i don't know how much longer i can stomach wheelock....or the constant talking on the show.... harkes either needs to be the lead guy, or partner up with someone else... 4 games, 1 hour.... i swear there was about 5 minutes total of soccer footage...wtf? i didn't see any of the games except for the metro/rapids game (live) but the metrostars hit the crossbar 4 times, not one of those was shown... if i wanted to just catch the goal, i'll log onto mlsnet. which is what i'll probably end up doing.... its just getting too annoying... anyone notice how wheelock can't take his eyes off of harkes? i think he's in love.
Fox Populi What was really funny was last week (4/26) when Wheelock was leading into the Fox Populi segment. I can't remember his exact words, but it was something to the effect of "there's some kind of saying like vox populi that we're playing off of". I understand that not everyone knows what "vox populi" is, but I'd think he could have looked it up. This week, someone had obviously told him that vox populi means "voice of the people" as he mentioned that.
I enjoyed the show immensely - managed to watch the entire program, too. I like the MLS news section in the beginning of the show. Still, they could take some tips from MSR - like international match highlights - especially for YA. I think some folks here are way too critical.
The next time Harkes adds something insightful to the show will be the first. Would love to hear some opinions on a particular players strengths and weaknesses or something about a team's style of play - SOMETHING!
i agree with whoever said they needs to show LOTS more highlights. now, they barely show anyone. usually about four or five. really pathetic if you think about what the show's allegedly about. in addition to the aforementioned off the post shots in the metros ggame, there were at least 4 near miss opportunities (including one off the post) in the dc game which they didn't show. after the game, both coaches said what an exciting 0-0 game it was, but you wouldn't have known it from the highlights they showed.
At this point, I'm still just overjoyed that there is ANY outlet to see MLS highlights, good or bad. That said, they should show longer highlight clips from each match. I mean, it's a one hour show and the most there can be are five matches. They have ample room to show more game action and have actual analysis of the matches. Plus, it will mean less of the inane banter between Sean and John and losing the contests and the like.
There's already a thread on this here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47450
Lose this and what's left: ESON SportsCenter? In their Top 10 plays of the day -- not one from MLS. Zaide's goal should have been there, surely. I don't know what was special about all but one or two of the many baseball 'Top Plays' shown -- a run-of-the-mill out at first base? Really? maybe I forget to notice a bare-handed catch that led to the play. Excuse me, ESPN. FSW has tuned into us, and that's fine with me. I hope they get all the time they need to improve the show to meet our rising expectations. Meanwhile, I'm glad I was able to watch soccer and soccer news from about 4 pm till 11 pm Sat. MSG was especially expansive in its coverage of Metro and MLS. "When the gulls follow the fishing boat. it is not always for sardines." -- Eric Cantona "Go figure" -- moi
I think MLS wrap has improved since the first show, but it could still be better. Without a doubt, more highlights. Show 2-3 minutes of the games before the goal was scored. Also, wht don't they combine the Fox populi and e-mail segemt? Read a letter and then play the phoned in comment. No need to to repeat what's basically the same segment 10 minutes apart. Anyway, despite the nitpicks, I'll tune in every week. I'm just gald it's on TV. However, do you think the show would drastically improve if they aired MLS Wrap Sunday morning instead of on Saturday after the last MLS game? It might give them more time to put things together rather than scramble for that midnight time slot.
I guess my problem with MLS Wrap isn't that it isn't as good as the best highlight shows that you'd ever see, like the EPL Review Show or NFL Primetime or whatever. Those shows set a pretty high bar and I can forgive MLS Wrap for not meeting it right out of the gate. My problem is that it isn't even half as good as MLS' previous highlights show! Y'all remember MLS Extratime, back when it was on ESPN2 in 2000 and 2001, don't you? The highlights were complete, you had some real analysis from Alexi Lalas and Dave Dir (as opposed to John Harkes' shallow "so-and-so is a great player, he's been playing really well..."), and the whole thing was a lot more polished. And there was a decent amount of yuks and goofing around and banter between Rob Stone and Alexi in 2000 and between Rob and Dave in 2001, but you didn't find yourself checking your watch after 45 minutes. It was an hour of good solid TV. Maybe the best thing for MLS Wrap would be a Sunday night timeslot, since currently the whole thing seems thrown together, which it is.
Why not kill two birds with one stone? Move the show to mid-week. One, it allows for the producers and commentators to prepare and not have to do the show on the fly. Two, it gives us fans something mid-week to hold us over for the weekend since there are hardly any mid-week games anymore. I doubt this will happen any time soon since they took the time to put it at the midnight slot. I hope the FSW people are using their new affiliation with BigSoccer to their advantage and reading what the fans actually want. And yes, Revolt is right, some fans are WAY too critical. If you dont like it, dont watch, some of us will just be happy we've got something to watch.