Andy Gray versus Jack Edwards

Over at Pitch Invasion there’s a nice post by Richard Whittall acknowledging that ESPN’s coverage of the Euros was, you know, actually pretty decent:

ESPN also offered live, uninterrupted coverage of every game from start to finish. No ads for Ford suddenly covering half the screen during the attacking build-up play, no giant banners appearing from nowhere to advertise some horrific sitcom to air later that night, no tape delay, and no presenter trying to serve as interpreter for an audience presumed not to know or care about the sport.

This coverage was somewhat startling to regular soccerheads like myself, used to watching Euro games, often with smooth, skilled British commentators.  As Whittall notes, part of the problem with usual World Cup coverage from the ESPN/ABC family has been the need to explain the sport to the uninitiated.  Dave O’Brien’s never-ending “up close and personal” stories about the players, for example, were an attempt to give viewers a rooting interest in players they were presumed to have never heard of before.  The result was that serious American soccer fans felt like they were being talked down to — at best.  At worst, they simply flipped over to Spanish language coverage in an attempt to avoid the annoying prattling of the announcers who seemed so clueless.  (Cue a dozen bigsoccer threads of complaints.)

Whittall, perhaps because he’s a Canadian, thinks that a lot of the problem with previous coverage was all the nationalism involved as well:

This unnatural, flag-waving attempt to Americanize a game that already had a distinct national history (including a healthy, St. Louis-based league interest prior to 1930 and the Miracle on Grass in 1950) did nothing to preserve its autonomy or capture its unique American flavor. Viewers new to soccer were left with the image of a very slow hockey game played on a big grass rink, while Edward’s unrelenting patriotic exhortations underlined that the match was worth watching only to witness the USA beat the rest of the world at their own game.

Perhaps.  Certainly with no American team at Euro 2008, there was no rah-rah U-S-A style announcing to bother Whittall.  But, see, I’m an American and a fan of the American team.  I don’t mind an announcer who’s biased towards the US.  And I fully expect that come World Cup 2010 Whittall will be disappointed because whoever is announcing the US games — JP and Harksie, perhaps — will favor the US again, if perhaps not in a way that’s quite as easy to mock as Jack Edwards.  That’s because international soccer has become, at least in US sports culture, like the Olympics.  That, in fact, part of the charm to the casual American sports fan, the ones who don’t really know the difference between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich — but can easily grasp and enjoy Spain vs. Germany.  (Cue jokes about World War II or tapas!)  In an Olympic style environment, nationalism is going to be there when the US plays. 

What is improving, and I hope this will continue for the 2010 World Cup, is the willingness of ESPN’s announcers to assume that viewers know a little bit about how the game is played.  The gradual infiltration of soccer into American sports culture means that some understanding of the game can be taken for granted.  A whole lot of today’s sports fans played soccer when they were kids and now they’ve seen some World Cup games.  What was noteworthy about Euro 2008 was the way it drew decent ratings with no US team involved at all.  The “Olympicization” of international soccer means there is some appeal to games matching well-known teams even without the US. 

Finally, Whittall blames ESPN’s broadcasting style for the US-Portugal game not being a bigger event in US sporting culture.  Maybe.  But I would remind him that a game being broadcast in the middle of the night, US time, is hardly likely to generate a mass audience, particularly for a game where the US was not expected to have much chance of victory.  I don’t think ESPN helped — but it wasn’t the biggest reason, by any means.

Soccer Diplomacy

My day job is in politics.  I don’t discuss it (much) here but sometimes I do daydream about ways we can improve America’s image through the “beautiful game.”  So, a modest proposal: President Barack Obama should attend a game at the 2010 World Cup.  (Assuming, of course, that he wins the November election.)

I’ve been watching Euro 2008 and a staple of the television coverage is the cutaway shot to the celebrity and/or politician fans.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been particularly prominent:

She has even chided German winger Bastian Schweinsteiger for being suspended for the Austria game. He said: “She told me that I shouldn’t do the same stupid things again. When Frau Chancellor says you have to do something you have to do it.”

