ESPN Takes the Cup!

I read that that ESPN recognized that the World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world.  Furthermore they recognized that while it is not the largest sport in the US, they would treat the World Cup as if it should be!  I have to hand it to ESPN, they have done an outstanding job bringing the World Cup 2010 to us by every means available! 

And I've used most of them!

You can join ESPN Facebook at (http://www.facebook.com/worldcuponespn) and they send out pre and post match notes that are decent & keep everyone in the loop.

All matches are available on the internet through ESPN3.com so you can watch it at work or wherever you are as long as you have internet access.  I used this at my son's college room for the opening match, and through that first weekend.  He had to move out but had a large LCD projector he used normally for online gaming.  We hooked up my laptop & projected it in high def up on the wall - probably a 50-60" wide screen TV equivalent.  Oh, and the quality was fantastic!  We used the same approach during the final set of matches in the group round when there were two games broadcast at the same time - projected one match off my laptop & watched the "main" game we were interested in on the TV.  We could switch back & forth using mute to catch the live call.  If you have good bandwidth you could do a side by side display of both matches at the same time, or do a picture-in-picture & switch the live call & game by simply clicking on the match you want to focus on right at that moment.

ESPN3 also has ALL the matches available for replay, so if you missed one you can watch it again - even the games that were broadcast on ABC are available there!!  AND, all the shots & goals are highlighted on the replay timeline so you can zoom to those if you like.  Fantastic really.

Got to jump into a car to go somewhere while a game is on?  ESPN has broadcast the games live on the radio.  Look up the match broadcast online at ESPN radio (http://espn.go.com/espnradio).  I used it at my Dad's house (no ESPN!).  Video takes a bit more bandwidth, and the internet at my Dad's is a slow DSL, but I listened to the radio broadcast on ESPN while I showered & got dressed one morning.

For the "Fantasy" game freaks, ESPN has match predictor, knock out round predictor, bracket predictor, AND they have "World Fantasy" where you could have picked players from around the world and played a mini fantasy league.

The World Cup website is quite good, with pre-match and post match info, as well as a multitude of info articles and video available.  Still photo galleries too, which is great.  They often have match photos posted as the game is played and are readily available right after the match - way ahead of fifa.com.

Stats for each team are pretty decent, but this might be the one area where they might improve on, but FIFA has probably the best set of stats available - see: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/statistics/index.html.

In preparation for the World Cup ESPN started showing matches which was great.  Their HD is way better than on FOX Soccer Channel, so that was great.  And ALL of the friendly matches leading up to the start of the Cup that took place in South Africa were also available on ESPN3.com.

All of the work they've done has helped soccer viewership in the US, and illustrated just how many folks here are interested in the sport.  The MLS still needs a lot of improvement to catch the same level of interest since the play is not typically nearly as high as the top European leagues, but they ought to be able to catch some of the fans passion due to the fire in the bellies of fans around the country.

Soccer continues to grow in the US.  It is currently rated #1 or 2 as the most played youth sport in this country today, behind or just ahead of basketball.  Yes Bobby, it's ahead of baseball even.  All of which means the sport is going to be right up there in attendance every game with baseball in the not too distant future (it is today actually in Seattle, Toronto, New York, Houston, LA Galaxy, and so far Philadelphia). All of these teams have averaged over 16,000 in attendance at their home games (at the time of this posting).  That is at the bottom of the numbers for baseball attendance, but Seattle comparatively would rank 10th on the baseball average attendance list this year (right behind SF), Philadelphia would rank 18th, Toronto ranks ahead of the Blue Jays, and the Galaxy would rank at 25th - that's ahead of Toronto, Pittsburgh, Oakland, Florida, and Cleveland.

Those sportswriters who downplay and bad mouth soccer are simply ignorant of the sport - and I mean that in the strictest definition of the word:

ig·no·rant

 /ˈɪgnərənt/ Show Spelled[ig-ner-uhnt] Show IPA

–adjective

1.  lacking in knowledge or training; unlearned: an ignorant man.

2.  lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact: ignorant of quantum physics.(or soccer)

3.  uninformed; unaware.

4.  due to or showing lack of knowledge or training: an ignorant statement.

I'll save my thoughts on what it will take for the sport to take off into mainstream in a later blog.

Thank you ESPN!  YOU are the market leader in sports!  

World Cup 2010 a Good One!

I suppose it depends on your alliance to your team, and I had really hoped to see the USA go through to the Quarters or better, but in my mind this has been a fantastic World Cup Tournament.

The first round established that the level of play around the world is pretty high, and, for the most part, no team would be considered an easy play.

South Africa & Mexico opened with an exciting match, and hopes ran high that South Africa would be a strong competitor. France, on the other hand, finalists from 2006, did not look like they were prepared to face such a strong opponent in Uruguay.

