Hey Look, Watchable Soccer Coverage!
The first Olympic soccer game I caught was Belgium’s upset of Italy on MSNBC and I pretty much lost all hope of getting decent soccer coverage. ABC, who despite employing the excreable Dave O’Brien, has at least figured out Rule #1 of Televised Soccer: No Commercial Breaks. Except at halftime.
But MSNBC saw fit to cut to commercial in the 89th minute (after going to commercial about every ten minutes during the game). Rage! Even more so considering they were showing the game on tape delay so they could have picked the game back up right where they left off, but nooooo. When we came back, we were well into stoppage time with only a minute left to play.
I was flipping through the channels after lunch when I stopped on 88 OMAND. The preview showed a soccer match. It turned out to be Nigeria v. Belgium…in Mandarin! Sweet!
The first thing I noticed was that one of the announcers was female. Are there any women calling men’s team sports on US TV? I know Elfi Schlegel, Cynthia Potter, and Brandi Chastain are doing gymnastics, diving, and women’s soccer respectively, but I think everybody else calling the events I watch has been male.
The second thing I noticed was that they were referring to players by number instead of by name (except during substitutions). I wonder if it’s due to name translation issues. If the compact “Phelps” becomes a four-syllable monstrosity in Mandarin (Fei-er-pu-si), what becomes of a name like “Okonkwo”? By the time you finished saying it, the ball would have moved on.
The game was great to watch, even though Nigeria’s total domination (including two goals scored from outside the box) took away the suspense. And there were no commercials.
Chipanglish
CogKnition
Gustatory Circuit
For these Olympics archery and handball have female commentators. Outside of the Olympics Mary Carillo does tennis commentary for men’s matches (although she sadly didn’t during the Olympics, and we were left with Barry MacKay, whose biggest contribution was to murmur “it’s good” whenever the ball was near the line. As if we couldn’t tell by the lack of call from the line judge or, y’know, the players CONTINUING TO PLAY.) The other regular female commentators (Pam Shriver and Mary Joe Fernandez) usually call the women’s matches or are sideline reporters for the men. So Mary Carillo has broken into the boys’ club. Make whatever off-color joke you want on your own.
Speaking of handball, I was watching a game the other day and a goal was scored AS they were fading out to commercial. When it came back from commercial the score hadn’t changed. Thankfully they at least had the sense to tell us that the whistle blew before the goal. Oy.