2014 World Cup

I don't get this. ESPN has some of the most knowledgeable and experienced former coaches and players on every broadcast. What do you guys want them to do? Explain offsides, or tell you what a 4-3-3 is? They'll explain it when it's relevant, like in the France game, when the scorer appeared to be behind the passer, negating the offsides. And they have explained the offsides on corners when it comes up. If you don't know, ask someone, as you would need to do if you weren't familiar with the NFL, NHL or NBA.
I think ESPN's coverage has been tremendous on this. I have been fascinated watching the World Cup Tonight show and I think Roberto Martinez and Kasey Keller are doing great work. Even Lalas. Haven't been overwhelmed by Ballack and van Nistelrooy, and I'd prefer to have Twellman in the booth where I don't have to see his smug little mug. But I really have a hard time seeing how there would be complaints about the coverage.

 

I have great respect for the very high quality of ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball telecast.
From camera work to presentations to announcing and color commentary, it is first-rate.
If only all its broadcasts, especially the big-ticket property MNF, could have such caliber.
You have a lot of people watching this who don't follow soccer, frankly.
It's a world event. It should be minimalistic.

 

I don't think there's any chance of them satisfying everyone. If they "talk down" to the audience, the soccer nuts will be pissed. If they don't, the casual fan who checks in with soccer every four years will give up in disgust.

 

I love the way they are covering it. They have Americans like Keller, Twellman, Lalas and Foudy to give their perspective and great players like RVN, Ballack and Silva to give a wider view. Most of the game commentators have been very good, and I can't say enough about Roberto Martinez. Donovan has been useless, but everyone else is a good choice. I was overwhelmed at first because they had so many people, but they seem to be doing a good job of mixing/matching now and they don't have four guys with different accents, plus two or three Americans.
Can someone please tell me what they could do to dumb it down? It's a sport. If you don't know the sport, you aren't going to learn the nuances by watching TV. They explain rules, tactics, etc. when they need to. But what else are people looking for?

 

Well, I'd like some insight on players that isn't so ... what's the word ... British.
I am reading and doing other shit while I have these games on, but I will count next time how often they sprinkle in what English club a player is on.
Who fkin cares?
The Anglophile/Premier League-loving hipster is a narrow audience.

 

Basically, they're catering to demographics that aren't *you*. How dare they?!?!

 

This is a network that for 25 years has hired morons to complicate the obvious.
Let's not act like ESPN has never had its head up its ass.

 

Completely wrong. They often say which club team any player is on, whether it's La Liga, EPL, Bundesliga, whatever. Which is actually a good thing for building soccer, because if you like a player, once the Cup is over, then you might start watching those games too. The only British person on the broadcasts is the female semi-anchor and a couple of PBP guys, as far as I can tell. You're waaaaay off base on that.

 

Which is irrelevant to what's the best thing to do in this situation.

 

I am referring to a broad English perspective of the sport that is being projected.
By an American media organization.
That is my reading of it.

 

I can see what you're saying here, so if you're thinking there's just too many people and perspectives, I can buy that. I like it, and I think they have toned it down quite a bit since the first day or two, but the network does always seem to just hire as many big names as it can without figuring out a way to use them. But they seem to have figured it out better, and World Cup Tonight is a must-watch for me.

 

I think you need to change the channel and find a baseball game.