Decent job on the highlights but I didn't see any of the games to know what they left out. Funny thing with harkes busting on Friedel for the British accent. Wonder where his has gone in the last 2 years or so. Has Harkes lightened his hair color?? His jacket and tie were hideous.
I thought it was a very good show. About his hair...he mentioned that he's got a role in "The Game of Their Lives" that he had to dye his hair for.
Back home in Cali for the weekend, and it was my first chance to check out the show. A job well done, and I wish I had the chance to see this every week. A few things to consider moving forward: * Get through all the games before going to other soccer news. I'd be happy with an hour of MLS stuff, but don't mind the inclusion of other US soccer news. While the call with Arena and the update on Confed practice was interesting, I wouldn't lead off the show with those segments. * Please, for the Love of God, don't pipe in crowd noise in the background of the highlights. Play some music (like NFL Primetime), do the commentary over the natural crowd noise, but having looped static in the background was distracting more than anything else. * Don't be afraid to spend some more time actually analyzing highlights. When a player cuts inside and tries to beat two players, stop the film and show the wide open player on the left he should have hit with a pass. Allow Harkes and Wheelock (or the guy doing the voice overs for the highlights) to jump in an explain things -- I'm sure there are things even the most critical soccer fan can learn * In the last 5 minutes or so, do a brief recap of the plays of the week. If anyone tuned in late, they can catch a bit of the action, and I don't mind seeing a great play a second time in the same highlight show. This weekend especially could have used a second look at all the goals scored (and players thrown in to goals ) All that being said, I enjoyed watching the show, and as soon as Fox Sports World gets set up in the new apartment, will happily sit down for the Sunday replay each week (Saturday at 12am is a rough timeslot back east.)
Rogo Chunks/Bad Production Misidentifying players. Out-and-out lying about the order in which things happen. They obviously cannot produce a show in 2 1/2 hours. Thx, Jay!
Well done show this week. But it was rather ironic having Harkes be the one to bust Friedel on his English accent. Some phrase involving a pot and a kettle comes to mind... As far as I can remember, there was only one major play missed in the Dallas - San Jose match, but it was a huge omission. In the second half, Jason Kreis took a long pass over the Quakes defense and cracked a volley shot from well outside the penalty area. Solid hit off the far post that bounced back to Agoos. Amazing strike that would have been goal of the week if it had gone in. I also saw the Metros - Fire match, but I can't recall any major highlights that weren't shown. Again, a better show than in the past. In particular, Harkes had much better comments on the players highlighted in each lineup. The players still seemed to be picked at random, but at least Captain America showed a bit of insight. Also, it's nice to see Sean's infatuation with John has worn off a bit.
John, buddy, the next time wardrobe tries to stick you in anything less than a dark jacket, tell them to piss off. If you're doing your own wardrobe, take this advice: when your hair, tie and jacket are all roughly the same color, you're going to look like crap. Set lighting (at least the ones they're using on MLS Wrap) is pretty unforgiving. Stay away from earth tones.
Further proof Julie Foudy is out to destroy men's soccer in the US: She gave her jacket from France 98 to Harkes.
Strike one- Wheelock thought Kovalenko's chest clearance was a shot on goal Strike two- Harkes's jacket Strike three- Friedel accent segment
Strike one: It wasn't Wheelock commenting the DC game. --------------- For an hour long show with only 5 games, they don't show enough highlights PERIOD. I only caught a little of Metro game and the good save I saw by Zach in 44th wasn't in the highlight set. I find it mindboggling that shows like the The Bundesliga review show & NFL Primetime have more games to cover in the hour, but end up showing more highlights per game than Wrap.
I've come to expect many of the shows shortcomings and so have grown numb to them. But a friend of mine was over to watch the games and he stuck around to see MLS Wrap as he's FSW deprived. He was not impressed at all with the highlights. In particular he remarked that the highlights told no story whatsoever. They gave no indication about how the match actually went. Other notes ... For some reason the taped crowd noise struck me as utterly stupid this week. Why they chose Eski's first goal rather than his much better second for the goal of the week candidate (as they did on MLSNet) is a mystery to me. The lineup discussions are still too long. Not enough analysis ... whatever. I've said it all before anyway. Here's the thing ... I've been watching MLS Wrap every week since it began. But next week I'm relocating for the better part of the next few months and although I'll have access to the Shootout I can't get FSW there. For the first few weeks of MLS Wrap I thought I might miss the show because I fully anticipated that it would improve. It has but not dramatically. In the end, MLS Wrap does not add much substantive to my MLS experience. I don't think I'm going to miss it. I was led to believe that MLS Wrap would be targeted for the fanatics. Really! Who else is going to watch that show except the fanatics? The fanatics know quite a lot. They're sophisticated and they have access to lots of information about MLS. If MLS Wrap is going to appeal to the fanatics then it must offer things that add to their experience. Thus far the show has failed to deliver for that audience. It gives precious little information. It relies too much on gimmicks. It's unsophisticated about the league it covers. And often it's simply ignorant of the games it's highlighting. Sure, if I could get FSW over the next few months I'd watch it but not because it's a good or valuable show that adds to my MLS experience. I'd watch it because I'm a fanatic and I watch everything I can that's MLS related.
Jeff Bradley had some comments about MLS Wrap in his column this week. They're really just about right, pretty fair criticism. I've been an MLS Wrap supporter since episode #1. But I wonder what really keeps them from improving? Is it a lack of vision, an executive producer who thinks things are just fine. Is it a lack of resouces, no staff, time, money to signifigantly upgrade the show midseason? Or is it a lack of talent, just the wrong people doing the job? If anyone can think of any other reasons. Feel free to throw up your best quesses. Perhaps the best answer would be the lack of resources, I often wonder if the reason the highlights aren't longer is that they get them from MLS and MLS doesn't take the time to make them any longer, i dunno. I do have sympathy for their lack of resources as I've spoken about in the past. But the underlying theme is continuing that they could really improve some things with some small production changes. Maybe its just a risk reward thing, i dunno. My quess is that they really didn't have any time to get this show together so they're trying to create and recreate it on the fly which is almost impossiable because you still have to put on a show every week. Its like anything without practice you can't really improve. With this said I really enjoy the show. I enjoy that FSW has it and I think that next season they'll come back extremely improved.
He looked like he was wearing an outfit from the wardrobe from the movie. .atleast that's what I first had thought. Like he was trying to look all 1950's-ish. Then, I just realized he was just wearing a hideous outfit for no reason. See, if there would have been a reason, I'd have let it slide.