Any longtime fan of soccer living in the United States knows that it has not always been easy to follow the beautiful game, particularly if your favorite team was not a major club. (I remember the days when Manchester United's game was always shown on television every weekend, but no other teams ever made it on the schedule.) Fox Soccer Channel (FSC), or Fox Sports World as it was then called, was pretty much the only option for fans of international soccer in the United States. Given that FSC had the production quality of a 20th-century shortwave radio broadcast, the American soccer viewer's world was indeed bleak circa 2005.
In the last few years, though, all that has changed, thanks in large part to ESPN's foray into the soccer market. The Worldwide Leader in Sports now has the rights to air select English Premier League games, most of La Liga and, in a recent development, the 2012 and 2016 European Championships. With the use of studio shows, exclusive interviews and graphics to support the commentators, ESPN has demonstrated that it can do soccer just as well as anyone.
Nowhere was this new and improved soccer coverage more apparent than at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Having become jaded from years of FSC coverage, I tuned in expecting to see one thing: games with the same international commentary feed as the audio. No frills, no extras. What I got, though, was the equivalent of Dorothy first seeing the Land of Oz — a glimpse into a totally different world.
The first thing I noticed was quite a novelty: commentators who actually knew what they were talking about and who were actually at the tournament! Unlike FSC, ESPN uses live announcers. And they're some of the world's best: Martin Tyler, who has been commentating on the English Premier League for over 15 years, called all the major matches exclusively for ESPN, including the final.
The studio show was just as impressive. ESPN got bonafide soccer legends to provide analysis, including Jürgen Klinsmann, Ruud Gullit and Steve McManaman. (The only exception was Alexi Lalas, whose major career point was being the first person with crazy red hair to play for the U.S. National Team.) The idea of actually having someone analyze the first half at halftime instead of showing Proactiv commercials must never have occurred to FSC.
ESPN's excellent coverage of the World Cup this summer undoubtedly contributed to the event's popularity and the establishment of the tournament as a major event in the United States. But this progress would have been meaningless if ESPN had just shut down shop after the World Cup and reverted back to the FSC method of showing games with little to no promotion and coverage.
But, thankfully for soccer fans, the exact opposite has happened. ESPN shows Premier League games almost every Sunday, complete with full studio coverage and exclusive interviews with the managers involved. The contrast is almost unbelievable: While FSC continues its crusade for oversimplified, mediocre broadcasts, ESPN is bringing its typical professionalism to the most popular sport in the world.
All of these developments are great news for soccer fans, and ESPN's continued involvement in the sport will lead to more competition for viewership, which will hopefully lead to better coverage and more exposure for the game. In any event, soccer fans should be counting their blessings, because the Worldwide Leader in Sports has finally embraced the sport that has the most impact worldwide.
--
David McIntyre is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at David.McIntyre@tufts.edu.
