Roster Announcement Will Be Live On SportsCenter

April 13th, 2006 | by: Daryl |

Maybe ESPN plans to take the World Cup seriously after all. When The Bruce announces his final 23 it will be broadcast live on SportsCenter, whose soccer coverage usually falls into the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it categroy.

Tune in May 2nd at 6 p.m.

But don’t blink.

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Fridel The Wall

It’s a shame about the time that ESPN gives soccer. That’s all I ahve to say.
daryl

Is it overly optimistic to think ESPN will get behind the World Cup? I’ve already seen a couple of ads promoting the tournament. My thinking is that since they’ve paid money to screen it they may as well milk it for all it’s worth.
http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org Mike

For me, hearing Bruce Arena and some of those ESPN guys talk about ’sa-ccer’ is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
chuck

Fully agree with your remark in the comment section, Daryl.

Since they are broadcasting the Finals, it is in their best interests to promote it. I think (or hope) that in the coming weeks, we’ll be seeing more attention being paid by the network(s) to soccer.

The state of the coverage is definitely awful now. I can count on seeing more Tour De France highlights, more collegiate ice-hockey, and more … WNBA! than soccer highlights! Aaarrggh!
bossimo

Agree that ESPN is seriously lacking (accept for the fact that it’s nice not to have to pay $19.95 for Champions League matches).

Should we begin the campaign for John Stewart as lead Copa Color Commentator. This would be like Dennis Miller on MNF, only the difference would be that this would work since he’s soccer literate (I believe he played in college and you can see him now plugging for FSC in 5-second spots). He did it for the oscars, right? He could do the Daily Show on location from Germany. This would have serious legs, no?
daryl

I think that’s genius bossimo.
Steve

I love the John Stewart comment… money…

I am however always saddened by ESPN and their lack of soccer affiliation. I read a column by an SI.com (sports illustrated) columnist that noted US’s lack of success as being the main cause for a lack of interest in soccer… I am not sure I buy into that, but in America, it is true that we only want to be and care about the best… I was in dominican repbulic for a week recently and the amount of coverage was simply AMAZING… i was on vacation, often times sitting inside watching live games from all over the world including champions league matches that “only espn deportes memebers can watch”… I loved every second… and i miss that place for that reason if no other…

we need to do something/ get someone to get a campaign to at least get the second champions league game on ahead of second rate tennis tournaments, thats a shame…

perhaps if we are VERY successful ( and it may be that nothing short of a win will be termed very successful), the US crowd will jump on and demand more soccer?
Julie

The revolution trio should make it to the world cup .. depmpsey twellman and noonan.. what do you all think?
William

When soccer is as big as football(gridiron variety), basketball, and baseball, then we’ll see a bigger presence on tv. But it just isn’t as big yet. We have a ways to go before it even surpasses hockey in popularity.

Considering this I am happy with the soccer coverage and time given for games on tv. We get to see the US men (& women) play, MLS games, Champions League, and the World Cup. And that’s only with basic cable and regular tv.

Every newspaper in my area now regularly carries coverage on soccer. It’s all gotten better and will continue to get better as the sport grows in the US.