Conference trucks::football;1

    FANtastic news. Also, Sportschannel shows 1 hour of English first 
    division hilites usually Late Friday night or early Saturday morning,
    but always one week behind.
    
    JC

    Damn (and other expletives),
    
    We don't get NESN down here and I haven't heard of Sportschannel.
    
    Some Italian and South American games do get shown on a Sunday
    afternoon on BET (Black Entertainment Channel) - well actually it's
    Univision (the Spanish Channel) buying airtime. One of the more
    bizarre things I ever watched was England vs USSR with a Spanish
    commentary.
    
    Not that i'd get up at 10am to watch Norwich (Hello Jon)
    
    Maybe one day real football will come here?
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    Andrew,
    Next time your scousers are on the tube I'll record it and send you the
    tape. 
    
    JC

   My wife just called back and said that NESN would televise a live match
   every Saturday morning at 10am. Evidently they were negotiating with 
   some German producers for their weekly highlite show called Soccer Sensations
   Made in Germany and that fell through so they opted for televising a live
   match. At least we will be able to understand the announcers...I do not
   speak Italian or Spanish so I am unable to understand everything that the
   announcers say on those televised matches. Sounds to me like we will be
   getting different teams every week....hopefully not Luton though.....


   Jerry

    I think NESN is a regional channel in New England. Sports Channel is a
    nationwide channel, so I'm surprisd you wouldn't get it in Atlanta.
    Univision SIN showed all the World Cup games and European championships
    in the past, so I'm almost used to hearing commentary in Spanish.
    
    Tom                                                          

    The Italian games shown on univision are the same games shown live
    on RAI the week before. South American games are also one week behind,
    except for important matches such as the Copa America. Last live
    match Univision aired was the recent Italy vs USSR for the Euro
    championship qualifications.
    
    Sportschannel:
    
    I believe its called Sportschannel America and is available nation-wide.
    Check with your cable company. (I know its available in Florida).
    
    JC
    

    
    When I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago there were a number of 
    'English style' pubs showing live English football - this was at 10:00
    AM on a Saturday. Where did they recieve it from ?
    
    Paul

    To give you folks an idea of the sporadic and late football coverage
    by Sportschannel, last night as I got home about 6:30 they were showing
    the second round of the Rumbelows Cup. The coverage consisted of 45 
    minutes of Stoke City vs Liverpool match and 45 minutes of hilites from 
    all the other games. They usually use football to fill in when they
    have nothing else to show. Better than nothing but....At least I got 
    to see TGA score and Wotta shame. Too bad a player of such world class
    can't take a penalty without cheating.....
    
    BTW, who was that big number 9 for Bristol Rovers? He looks like
    a real good player.
    
    JC

    (lots of rude expletives)
    
    Sports Channel is carried by a couple of cable companies in Atlanta
    but not the one where I live. Most companies carry the competing
    Sports South which is run by Ted Turner who is based here in town.
    
    So I am now attempting to locate someone at the office who lives in
    an area of Atlanta that receives Sports Channel that would be willing
    to tape the games for me - they already think i'm strange so this
    shouldn't surprise them.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
    
    
                  

    re- .8
    
    I think Bristol Rovers no.9 is Devon White.
    
    Dave.

  Sportschannel is a national cable outfit, however, they also have regional
  broadcasts (ie. Sportschannel New England etc.) so what one region receives
  on the tube isn't necessarily what another region receives. Even within the
  region it depends on what your friendly local cable company decides to pick
  up. Case in point was last week when the Hartford Whalers played the San 
  Jose Sharks...my cable company showed the game while the next town over had
  some program on an Olympic Development program for gymnastics.

  Re. 112.8 JC, the English highlite program that aired on Tuesday was a repeat
  from the previous week. They kept flashing a message on the screen that "This
  Weeks Highlite Program Will Air on Saturday Morning". Nothing like seeing
  a re-run of a re-run of a Looneypool match.............

  JJ

    NESN will not do well in the ratings or attract new customers with
    games like the one we watched on Saturday. Wot a P*sser: Phillips had 
    an excellent shot at goal for Forrest and that was it for excitment
    on the day. 
    
    The Canaries don't seem to have it anymore. After the league run they 
    made 2 years ago I was looking forward to watching them play. Oh
    well...guess I'll sleep late this week and set the VCR to record it.
    
    Who' on this Saturday?
    
    JC

    An important note I forgot to include in last reply:
    
    London is now affordable. My cousin, a travel agent, informs me there
    are 2 very reasonably priced packages from Boston to London:
    
    1) $179 each way.
    2) $348, includes: Air fare, three days and three nights hotel.
    
    Some restrictions apply.
    
    JC

       Missed the first half of the Forest-Norwich game, but I agree with
       JC, it was a sleeper. I checked the Globe and the local Telegram
       Sunday but neither paper listed the teams for Saturday. Perhaps they
       (the producers) are waiting to select the best possible match up? or
       they just want to keep us in suspense to make sure we tune in. Replays
       are on NESN on Tuesday afternoon at 2 or 2:30. Maybe we'll get the
       Luton game!

       As a side note it was kind of nice to see both Liverpool and Bayern
       Munich way down in their respective tables.

       Jerry

    Check with your wife, but it seems to me what NESN is doing is picking
    up the cheapest live feed. Otherwise, why would they bother with
    Norwich vs Forrest when there were some excellent games on?
    
    BTW, the old show "Soccer sensations made in Germany" was more of a 
    drama then football. The only good thing about it was that we got to
    see all the goals for the week on 1-2 day delay, only. 
    
    JC

    
    JC,
    
    There are no 1st division games next weekend, because England play
    Poland the following Wednesday.  
    
    Yes, Norwich are not as good as they were two years ago.  They have
    lost too many players since then.  However, they still try to pass the
    ball around to feet, rather than hoofing the ball up field in the hope
    that a player will be on the end of it. 
    
    Jon

      With no 1st division games this week I would assume that we will
      get a 2nd division game. Even a 4th division game would beat last
      week's affair.

      FYI: Evidently NESN picks the game up off of PRIME network who probably
      acts as a broker to other cable services so just how the games are
      picked up is probably up to them. I noticed that NESN's TV adds are
      from PRIME Network complete with logo. With Martyn Tyler as the
      announcer (at least for last week's game) it had to be one of the
      lower ranking games being televised.

      JC you are absolutely correct about the German show being more 
      entertainment than a "purest" soccer show. Tobey Charles isn't high
      on my list of favorite announcers but he used to crack me up when he
      would get to the part of the show where they would show the table and
      every week it looked like he was ready to fall of off his stool as
      he squinted off to the side as if he was reading the damn thing.

