12/21/24
June 14, 2002
England v Denmark: and Germany v Paraguay start the Round of 16 tonight (US time). I wanna see Germany lose to a Chilavert free kick, and England go through on a bucketful of goals (Owen, Heskey, Fowler, Becks). I'm going to have to wake up at 4am for the England game, so it better be good. ;-)
Will my dreams come true?
posted by worldcup2002 to soccer at 09:36 PM - 18 comments
Is it true that ESPN isn't going to show Denmark-England live?
posted by gyc at 11:10 PM on June 14, 2002
They are delaying it to show it on ABC the next day, gyc. That means Spanish TV all the way! golgolgolgolgol!!! What does everyone think of the ESPN crew so far anyway? Some of them are all right, like Tommy Smith and that Italian mammajamma they recruited. But Stone and Keough are horrific. Sound familiar? "Into SPACE!"..."Outside of the boot!"... "The goalie punts it 75 yards." Listen guys, I can kick with the outside of my foot, and every goddam goalie can kick it that far. Get used to it.
posted by kafkaesque at 11:24 PM on June 14, 2002
Oh and incidentally soccertv has the entire US TV schedule.
posted by kafkaesque at 11:29 PM on June 14, 2002
My bias is toward English commentators plus Luis Cantor, who revolutionized it all with ... you know. But the Brits are the best. They started it, they sound good describing it, enough said. (Oh, for the days of my youth and Big League Soccer.) Same goes for the newspaper reports of matches. Match reports in the London Times (or ESPN's Soccernet, which is run out of UK) are beautiful to read. Peruse a US newspaper description of a match and you get the same painful experience as listening to Ty Keough (or those awful pinheads on Fox Sports' Americanized version of the Premier League show --why they need to have two non-Brits regurgitate what actual Brits have already said is beyond me. No context, little background knowledge, no Brit accent, bad American sports analogies and US-centric terms like "assist", you get the idea. At least they have the good sense to leave the actual match commentary alone on that show). Ah, the curmudgeon cometh.
posted by worldcup2002 at 11:44 PM on June 14, 2002
(pedantry): Andres Cantor.
posted by kafkaesque at 12:10 AM on June 15, 2002
Miguel: I've got Brazil over Mexico in the final, in my fantasy league picks. And yes, Brazil over England on the way there. Keeping that dream alive ...
posted by worldcup2002 at 12:15 AM on June 15, 2002
I, in a fit of fandom, picked England to beat Spain in the final. I can dream, can't I? Time for Germany!
posted by kafkaesque at 01:08 AM on June 15, 2002
Paraguay V Germany. The second half has just kicked off. God help us all. This was not worth getting up at 7.30 a.m with a hangover for.
posted by Fat Buddha at 02:33 AM on June 15, 2002
Thankfully, by the sound of it, I managed to get that kip you so rightly advised Fat Buddha. I saw the last ten minutes though, and that is so bloody typical of the Germans to score with a minute to go and no chance of a response. If Tommy (Hard-Man) Smith is being held up as an example of footballing erudition, I think I might just emigrate. ESPN looking for drunken English commentators perchance?
posted by squealy at 03:33 AM on June 15, 2002
Thank god I missed the Germany-Paraguay match. Now off to the corner shop to stock up with beers for the main attraction...
posted by salmacis at 04:36 AM on June 15, 2002
Argh. I was on the wrong Spanish station, waiting for the game to show up, and missed the English goal. Just my luck.
posted by tieguy at 06:41 AM on June 15, 2002
Why isn't ESPN showing this now? Is more Sportscenter this important? On ESPN2 is World of Fly Fishing! Ugh ugh ugh
posted by elsoltano at 06:56 AM on June 15, 2002
I haven't heard ESPN announcing, but even as bad as it sounds, it couldn't be as agonizing as the horrid Japanese announcing I'm forced to sit and listen to. For one thing, they won't shut up. When there happen to be a few seconds in the match where there's really nothing to comment on, BBC announcers keep quiet. Japanese announcers talk about the players or the weather or other matches. Silence is to be avoided at all costs. Ugh. When somebody scores, they do Cantor imitations, like that must be the only appropriate way to announce a goal. Double ugh. But England matches are the worst. You get a fair piece of the match, but a large chunk of it is turned into what I'd call "The Beckham Show." Nevermind that Owen is charging toward the goal, let's give all the Japanese lady fans another shot of Beckham. How about from this angle. Oh, wait! Let's get a close-up of that hair! In discussing, prior to the match, the possibility of England losing, one commentator actually said, and I kid you not, "Rasto [last] Beckham." I almost think if England dropped out at some point, Japan would stop televising matches altogether.
posted by Bixby23 at 09:03 AM on June 15, 2002
I couldn't wake up for the game but England did it 3-0! I almost got the score right, too. Ferdinand, Owen and Heskey. Way to go, guys! Unfortunately, Chilavert and co. lost to Germany. 1-0. Just. one. lousy. goal.
posted by worldcup2002 at 10:06 AM on June 15, 2002
Well, we cruised that. Bring on the Belgians. ;-)
posted by squealy at 11:07 AM on June 15, 2002
Hey, squealy - don't put it past the Belgians to beat the Brazilians. Everyone gets to defeat the Brazilians on a rota basis and them fat, mussel-eating, moustache-twirling bastards are notorious spoilsports. Look at Jacques Brel. :) I'm with worldcup2002 but my final in direst Hell would have to include Belgium. Or, as we say here, it's the nerves talking.
posted by Miguel Cardoso at 05:25 PM on June 15, 2002
I was in London for the weekend:Trafalgar Square on Saturday was the place to be. Quite insane. The best bit was the golden retriever fetching beer cans from the fountain.
posted by etagloh at 05:54 PM on June 16, 2002
Same as me, worldcup2002. Germany will win, but it'll be a pity. But England must win so that we can be treated to that festival of polar opposites that would be England vs Brazil. I reckon that game, whoever wins, will be a treatise on football style. I hope Brazil wins, btw!