| | So, I couldn't go to Las Vegas (forgive me, but I've got a wedding this weekend) meaning that I had to watch the CONCACAF -- sorry, the "Football Confederation" -- Champions Cup from my couch. And what an eye-opener it was.
The matches themselves were decent enough early on. Chicago played like it has all year and did enough to beat a very outclassed Joe Public. Alajuela surprised everyone with a display of skill that vaulted them past Toluca. D.C. United performed well -- great save by Tom Prethus -- and Necaxa did more than enough to win.
But what had more resonance for me wasn't the competition on the field: It was the paucity of the telecast and the lack of people in the seats.
This is an embarrassment for American soccer that should infuriate anyone with business sense. Once again, a lackluster picture of American soccer is being beamed worldwide -- and what's unforgivable is that this probably could have been prevented.
First off, you have to fault CONCACAF for staging the tourney in Las Vegas. This was a decision that makes no sense whatsoever. Nevada has no professional soccer presence -- it lacks even an A-League team -- and seems to have been chosen at whim. I cannot think of any compelling reason to play a tourney there when Portland, Boston, Columbus or Miami seem, on their face, to make infinitely more sense. I can understand the desire of the organizers to avoid Los Angeles -- after all, that's virtually a home field for the Mexican teams -- as well as crossing out Chicago and D.C. for the same reasons. However, even if NFL commitments blocked out Foxboro and even if Columbus wasn't ready early enough to commit, the idea of overlooking two soccer-friendly locales with stadia seems absurd. No, Las Vegas seems to have been a choice made for ulterior considerations; at least I hope so, because it wasn't made for any soccer considerations.
Second, Fox Sports World botched this one to a fare-thee-well.
One of the advantages of staying home was that I could listen to both announcing crews, and what I heard in English was appalling. Glenn Davis and Ricky Davis (no relation), in the space of 20 minutes in the first game, managed to both miss a yellow card called on C.J. Brown of the Fire and apparently were unfamiliar with the players as they rarely -- if ever -- identified who had the ball. The directors screwed up mightily, missing Chicago's first goal (they were showing a replay that they also managed to botch), putting up a graphic that identified Fire coach Bob Bradley as "Tom Bradley," and generally failing to deliver replays of key situations. Case in point: The Fire's Lubos Kubik saw a free kick hit the bar and fall into the goalmouth, where it was volleyed by a Fire player into 'keeper Donovan Thomas for a corner. While Fox showed us Kubik's disgusted reaction, it failed to show us who kicked the ball into Thomas. This was crucial; the ensuing play resulted in a goal for the Fire. Not even at halftime did we get an indication of who that Fire player was.
The Spanish guys, on the other hand, nailed everything, easing my suspicion that perhaps the crews hadn't been given pregame lineups. Now, my Spanish isn't great, so I am not an authority on the overall tenor of the broadcast, but I will say that I could figure out which member of Joe Public had the ball better in that language than my own.
Finally, the lack of media attention to this event is staggering. There were no scores on any of the ESPN networks, no mention in many papers, and radio -- sheesh! But that's the fault of the organizers, who have done little more than fax out game reports. That's not p.r. work: that's the bare minimum.
My advice: Learn from this one, CONCACAF. Sooner or later, FIFA is going to start paying attention. No matter what your name is.
Jamie Trecker, editor of Kick! magazine, writes regularly for ESPN.com. You may e-mail him at jamie_trecker@go.com; while he guarantees he will read all letters, he regrets that he cannot guarantee a reply because of overwhelming volume. | |
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