The Fox Soccer Era

Dammit i swear i was just about to write the joe buck joke. Im psyched for now but Im sure Fox will screw this up. Guaranteed!

 

As I have said many times in many threads, I don't mind Gus and Wynalda doing USA matches. I found their Gold Cup broadcasts to be entertaining for the most part.

Being the lead announcer for the World Cup though would have needed some major work on his end along with Fox hiring a good color commentator.

Now they can just focus on poaching ESPN guys or even catering to the masses here and taking the international feeds.

 

Realistically Jon Champion is their best option to get right now seeing that Darke is tied up to ESPN/BT Sport right now. ESPN does not have the the next two WC's but they will still air WCQ's and Euros which Darke will be calling.

 

Thank God!
Good Riddance Gus!
The guy at Fox Shanks should now be canned.
Gus experiment was awful.
Now bring in the real talent.

 

I'm going to watch a full match this afternoon, but I'm recording the whip-around show on FS+ because I'm curious to see how they do it. It seems like something that would be fun to watch on delay if I didn't know the score of 7 other matches that I didn't watch, but avoiding scores will be tough/impossible.

NFL RedZone sorta works because due to the nature of the game there is generally a long build-up to scoring plays. I say 'sorta' because with the invention of the remote control, I still don't know why you'd want to have someone else decide for you what match you should be watching and when.

Is anybody else planning to make use of FS+ today?

 

What they do in Germany is they switch over to a game when they score and stay on there to watch replays and then watch like 3 or 4 minutes of play after the goal, and then they switch over to another game until someone scores/gets sent off/penalty/ dangerous freekick happens. Normally you don't see the goal live, you just get to see the celebration unless they were already at that game. I stream it on my laptop while watching the one game I picked to watch. It's fun if you get it with a radio stream you like. So I listen to cadena see along with the stream and the match on TV.

 

^ Yeah that's basically what I do with the 10 am EPL games - I have Sky Sports Radio running on the computer, and if they announce a goal or penalty or something I switch to that game to see what happened

 

Easy solution, at least in theory:

A "main team" hired by FOX to do USA games and the final and possibly the opening game...similar to what ESPN had with Ian Darke. This way, the studio guys can have their own team in Russia to talk to during various studio shows, etc.

International feeds for other games.

 

I'd check out FS+, except for the fact that it's $15/mo for me. So, no. If it was on a sports tier or premium HD tier, then perhaps.

NFL RedZone works for me because sometimes I want to watch games other than what I'm fed by the local FOX/CBS affiliates and since Sunday Ticket isn't an option, so be it. You're right about the long build-up towards scores though. The only real downside is that when they put a large logo on the screen, sometimes it's hard to tell if they're going to a replay or if RedZone is flipping games.

 

Gus Johnson steps down as pbp for champions league



His explanation:

"What I realized about calling soccer and especially international soccer, I needed to do 35-40 games just to get my bars up and my chops going," Johnson told SI.com.

"Because of my schedule, I never had a chance to get that kind of experience and work in. I always felt like I was cramming, and I don’t think that’s a good thing. If I am not the best I can be, I did not think it was something I should continue to do."

 

Yeah, we already know.

Don't get me wrong...I'd love to have new announcers. There's nothing wrong with that. The problem (at least for the past 10-15 or more) years is that whenever someone, such as ESPN or FOX, tries to get a new announcer on board, they try to bring their own schtick to "Americanize" the broadcast AND these new announcers are always thrown "off the deep end without knowing how to swim" as an example.

If a new announcer watched the game, THEN worked from the bottom up, it just might work. Learn the basic rules of the game, then the players and teams, etc.

Why anyone would announce a large-scale final in their first or second season of commentating is anyone's guess.

 

It was cool: similar to RAI's La Giostra dei Gol and what Sky Germany did with the BuLi. In other words, the channel is not showing any specific game: just a random one, and if something "interesting" occurs at a different match, then the broadcast switches over to said match and so on.

 

Yeah the multimatch was better than I thought it would be. I only watched it after I had watched a couple of games live and knew all the scores already.

 

Did Fox just removed FS1 and FS2 from their Fox Sports Go app? I watched the Liverpool match on it yesterday but those channels are now gone today.

 

For those of us with Dish Network...
...Fox Sports 2 is now available in HD.

 

Just noticed that, as well.

 

Makes sense. I actually think he could have been a good soccer announcer. I like him in basketball and football and if he knew the game better, and used the over the top voice at the right time, it could have worked. But as he pointed out himself he would have needed to become a full time soccer announcer and probably spend a significant part of the year in Europe. Would have had to give up his college football and basketball gigs seems like he wasn't willing to. Fair enough and good on him and fox not continuing to do it half assed.

Now go find someone who is willing to do it full time.

 

I don't know who this Mario guy is who is handling commentary on the Wolfsburg-Lille match, but he is brutal. He seems to be the FS2 commentary guy for Europa since last MD his every other word "you know" graced the one of the game on FS2. I wish Fox would follow the CL model and go with feed commentary. Why hire freelancers? Save some money and hire a couple guys to do half-time but there is no reason to use these guys for EL. Does Fox think such a move will draw more viewers? Europa is truly for the hardcore football fan since most of the matchups are not going to entice peripheral fans or gloryhunters.

 

Former Chelsea and Dutch international Mario Melchiot.

Has the pedigree people usually expect on their international feeds, if they come with color commentary.

Thx,

Jay!

 

This whole thing where Dr. Joe chimes in every 5 minutes with stupid referee factoids is pretty pointless. Does Europa League not provide world feeds?

 

Okay, the Multimatch 90 might not have been the worst idea but it is probably the worst implemented idea.

Maybe they should adhere to some guidelines just to make it a little bit watchable. My suggestions would be:

1 - When you switch to a game, stay on it for at least 3 minutes unless something major happens else where (Note: "major" does not include a corner-kick being taken somewhere in Europe). At least for the first 80 minutes. I counted several instances last week where they stayed with a match for literally under 5 seconds. That's just over-doing it.

2 - Don't feel compelled to switch to a game just because a corner is about to be taken. Obviously to the person in the control room a corner kick is the most riveting thing in life, but most of us don't feel that way. I'd much rather they stay on a match where the action is flowing than to see a bunch of players standing around waiting for a corner to come in. At the end of the 2 hours viewers have witnessed about 40 corners.

3 - After the 88th minute don't ever switch to a match that isn't tied or a 1-goal game (unless you're replaying a goal being scored). What the heck is the point in showing a blowout when there are several undecided matches to choose from?

4 - You don't need to tell us who the commentators are each time you switch to a match. Especially if you're not following guideline #1 above.

Lets start with those basics ...

 

Haha, do they? I remember reading a study within the past year and only ~2% of corners are converted into goals.