MEANWHILE, THE SOCCER WORLD CONTINUES TO TURN . . .UNITED STATES 1, LATVIA 0 So the U.S. concluded its final World Cup tune-ups with a lackluster 1-0 loss to Morocco and shutout wins over Venezuela and Latvia, four years after it prepared for another World Cup with victories over Uruguay (2-1) and Jamaica (5-0) and a loss to Holland (2-0). The Americans got through this latest World Cup send-off with a knockout injury to center back Cory Gibbs and a minor injury to captain Claudio Reyna. It could have been worse.
Still, the Latvia game closed this chapter on an unsettling note. It wasn't that the Americans squandered several chances and scored just once, but rather it was the sight of the U.S. defense protecting a one-goal lead for a long stretch and not looking steady in doing so. Can the U.S. possible beat the Czech Republic, Italy or Ghana by scoring once just before halftime and holding on for the next 47 minutes?
ABC/ESPN GETS UNINSPIRED FOR THE WORLD CUP Look for ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 to set ratings records for its coverage of the 2006 World Cup. This isn't France '98, when the USA's not-unexpected first-round elimination helped drag down the TV numbers. This also isn't Korea/Japan '02, when the USA's strong run was lost in a fog of middle-of-the-night kickoff times. Matches will be aired live in the U.S. in early/late morning and late morning/early afternoon, depending on your time zone; the performance of the U.S. team, should it play well, isn't going to come as a shock; and, thanks to U.S. appearances in each of the last four World Cups, a generation of casual American soccer fans is ready to watch.
So it came as a disappointment when ABC/ESPN on March 14 announced that its top play-by-play man for Germany '06 will be Dave O'Brien, who will be paired with former U.S. defender Marcelo Balboa. ABC/ESPN could have taken the bold route and come up with a more entertaining or provocative duo, but it did not.
During the ESPN2 telecast of the USA's 1-0 win over Poland in a March 1 friendly in Kaiserslautern, O'Brien gave a workmanlike performance that one would expect from someone whose broadcast background largely involves baseball and college basketball. O'Brien will likely keep it safe and perfunctory in Germany as well. But then so did Roger Twibell, the ESPN golf, college football and college basketball guy who was handed the mike by ABC/ESPN for the top matches at U.S. '94 and France '98. Few non-soccer fans in America, craning their necks to see what the fuss was about, caught the fever.
The O'Brien selection was too much for one fan, who launched an on-line petition in an effort to get ABC/ESPN to give Balboa a partner whose hand he won't have to hold (go to
www.petitionspot.com/petitions/World_Cup_Announcers). Unfortunately, this country has produced as many legendary soccer play-by-play men as it has legendary soccer-playing men. It hasn't even produced someone like Ian Darke, a personal favorite whose work has been heard in the U.S. during English Premier League telecasts. In 1994, when England failed to qualify, Darke was hired by ESPN to call a handful of early matches. Witty, pleasant, incisive, precise and thoroughly professional, Darke showed how it's done during now-forgotten games like Sweden-Cameroon, then was back home in England long before the final, which he should have called for ABC. An Ian Darke would have made those skeptical Americans who tuned in forget that they were watching a scoreless draw.
Other pairings for Germany '06 are less surprising. J.P. Dellacamera will be with John Harkes and Rob Stone with Robin Fraser, plus Glenn Davis/Shep Messing and Adrian Healy/Tommy Smyth. Dellacamera, who has been calling soccer since before DaMarcus Beasley was born, will probably make the most of the quips of Harkes, who was the team cut-up during his days as U.S. captain. Davis is solid and someone who has a genuine concern for the good of the game in this country. As for Smyth, with his "old onion bag," he remains ABC/ESPN's bulletproof boy.
Not part of the crew is Seamus Malin, the old Cosmos hand, he of the tinny voice and prickly humor who always comes thoroughly prepared. No Derek Rae, the Brit who has done a solid job for ESPN in describing every "meaty challenge" executed in a string of UEFA Champions League finals. No Phil Schoen, formerly the television face of MLS who for this World Cup has been exiled to XM satellite radio. No Ty Keough, whose four seasons in the NASL and eight international appearances (1-5-2, 1979-1980) made him an odd choice to comment on a U.S. team that was far superior to any team he ever played for. No Bill McDermott either (" . . . and Smith, the No. 8 shirt, feeds Jones, the No. 6 shirt, who beats Reyes, the No. 2 shirt . . . ").
There's also no Jack Edwards, who was somewhat on a par with the likes of Dellacamera in calling U.S. matches at Korea/Japan '02 but was undone by moments of excess ("The land of the free, the home of the brave, is into the round of eight!"). But at least Edwards came out of his seat--verbally--once in a while, and if Americans are to fully appreciate what a World Cup is all about, it needs an out-of-his-seat guy like Edwards.