      Jerry

So how does this work on US TV? What do they about commercials? 
I would've thought that they couldn't show 45 minutes of uninterrupted TV
over there. I was just wondering. The topic was discussed on Wogan a few 
weeks ago about the USA World Cup in 1994. Just how are they going to
televise it. They can either record every game and show it broken down
into smaller sections, or change the rules, and split the match into quarters
or smaller. Or maybe they can show 90 minutes of football followed by an
hour of uninterrupted commercials.


Ian

    Since I haven't seen this version of the live telecast, I don't know
    for sure how they do this, but in other instances the sponsor has been
    Budweiser beer. About 2 or 3 times in a half they will show a Budweiser
    label as a frame, outlining the picture. This reduces the screen to a
    smaller size. This lasts from 30 to 60 seconds. Also, for the World Cup,
    they would occasionally have messages runing across the bottom of the
    screen. I don't care for this, but if this is the only way they can get
    the sponsors to pay for the telecast, I can't complain too much.
    
    One thing is certain, they WILL NOT be changing the two-half format of
    the '94 WC to make it easier for US TV. You folks in Europe will see
    the same pictures, camera angles and close-ups that will be supplied by 
    American TV crews, but it is the raw feed. Each individual TV company 
    decides when and which commercials to use. If the American TV networks
    are stupid enough to cut a minute of action ot of a live game for a
    commercial (which they did on TNT, but not on the Spanish channel) :-(
    it won't affect what everyone else sees. 
    
    Just a thought -- If they insist on putting a minutes worth of
    commercials at the 15, 30, 60 and 75 minute marks of the game, couldn't
    they just use a tape delay? They wouldn't miss any action is they just
    strted it up after the ads. This way the first half would end on TV 2
    minutes after the real half ended in the stadium. Again, a "lesser of
    the 2 evils" scenario.
                                                      

    There will be plenty of time for commercials to be shown, during the
    frequent breaks to treat 'injuries'.   ;}
    
    Or, if England and Ireland qualify, and play each other, commercials
    could be shown while the ball is in the air.  ( Lots and lots of ;>'s )
    
    
    Wayne

      First of all we were "treated" to a replay of the Arsenal vs. Manchester
      U. game  played a couple of weeks ago due to no Div. 1 games this past
      Saturday. At least with the Italian league they televise a Div. 2 (Serie
      B) game which was Lecce vs Ancona (sp). 

      The Italian games go with no commercials during the match including 
      injury times etc. The English games just break away to a commercial
      hopefully during a boring moment, however, they do not seem to run that
      many commercials per broadcast. However, it should be pointed out that
      these games are being televised on what amounts to a pay Cable service
      meaning that we pay extra over and above basic cable costs to receive
      it so there aren't the same amount of commercials one finds on our
      "standard" commercial T.V. networks.

      In the past years Budweiser Beer sponsered a lot of the World Cup Soccer
      and they simply put a label around the screen while continuing to show
      the action. This would appear for 30 to 60 seconds and then be taken
      off. During the past World Cup, depending upon the network, you just
      hoped nothing significant happened while they went to commercial.

      Hoping we get a good game this Saturday...........


      Jerry

    Budwiser, McDonalds, Honda and some others have already agreed to
    have the label placed on the screen while the action continues.
    I can't remember which game but in Italia 90 we had a goal scored while
    TNT was showing a comercial, and that really sucks. If the rights are 
    awarded to pay tv, only, then we might get to see no comercials at all.
    
    I hope we get to see City vs United this Saturday. Its by far the match
    of the week. 
    
    JC

    I remember a goal being scored while the cameras were away in a game 
    with the NY Cosmos on TV about 15 years ago. The worst part about it
    was that it was a 1-0 game. 
    
    That's why I think the tape delay might be a decent solution. At any
    stoppage of play (say a throw in), the camera can cut away for a
    commercial. Meanwhile, play goes on and the broadcast also continues.
    When the commercial is done a minute or so later, instead of gong to
    "live" action, pick up the broadcast with the player throwing the ball 
    in, even though that happened a minute ago. (or if nothing has
    happened, the producer has the option to go back to live action) The 
    action on TV will be a minute or so behind the game in the stadium, 
    but at least no action will be missed. The game or half will "end" a
    few minutes after it really ends, but who cares? 
    
    About the WC being on pay TV, that doesn't mean they won't still show
    commercials. TNT, SportsChannel and SIN/Univision are pay channels 
    since they are part of a cable package, and they still show ads. In 
    America, we're so used to seeing them anyway, a lot of people won't 
    notice the difference. If there's the possibility to make money by 
    selling air time, *SOMEONE* will always be willing, regardless of what 
    the public thinks.
    
    Tom

    Why don't they just have extended adverts just  before the match,
    at halftime and at the end of the match?
    				cheers, Graham.

    If they did that, you could be sure that would be the time that viewers
    would get up and go to the fridge for a beer, etc. The sponsors know
    that if they ran 5 minutes of ads no one would watch, which defeats the
    purpose of paying money for ad rights to begin with.
    
    Tom

    Well I guess we must be stupid over here since this is exactly
    what happens over here.
    				Graham.

    Sorry Graham, didn't mean to imply that any of the fans were stupid,
    but if I were a major sponsor in charge of allocating ad money for TV
    ads, I would think twice if the setup were like it is with the BBC, 
    ITV, etc.
    
    If American TV networks decided to clump all/most of the ads together
    at halftime and the beginning/end of a game, most viewers would plan
    accordingly, and take a break from the TV when the ads come. Come back
    5 minutes later, and the game is just starting. In the US, if the
    networks proposed this, the advertisers wouldn't go for it (if they did
    they would be stupid :-). On a side note, other TV-dependent sports in
    the US have seen a little backlash - the numbers of viwers is not as
    high as originally predicted, and the advertisers are asking for a
    cheaper rate. This ultimately reduces the money given to the leagues
    and teams, which restricts their ability to get top players.
    
    I think the reason this TV setup works in Britain/Europe is because 
    most TV stations are (at least partially) government owned/operated. In 
    the US, the networks are private companies, so if they think they can 
    make $$$$ for ad rates, who is to stop them but the market. 
    
    I don't want to ramble or create a rathole here, but there has to be a
    compromise between advertisers, TV stations and viewers for this to
    work. Without the sponsors the idea won't even get off the ground and
    that is critical for a sport like soccer in the US.
    
