Dead Man Walking II

I was thinking the same thing! The game starts, action is happening and I can't see the damn field because of graphics! I am remembering their names by phonetics at this point, and seeing them spelled out under some little pictures is not going to help me. Just show me the damn game!

All sports producers should have this question in their brain at all times- "Is this going to help or hurt our viewer seeing the actual game?"

Sadly, I am ruined by HiDef. I do not get the spanish stations in HiDef, and regular TV just looks like crap compared to HiDef. I was checking this out by switching between HiDef and regular TV during the games. My thought was, "How could I have watched this before and thought it was a good picture?"

What's worse is that ESPN's producers don't seem to care. Even when something interesting is obviously going on, though we can't see it, they don't take the graphics off immediately.

Still, King misses the obviously best thing about Univision's coverage (though I guess it's forgivable since he's just discovered it): the announcers sometimes refer to David Beckham (who is married to former Spice Girl Posh) as the Spiceman.

I also understand very little Spanish, but I do understand that that's funny!

King! Any comments on this year's CWS?

The Switzerland/Ukraine game was the one decided on penalties. The Italy/Australia one was decided by *one* penalty, in the last minute of stoppage time. Worst of all it was a dive, one of the worst dives I've seen in ages. The Italian player should have been red carded, not awarded the penalty.

While Isiah has been an atrocious GM, I have to give him credit: he has a pretty good history in the draft. In Toronto, he drafted Damon Stoudamire and Marcus Camby, and in New York he drafted Channing Frye. I think that is the one thing he does well.

Yes, I have been complaining about the graphics since the WC started. But I too am hooked on the HD pictures so I can't go back now.

Don't the Univision guys call Beckham "Spiceboy" not "Spiceman"? That would play off the "Spicegirl" thing better.

Balboa may know more about soccer than you, King, but I doubt you are really learning anything useful from the moronic things that come out of his mouth.

I thought it was funny during the Swiss-Ukraine match that JP and Harkes were still complaining about the referee giving out a record number of cautions and ejections the night before with one breath and then with the next they were complaining that the referee in the match they were watching wasn't giving out any. These people are truly idiots.

The ESPN/ABC coverage of the World Cup is so dreadful that it boggles the mind. The graphics covering the play every 2-3 minutes demonstrate how woefully unfamiliar american TV networks are with broadcasting soccer. The graphics that EPSN displays would normally be narrated to the audience by the anouncers. Furthermore, the announcers are by far the worst announcers I have ever listened to in any sport ever. When a player is subbed in, no mention of his position, no mention of his club team, no mention of the tactical reasons for the substitution. EXPLAIN the TACTICS to me, not the damn RULES. Soccer has very few rules, and all are easy to understand, but the tactics are complex and intricate. Before we even try to get better players to incite enthusiams here for soccer, we will need much better announcers. No wonder few people like soccer here, the announcers are fourth-rate drooling dolts, the analysts are worse than useless, and the coverage favors obnoxious useless graphics over live action. I am glad that I can speak spanish, Univision is a god-send.

The ABC/ESPN announcers sound like inebriated sports jocks blathering on in a bar. That would be intolerable even if they were buying the beer, instead of advertising it. I tuned in to ABC for one match, but went right back to Univision, where the announcers pay attention to the game and get excited about it (gol! theatrics aside). But I don't think the problem is caused by announcers unfamiliar with soccer. Almost all US sports broadcasting in English suffers from irrelevant or uninteresting commentary and excessive and untimely use of flashy graphics. With Univision, one can escape ESPNs ponderous rehashes of the obvious. That gives me such a feeling of relief, I can wait until afternoon for the beer.

For some reason, Setanta sports -- which specializes in rugby, GAA, aussie rules, etc -- has been showing the German language feed all world cup.

If people are looking for something less exciting than Dave O'Brien, try the German announcers. It is not just that I don't speak German, they just mumble. On the upside, they don't mumble much, so you do get a lot of ambient sound.

The hockey radio and television broadcasts in Buffalo use the same audio feed and the effect is very similar to watching the Univision coverage of soccer. Even if nothing much is happening, a good play by play describing the inaction makes it seem more dramatic.

The Simpsons, of course, captured this (and America's relationship to soccer) pretty well, when soccer same to Springfield.

See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TTMDyJeqMo&search=simpsons%20soccer%20riot

Groundskeeper Willy: "Ach. They call this a soccer riot? Come on, boys, let's take 'em to school!"

As a transplanted Canadian I especially resent having to endure ABC's hopeless announcers. In Canada the rights holders just pick up the BBC feed and save the local heroes for half-time and the lead-in. What gets me is that ABC could have drawn upon its ESPN2 soccer announcers who've called UEFA Champions League games for years. I'm not usually a great fan of Tommy Smyth's patter but I'll stuff my complaints in the old onion bag now.

I've sought relief by turning the sound low enough to miss most of the gibbering while still being able ot hear the ref's whistle. At first I thought an alternative would be internet radio but BBC's play by play is unavailable here and XM sattelite has the rights sewn up. From what I've heard of their coverage in free radio clips it's not much better than ABC's. Ah well, I'm just grateful that the games are on.