Germans have been charmed by her enthusiasm, which with a general election expected next year, she may find useful.

If a President Obama traveled to South Africa to watch, say, a US-Ghana rematch with his Ghanian counterpart, you know that the worldwide television feed would show him every chance it got.  And the message sent would be, to paraphrase US Weekly, “Americans: they’re just like us.”  In the wake of the last few years, we need to reassure other countries that there are shared values, that the US is not simply an angry, alien land. 

Obama is already something of a continental hero in Africa — a trip to South Africa for Africa’s first World Cup would be wildly popular there and seen as a gesture of respect, much like President Bush’s plan to attend the Summer Olympics in Beijing. 

I recognize that Barack Obama is not known as a soccer fan, although the British tabloids seem to think he supports West Ham.  His love for basetball is abundant and authentic.  But he is clearly a serious sports fan and the World Cup has become a popular sporting event in the US.  As such, he might even have a great time — and having millions and millions around the world see him doing that would be worth more than most public diplomacy initiatives dreamed up around Washington can achieve.  Barack Obama has written eloquently of how America is viewed in the shantytowns around the globe.  Here’s a simple trip he could take that would bring him into all those shantytowns at once.

Oh, and for his domestic political advisors, here’s a thought:  Have a President Obama attend the next US-Mexico World Cup qualifier in 2009.  Millions of Hispanic voters will be watching!

 

ESPN’s Euro 2008 Ad campaign

I was a huge fan of ESPN’s World Cup 2006 ad campaign, perhaps in part because they used U2 for the soundtrack.  With “Worldwide Leader” taking a run at showing Euro 2008, I was curious to see how they’d try to sell it to Americans, given that the tourney not only lacks a US team (duh) but also the English. 

EPL Talk has collected the first five ads and the answer is…national stereotypes!  Some are complaining about this.  (I’m looking at you, Italy World Cup blog.)  Me, I think it’s a good idea.  After all, the average American sports fan would be hard-pressed to recognize 99 percent of these players.  But they know these countries.  So make it about the Italians, not Luca Toni.  Or the Portuguese, not Ronaldo.  Heck, I’m not sure most European fans know much about the defending champion Greeks anyway, aside from that magical run of 1-0 victories in Portugal four summers back. 

My favorite is the Italian ad.  Let’s face it, they do complain a lot.  The Portugal ad has the best highlights.  (Thank you, Ronaldo.)  And the one for Spain just seems wrong — the tagline is “All Surrender to Spain’s Red Fury”  WTF?  They choke in every tourney.  The main red fury I’m aware of is that directed at the team by Spanish fans every two years.

Still, I’ll give’em a B+.  Give me a great Dutch ad or a funny French ad and I might go to A-.  (Seriously, where are they?  I’d think they’d be more promot-able than Spain.)  And I’d think a Russia ad would be easy enough.

But I think we all would agree.  The latest Nike ad, the first person “Take It to the Next Level” commercial, is the best currently running.  Seriously, it flat out rocks.  Go watch it now!  That’ll get you more in the mood for Euro 2008 than anything ESPN is running.

RFK, My Friend

It’s almost DC United opening day, with our first home game next week against Harbour View FC of Jamaica.  Time to head back to RFK and I’m looking forward to it.  While all the talk lately has been (rightly) about DC United’s next home, whatever it turns out to be, I’d like to go on record saying, you know, I like RFK.  I understand the economics dictating that United get its own home but there’s a part of me that wishes the team could somehow take ownership of RFK, maybe fix it up a little, and call it home for a few more decades.

Okay, sure, it’s run-down and has acquired some quirky seating and other features (thanks, Nationals!).  But it’s ours.  It’s got some atmosphere (thanks, Screaming Eagles, Barra Brava, and La Norte!).  It’s easy enough to get to.  And it’s got some history.  That’s a rare combo for American soccer.