    Tom        

	re .28

	You are confused. The placement of advertising described by
	our British noters is that decided on by fully commercial
	stations (which recently put up good money in the auction
	for franchises).

	Tony

Just thought I'd throw in a sad (very sad..howl!) story about my experience
of trying to earn a few shillings for college by working in New Jersey for the
summer while at the same time trying to be a good irishman and not miss a minute
of the world cup last year.

A point to remember before I start - 

 I don't like Budweiser

Anyway, the most important game in the history of irish soccer wasa being
played - the quarter final - and I had the misfortune of watching this live
on US TV - dont know which channel...when guess what happened in the 37th
minute...well the answer is of course.....scantily clad women romped around
a beach while their men ogled and drank Bud..(and oh yeah, Italy scored a the 
goal which put us out of the world cup, but I didn't see that, did I?)

Say no more...

 - Kev.

    I remember that game. I was at an Irish pub in the Allston section of
    Boston, and the place was packed to the gills with Irish people! Lots
    of singing, plenty of Guinness and shouts of "c'mon the lads!" GREAT
    atmosphere! The game was on TNT, the American channel, but whenever an 
    ad came on, we switched to Univision, the Spanish channel. Maybe that is 
    why I don't remember missing the goal. This is why a tape delay isn't
    such a bad idea, even if you see the goal a minute after it actually
    happens.  
    
    Tom

  Re: .31 ....

  That's exatcly how my son and I survived the TNT broadcasts, simply flip to
  Univision during a commercial. As a matter of fact, we are getting rather 
  well adapted to the Italian league broadcasts in Italian and the Univision
  broadcasts in Spanish that by the time WC94 rolls around we will skip the
  US broadcasts all together. Certainly this great game transcends all languages
  and after listening to Martin Tyler I'd just as soon turn down the volume.

  Somewhere back in this note someone had said why not just show all the
  commercials at the beginning and end. Seems to me that a few years back one
  of the "big 3" networks was running some special movie where they did that
  to enhance everyone's enjoyment for viewing the picture. I would think that
  if sponsers did that for soccer then those of us who appreciate the game, and
  would love to see the entire halves being played, would certainly think about
  purchasing their products and isn't that what advertising is all about? I 
  would think that it would get people to think of the particular companies and
  their product in a positive manner rather than cussing them out because they
  ran a commercial just as someone scores a key goal. 

  Somewhat along those lines is the infamous "Heidi Bowl" whereby NBC pulled 
  the plug on the Oakland - NY Jets football game because the game was running
  long and they wanted to show Heidi. I think that the Jets came back and won
  what looked to be a runaway and no one saw it. NBC still hears about that one.
  I'm sure Budweiser wouldn't want fans saying things like "oh ya, they're the
  ones that cut into the WC games. Think I'll have a Coors........."

  Jerry

    
    I think anyone whos' been here has to agree with Tom. Lump the
    comercials at half time and not a single person will watch it.
    As it is today with American football, people wait for comercials to
    run to the ice box for another cold one. We'll either have a compromise
    somewhere along the line or we will not get any games shown on
    comercial TV. 
    
    The only aother alternative is PAY PER VIEW TV, in which case 
    to receive a single game will cost us more then a game ticket.
    
    JC
    
    

    Did anyone watch the match last Saturday? It wasn't live but it was an
    exciting match to watch. It was the second time in 3 weeks we got
    to see the scousers. 
    
    JC

   I saw last Saturdays' match which had Liverpool at Chelsea. At the time
   I did not realize that this was a taped match and not live but it was
   entertaining as JC had said. It would have been more entertaining if 
   Chelsea had won...:-). Can't remember the player's name but the 17 year
   old player that Chelsea had  looked to be rather exciting....he almost
   tore the roof of the net off with his goal.

   This Saturday's game is live - West Ham United @ Manchester U. Think I'll
   call NESN and find out why they plugged us with a taped match when the 
   1st division was playing.

   Next Liverpool game on NESN should be Jan. 11 against Luton. Then we
   all can sleep late :-):-):-):-)


   Jerry

    Re previous two,
    
    Well that's strange because I finally found someone at the office
    who gets Sportschannel USA and got them to tape last weekend's
    offering for me in exchange for some warm beer.
    
    Anxiously I waited for them to come into the office with the tape
    and then I dashed home to put it into the Video and await whatever
    appeared (hopefully not Luton).
    
    Joy o Joy it was Liverpool but not the game you saw - instead we got
    to see the crushing 2-2 draw against Port Vale (i.e the original
    game from Oct 28th - 3 weeks ago).
    
    Suitably impressed I rewound the tape and watched it again (:==:)
    
    Also at the end I saw a goal from Beardsley and one from TGA - also
    from Rumbles Cup games.
    
    Who knows what i'll get to see next week.
    
    Roll on December and the chance to see some proper games live.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
                          

Re -.1

Andrew,

    Sportschannel up here (Boston area) televises an hourly program every
    week (repeating it 3 times during the week) which highlites one or two
    games and then shows the goals of the day. This week's show had the
    Liverpool - Port Vale game. NESN is televising a supposedly (:-)) live
    game on Saturday morning. This game is shown in its entirety. Interestingly
    enough both broadcasts are done by the same production company in England.
    They show a cartoon of a soccer stadium being enveloped by a soccer ball
    etc. etc. and as a matter of fact, the live game (and remember we've only
    gotten one so far) was their highlited game on their highlite show two
    weeks after - it was the Forest-Norwich City game.

    The Hatters must go down in 92...........and stay down.

    Jerry

    

       Well they did it to us again. The advertised game for Saturday was to
       have been the Manchester United - West Ham United game. What they showed
       was a tape, and not of very good quality (appeared almost as if it were
       filmed), of the Arsenal at Oldham Athletic game probably played two weeks
       or so ago. Let's see.........the first week we got Nottingham Forest at
       Norwich live, the second week of our broadcast there were no 1st division
       games so we got the tape of the Arsenal at Manchester United played in
       October, the third week we got a tape of Liverpool at Chelsea, and now
       this. They continue to advertise a live game in the papers - this coming
       week's game is supposed to be Nottingham Forest at Chelsea but they way
       things have ven going I suspect that we'll get a tape of the Sept. 28 game
       between Notts County and Luton. Even though the games are interesting I
       would much rather watch knowing that it is a live telecast. At least we
       get a live Italian game on Sunday morning - Roma - Sampdoria this past
       weekend.

       Speaking of Luton I saw in the papers that Manchester City and Luton tied
       2-2 on Saturday. What happened? Did the City team forget to show up?
       :-) :-).......LUTON MUST GO DOWN IN 92.

