Pity poor Don Garber.
No, not because he has to put up with reporters all the time; he handles himself pretty well amongst the unwashed, freeloading, neck-plastic wearing keyboard bangers of the world:
YouTube- Don Garber comments nd gets into shouting match with reporter YouTube- Don Garber comments nd gets into shouting match with reporter
But so far, the Conference Championship weekend, one of the biggest TV ratings grabs of the MLS season, has been, if not a disaster then the next best thing to it. Click to continue reading...

So ESPN's gone out and signed Martin Tyler to be its no. 1 commentator for the 2010 World Cup.
Good. He's a very good, if slightly ubiquitous, commentator. He won't embarrass ESPN like Jack Edwards, Dave O'Brien or Marcello Balboa and he'll make a lot of US World Cup viewers very happy. Click to continue reading...

I usually try to post without the influence of reading any other post-game reaction, but for this game, I don't even have the influence of the match commentary because I had to hit mute a few minutes when after JP Dellacamera got overly excited about a routine corner kick (AND HE FIRES IT IN!), and had no reaction to the Americans creating a chance from open play. Click to continue reading...

From Setanta:

As widely reported, Setanta Sports has had its agreement to broadcast 46 Barclays Premier League matches in the UK terminated.

This development does not affect our channels and other services in the US.

Setanta Sports in the US is a separate operation that has separate agreement to show the Barclay's Premier League.

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"I could explain the scenario to you, on how the United States could make into the semifinals, but we would be on television longer than Jerry Lewis on Labor Day."

A pretty weak joke by ESPN's Recce Davis before the U.S.'s Confederations Cup match against Egypt Sunday. In reality, it wasn't too complicated.

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I learned a lot this week from the show, at which you may point your ears here.
Most obviously, it was informational listening to Andrew Bell of the Charleston Battery talk USL. I don't see MLS ever expanding there, so I think the Bats' future is pretty bright. Even if MLS expands to 36 teams or something, the USL can make hay off markets 37 and down. Click to continue reading...

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Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press

"Yikes" is what I said when I saw Ricardo Clark throw his legs at Gennaro Guttuso.

"Awwwww," is what I said when I saw the red card above Clark's head.

I talked myself into the United States getting a draw against Italy (maybe even winning) but all my hope burst out of me when Clark was ejected in the 32nd minute.

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Alexi Lalas talked about the hostile environment in Costa Rica. JP Dellacamera talked about the injuries to Brain Ching and Frankie Hejduk. John Harkes talked about the quality - or lack thereof - of the Astroturf field. Click to continue reading...

If your a Chicago fire fan then Cuauhtémoc Blanco must be a joy to watch week in and week out. His sublime back heal that freed Gomez for the tying goal was brilliant. Blanco is a football genius.The man with no neck makes up for it with two brains. The joy he must have created at America where he played his professional ball in Mexico gives me the impression everything we are seeing now is nothing by comparison to his younger days. Click to continue reading...

ESPN's broadcast of Euro 2008 was the best production ever of a soccer tournament for TV viewers in the United States. While it wasn't perfect, it was clearly evident that ESPN had listened to the past criticism and corrected the annoying habits that had previously distanced diehard soccer fans from its network. Click to continue reading...

What was up last night during the Columbus v Kansas City game with announcer John Harkes calling Guillermo Barros Schelotto, "guh-LAIR-moe", the whole game. Was he kidding? Was it an inside joke? Did no one on the production staff tell this guy how to pronounce a name? His TV partner JP Dellacamera got it right. Click to continue reading...

Hey all, I know there has been some confusion about tonight's game. It will be on ESPN proper, one of only two games (next week's All-Star game being the other) on the channel this year. Two will be on ABC (well, one was...the LA/DC tilt prior to the Euro Final and MLS Cup in November) and the rest are on ESPN 2. Click to continue reading...

Here's the info. from the Feds, along with the post-game quote sheet. And here's a nice summation by Pia on the style of play ... gotta love it! I think they have done great because it is such a short amount of time. I've been here for eight months or something like that and it usually [...]SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...

I'm not one to leap to the defense of ESPN on too many occasions, but Jack Bell's excoriation of the network, occasioned by its use of British announcers during its Euro '08 telecasts, seems a little off-base too me, if I may use a baseball metaphor. This position strikes me as a logical outgrowth of Bell's larger objections to Anglophilia in the American game—the veneration of British coaches, teams and playing styles at the expense of other (specifically, Latin) influences. Click to continue reading...

It's pretty sad when two soccer columnists who represent what is supposedly one of the nation's top newspapers are so incompetent and out-of-touch with reality. Last November, I called New York Times soccer columnist Jack Bell a wanker for writing an idiotic article criticizing Fox Soccer Channel for broadcasting the Premier League, the world's most popular [. Click to continue reading...

Normally I don't condone talking about a players race, religion, sexuality or wife & children. But in the cae fo the photo above, the Screaming Eagles kind of have a point. Sorry Posh, but they can hit them highs in way that you can't...they are the Mariah Carey of supporters groups.
Depending on what part of the country you are in you'll need to either skip church, wake up early or not even go to sleep to watch Sunday's 12pm EST match between DC United and LA Galaxy, a game we're calling "The Nooner" here at TOR Towers. Click to continue reading...

This is a subject near and dear to my heart due to my history of being in the broadcast world over the last few years. I've been working on coming up with some sort of guide for people for when it comes to who they will probably be listening to on a broadcast of a [...] Click to continue reading...

From an American perspective, the best part of Euro 2008 is the fact that all 31 games are airing live on the ESPN/ABC family of networks. Not since Euro '96 have American fans been able to enjoy the tournament on basic cable and the coverage will go a long way in raising the event's overall profile in the States. Click to continue reading...

ESPN and ABC have made the speculation official, Dave O'Brien and Eric Wynalda are no longer commentators for their soccer broadcasts. This includes MLS and US soccer matches.
Replacing them will be JP Dellacamera doing play by play and John Harkes with analyst. The rest of the team will be Allen Hopkins (sideline reporter), Julie Foudy (studio Analyst) and Rob Stone who will sub in for Dellacamera. Click to continue reading...

Dave O'Brien might be out of ESPN's booth if rumors from the MLS SuperDraft are to be believed. According to Soccer by Ives lead man, the buzz last night at the bar was a change a comin':

Another popular subject last night was word that Eric Wynalda and Dave O'Brien are being replaced as U.

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