There’s a bit of pop psychology that says male friendships are often built on shared experiences (while female friendships are supposedly bulit more on shared confidences).  In that case, me and RFK, we’re friends.  We’ve shared a lot of experiences….

Some are familiar to most DC United fans — the epic 2004 conference final victory over the Revolution, the 1997 MLS Cup win in the rain over the Rapids, the 1999 conference final destruction of the Crew.  (Not to mention some more painful experiences, like the more recent play-offs.)  Or US national team games, like the qualifier against Jamaica back in ‘97 or friendlies against teams like Uruguay and South Africa.  The Women’s World Cup in ‘03.  A Belgium-Saudi Arabia World Cup game in ‘94 that featured one of the most remarkable goals in World Cup history, though I was too new to the sport to understand just what a fabulous play I’d just seen the Saudi player make, particularly because I was surrounded by unhappy Belgian fans.

Others are more personal.  My first date with my wife was that rainy April 2000 comeback victory over the Fire.  I first really got to know my future father-in-law when he came to town for that brutal World Cup Qualifying loss to Honduras in 2001.   Heck, the time I saw the late, great Ramones at the HFStival, watching the whole floor of the stadium pogo-ing along.  A couple of U2 shows, particularly that drizzly one on the ZooTV tour.

Then there are the more mundane aspects, the warming familiarity of the rituals.  For me, that’s taking the Metro to the game, feeling heartened by the others I see wearing DC United gear along the way, and that walk past the Armory, often amused by the scalpers just outside Stadium-Armory  stop.  (Hey!  We’ve arrived — there are guys who think our tickets are worth re-selling.)  Meeting up with friends who have seats nearby.  Discussing on the subway if it’s hot enough to drink the Sunset Wheat beer or whether we’re in the mood for fries or something else for dinner.  Assessing the game on the ride home.

I know there are plenty of different rituals other fans have, such as the extended, perhaps legendary, tailgating of our friends on the “loud side.”  Maybe kickarounds in the parking lots for the suburban types who drive in with the kids.  These rituals a part of being a fan.  After a tough week at work, it’s soothing to be able to relax and do the usual fun things before, at, and after the game.  I’ve seen it on my travels.  The Arsenal fans grabbing a pint at their usual pre-game pub.  (Wonder if they’ve found a new one, post-Highbury.)  The AC Milan fans snacking at the concession vans in the San Siro parking lot.  Lord of the Wing often speaks for the Celtic fans who take the charter bus into Glasgow for their games.  It’s part of what we love.

I’m sure I’ll like, probably even love, DC United’s new stadium, wherever it turns out to be.  Our management seems to understand that there are some mandatory requirements, like Metro access, and has development experience.  But I’m going to miss RFK when it’s gone.  Probably a lot.  That happens with friends sometimes.  I’ve moved cross-country from where I grew up and went to college and lost track of some friends in the process, people I may never see again.  I miss them but at least we’ve got good memories.  Leaving RFK may be a little like that.  We have to go our separate ways eventually but, you know, I’ll miss it too.   And so I’ll try to take the time to appreciate the next few seasons there, understanding that it’s just a temporary thing now, not the permanent part of my life it’s been for the last decade.

See you there next week!  Let’s have a few more memories before we part.

Overkill, but that’s a good thing!

The US starts World Cup qualifying in June with a two-leg preliminary series against either Barbados (ranked #133) or Dominica (ranked #182).  Should be a formality before the semi-final round of regional qualifying later in the year. 