       Jerry

    I agree, but its better then nothing and does help us stay in touch 
    with the English league. 
    
    Plenty of football on the tube this week:
    
    English league on NESN     : ??????
    Italian league on RAI/WNYC : Inter vs Milan
    Univision: S.A. supercup, 2 leg, Cruzeiro vs River Plate.
    
    JC

    JC and others,
    
    Judging by the replies in here it would seem that the English league
    match you get over there comes from the same feed as the live game we
    get here in Ireland. So if you're getting a live match this week it
    will be Chelsea and Forest. If you're getting last week's match it was
    Man Utd and West Ham Utd. Worth watching for a nicely taken goal by
    Giggs.

    I was away from home last weekend. Which game did we receive from
    England?
    
    JC

    If you didn't get Chelsea V Forest live last Saturday, you'll probably
    get it on tape next week. We got it live here. It was dire so don't
    bother wasting time to see it. Next week's live game here is Aston Villa V
    Manchester City.

    Any way to find out what games Univision is showing? Is it always
    the same time Sunday afternoon? (I'm in Boston)
    
    Did someone mention that Sportschannel repeats the one-hour English
    league highlights at other times in the week (other than Sunday 10:30
    PM)? Anyone know when?
    
    Thanks.

        In the Boston area:

                Sunday 10:30pm
                Tuesday 5:00pm
                Saturday 8:00am

       Jerry

    Univision shows a match each Sunday afternoon at either 1 or 1:30.
    Its hard to tell what they'll show on a given Sunday untill they start
    advertising it during the week. They show all major matches from
    South America and some from Europe. They also covered the last 2 world
    cups. When there are no major matches going on they usually show
    a week-old match from either the Italian or Spanish league.
    
    JC

    Last night as I got home at about 3:10 AM, sports channel was showing
    the Manchester United vs West Ham match. I don't know if this is a
    regular showing time or if they were just filling a void. Whatever
    the reason, this match is worth watching.
    
    JC

Re .146

What a cracking game that was.

I was there myself & I must say it was one of the best games I've seen at
Old Trafford for a while.

A pleasure to watch!!!!

Come on you RED DEVILS!!!!

Si

    
    Re: .40, .46 & .47
    
    Yup, best game I've seen since NESN started carrying First Division
    games here on Saturday mornings.  I was impressed by Giggs in the last
    match they showed at Old Trafford against Arsenal, but his goal against
    the Hammers was definitely the game highlight.  In both games I've seen
    him play, he always seems to make things happen - excellent ball
    control, quickness and a nice touch on those passes and crosses from
    the left side into the center - and all this from a 17 year old - the
    latest in a long line of great Number 11s UNITED's had over the years!

    Not only has Giggs been impressive with his scoring ability, he 
    also looks very calm and confidente around the box. Against West ham
    he also made a nice heel pass in the box that lead to Utd's second
    goal by Robson. This youngster is no fluke. He'll be entertaining us
    and the folks at OT for a long, long time. 
    
    JC

      Re- last couple
         Nice to see that in that same match, West Ham's Frank McAvennie seems 
    to have regained his old form after a long layoff through injury. He scored 
    with a beautiful little lob and later he almost equalized with a neat 
    header. I was always a fan of Frank's and was sorry to see him leave 
    Celtic Park. I will always remember his late winner in the 1988
    Scottish Cup Final against Dundee United!
                                                                  Dan

    Does anybody know if we'll get the Utd vs Villa match on the tube this
    Weekend?
    
    JC

    On Saturday NESN showed the Leeds vs Tottenham. Last night
    sportschannel featured the same game along with Chelsea vs United.
    
    Both United and Leeds looked good. Poor Chelsea.... Sounded as if 
    United fans outnumbered the locals on their own grounds.
    
    JC

    Last Saturday we got to see the Manchester City - Liverpool (2-2). Next
    Saturday we'll see Leeds vs United. I guess we won't see live games
    after all.
    
    JC

    
    Re: .53
    
    The only game I remember seeing that was live was the first one between
    the Canaries and Forest...all the rest have been from the week before.
    Still, better one week old than no game at all.  Can't wait to see the
    Leeds vs United game.  Last saw Leeds live at Elland Road back in '65.
    As I recall Billy Bremner played a great game and Jack Charlton got the
    header for a 1-0 win, though I forget their opponent.  I definitely
    have mixed feelings about this one, as I've always liked United also.
    From what I've seen so far on NESN, both teams have been playing some
    great soccer.  Would still like to see a Sheffield Wednesday game
    though.  Judging by the stats Ian Hawley posted in 13.124, where
    Wednesday are ranked 4th in both attacking and defending categories,
    I'm surprised we've yet to see a game involving them.  Besides, it
    would be great to see John Harkes in action!
    
    Ivan

Well, there I was all set to watch a good game on Saturday morning and someone
pulled the rug out from underneath.  Instead of a First Division match, NESN
had decided to go with a 1 hour body building "muscle" show followed by another
hour of Pro Surfing.  I realize good Footer is probably not high on the priority
list of most New England Sports fans, but we're not exactly mobbed by Surfers
at this or any other time of the year either ;-)

Does anyone know if NESN has decided to abandon First Division soccer or has it
just been moved to another time frame (not 3am I hope)?  We just got the
Saturday FA cup results here in the paper and I was surprised to see that Arsenal
got stuffed by Wrexham, though I seem to recall a few predictions along these
lines in some of the other notes.  Have Wrexham had a "giant killing" reputation
over the years, or have the Gunners really fallen to pieces all of a sudden.
They didn't look that bad in the game I saw them play against Manchester United!

    I too got up early Saturday morning waiting to watch Leeds vs United
    and found that body building bullshit on the tube. In addition, cable
    vision also pulled the rug on the Italian league games, which forced me
    to get out of bed and drive to a nearby club to catch it. Hopefully
    they'll both be back next week and I'll be able to watch football in
    bed. 
    
    Most South American leagues are over and Univision has started to show
    European football. Last Sunday they had Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid,
    I believe played the Saturday before. Sportschannel has the Friday
    night English hilites at 3AM. 
    
    JC

      I don't know why NESN 86'd the 1st Division game on Saturday am (even
      though the 1st division didn't play that day it would have been a tape
      from the week before) but I had noticed that the TV guide for that week
      did not have a listing for the game on Saturday am meaning that the
      absensce of the game was planned in advanced. The listing for this week
      shows a game on NESN for Saturday morning at the regularly scheduled time
      of  10am.

