came out to snuff: and 3) Johnson cracking the resulting corner kick into the bar - which they didn't show. In a 0-0 game, these were all important highlights to be showing to show how close the teams came to goals. O yea, also the missed PK the ref didn't call in about the 10th minute.

The funny thing is, all these events happened in the first half. And during the game when FSW was shwoing the game, they showed NONE of these highlights as part of their halftime recap. It's almost as if the MLS Wrap guys were just taking highlights they used during the halftime of the actual game, and didn't do any editing themselves.

I agree with Minnman - I just don't think they have the time to give the show any serious thought. The Producing is very poor and doesn't seem to be improving.

I thought this week was a step back.

Still, a lot better than nothing, though sometimes I think of more casual soccer fans tuning in and just getting really turned off by the amateurness of it all, and MLS losing yet another potential fan, possibly forever, because of the lack of quality in packaging.

 

I find myself fast forwarding through the talking, the lineups and everything except the actual highlights, which they don't show enough of..

If you didn't watch the Metros game.... you wouldn't know that they hit the woodwork 4 times because they only showed one of them.

In one sequence alone... Mathis had a nice shot deflected by the goalie off the post...rebound came to Guevara and his shot...hit the crossbar.

Two shots in 5 seconds off the posts.... why show those highlights....

 

a lot of people are being extremely critical of the show. there's a lot of pent up frustration on these boards about the state of the media coverage of soccer in this country. could this show be better? yes. are a lot of the criticisms valid? sure they are. but lets remember that they're still new at it. it will get better and we don't need to rail on this show like its part of a media conspiracy. this is a network that has shown an investment in soccer and stands to gain quite a deal from support of soccer. so lets try to be supportive. these guys are on our side.

 

Yeah, if they can't pull together a decent highlights show on Saturday night, I'd vote for a change to Sunday evening.

There's way too little action shown. Every match I've seen live has had at least three key plays omitted from the wrap-up show. Heck, the EPL Review Show has twice the number of matches every week and yet manages to show more action per game!

Furthermore, I'd like to see more build-up of each play shown. Again, the EPL Review Show does a good job of showing one team possessing the ball, then turning it over, then being on the receiving end of a scoring chance or goal. Much better than just showing a guy running down the left wing and whipping in a cross.

If they've gotta do that viewer mail segment, at least clue Harksie in on the questions beforehand. He had no clue about a coherent answer, and I definitely didn't benefit from that piece.

I love Wheelock's enthusiasm for the league and Harkes' humor, and a show like this is better than nothing. But I do hope they can up the quality a couple of notches.

 

Let me assure everyone that constructive criticism of MLS Wrap, and all FSW properties for that matter, on these boards is both noted and appreciated.

We're all soccer fans here.

 

We appreciate you coming on here and letting us know. None of us (well, most of us) want to fall into the trap of being the cliched whiny "nothing's ever right" American soccer fan. We all - I know I do - LOVE the fact the show is on at all. But as consumers - and, I suppose, self-styled critics - we all have ideas on how it could be better.

With that said, get your shite together.

 

What the show really needs is for MLS to expand by about 10 or so teams in the next few weeks. Having highlights of only 4 games is a weakness that I fear can not be easily fixed.

 

Well, this just underscores the fact that there should be no excuse for failing to show significant plays in those 4-5 games. We're in a situation now where "every goal in MLS" is shown but a number of shots off the woodwork are omitted. Not to mention other key plays like the Quaranta takedown that Ray Hudson called an obvious PK in his post-game interview.

There's also an opportunity to show substitutions, tell why the coach made them (e.g. his injury flared up again, he was exhausted, or in order to protect the lead), and note whether the team changed formations (e.g. Donovan dropped back to the midfield, or from a 4-4-2 to a 3-4-3 in order to press for the equalizer). I suspect these don't make the wrap-up show because they don't make the post-game highlights. But to get a real feel for each match and how it unfolded, those are important details.

I think FSW should set a goal of tripling the time allocated to actual game highlights next week. I guarantee they're not going to be wanting for action.

And while I'm offering suggestions, let me comment about those video screens behind Sean and John that show random barely-discernable highlights from weeks past. I find them rather distracting.

Thanks for noting our constructive criticism of the show, FSW Producer. Trust we can work together to make MLS Wrap a better product.

 

Thanks for responding in that way. We're a bit spoiled by basically the media persons who cover the sport now being highly interactive on here. It's good to hear that people are paying attention. Can you answer as to why they don't show more highlights? Is it an editorial descision, or is something else getting in the way? Part of the reason I posted originally to remind everyone to be supportive is that I just want FSW to know that we're all very appreciative to have the show. Thanks again.