Argentina won their opening match, but not without a struggle against Nigeria. Greece appeared to be the weakest team we would see, as South Korea really took it to them in their Group B opening match. Greece would go on to play some solid soccer after that opening round, defeating Nigeria, and playing Argentina well through the first half before the eventual 2-1 loss. I found them entertaining after all!

The English didn't seem to have all the parts working together when they played the USA, though they started the game strong scoring in the 4th minute. But the USA was fortunate to draw on keeper Robert Green's gaff in the 40th minute. Slovenia showed us they weren't afraid of anybody as they beat a hard playing Algeria, drew against the USA, and went down to England on a single goal in the 23rd minute.

Germany was the first power team to come out and look like they would in fact be the dominant team one would expect, as they steadily took apart Australia 4-0, scoring in the 8th, 26th, 68th, and 70th minutes of the match. Ghana and then Serbia both looked to be tough, especially as Serbia took down the Germans 1-0 in what I thought was one of the worst officiating matches of the Group play. The 9 yellow cards (most of which should have been simple fouls), one red resulting in the tossing of Klose, 19 fouls called against the Germans and 10 against the Serbs, resulted in the players unsure when/if they would get carded and my voting of the referee from Spain (Alberto Undiano Mallenco) as man of the match for having the most impact on the game. The Australia vs Serbia match was really enjoyable, especially the second half as the Aussies took a two nil lead only to see the Serbs come back with one, and put strong pressure through the end of the match.  Australia went home really as a result of the big loss to Germany as they scored three goals to Ghana's two in group play.

Netherlands and Japan looked strong, with the Japanese one of the surprise teams - at least for me. They have several players I suspect will be targeted by European countries to go play there next year. Denmark and Cameroon did not look like they would go easily either.  Both were fun to watch.

Italy . . . what can you say. Nothing really. The flop in the box that was awarded a PK against the Kiwis and cost them the win, eventually cost the Kiwis a spot in the round of 16. A shameful performance really, and watching them was one of the saddest for me as they put on acting performances that outshone their play. Paraguay on the other hand was really exciting to watch, and I look forward to seeing their match(es) in the knockout rounds. Slovakia was fairly heroic taking down Italy in the final match of the round, in spite of Italy's continual efforts to cheat the game right up to the end (witness the event in the net after their second goal . . .).

Portugal was the next powerhouse team to raise serious questions as they could not find the net against the Ivory Coast. They left us wondering though, as they destroyed a North Korean team that played well in a 2-1 loss to Brazil in their opening match for Group G, but then played a soft scrimmage match with Brazil to close their group play with a 0-0 draw to go through to the round of 16. Ivory Coast played strong to win 3-0 over S. Korea, but were not going to be allowed through due to the soft play of Brazil against Portugal.

Spain was the final powerhouse team to disappoint, as they opened with a 1-0 loss against a tough playing, and in the end a very enjoyable, Swiss team. Those guys battled tough. Chili emerged as a contender as well, winning against Honduras and the Swiss. Spain did come through with the kind of play we expected of them as they defeated Honduras 2-0, and a battling Chili 2-1. 

In all, the African nations were a bit frustrating to watch due to their tendency to play as individuals rather than a team (except Ghana) when they were behind late.  I enjoyed them none-the-less, and found myself rooting for them.  I even found Ghana enjoyable to watch as they beat the USA. South America produced winners, with every one of their entries moving on. Very impressive. Of the "big boys" France and Italy go home - both finalists from 2006. Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Germany, England, USA, Mexico, and the Netherlands went through, pretty much as expected. Japan, S. Korea, Ghana (Africa's only Group round survivor), Paraguay and Slovakia were the surprises for me.

As for the referee complaints, we had them for sure. In the end though it didn't hurt the USA. It didn't hurt Mexico either (though I thought the call in the opening match was a good one), and Germany went on to destroy England today despite another missed goal. Neither England nor the USA looked good enough to go on, though I did think that the USA put much more into their match than England. Neither side looked creative for most of their Round of 16 matches. That's a subject for another write up.


Most of the Groups had slots up for grabs at the last match, and they were exciting to watch. I think my sentimental favorite has to be the boys from New Zealand. Ranked 78th, they looked like a comparative blue collar soccer team - not fancy, polished, or highly skilled, but they played 90 minutes, left it all on the field, and worked together really well. But for the Italian propensity to theatrical cheating, they would have had a spot in the Round of 16!

On to the rest of the show!

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Photo Credits in order of appearance:
1. Cup of Life - internet photo
2. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
3. (Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images)
4. (Chris Brunskill/BPI/Icon SMI)
5. (www.fifa.com)