EPL Talk » Julie Foudy

ESPN’s Euro 2008 Dream Goes According To Plan

The Gaffer — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:30:59 +0000

ESPN and ABC’s dreams have come true. Sunday’s Euro 2008 final between Germany and Spain is a far better proposition for the Disney owned TV networks than Turkey against Russia would have been. With plenty of German Americans living in the United States as well as a massive hispanic population, TV ratings should be high.

Overall, the amount of attention that ESPN has given to Euro 2008 this summer has far exceeded my expectations. The games seem to be a centerpiece of the network’s coverage and has even been the lead story on some of ESPN’s other sports programs.

The work that ESPN has done this summer is to be applauded. Everything from the TV commercials to the broadcast of a different European Championship final each night leading up to the tournament, as well as the way that ESPN has been cross-promoting the tournament on its own shows, has been fantastic.

Inside the studio, the only mistake the network made was hiring Julie Foudy. While she is exuberant on the set, she adds little to no worthy analysis. As the weeks have passed by, she has grown on me, but ESPN would have done better to hire someone who really knows his or her world football and has more passion than Foudy. That person is Ray Hudson.

What struck me this week is that there really isn’t a TV network that football fans love globally. In the UK, many viewers despise the BBC, ITV and Sky Sports. In the United States, Fox Soccer Channel often gets ridiculed. But with ESPN, they have a unique opportunity to produce high quality soccer coverage. They’re experts at production. Plus they have a soccer expert in Derek Rae as well as a hired hand such as Andy Gray.

Derek Rae, especially, has been a joy to listen to this summer. His level of football commentating as well as his knowledge of the game, the statistics and his impeccable gift of knowing how to pronounce difficult words and speak other languages puts him into the top tier of football commentators. While Andy Gray seems to talk down to Adrian Healey a little bit during matches, Gray and Rae strike up a dynamite partnership. Both Scots are still trying to get used to working with each other, but you can tell that Gray has a lot of respect for his fellow countryman.

The big question is where does ESPN go from here? The next World Cup in 2010 still seems far away. The obvious choice would be for ESPN to enter into the bidding later this year against Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Channel for the rights to show the English Premier League in the United States. FSC’s current contract with the Premier League runs until 2010.

Julie Foudy: You Are ESPN’s Weakest Link, Goodbye!

The Gaffer — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:21:52 +0000

At the start of the Euro 2008 tournament, ESPN pundits were asked who was going to be their star of the tournament. Pundit Julie Foudy picked Thierry Henry. Her choice showed how clueless she is about the sport.

I’m still scratching my head why ESPN selected Foudy as a member of their Euro 2008 broadcasting team. Maybe the network thought it wanted to break up the male monopoly by having a token female on its staff?

It would have been wiser for ESPN to have selected Seamus Malin instead of Foudy, a former member of the U.S. women’s team.

If you have any clue why Foudy was selected, please share your comments below.

Day One: First Impressions of ESPN’s Euro ‘08 Coverage

Jeff Hash — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:28:03 +0000

Euro 2008 is finally here after the standard mega sports event buildup. And for ESPN, today is the beginning of their broadcast of the entire tournmanet for the first time. The network has been rolling the ads for weeks and made a big addition to its on-air talent with Andy Gray. Now, at last, the coverage itself is the focus. So how did the self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports do?

Overall, it seemed to go fairly well. Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth was pretty much their standard selves on the first game, which means you already love them or hate them based on their past broadcasts. Personally, I’m a fan of Rae, and thought he was great. I was worried about how Adrian Healey and Andy Gray would come together, but it ended up just fine, with Gray’s class shining but not overpowering Healey, who was able to work well with him. Part of me, however, wishes for a Derek Rae/Andy Gray booth at some point. Maybe for the final. As for the on-screen look, I’m glad to see ESPN’s graphics was in line with UEFA’s own TV feed, right down to the scorebox in the top right. There were no unnecessary large boxes with mismatched color, and nothing that popped on-screen interfered with the match itself.

The studio show, however, left something to be desired. First off, Steve Bunin seemed to be having a hard time keeping the show moving. I’ve seen Bunin before on MLS broadcasts, and he’s always seemed uncomfortable with soccer. But given Bunin was not on the network’s original slate of hosts, maybe this ends up being just a last minute call-in. Then there is Julie Foudy. Foudy is ok as an analyst, but when she was alongside Andy Gray, she seemed superfluous. Gray just knows everything to talk about and how to say it, and so Foudy seemed unsure what to do. Foudy with Smyth was better, but seemed disjointed compared to Gray’s own efforts. Hopefully this gets ironed out as the days go on.

Some other random thoughts:
*Loved that ESPN showed the national anthems before the game. It’s a nice small touch.
*I understand the event is on a related network, but the Belmont Stakes segment between matches was unnecessary, and reminds me why I get fustrated with ESPN’s promotion at times.
*ESPN Axis is a great addition to the studio show analysis, and I hope it makes its way to the network’s MLS and Champions League broadcasts as well.

My final verdict is that this was a good first day of broadcast. I would like to see the studio show get straightened out a little, but overall it was a job well done, and showed that ESPN is serious about this tournament. Hopefully the network will be able to keep it up over the next three plus weeks.