Or maybe not. With the right sidekick, any capable play-by-play man would do just fine. Many gridiron football fans would have to think a bit before remembering that it was Frank Gifford who called Monday Night Football games back in MNF's heyday, but they are quick to recall that it was the colorful Don Meredith and the acerbic Howard Cosell who were also in the booth. Could ABC/ESPN, the home of MNF, have followed the same recipe for Germany '06 and put the colorful Ray Hudson and the acerbic Paul Gardner (or someone like him) on either side of a Dellacamera or Davis?
Of course, in the end, it's all about the game. No one remembers poor commentary during a thrilling World Cup, and great commentary can't save a mediocre or negative World Cup. After all, we still remember Mick Luckhurst. TNT hired the British-born Atlanta Falcons placekicker as a commentator for its 1990 World Cup telecasts in a boneheaded attempt to lure gridiron football types to tune in soccer. It didn't happen, and as we all know, in the end, nothing--not even Luckhurst--could save Italia '90 from itself.
SOCCER GODS ON DUTY IN PARIS? If the soccer gods are on duty, look for FC Barcelona to beat Arsenal in the 2005-2006 UEFA Champions League final on May 17 at the Stade de France.
Barcelona has lifted the cup once in four finals while Arsenal is appearing in its first final, so history, if any of the 22 players on the field that day care, is on the side of the Catalan giant. More important, Barcelona has the reigning FIFA World Player of the Year, Ronaldinho, in fine form and everyone's favorite newcomer, 18-year-old Lionel Messi, coming off injury.
Given that, this could be one of those odd years in which the Champions League actually lives up to its name. Since the UEFA reconfigured its marquee event 14 years ago to create a cash cow bloated with second- and even fourth-place clubs, too seldom has the cup gone to a reigning champion. Barcelona, which clinched its second consecutive Spanish title May 3, might actually become one of the few genuine, bona fide champions to win the coveted cup whose participants once numbered Europe's top 15 defending national champions and the holder.
(Postscript to FC Barcelona 2, Arsenal 1: Never mind the soccer gods. No one can change the course of a match like referee Terje Hauge of Norway.)
A PAUSE TO CHECK OUT THE END OF THE RAINBOW As in 1998 and 2002, Major League Soccer will press on during a World Cup. For a month beginning in June, while the attention of the entire planet, including soccer fans in the U.S., is riveted on Germany '06, MLS will play 40 matches.
The world will little note nor long remember what happens in those games.
MLS, unfortunately, has little choice. To take a month off and schedule those 40 matches on either side of World Cup break would be a logistical nightmare, and the league would lose any momentum in fan interest if might have built in the early part of the season. On the other hand, playing while every other significant national league is idle leaves the World Cup and MLS standing back to back, reminding all here that if the World Cup is the giant then MLS is the dwarf--a very small dwarf.
What's truly unfortunate, however, is what will happen on segments of the grassroots level at World Cup time, here in a country whose impressive youth participation numbers have never translated into big TV ratings for a deserving national team or a national league that has been trying to get it right.
The dates of the World Cup have been known for some two years, and the dates of the USA's three first-round games have been known since the draw in December, yet more than two dozen competitive U.S. Youth Soccer Association tournaments have been scheduled for that period, with countless more recreational youth tournaments slated as well. Those taking part are the players, coaches and referees who are very, very involved in soccer, yet many of them will be busy when the U.S. National Team is trying to get past the Czech Republic on June 12, Italy on June 17 and Ghana on June 22.
It is doubtful that World Cup matches will ever bring any major U.S. city to a standstill like they do without fail in Madrid, London, Rome, Buenos Aires and Rio. (Heck, during any Super Bowl, two-thirds of America is jogging, reading, shoveling snow, mowing the lawn, surfing the Internet, or stuck at work.) But it is mystifying that those here on the grassroots level, whose young players may dream of one day playing for the U.S. in a World Cup, can't bring their game to a halt for a brief period every four years and give their kids a good look at soccer's brass ring.
U.S. SHUT OUT IN THE MIDDLE Kevin Stott of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., has long been regarded as one of the better referees produced by the U.S. He began officiating at age 16 and has gone on to World Cup qualifiers, a FIFA Under-17 World Championship and an MLS championship game.
So it came as a surprise on April Fool's Day when FIFA announced its 23 refs for the 2006 World Cup, none of them American. Who could have predicted that for the first time since Espana '82 the U.S. would not be represented on the officials' list, especially in a year in which a referee of Stott's caliber was waiting in the wings? (Stott is indeed waiting in the wings--he's on the list of World Cup alternates.)
With Stott out, then, a prediction regarding one of the three CONCACAF referees who
will work Germany '06: Sometime during the tournament, the man who has botched so many games in the past involving the U.S., Peter Prendergast of Jamaica, will make a call, or non-call, that will rate right up there with the howlers that changed Korea/Japan '02.