Still, we need to make sure our team is sharp and has some practice in advance of those games, given the tremendous costs of a hiccup in qualifying.  So the Federation is scheduling some friendlies to get the team warmed up.  What teams will we play?  It’s looking like:

England at Wembley on May 28th.  At Spain on June 4th.  And Argentina on June 8th, perhaps at the Meadowlands.  That would be three of the top 11 teams in FIFA’s rankings (such as they are).  That’s a string of three games — two on the road — with maybe one-third of the countries that can claim with a straight face to be contenders to win the World Cup.  Yeah, I know England just choked out of Euro 2008 qualifying and Spain routinely blows it once it makes it to an international tourney.  Still, that’s a murderer’s row of games.  That should quiet the bigsoccer types who complained about our weak friendlies in advance of the ‘06 Cup, much as I enjoyed a second opportunity to see Latvia play in person.

Yeah, our team might be ready to play mighty Barbados after that trio of games.  If they survive.  I can’t imagine what the Federation will schedule as a warm-up for the final round of qualifying next year.  Maybe Brazil and road games in Italy, Germany, Holland AND an African tour to play Ivory Coast and Ghana?  Yowza.

The Auld Enemy

So it’s US-Mexico time again, a friendly tomorrow in Houston.  Let the previews begin!

Will it be more of the same?  As Chang rightly puts it:

Pregame trash-talking from Mexico, followed by a game where Mexico dominated technically and in terms of possession and yet lost. The post-game routine usually consisted of Mexico stating it was the better team and how it didn’t deserve to lose.

Well, actually, so far it appears that Mexico won’t trash-talk us before the game.  Does this signal some respect?  Or just a lowering of expectations from the now twice-beaten egomaniac Hugo Sanchez?  Uh oh.  Maybe that means the rest of the usual fare is off the menu.  In fact, I’m expecting a draw tomorrow.  It just seems like maybe Mexico is due.  It’s not like it’s a real home game for the US — you play the game in Houston, you get a whole lot of Mexican immigrants in green jerseys in the stands.  And I’d rather mess this game up than one in qualifying or in the Gold Cup.

I think what I find most intriguing is the angle Chang points to — here comes the next generation.  We’ve got Adu and Altidore.  They’re starting to see players from their U-17 World Cup winning team enter the national team picture.  (Hello, dos Santos!)  And let’s face it, their young guns have a better pedigree (so far) then ours.  The US has a wonder boy at Benfica — they’ve got one at Barca, for example.  Altidore still plays in MLS, after all, even if Real Madrid is supposedly watching.  We’re doing pretty good in international youth tourneys — Mexico actually won one.

The player I’m actually curious to see again against Mexico is Michael Bradley, who has turned into a goal machine in the Dutch league.  He’s a big boy, a physical presence in midfield.  We need him to play well and show that he can disrupt the Mexican attack as well as generate some forward movement for us.  He seems to be tearing it up in Holland — is he making a leap in prowess that will lead him somewhere else soon and let him be a middle-of-the-park fixture for the US for years to come?  This would be an excellent time to show us that.

This seems an excellent time as well to post my tale of attending the ‘05 qualifier against Mexico in Columbus, that dos et cero affair that clinched our qualification for Germany 2006.  That tale after the jump!

Sport and Empire

Simon Kuper is the pioneer of writing about soccer as an international game and how it interacts with politics, economics, culture.  If you haven’t read his ground-breaking Football Against the Enemy — also known as Soccer Against the Enemy — then you really should just go straight to Amazon and order it now.

These days Kuper has a column in the Financial Times and this past Friday he had a doozy, an exploration of the way a British game (soccer) leads the world long after the sun has set on the British empire while American games (outside of basketball and a few spots of baseball interest) have little traction outside America.  There’s a host of ideas tossed off in the course of the piece — it could easily be expanded to be a New Yorker article or even a book.

As Kuper puts it:

This is a struggle between two very different types of empire: the British (which, contrary to popular opinion, still exists) and the American (which, contrary to popular opinion, may not exist). Emerging from the struggle is a new breed of sports fan.

As best I can tell, Kuper thinks that fan is one who watches sports on television, the spread of which represented a “second wave” of globalization in sports.  The simpler the game, the better it translates.  (Tough luck, American football or cricket!) 

