ESPN Drops the Ball, Again
Bravo ESPN, we salute you for your dedication to covering the Euros on your family of networks and only sloughing the first days matches to ESPN Classic. For that you deserve some credit.
However, our own national team is playing it's three toughest opponents in a row, ever, and for the two "Sexier" matches, in terms of who neutrals (see: not psychotic about footie) would rather/should see, many Americans (or maybe it's just me and my shit cable package) will be forced to watch the game on tape delay, in Spanish. What is so important that the USMNT squaring off against England, in Wembley, gets the bump to ESPN Classic? The French Open - Early Round play is taking up space on ESPN 2. Fair enough that the French Open is kind of a big deal, at least it's not jump rope for heart competitions. However, that leaves the whole mother ship of ESPN wide open then, right? Wrong. All of the crappy progamming that clutters ESPN 2 during the day has gotten bumped to ESPN on Wednesday; this includes such wonderfully stimulating television as "The Best of Mike and Mike in the Morning" (a radio show that they tape so we get to see the two gentlemen sitting at radio mics pontificating about sport), 1st and 10 (I'm not sure what the hell this is about, and I've even suffered through it before), and Jim Rome is burning (someone whose show should've been cancelled long ago).
While I've gotten used to the Entire SPorts Network snubbing my sport before, forcing me to watch it in Spanish. This time they've gone too far. Here's a game that could actually put soccer on the map in this country, if the US gets a result in London you can queue the Boston Tea Party References on Sports Center that evening, and guarantee that more people will then tune into the MLS season to watch LannyCakes taunt Beckham during Galaxy games. As well as providing some fodder for discussion about whether the US can actually compete in South Africa 2010. If the US were playing a meaningless friendly against Columbia (which you televised) or China (another that you televised) I could understand the snub, but this game is higher profile than the qualifier against Barbados. {Though, failure to get a result against the tiny island nation will undo any good the comes of the three friendlies; we're talking nuclear winter type setback.}
It was about time the USSF grew a pair and started scheduling more respected friendlies, now it's time for the Sports Journalists in this country, especially ESPN, to give the USMNT and soccer some respect. I'm not talking about taking up two of the three networks type of respect, say on June 8th when ESPN 2 is busy televising the Euros and ABC is televising "To BE Determined" while US vs. Argentina gets bumped to ESPN Classic. I'm just talking about some baby steps. That's All.
However, our own national team is playing it's three toughest opponents in a row, ever, and for the two "Sexier" matches, in terms of who neutrals (see: not psychotic about footie) would rather/should see, many Americans (or maybe it's just me and my shit cable package) will be forced to watch the game on tape delay, in Spanish. What is so important that the USMNT squaring off against England, in Wembley, gets the bump to ESPN Classic? The French Open - Early Round play is taking up space on ESPN 2. Fair enough that the French Open is kind of a big deal, at least it's not jump rope for heart competitions. However, that leaves the whole mother ship of ESPN wide open then, right? Wrong. All of the crappy progamming that clutters ESPN 2 during the day has gotten bumped to ESPN on Wednesday; this includes such wonderfully stimulating television as "The Best of Mike and Mike in the Morning" (a radio show that they tape so we get to see the two gentlemen sitting at radio mics pontificating about sport), 1st and 10 (I'm not sure what the hell this is about, and I've even suffered through it before), and Jim Rome is burning (someone whose show should've been cancelled long ago).
While I've gotten used to the Entire SPorts Network snubbing my sport before, forcing me to watch it in Spanish. This time they've gone too far. Here's a game that could actually put soccer on the map in this country, if the US gets a result in London you can queue the Boston Tea Party References on Sports Center that evening, and guarantee that more people will then tune into the MLS season to watch LannyCakes taunt Beckham during Galaxy games. As well as providing some fodder for discussion about whether the US can actually compete in South Africa 2010. If the US were playing a meaningless friendly against Columbia (which you televised) or China (another that you televised) I could understand the snub, but this game is higher profile than the qualifier against Barbados. {Though, failure to get a result against the tiny island nation will undo any good the comes of the three friendlies; we're talking nuclear winter type setback.}
It was about time the USSF grew a pair and started scheduling more respected friendlies, now it's time for the Sports Journalists in this country, especially ESPN, to give the USMNT and soccer some respect. I'm not talking about taking up two of the three networks type of respect, say on June 8th when ESPN 2 is busy televising the Euros and ABC is televising "To BE Determined" while US vs. Argentina gets bumped to ESPN Classic. I'm just talking about some baby steps. That's All.
posted by Nick at
7:09 PM
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