Saturday, June 20, 2009

The view from the chair

This is a South Africa themed post.
Here is my recap of the FIFA CONFEDERATIONS Cup from South Africa. The first match of day one (Sunday) was a lifeless scoreless draw between the hosts South Africa and IRAQ. Match number two was Spain versus New Zealand, score, Spain six to zero. Spain shows that they are here to win and stamped their authority on this tournament. New Zealand was just out classed.
Day two (Monday) was the greatest day of football (soccer) I have ever seen. Match one was Brazil versus Egypt. Brazil survived a tough Egypt team 4 to 3. Brazil won on a controversial handball in the Brazilian goal area from an Egyptian player. That led to a Kaka penalty kick to win the game. For the record, I did not see the handball, but every one I talk to did. The Egyptian team has filed a protest, not on the handball its self, but the fact that the third official may have seen a video replay of the handball and gave advice to referee Howard Webb to award the penalty kick. Video replays are not used in soccer; by the way, FIFA (world’s governing body) has rejected Egypt’s protest. Despite the controversial call, as my fellow soccer sportswriter, Jamie Trecker, said this match was a great advertisement for soccer. It had everything, goals, send offs, PK’s, corner kicks, free kick, and the best part for sports writers, like me, controversy.
Match number two of day two was the United States National Team taking on Italy. This match was not with out controversy either. In the 31st minute the Americans were down to 10 men when Ricardo Clark was given a straight red card. But the Americans took the lead when Jozy Altidore was taken down in the penalty box by an Italian player. Landon Donovan stepped up to convert the PK. The second half was a different story as the 11-man Italian side scored three times. The irony is that two of the Italian goals were by Giuseppe Rossi, who was born in New Jersery, but his dad was born in Italy and he decieded to play for the Italy national team. Again, as Jamie Trecker said there are no more moral victories anymore for the American team. Ricardo Clark’s red card could have gone either way. It was a reckless tackel but I think it should not have been a direct red card which meant an immediate ejection but should have been a yellow card. The U.S. should know by now that FIFA tournaments are called in a tighter fashion than MLS because the refs are under the microscope by their bosses. If anything, FIFA refs tend to overcompensate. When will they learn?
The US played Brazil and lost 3 to 0 Thursday morning; in one of the worst games I have seen the US National Team play. Their defense was just awful; they even had another player sent off for a reckless tackel. Didn’t they learn anything from the other day? I guess not. As much as the Americans played terrible, Brazil was Brazil, they put on a show and scored in every way possible, off free kicks and in the run of play, thankfully not on a PK, I would have killed someone, that would have put me over the edge. My question is, why does the US play well against their regional opponents but when it comes the worldwide tournaments, they suck? Just sayin!

There is good news about next year’s World Cup in South Africa and the way ESPN will cover the event. According to the Sports Business Journal, ESPN is sending two SportsCenter sets and three host anchors to the event. The setup will be similar in scale to how the network uses “SportsCenter” at the Super Bowl as opposed to how it uses remote sets at an event like the recent Belmont Stakes and this weekends US Open Golf Championship. ESPN is finally identifying the World Cup as one of its three corporate priorities. In years past, the only other productions to make that list were “SportsCenter” and the NBA. ESPN hasn’t made any decisions about announcers and analysts for the games, but the executives said that it planned to handle the 2010 World Cup more like its telecasts of the Euro 2008 tournament than that of the 2006 World Cup. For the Euros, it used Sky Sports commentator and Brit Andy Gray, whereas for the 2006 World Cup it used American Dave O’Brien, who is a baseball guy and did not know anything about soccer. The difference between next year and the last World Cup is that the network sublicensed the rights from Soccer United Marketing in 2006. Next year in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil, it will own the rights to the events outright and it is treating the event accordingly. I’M glad to see ESPN owns the rights and will be treating the event as the global spectacle it is.
The next news story is also about South Africa, ESPN is finally giving Nelson Mandela the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at its ESPY awards show. I can’t believe ESPN finally is recognizing the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the impact it had on South Africa. He is the first paragraph of the press release: “The 1995 Rugby World Cup was hosted in South Africa for the first time. Following the victory of the host national team, The Springboks, and in a pivotal moment for South Africa, President Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springbok rugby shirt and cap, presented the William Webb Ellis Cup to South African captain Francois Pienaar to the delight of black and white sports fans across the country. This iconic gesture helped to unite a previously divided nation through a shared passion for sport, and further cemented the transition from apartheid to democracy”. Also what made this moment so moving is that while Mandela was in prison he would listen to rugby matches and because rugby was such a white sport, he would rote for the other team. This year the Arthur Ashe Courage Award coincides with Mandela Day, which will fall on July 18th, Nelson Mandela's birthday. Mandela Day will act as a global call to action for people to recognize their individual power to make an imprint and help change the world around them for the better. The Nelson Mandela Foundation and 46664 (Mandela’s number in Prison) are calling upon people around the world to commit 67 minutes (Nelson Mandela has been making an imprint on the world for 67 years) of their time to make an imprint and help change the world around them. Talk about cross promotion, but it’s good to see him get this award. The ESPYs will be televised Sunday, July 19 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN HD.