It also means, he argues, that the EPL benefits from its heritage, that century of tradition that makes a team from struggling post-industrial cities like Liverpool or Newcastle globally known.  With the advent of cable television and niche broadcasting:

A century-old model of fandom – the man who supports the home-town team he inherited from his father – is collapsing. In the US, China and even Argentina, people increasingly watch Manchester United on TV. Chinese and American soccer fans mostly came of age during the second wave of sporting globalisation. They prefer the real thing to their obscure local teams. For the same reason, the NFL closed its offshoot NFL Europe last year after 16 fairly anonymous seasons. In future, American NFL teams will visit Europe instead.

Global fans want global leagues, above all the NBA or the Premiership. It’s therefore wrong to think that Beckham will save American soccer by playing for the LA Galaxy. American soccer is alive and well and watching Manchester United on Fox Soccer Channel. This is a posthumous victory for the British empire.

This is at the heart of the struggle MLS faces.  The more World Cup and EPL soccer becomes a mainstream sport in the US, the more MLS looks second-rate.  One answer is to, of course, import David Beckham and a few others to bring glamour and international track records to the league. 

But here’s another point.  If I were at MLS HQ, I’d be paying attention to the fan experience and encouraging fan culture.  The enthusaistic fans of Toronto FC or DC United make attending an MLS game a more enjoyable thing to do — and it’s something that an American can’t get watching a game from Europe.  Get that passion in the stadiums and also try to convey it on television.  This is something that moving to soccer-only stadiums will help with.  There’s only so much that can be done to convey excitement in a mostly empty Giants Stadium or Arrowhead Stadium.  Then Americans can watch Man U or Arsenal and then try to replicate what they see here at home. 

Pulling a reverse Blanco — baseless Donovan speculation

It’s the transfer window market and the papers, particularly the British ones, are alive with speculating, gossip, and wishful thinking.  The BBC even offers a daily round-up, as a public service. 

So I was surfing through the comments on Goff’s blog today and, among random claims about DC United signings and debates about players acquiring British accents, came across this beauty:

Steve

1)Any truth to Landon “Landy” Donovan heading to Club America (Mexico)? spoken rumors this morning on a spanish radio show…

Ah, that’s perfect — big name player, loosely sourced, makes little sense.  We all know Donovan is deeply attached to California.  He gets plenty of criticism for not wanting to play in European leagues, something many fans would develop his immense talent further — or at least toughen him up more.  What are the chances he’d pick up and head to Mexico City instead?  Sure, he speaks Spanish (good for him, by the way) but, jeez, the Mexican fans hate him.  (That said, if there’s anything to this, I’d expect to hear about it on the excellent Sideline Views blog first…)

Oh, but let’s pretend for a minute this was actually in the works.  It would actually have the potential to further bring together American and Mexican soccer cultures.  It would be…a reverse Blanco!  Bringing Blanco’s anti-hero act to the Chicago Fire has been a great success on the field and an even greater one off the field, bringing Mexican league fans to MLS games to see “Mr. White.”  If we sent Donovan down to Club America, the big money glamor team of the Mexican league, he’d be anti-hero for them.  If Landon played to his potential, I’m sure he’d do well down there too, which might nudge a bit more respect for American players from Mexico.  And more English-speaking American fans might go looking for Mexican league games on television….

 Imagine a CONCACAF Champions League final between a Club America with Donovan and a Chicago Fire with Blanco!

 Oh, well.  Never going to happen.  I expect Landon to stay in California, maybe moving back to the ‘Quakes if playing for the Los Angeles Beckhams gets to be too much for him.

 But here’s another thought.  I know an American player who’d be perfect for the Mexican league — Clint Dempsey.  He’s a good Texan boy, he understands our neighbors to the south.  He’s doing too well in Europe right now but maybe in four or five years, after a good run in the EPL, Club America will come calling for him.  And he’s got just the attitude to embrace the anti-hero role and play it to the hilt….