      Sportschannel moved the English league highlites around - I happened to
      catch it Monday night (5-6pm). Obviously the cable stations aren't getting
      the responses hoped for with soccer. 

      JC: Fortunately my cable system (Shrewsbury) still picks up RAI so we 
      still get the Italian game of the week live. Soccer is a big sport in
      Shrewsbury and I think this has influenced our cable system to pick up
      the broadcast.

      Speaking of Shrewsbury, and out of curiosity, what are Shrewsbury's colors
      in the English league - I think they are division 3. How are they doing
      this year in the table? Once in a while the Globe gives the division 3 and
      4 scores but no standings below division 2.

      Jerry

    Once again we got to watch an old game. I think it was Manc City vs
    Arsenal. Some objective, interesting commentary provided by former 
    UNITED GREAT Dennis Law.
    
    JC

    Well I never - it snows in Atlanta and we get a real football game on TV.
    
    Yes after surviving on the kindness of someone who gets Sportschannel
    USA and has a VCR for sometime I finally got to see a game today on
    my own mere 38-channel TV.
    
    Sportsouth which is one of Ted Turner's (you know Mr Jane Fonda) many
    channels showed Chelsea vs Tottenham - the entire game!!! ok so I don't
    like either team but i would have even watched the Mancs (:==:).
    
    Unfortunately, they didn't show the goals from the other games so i'll
    still have to rely on my tape to Liverpool's trouncing of
    Luton. - I assume the sportschannel game was the same?
    
    I wonder what game they will show next week - the locals insist that
    there is some other football game being shown on the other 37 channels
    simultaneously next Sunday so I wonder if Ted will bother. 
    
    Me i'd rather watch barnet vs maidstone than washington vs buffalo.
    
    I won't get the chance because I'll be trapped in New Hampshire for next
    weekend on a combination of Training and being interrogated by the IRS
    
    Jose - any bars near Spitbrook that show football??? i'm in town thurs
    til Tues - if you can find warm imported beer i'll buy, saturday or
    monday would be best
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
                                                                       

    re: .57
    
    last time I saw 'em, Shrewsbury played in blue.
    
    They had a shock-horror 1-0 away win at Fulham on Saturday, to surge
    into 10th spot in Div.III.  Eat your heart out, Sampdoria.

    Andrew, the best I can do is this:
    
    - Come to my house and watch the English league live telecast on Saturday
      morning, the Italian league on Sunday Morning, the Portuguese league 
      immediately following the Italian and the live telecast of the US vs
      Russia in the afternoon. 
    
    For the US game you'll have to watch alone as I'll be in another room
    watching the Bills trash the Redskins.
    
    As for warm beer, well, I wouldn't know. I'm not familiar with the
    Spitbrook area. I do know some places in Boston where you can watch
    a match and get loaded in the sh*t warm and dark Guiness.
    
    JC

    Looks like NESN is taking the same approach to football as
    sportschannel. Last night they were showing Chelsea against
    Tottenham. Is this a new time slot? Anyone know?
    
    JC

    Nearest topic (can you get SKY in the states?)
    
    			   Live games
    
    January
    Sun 26	BBC1	FA 4th		Chelsea v. Everton
    Mon 27	SKY	FA 4th		Southampton V. Manchester Utd
    WED 29	ITV	League		Liverpool v. Arsenal
    February
    Sun 2	ITV	League		Aston Villa v. Everton
    Sun 16	BBC	Fa 5th		Best game!

    No. We don't get SKY in the US. Which English game will be televised
    to Ireland on Saturday. Usually we get the same game here, Live or one
    week behind.
    
    For U.S. football fans there's another bit of good news. Last Sunday late 
    night I was flicking the channels and discovered that Univision has a 
    program called "Titulares Deportivos" on each Sunday night at either 11PM 
    or Midnight. Last week' show featured the goals, results, standings,
    leading scorers, etc., from the leagues of Mexico, Spain and Italy, and 
    some selected games from South America. Although the program covers 
    different sports, they start the show with football. 
    
    We should also see Univision start to telecast games from Europe (on
    a 4 hour delay) as the South American leagues are wrapping up their
    season.
    
    JC

    re .64
    
    >Which English game will be televised to Ireland on Saturday. Usually we 
    >get the same game here, Live or one week behind.
    
    JC,
    
    I was watching the Irish station (RTE) last Saturday but they were
    preoccupied with the Rugby internationals and I don't recall them
    mentioning which match, if any, will be on next Saturday. The league
    matches they transmit come from the ITV company in the UK but this week
    it's the FA Cup which ITV don't get as BBC and BSB have the
    broadcasting rights. I recall seeing FA Cup matches live on RTE before so
    hopefully they will be showing one this week.

Re 112.62

  JC,

        Since NESN started televising English soccer (football) back in October
        they re-play the game shown on Saturday on Tuesday afternoon's. It used
        to start at 2:30 but lately I've caught the ending at around 5:30 so
        they must be starting it later. I wouldn't be surprised if NESN uses
        it for a filler program at some ungodly hour like 2:30am on Thursdays
        as well.


        Jerry

    
    
    
    
    A tale of one exiled Welshman's Sunday afternoon...
    
    Following the absolutely world shattering news that there were going
    to be not one not two BUT THREE programmes showing real
    football on U.S TV yesterday I located a friend with a cable service
    that picked up all three channels and invited myself over for the day
    - of course I took some warm beer with me.
    
    First up at 4pm on UNIVISION was England vs France in it's entirety
    Of course the commentary was in Spanish but that didn't seem to matter.
    The commentator said "Gary Lineker" a lot - even in the first half 
    when Gary was on the bench and he got quite "orgasmic" (can I say that
    in this notes file?) when Gary scored. The game looked good and the
    beer looked better.
    
    Next up at 7pm on SportsChannel USA was the 1hour programme that has
    been talked about a lot in this note where we saw about half-an-hour
    of the Oldham vs QPR game, followed by a bit of film on up and coming
    England players (this to fill in for the fact that they weren't many
    games to show goals from due to the F.A Cup) so we saw RoB Jones
    Martin Keown, Alan Shearer etc ... Then finally we saw the goals from
    whatever league games were left such as the low scoring defensive
    battle between Arsenal and Sheff Wed!
     
    The beer took a decided thrashing during the Oldham game which wasn't 
    very good.
    
    And then at 8.30pm we turned over to Sportsouth to see some more 
    and dead on 8.30 a banner appeared saying "the follwoing program
    replaces the one advertised" - and we got a 12 year old baseball game
    AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
    
    I rang SportSouth to complain about this particularly as the trailer
    we saw at 6pm still advertised it and I spoke to some "director of
    public relations" who at first didn't understand that I was talking
    about football and not that nancy-boy American stuff and then when we
    comprised on "soccer" promised to ring me back with an explanation.
    