This Weekend

This is a big sports weekend. It started Thursday with the first round of the US Open Golf Championship at Bethpage Black on Long Island NY. Bethpage staged the Open back in 2002 and was the first public course to host our National Championship of golf. The main storylines are; can Tiger come back after last years win and his win at the Black in 2002. The other major story is Phil Mickelson who came back to the tour after his wife Amy was diagnosed with cancer. He said he only came back because he thought he could win the Open. He was the runner-up to Tiger in 2002 by 3 shots. The course is always the story at the US Open. The United States Golf Association says that protecting par is the goal for the tournament. NBC has the weekends, Sunday 1:30 to 7:30 P.M.

For you fight fans the UFC has their Ultimate Fighter finale Saturday on Spike TV at 9 P.M. This is when the 7-figure contract will be handed out for the winner of the Ultimate Fighter realty TV show. The Main event of the night is a lightweight fight between two of the most exciting fighters in the world, Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida. This one should be good. Also on the card is Nate Diaz against Joe Stevenson, both fighters are very exciting. Should be a fun night.

Monday was starts the Wimbledon Championships from London. This is the first year that there is a roof over center court, no more rain delays at the All England Club! The main story will be; can Rafael Nadal defend his title or will Roger Federer win back his crown. Update: Rafael will not defend his title he withdrew this week, this news opens the door wide open for Federer to win the tournament. On the women side, will Venus Williams defend her title or will someone else win the crown. From the British point of view will Andy Murray be the first Brit to win the Gentleman’s Crown in a long long time. Always interesting to see Wimbledon from the British point of view, you have to love the Brits. Should be interesting. ESPN will have the coverage starting Monday through Friday 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. each day. Enjoy!

See you next week, if not before.

Jamie Lazaroff

Sunday, June 14, 2009

A view for the chair

I’m really getting into the NBA finals this year. The Lakers are a great team; Kobe Bryant has taken over the game. Magic is the team of the future. In my opinion Dwight Howard of the Magic is the future of the NBA but needs some more work before I call him a superstar. A lot of the Magic success is because of coach Stan Van Gundy who, I think, is an extremely underrated coach. He made the necessary adjustments needed after game one and the blowout by the Lakers to continue in this series and to help make it competitive. Two of the games have gone into overtime, the Magic should have won these games but they blew it in OT.

I think ABC is doing a great job on the telecast of the games. Mike Breen is the best play-by-play man in the business. Jeff Van Gundy (Stan’s brother) is a great analyst. He is a former coach but talks the fans language. Mark Jackson is also very good he comes up with some funny lines but his voice is very monotone.

My question about the NBA Finals is, why do the weekday games start around 9 P.M. and weekend games start around 8 P.M.? Last Thursdays game did not end until after midnight, to late for me! Should it be revised? Just a though!

