Eric Wynalda Fox Football Fone-In (Mon 7 Sept).

Eric’s right to rail against the fans of the USA MNT who complain about the team’s performance .. even when they win! Bob Bradley’s doing a decent job IMHO.

Milan – Inter (29 Aug 09)

Half-time: 0 – 3.

During the first half we can see from the video replay that Ronaldinho dived in the Inter penalty area, claiming a foul. The referee of course should have awarded him a two-match ban, just as UEFA gave Arsenal’s Eduardo a two-match ban after dining in the Champions League match against Celtic, even though the ref in that game awarded a penalty to Eduardo.

What is a ref to do in the circumstances? Well, later in the half, the ref gave Gattuso a yellow for denying an Inter player a goal-scoring opportunity. Er, we thought that that should be a red card according to FIFA. The ref perhaps knew that he had pulled the wrong card from his pocket for moments later he awarded another yellow to Gattuso for a foul that might otherwise have resulted in a free-kick after a verbal warning to the Milan midfielder. So it looked for all the world like a make-up call.

In this game, Inter look like a much better team than Milan. They are set up in a very attacking formation with Milito and Sneijder running at the Milan back line though the centre and inside left channel, with Eto’o lurking on the right.

Muntari is brought on by Mourinho in teh 59th minutee – perhaps to keep him onside after Mourinho’s comments about Muntari’s Muslim religion interfering with his football – due to the player’s dietary restrictions during Ramadan? Mourinho has criticised the media for misrepresenting what he said, which is unsurprising given the supposed death threats emanating from certain Islamists.

Full-time: 0 – 4.

Manchester United 2 – 1 Arsenal

A scrappy game littered with mistakes, but what excitement on offer to those watching this open match!
The first goal was cored by Arshavin, the best player on show. United keeper Ben Foster seemed slow at moving to his right to stop the near-post shot; he didn’t step to his right 0 – 1.
The equaliser came from Rooney’s apparent dive into the onrushing Almunia. Rooney took the resultant penalty and scored by blasting the ball to Almunia’s left: 1 -1.
How many matches will Rooney be banned for by UEFA? Does he deserve a lesser or greater punishment than Arsenal’s own Eduardo’s two match ban for diving in the Celtic penalty area in last week’s Champions League?
Then Diaby inexplicably headed the ball back into his own goal: 2 – 1.
At the death, Arsenal had the ball in the United net, but there was an offside earlier in the move. Oh, and Arsene Wenger was sent to the stands by the referee.

Fulham 0 – 2 Chelsea (23 Aug 09)

Nice work by Ancelotti – the new Chelsea manager is certainly making a difference to the look of the team, even as the personnel has remained largely the same. Drogba and Anelka, the front pairing that the pundits suppose will not combine, both scored.

A bit of a one-sided game this: Fulham rarely managed to get the ball into the Chelsea half, and when they did the forwards got poor quality ball from their defenders and midfielders. In transition, the Fulham midfielders couldn’t or wouldn’t join their fellow strikers high up the pitch, so fearful were they of Chelsea’s attack. But if you’re going to beat Chelsea you have to apply a lot of pressure to their defence, rather than try and hold out defensively and score a counterattack goal. Fulham coach Roy Hodgson – vastly experienced as he is – didn’t get it right on this occasion.

Man of the match: Anelka, who not only set up Drogba for the first goal, which would have been flagged for offside if FIFA had by now joined the modern world by allowing the referee to watch the video replay (his head was clearly beyond the last defender when the ball was played), but also scored the second and worked very hard dipping back to help out the Chelsea midfield.

Chelsea look the real deal this season. The title will be theirs if the new-look midfield diamond is effective on its defensive end against such teams as Arsenal and Man Utd.

Fox Soccer and the Champions League. 20 Aug 09.

Yes, it’s easy for armchair critics like ourselves .. and the FSC pundits.

Oh deary me! The coverage of Celtic v Arsenal was ruined by the commentator announcing what was going to happen on the pitch a second before it actually did: the soundtrack was ahead of the visuals. FoxSoccerChannelWatch recommends this: turn off the sound completely and you can provide your own commentary. Advertisers take note – we won’t be listening to the commercials, either.

It’s bad enough to listen to the Fox Soccer Report tell us what happens on the pitch before we see it: “And in a moment we see the only goal of the game.” Thanks for spoiling it for us, FSR! Viewers, turn off the sound! We also get the same shabby treatment with FSC’s new Champions League highlights program, with Max Bretos spoiling it for us again there.