    So far no return phone call - I wonder if Ted Turner will ban me from
    the Braves games this season for complaining about baseball being shown
    instead of football???
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    And this Sunday we got ....
    
    At 12 noon SportsSouth showed the whole of Hibernian vs Celtic - yes
    a Scottish game!. The game was memorable for me as both teams played
    in Green + White. Does anyone know of any countries other than Scotland
    where this happens? Must have made offside decisions a bit difficult?
    
    Well yes Hibs did have green shirts with white sleeves whereas Celtic
    had grren and white hoops but I was entirely confused.
    
    Hibs had JOhn Burridge in goal (he must be at least 50 by now!!) and
    Neil Orr (ex West Ham) at fullback. Celtic had Charlie Nicholas and
    what looked like about 4 other centre-forwards playing  and the
    legendary Gary Gillespie at centre-back (contact Cunno for a full
    career record).
    
    It wasn't a bad game and the first goal from Charlie Nicholas was a
    corker.
    
    Over on Sportschannel at 1pm (I left the video to record the
    second-half of the Celtic game) we saw highlights of the Mancs against
    Crystal Palace so I got to see both of Mark Hughes's offside goals! 
    Then we saw brief highlights of the Leeds game and finally all the
    goals from the other games.
    
    Jon at least will be amused to hear that I had a sudden urge to go to
    the bathroom and had to miss the Norwich game (:==:).
    
    ... and then over on Univision at 4pm we saw Cruzeiro vs River Plate
    in the SuperCopa (I don't think this was a week behind as the other
    programmes were) with Cruzeiro taking it with a goal just before
    half-time.
    
    At the end of this we were treated to the highlights of the Italian League
    games with I think AC Milan, Juventus and Napoli getting 3, 5 and 4
    goals respectively.
    
    Next week Sportschannel are advertising LIverpool vs The Scummers and
    Sportsouth with a full-game on Saturday evening of all times.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    
    
    Did the keepers play in Green as well, with green gloves and green hats
    to keep the sun (or should it be rain/snow) out of their eyes..
    
    
    Gary...

    
    	re .68..
    
    	Andrew, you should enjoy seeing the Scummers' Hurlock et al kick
    	Liverpool all over the park a la Graeme Souness at his "best". 8-)
    
    	A feast of football ending nil-nil....here ends Liverpool's title
    	challenge for another year.
    
    	Andy.
             

    OK it's been a while my excuses are:
    1) I can never find this b****y notesfile.
    2) I've been out doing some teaching - not on football unfortunately
       but ALL-IN-1.
    
    The coverage of football remains erratic... with programmes not
    appearing or not appearing when announced which has really buggered
    things up with my videorecorder - anyone want to see 2 hours of Fishing
    or god forbid Lacrosse!.
    
    SportSouth showed a whole Italian League game for a few weeks with
    an irish commentator (the coverage may have come from RTE) and we saw
    a couple of good games such as Napoli vs Juventus, Genoa vs Sampdoria
    and then followed with half-hour highlights from Scotland. Then this
    past Sunday they showed the Celtic vs Rangers game and then a further
    half-an-hour of Scottish highlights.
    
    SportsChannel had being showing English league footie for an hour 
    but put Ice Hockey on instead of the advertised Liverpool vs Scummers
    game so unfortunately I missed seeing our two noters with the Rob Jones
    fantasy and the pink jacket (sorry ian and paul).
    
    Regards,       
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks 

	For fans of English Soccer in the Boston area, Paddy Burke's
	Pub on Portland St in Boston will be broadcasting the F.A. Cup Final
	between Liverpool and Sunderland on May 9, 1992. The Pub is 
	located between the North Station and Fanueil Hall. 

	The match will be shown live via sattelite at 9:30 AM with a tape
	being shown at 3:00 PM. The pub will be open early for the occasion.  
	No Cover Charge.	

    
    
      Does anyone know if the European Championships will be shown on
    American TV ????
    
    Dave...

    I was speaking to a friend in California who said she'd going to a 
    "Scottish pub" to watch the Euro championships. Don't know how they're 
    getting the games there though.

    Dave

    
    
    
    
    Whilst there is some chance that some of the games may appear taped
    on one of the cable channels e.g SportsChannel or SportSouth etc..
    the "customer-relations person" who I spoke to at SportSouth said that
    she didn't have any definite information on which and when - I'm sure
    she recognised my voice from previous phonecalls as she didn't tell me 
    to "have a nice day" - I don't have a phone number for SportsChannel
    so I couldn't hassle them.
    
    According to the gist of a recent programme on Univision (the Spanish
    channel) that I watched we can expect to see some of the games on there
    also but I didn't feel like phoning Miami to ask for a translation.
    
    As for the impending week-long "World Series of Soccer" here in the 
    U.S (see note 220) I did discover that the Portugal vs Italy game
    will be live oN Sportsouth, the 3 U.S games will be On Sportschannel
    all the Italy and Portugal games will be on Univision so between those
    3 channels we should be able to see all 6 games.
    
    As for me I'm off tonight to Washington D.C in about 4 hours to greet the 
    arrival of TGA and the rest of the Ireland team ahead of the opening game
    against the U.S tomorrow night.
    
    For those of you who will see the game on T.V in any form anywhere in the
    world i'll be in row 12 holding a poster that says
    "The Mancs will NEVER win the league" (:==:)
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.wicks
                     

    This past Saturday on SportsSouth in a game that had been advertised
    all week as the UEFA Cup Final between Ajax and Torino we got to see
    Ajax vs Gent - which I guess was an earlier round.
    
    I rang up Customer Relations at Sportsouth and they said that it wasn't
    their fault honest because they just took a feed from Sportschannel up
    in New England somewhere - they gave me a phone number but i'm
    currently debating whether to run up enormous long-distance charges
    talking to them.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
                                                              

Article 26024 of rec.sport.soccer:
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer
Path: nntpd2.cxo.dec.com!nntpd.lkg.dec.com!news.crl.dec.com!deccrl!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbfsb!cbnewsb.cb.att.com!jcostas
From: [email protected] (constantinos.n.tsioras)
Subject: soccer game coverage on SportsChannel America
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Keywords: magic !!
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1992 14:49:42 GMT
Lines: 38

Did anyone watch the soccer game shown last night on SportsChannel ?

