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June 12, 2006
Differences in Press Coverage of the World Cup
As a lifelong fan of soccer, er, football, um...you know, that sport the rest of the world loves so much, I've been looking forward to World Cup 2006 for a while. I've always wondered why Americans generally don't care as much about the game, but I just noticed another correlate: the US press coverage of soccer is pretty lame, and that's putting it nicely.
Where a US news outlet might write that the player "kicked a shot wide," anywhere else might say something like "rocketed a disappointing miss left."
Take this comparative example of coverage of today's US drubbing by the Czech Republic.
First, some of ESPN's coverage:
U.S. captain Claudio Reyna came closest to scoring, hitting a post midway through the first half. But Rosicky scored on a soaring 25-yard shot in the 36th minute, and the Americans never got back into the game against the Czechs, semifinalists in the European Championship two years ago.Rosicky hit the crossbar in the 68th and added a goal in the 76th minute, getting past the U.S. defense off a through pass from Pavel Nedved, Europe's 2003 player of the year, and beating Kasey Keller on a breakaway.
Eddie Johnson, who entered at halftime, provided some energy, missing just wide in the 70th minute and high in the 76th.
Now, read a bit of the BBC's take, which exemplifies the European rest of the world's passion for the game:
With five minutes on the clock Nedved fed in Grygera and the full-back's inch-perfect right-wing cross was clinically headed home by 6ft 7in Koller.USA enjoyed plenty of possession, but the Czechs - and the brilliant Nedved in particular - always had another gear to move into.
His outrageous outside-of-the-foot cross landed on Grygera's head, but he could only nod over.
The Americans so nearly made them pay moments later, Reyna drilling a 25-yard daisy-cutter that crashed back into play off Petr Cech's right-hand post with the Chelsea stopper beaten.
Granted, superlatives and hyperbole aren't regularly welcomed in journalism, but maybe, just maybe, if Americans were more regularly presented with coverage of soccer that exuded that much savvy and enthusiasm, we might care about it more.
Or, maybe we need to care about it first before ESPN ever will. But then again, our apathy for watching people play cards on TV didn't stop them from spoon-feeding us the World Series of Poker six hours a day, now did it?