Last weekend was the finals of the French Open. Roger Federer won a career Grand Slam and is now tied with Pete Sampras for the most all-time Grand Slam singles titles with 14 championships. Roger is the greatest tennis player I have every seen. Wimbledon in two weeks will be very interesting. Can Roger regain his crown he lost last year to Rafael Nadal? Let’s talk about NBC’s telecast. I think Ted Robinson is the second best play-by-play voice in tennis behind Dick Enberg. John McEnroe is the best in the business behind no one. Mary Carillo is very good too. These three combined may be the best announcing team in all of sports.

Last Friday as Roger Federer was outlasting Juan Martin del Potro in the French Open Semifinals, we in the United States did not see it live until that afternoon on Tennis Channel. Here is an explanation from NBC Sports via Richard Deitsch from Sports Illustrated. NBC Sports’ contract with the tournament allowed it to air only one of the semifinals and they gave NBC a “blackout window” after the broadcast of the NBC taped match ended. NBC’s window was 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. because it wanted to protect the “Today Show”. By the way I thought the “Today Show” went to 11 A.M.? I would like to know why there was no live tennis on NBC the first weekend (May 30 and 31) of the French Open? As Richard says in his Monday column, the three network partners (NBC, ESPN, and the Tennis Channel) need to figure out how to air live coverage on the first weekend and last Friday in 2010.

Last Saturday, June 6th was the season opener for the WNBA Connecticut Sun. It was one of the worst games I have every witnessed. I hope this was just season opening jitters. On Sunday, June 7th they beat New York, so we will see how they do in their next game, Sunday, June 14, 2009 at home versus Atlanta. I won’t be there!

Now on to hockey for a minute, why are some of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals games on the same night as the NBA finals games? Just asking?

Last Sunday TNT took over NASCAR coverage from FOX. I think play-by-play announcer Bill Weber is good but no Mike Joy. I don’t like Wally Dallenbach, I think he is too laidback and comes off as arrogant sometimes. Kyle Petty was a good diver in his day but is no good in the booth. He speaks diver language but for the most part I can’t understand him. After just one week, I miss Darrell Waltrip. Larry McReynolds is part of TNT coverage but just trackside but he’s not on enough to be effective.

Last Sunday night Mike Brown and Urijah Faber put on a great show for the WEC on Versus. Mike Brown won the fight by unanimous decision to retain the WEC Featherweight Championship. Faber broke his hand in the frst round of the fight, but still fought all 5 rounds @ 5 minutes each. Just incredible, in fact, I missed the overtime of game 2 of the NBA Finals to watch this fight. Versus needs to find a new announcer because Todd Harris was just awful. He should not do any sports, he is bad at everything he does. Kenny Florian was great as the analyst. He has been an analyst on ESPN internet show MMA live, but I did not know how he would do on live TV. After his fight career is over Kenny has a furtue in TV.

This Weekend
The big event this weekend is UFC 99 from Cologne, Germany on pay-per-view. There are no championship fights on this card, will have some great matchups, like former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich “ACE” Franklin fighting fomer Pride Middlewight Champion Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva in a 195 lb bout. The other headliner is the return of Mirko “Cro Cop” to the Octagon. “Cro Cop” is a former Pride Openweight Grand Prix Champion. Should be fun.

The other big event is the start of the FIFA Confederations Cup from South Africa on Sunday. The good news for soccer fans in the U.S. is that all of the games will be on ESPN and ESPN2. Here is next weeks schedule:
Su 6/14 9:55 a.m. ESPN2 South Africa vs. Iraq
2:25 p.m. ESPN2 New Zealand vs. Spain
Mo 6/15 9:55 a.m. ESPN2 Brazil vs. Egypt
2:25 p.m. ESPN USA vs. Italy
We 6/17 9:55 a.m. ESPN2 Spain vs. Iraq
2:25 p.m. ESPN2 New Zealand vs. South Africa
Thur 6/189:55 a.m. ESPN2 USA vs. Brazil
2:25 p.m. ESPN2 Egypt vs. Italy

Enjoy, I know I will!

See you next week, if not before.
Jamie Lazaroff

Friday, June 5, 2009

A view for the chair

Hi folks

I’m back and better than ever. We are diligently working on the audio podcast; I hope to have it up by the end of next week. I’ll keep you posted.