It was billed as a Copa Libertadores match but it ended up as the final 
play-off game of the Costa-Rican league (Saprissa v. Alajuensse - I'm
sure I've ruined the spelling). 
The commentating was trully unbelievable.
The American SC 'commentator' was out of this world !! He did not know ANY
of the players so the commentary went something like this:

"Saprissa control the ball... no, Alajuensee take it back.. now Alajuensee
 pass it to the right... and a play is called by the refereee (?!!) ... etc"

He referred to headers as 'head-shots' (??!!), a cross was a 'crosspass', 
a bloody simple backpass to the goalkeeper was described as "another save
by the goalie" (!!!), a corner-kick was described as "a great scoring
opportunity" (!!!) .... you had to watch it to believe it...

I know we're pretty desparate for ANY kind of football on TV over here,
but that was just trully incredible.

What's worse is that this SC show is billed as "Route to 1994". Oh dear !!! 
I hope these cretins don't get any of the World Cup coverage.

I mean, in Britain, David Icke looses his marbles but at least they take him off
the box (for those not in the know, David Icke was an ITV football commentator
until he lost it and declared himself a prophet or something - could someone
from Britain gives us more details on this ?)

********************************************************************************
* Costas Tsioras          * ARSENAL FC - COME ON YOU GUNNERS                   *
* jcostas%cbnewsb.att.com *                                                    *
* AT&T Bell Laboratories  * LEAGUE CHAMPIONS:   1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1938,  *
* Naperville, IL          *                     1948, 1953, 1971, 1989, 1991   *
* USA                     * FA CUP WINNERS  :   1930, 1936, 1950, 1971, 1979   *
*                         * LEAGUE CUP WINNERS: 1987                           *
*                         * FAIRS CUP WINNERS:  1970                           *
********************************************************************************

    re -1 That's pretty scary. I don't know what these people are thinking
    when they hire someone who obviously have no clue/knowledge of the
    game. In American TV, a lot of the announcers do several sports, with
    an ex-coach or ex-player sometimes doing the commentary. A lot of these
    guys can switch pretty well between conventional American sports, but
    it's an embarassment if don't know the game at all. The worst thing is 
    they didn't even prepare for a match. With 10 field players for each
    team and rare substitutions, he should be able to keep track of the
    names. It isn't ice hockey, where teams change up every 2-3 minutes on
    the fly!
    
    Some announcers are OK, as I thought TBS did a decent job on the 1990
    WC coverage (except the commercials!) The announcer was at least
    familar with players around the world, even mentioned that 2 players
    from different countries were team-mates in the Italian league, etc.
    Rick Davis (ex USA international and NY Cosmos player) did the
    comentary, so at least he knows the game.  
    
    This is precisely the problem with promoting the sport in America. A
    lot of would-be fans are open-minded enough to give soccer a chance,
    but if they are bored or confused by it, that's it, never again. Even a
    non-expert could tell that the commentator didn't know what was going
    on if he didn't know the names. If fans feel that it isn't worth it for
    TV to cover the game right, why should they bother watching it then.
    
    Tom          

 Re; 112.78

       I happened to have caught part of that Costa Rican game and you are
       right on the mark about the announcer. He was plain garbage. Sports
       channel and I believe NESN (in the Boston area) are televising taped
       games from last season. We had this Costa Rican game, the Ajax - AA Gent
       game from Amsterdam (UEFA cup), and last night I caught part of the
       Liverpool - Sunderland FA Cup game.... I guess something is better
       than nothing. Going back to the Costa Rican game announcer I wonder
       if the announcing was "dubbed" in a studio - almost sounded like it.
       I remember back in the mid  70s in San Francisco we used to get the
       English game of the week dubbed by Mario Maschado (sp?) to make it
       sound like he was at the game. Also Toby Charles used to do the same
       thing for the Bundeslega game of the week.

        Jerry

    I don't have a problem with the dubbing, as long as it's done in a
    professional way. With Toby Charles on PBS, you knew it was a tape, but 
    the live atmosphere was still captured. According to my father, in the 
    old days, baseball broadcasts were done in the studio, with sound effects
    like crowd noise and the crack of the bat, etc. I guess it was cheaper
    than sending the braodcast crew to a faraway city.
    
    I can't beleive a "professional" announcer would put in so little
    prepartion as to not even know who the players on the pitch were.
    Unbeleivable! Hopefully he'll be turning up in the unemployment line
    soon...
    
    Tom                                                  

  I don't have a problem with dubbing either.....I agree some of it is or
  has been done rather well. Near the end of this past Italian season we
  were able to see the Italian game of the week live on Sunday morning and
  then re-broadcast the following Saturday morning with an Irish announcer
  who was clearly dubbing.
  
  Jerry

  Flipping around on Sunday afternoon I happened upon a game featuring the
  Boca Juniors and a team whose name I failed to catch. The announcer was
  speaking Spanish and I happened to catch the phrase - to the effect -
  Spanish speaking network. This game was not on Univision so perhaps Channel
  27 which is an independent UHF channel just happened to pick it up for
  TV. I have no idea when this game was played.....


  Jerry

    I've seen these games over the past 3 weeks. They are part of the
    Telemundo network, which is similar to Univision, but a different
    network. They showed the Portugese cup final between Boavista and Porto
    2 weeks ago and before that it was an Argentine League game between
    Newell's Old Boys and [forgot who...]
    
    Unfrotunately I don't get 27 too well, and its a "snowy" picture, but 
    I'm glad to see the games on TV. I don't know if the league season is
    going on in South America right now (winter) or whether the games are
    tapes of previously played games, such as the Portugese Cup, which was
    probably in May.
    
    Tom 

>    I'm glad to see the games on TV. I don't know if the league season is
>    going on in South America right now (winter) or whether the games are

Read yesterday that the Brazilian League Championship was decided at the 
weekend in front of 150K in the Maracana (some people were injured). 
Unfortunately I can't remember either of the teams - sorry.

grahame

    This past weekend there was football on both SportSouth and
    SportsChannel unfortunately it was the same game Leeds vs Sampdoria
    with commentary by Brian Moore and Trevor Francis - am I not safe
    anywhere????
    
    With ITV not holding the contract this season I wonder what if any
    football we will get to see.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

   I feel like I hit the jackpot this weekend.....on Saturday morning Sports-
   channel had the F.A.Premier League hilite show for the first time. Sunday
   we had the Fiorintina - Lazio game live, missed Univisions offering, saw
   Ajax-Real Madrid on Ch.27 (when was that game played?), and NESN had the
   Tottenham-Everton game from Sept. 5th. Later that night sportschannel had
   another international soccer review feature showing the highlites of Real
   Madrid at Barcelona (saw that game last week) and Seveille against another
   team whose name I forgot. The think that irks me is that a lot of these
   programs don't show up in the TV sections of the paper nor do the various
   networks promote them..............

