Football Breaks Out
- 9 Jun 06, 11:25 PM
BERLIN - As I write this, it’s two matches down, sixty-two to go. The highlights team are preparing their first show and I’ve just been out for a bite to eat having been the programme editor for the opening game.
For the first time, German flags are everywhere. The Berlin fanpark is located on the other side of the Brandenburg Gate from our studio, so there are thousands of happy locals thronging the bars and restaurants blissfully unaware of the caning their nation’s defenders have just taken from Messers Hansen, Shearer and O’Neill.
Sometimes we pick a theme or player to highlight pre-match and the game totally departs from the script. Today was one of those days where we signposted something that actually happened.
One of our producers put together some clips of Germany defending shambolically in recent friendlies, Alan Hansen came in yesterday and picked the examples he liked best and we ran them in a pre-match sequence today.
Sure enough they were repeatedly caught square and Paulo Wanchope scored two goals as a result. We’d also run an interview with Wanchope pre-match, though it has to be said that his Premiership credentials made him the blindingly obvious candidate for a Costa Rica feature.
If only we hadn’t run out of time, we’d have run the pre-match Miroslav Klose analysis we’d prepared before he scored two as well!
For a first show, today seemed to go OK. There were one or teething problems, but it was the first outing for a complex technical operation and nothing really glaring went wrong on the air, so everyone is quite encouraged.
In the end though, as ever we’re entirely in the hands of the players, which is as it should be. As it turns out, they served up a bit of a belter. It’s a strange job in that respect; you can make a distinctly average programme around an epic and receive plaudits and awards, or do the best you possibly could with a rotten game and be roundly ignored by public and critics alike.
I’ve just realised that I’ve been the editor on three live games in Germany during my Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ career: Liverpool 5 Alaves 4 in the UEFA Cup Final in Dortmund; Germany 1 England 5 on that never to be forgotten night in Munich; then Germany 4 Costa Rica 2 today. Perhaps I should quit while I’m ahead, because there are bound to be a few stinkers in the next month to mess up that record.
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Watching the matches here in Canada, it's a real pleasure to listen to decent commentating from knowlegable football analysts again. After having to suffer through the feeble efforts of the American ESPN broadcasts of the Champions League, with their usual blabbing away all the time about things nothing to do with football, it was a delight to hear a good 'English'voice giving the salient and important aspects of the game. Thanks
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Paul and readers,
If you're watching the matches on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, consider yourself very fortunate.
ABC/ESPN's coverage of the matches in America has been abysmal. My blog goes into , but it's no wonder that soccer isn't as big as it should be in America with mediocre broadcasting coverage.
Are there any Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ shows that have the opportunity to speak with broadcasters from other channels to get an idea of how countries are covering the matches? If so, please interview ABC/ESPN's Dave O'Brien if you want a laugh.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
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Most big teams like England if playing are very much guarded by referees. And most teams from 3rd world are not considered. Most referees are not qualified to pray the tonament
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