Enough about me, on to the sports.

There is a lot going on in the world of sports, so let’s go. Rance Mullinicks was in the booth this weekend as the Red Sox were in Toronto to play the Blue Jays. New England Sports Network (NESN) has been using different analysts since May 6, when Jerry Remy took a leave of absence so he can fully recover from the effects of cancer surgery. Rance has been the best sub NESN has had; he was clear and did not use baseball jargon. Please come back soon Jerry, we miss you.

Breaking news: Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison are the new analysts for NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Rodney and Tony worked for NBC at the Super Bowl in February and were very good. They are replacing Cris Collinsworth, who is leaving the studio and replacing John Madden in the game booth and Jerome Bettis who was let go by the network. I cannot believe Tiki Barber as the only holdover from last season and Jerome was let go. Jerome you could tell loved the game and it showed. He had passion and Tiki is seems like he’s just going through the motions. Tony and Rodney has that passion and I think they will do very well.

For the past two weeks, ESPN has been sharing converge of the French Open with the Tennis Channel on weekdays and NBC Sports on the weekends. This past Sunday 4-time defending champion Rafael Nadal lost to 23rd seed Robin Soderling. NBC had all the matches on the day taped for the afternoon; remember that Paris is 5 hours ahead of New York. Next time something big happens please NBC, let ESPN (as they are in more homes than the Tennis Channel) show the match live. The finals this weekend will be live, the women are Saturday and the men are Sunday.

There is big news in the mixed martial arts world this week. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced that former eliteXC fighter Kimbo Slice is a part of season 10 of there reality TV show the “Ultimate Fighter” that will start airing on Spike on September16. UFC President Dana White, at one point last year, called Kimbo “not a real fighter”, a “fraud”, and that he would not let him in UFC. Dana has stated the only way Kimbo will fight in the UFC is if he wins the Ultimate Fighter contract. The other fights announced for the show are all former NFL players…will be a fun season and I can’t wait for September.

I have one question, why are games 3 and 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals on Versus? I don’t know any major sports league other than the NHL that has their championship series on cable TV. For a league that needs showcasing, the NHL does a terrible job at being visible. Just a thought.

This weekend

This is a huge weekend for sports. The crazy French Open wraps up with the Women’s Final Saturday morning and the Men’s final on Sunday morning, both live on NBC.

It is a huge weekend for mixed martial arts with events on both days. Saturday is Strikeforce on Showtime. The main event is Robbie Lawler versus Jake Shields, but the fight I want to see is Nick Diaz versus Scott Smith. These will be two very entertaining bouts but there are great fighters up and down the card. Should be fun…wish I had Showtime.
On Sunday night is the WEC on Versus at 9 P.M.. The main bout is a rematch for the Featherweight Championship with defending champion Mike Brown fighting Urijah Faber, the man he beat for the title.

Saturday is the Belmont stakes on ABC at 5 P.M. Calvin Borel will be looking for a jockey triple crown, as he won the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird, and the Preakness on Rachel Alexandra and he is back on Mine That Bird for the mile and a half “test of the champions.” Will be very interesting, I don’t think he can do it. The Belmont is the longest Triple Crown and perhaps the longest race the horse will run in his entire career. Calvin Borel is a jockey made for shorter races.

Besides all this, the WNBA starts its season. I will be at the season opener this Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena when the Sun take on the Washington Mystics. I will have a report next week. Should be fun.

Also, can the USA Men’s national soccer team rebound after a 3 to 1 lost to Costa Rica Wednesday night in World Cup qualifying? Saturday the U.S. host Honduras at Soldier Field in Chicago at 8 P.M. on ESPN. With only two home games left in qualifying I think we need to win this game. The national team has a big month ahead of them as they head to South Africa for the FIFA Confederations Cup and play some of the best national teams in the world. Their first two games in South Africa will be against Italy and Brazil; these two teams combine for 9 world cup titles. Will be some good matches, I hope.

Talk to you next week if not before.

Jamie Lazaroff