You don’t get that sort of treatment from the Premier League Highlights Show. Across the Atlantic, the soccer’s better, and so is the TV coverage.

Fox Soccer Report glitch for tonight – yep, it’s the same old problem with the graphics; is the person who writes them permanently drunk? – a team by the name of Velencia is up on the screen. Is it some obscure Romanian team? Nope – it’s Valencia from Spain, just one of the most famous teams in the world. Velencia orange juice anyone?

Chicago Fire v LA Galaxy. Did I hear correctly? We are told by commentator Carlos Machado that Chicago don’t manage “a shot on goal”. Then we see the highlights, containing shots on goal by the Chicago team.

Fox Soccer Report glitch 10 May 09

Nice of Jeremy St. Louis http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/3710376/Jeremy-St.-Louis to greet the moms watching on Mother’s Day.
But -oh dear! – the guys who do the graphics have fouled up again: the report showed video of Manchester United apparently scoring two goals against cross-town rivals Manchester City.
The Setanta Sports Channel graphic showed the score as Manchester United 2 Manchester City 0.
The Fox Soccer Channel graphics, however, gave the score as … Manchester United 0 Manchester City 2.

Which team won the game? Who knows? I am deaf, so cannot hear the commentary. I think I cannot rely on Fox Soccer Channel.

Fox Soccer Report mess up … again! Sat April 18, 09.

So we are shown Chelsea scoring two goals, and Arsenal scoring only one goal in the FA CUp semi-final game held at the new Wembley, but announcer Terry Leigh (who is she exactly – and what credentials does she have to mispronounce players’ names?) misreads the autocue and says “Arsenal win this – um, Chelsea win this 2-1.” Is she confused? Because we certainly are: the gigantic graphic informs us of the score: Arsenal 2 – 1 Chelsea.
We will look forward to the FA Cup final, then – can Chelsea, or Arsenal, or whoever the finalist might be, beat Manchester United or Everton or Matlock Town FC or Kyoto Purple Sanga or whoever their opponents might be?
Moral of the story: don’t rely on Fox Soccer Report for, er, anything factual.

Fox Soccer Report gaffe 9 April 09

Yet another typo on the Fox Soccer Report graphics:

PSG 0 – 0 Dyanmo Kiev

Don’t they have simple spell-checker software? Like Microsoft Word? C’mon guys, not even Gmail?

New-Look Fox Soccer Report

Changes in the look of the Fox Soccer Report program. The new background showing a stadium full of fans is better, and having the two main commentators facing fewer cameras is also an improvement. Why another announcer is separated frpm these two, and why s/he has to stand, we don’t know. A demotion for those guys?

One of the weakest areas of the program – the graphics – remains, however:
- the graphics are huge. Even if the producers feel the titling has to be large to cater to the visually-challenged viewer, the graphic extends above and below the writing. These large graphics cover up the video of the action on the pitch!
-even worse, the graphics are rarely accurate. It’s as if the person responsible for them has some sort of beef with the channel and deliberately messes them up. Is it true?

Because the commentators, most of whom appear to new to the sport of association football, also make mistakes on a regular basis, we cannot be sure if the information we are given is correct.

Today’s problem: can you work it out? The graphic tells us that this weekend’s game is Houston Dynamo v New York Red Bulls. Great! I’m booking my flight to Houston right now. Oh, hang on, the commentator (Carlos Machado) tells us New York are at home to Houston! Twice! While the graphic remains on the screen informing us that Houston are playing at home.

What Fox Soccer Channel have to do:
1. Sack the commentators, apart from Bobby McMahon. Replace them with people like Bobby who know the game.
2. Revamp the style of the graphics, and have some sort of quality control of the text.

Bobby McMahon

Kudos to Bobby for predicting a Liverpool victory away at Real Madrid (R. Madrid 0 – 1 Liverpool) in the Champions League. (Shouldn’t that be Champions’ League?). If Real haven’t been on top form this term, then neither have Liverpool. We’ll see on Fox Soccer Report on Friday 27 Feb 09 if this correct prediction will lead to any crowing on Bobby’s part .. or fawning on the part of his colleagues. Whether this would be natural to all people/TV programs I don’t know, but when Bobby makes wrong predictions, these are never brought up on subsequent shows for some reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_McMahon