Enter the “Moneyball” Quakes…

So we’re starting to get a glimpse of what the new San Jose Earthquakes, and their Oakland As ownership, might bring to MLS.  Billy Beane, hero of Moneyball by Michael Lewis, has gotten the soccer bug and it appears the case is as bad as mine:

…On a recent trip to Europe, Quakes’ GM John Doyle visited several British clubs, and was impressed by the precision and volume of data that was collected and analyzed. Closer to home, every MLS team has contracted with a company called Match Analysis to receive statistical and video breakdowns of every game. According to the company’s president, Mark Brunkhart, the product has been used by some coaches and players to analyze their own week-to-week performance, as well as that of the opposition.

But the potential is there for additional uses as well. And in terms of player evaluation, the data, which records every touch a player makes in a game, reveals some interesting numbers. Although typical stats like a player’s possession percentage are tracked, there is also one called shot creation, which records how many times a player was involved in an attack that led to a shot. (The runaway leader? David Beckham with over 11 shots created per 90 minutes. Among full-time players, the highest mark belonged to D.C. United’s Christian Gomez at around 7.4 shots created per 90 minutes.)

So it’s a matter of using cold hard stats to pick up on things that conventional soccer wisdom misses.  It certainly appears to have some benefits in baseball, a numbers-heavy sport with a century of conventional wisdom.  One can certainly think of good players that don’t fit the stereotypes — smaller center backs like Italy’s Cannevaro and Michael Parkhurst of the Revs.  (If memory serves, Parkhurst read the game so skillfully that he managed to play good defense without drawing a red card until the play-offs.)  Former DC United goalie Nick Rimando is short, a cardinal sin among keepers, but manages to get by with athletic ability. 

 Then there’s the case of veteran Italian forward Filippo Inzaghi.  He’s profiled in the latest FourFourTwo, which includes this bit:

“I remember the first time Pippo got called up for Italy,” a former international once confided to FFT’s man in Italy, James Richardson.  “In training we all stood stunned because his technique was the worst we’d seen, but despite it all he just scores and scores.”

Ladies and gentlemen, your all-time European club competition goal scoring leader!  Perhaps this helps explain it:

Which brings us back to that comment from Johan Cruyff: “Look, the thing about Inzaghi is he can’t actually play football at all.  He’s just always in the right position.”

So, basically, Billy Beane and his compatriots are looking for numbers that will help them find Inzaghis.  Good luck to ‘em — we Americans need all the help we can get. 

Return of the Florida gambit?

In the pre-Beckham era of MLS, there was a regular stream of suggestions from aging soccer stars that they might be interested in playing in our league.  (The British press is perpetually awash with “transfer” gossip of all sorts, often of dubious reliability, and it would usually come to our notice there.)  Back then, it often came in the form of a suggestion that the player might be interested in playing Florida, a sunny playground for Europeans.  I suppose it conjured up images of relaxing sunny days, with training stints alternating with trips to the beach.  It was especially amusing that these stories continued to pop up even after MLS contracted away the teams in Florida, Tampa’s Mutiny and Miami’s Fusion (RIP).  You’d think an agent worth his salt would at least know to suggest his player might have an option to play for a team that actually existed…

Nowadays, the new aging star move is to suggest he might follow Beckham’s lead to MLS.  The league appears to have new energy, as it expands (back) to San Jose, and then Seattle, and perhaps one more city by 2010.  The leading candidates for that last slot have generally considered to be Philly and St. Louis.  But is Miami getting into the mix?  It appears it might:

Miami Dade County, which backed the plan on Tuesday, is ready to put aside $50 million for the new soccer stadium and that could help persuade Major League Soccer (MLS) that Miami is the right place for an expansion team.

If it comes to pass, I look forward to the revival of those British stories suggesting aging players tired of the rain and cold of England could be persuaded to ply their trade in Miami…