   By the way, I know this was mentioned elsewhere but I can't find it, why
   are the referees wearing blue shirts in the premier league??? Looks ugly
   IMHO........Our back up shirts here are maroon for FIFA and orange for 
   high school/college......(still ugly).

   Jerry

    Jerry,
    
    Sounds great - SportsChannel is almost impossible to find around here
    since Ted Turner owns SportSouth and obviously doesn't want much
    competition.
    
    the Univison game was Barcelona vs Tenerife and it was definitely a
    cracker. Barcelona were all over Tenerife in the first half got a very
    early goal and missed some absolute sitters, so many I lost count but
    they even missed one after they had beat the goalie. Then in the second
    half Tenerife fought back and looked the better side, barcelona clearly
    sitting on the 1-0 lead.
    
    barcelona were very cynical and about 10 minutes from the end their
    east european Slovecic (or something) did one of the most outrageous
    dives you've ever seen he must have been at least three feet outside
    the area did a somersault over the keeper and landed inside the area
    - not very bright and the replay showed that you could have driven a
    truck between them but the referee who was at least 20 yards away gave
    the freekick and sent the keeper off.
    
    After that you had to laugh as tenerife now down to ten men broke away
    after the free kick moved swiftly down the field and put the ball in
    the Barcelona net - justice was indeed done and boy did Johan Cruyff
    look upset.
    
    We get Everton vs the Totts tomorrow night, wish I could get
    Sportschannel also.
    
    regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
     

    The game on Channel 27 Sunday was the UEFA Cup from last spring. Ajax,
    with that ugly green kit, beat Real Madrid. Great game. Yeah, I wish
    they would actually list which game will be on...You never know what
    game you'll get.
    
    Tom 

   Got tired of watching the ho-hum Boston - Hartford hockey game last night
   and found the Leeds - Stuttgart UEFA Cup game on Sportschannel! This was
   the game played last week at Elland Road and what, as you say in England,
   a cracker it was. That second half was the most entertaining, exciting,
   action filled game of footie that I have ever seen on TV. The US should
   use the tape of that game to promote soccer here in the states. Eric
   Cantona (sp?) was putting his head on anything that came near the box.....

   This morning I dug through the Leeds note to find out that Stuttgart  and
   Leeds are required to have a third game in Barcelona tonight (probably 
   getting ready to start as I write) due to Stuttgart having too many
   foreigners on their team..........still exciting football.

   Jerry

    This past Sunday SportSouth started showing what they claim is a
    regular half-hour "International Soccer (sic) Weekly" hosted by
    Tony Meola the u.S goalie.
    
    Unfortunately it clashes with the live game on Univision which for
    the third week running was a game from mexico (though I still watched
    it) so I had to tape this new one and have just finished watching it.
    
    Tony claimed they were showing all 40 goals from the English premier
    league though it seemed awful quick so I stopped the tape played it
    back and could only count 30ish. It took me awhile but then I realised
    that they hadn't shown *ANY* of the goals from the Blackburn vs Norwich
    game - clearly Jon Button had edited these out !!!!!!!!!!!!
    
    then they showed some goals from the European games (strangely no
    Manc goals though) including a stunning strike from Rushie and my
    first ever sighting of the legendary Don Hutchinson.
    
    So now i've caught up and am ready for the now regular Tuesday night
    (week-late) game from England which unfortunately has inflicted the
    Mancs on me two of the last three weeks. This week we have Ipswich
    vs Leeds.
    
    now if only we could get them to show a live game ....
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

Sportschannel in the Boston area is now showing a Scottish Premier League game
on Thursday nights in its entirety. Last week we had Partick Thistle @ Airdrie
and last night it was Celtic @ Motherwell. Even though the games are broadcast
approximately two weeks after they are played it is better than nothing, 
especially when one doesn't know the outcome.....

So up here in the Boston area that gives us:

		Sportschannel: English Premier Highlites & a Scottish
 			       Premier League Game
		NESN: English Premier League Game, Big East College Soccer,
		      and the previously mentioned Soccer International 
                      Magazine.
		RAI: Live Italian League matches on Sunday morning.
	        Univision: Sunday afternoon - usually a taped match
	        Telemondo: Sunday afternoon - ""   ""    """    ""

The only thing missing this year is the German highlites with Toby (UGH!) 
Charles   :-)))))


Jerry

    Toby Charles! Now there's a blast from the past....
    
    Actually, I kinda liked his style
    
    Tom 

       Re:-1
         Tom,
           Toby Charles is indeed a blast from the past! Now all we need is
    Mario Machado (remember him?) to make our viewing even more enjoyable
    -:))) Charles was bombastic and he tended to grate on the nerves after
    a while! However, he was an absolute genius compared to Machado. The guy 
    knew nothing at all about soccer!
           By the way, it really has been enjoyable for this US-based Celtic
    supporter to see the 'Tic twice in the last month or so on Sportschannel. 
    Granted, the team has been going through a bad patch these last few 
    seasons. Even at that, it's still nice to see them. Paul McStay still 
    oozes class and John Collins looks like a very able midfield partner for 
    him. (Our defense still looks very shaky, however. Packy Bonner had a
    nightmare in the Dundee game. Every cross was an adventure for the big
    man!)
           Hopefully, Sportschannel will continue broadcasting Scottish 
    games for the forseeable future. Maybe, it was a bonus for us that ESPN 
    got the NHL this year?? Hasn't hockey been the standard fare on 
    Sportschannel on Thurday nights for the last few years?
                                                            Dan 

I have been lead to believe that tonight's match is.......


		Hearts - Motherwell 

      (I have to admit I do not know who was the home team)

Jerry

    Motherwell are the home team..
    
    
    SQF Jambo

 Mario Machado has re-surfaced here in the States.....seems that a program 
 called Soccer International (which does nothing more than copy some of the 
 English Premier Highlites and another programs highlites from Europe) has 
 finally replaced Tony Meola as host with good ol Mario......I thought Meola 
 was bad! Toby Charles please come back .......... :-))))))



 Jerry

    Well last week was a momentuous week in the history of Sportsouth
    down here in Georgia in that we had 3 yes 3 footie programmes.
    (it's usually 0 or 1) on TV - this is unofficially a record.
    
    Sunday saw the U.S against Denmark which I taped and saw this weekend
    and also the highlights programme with Mario Machado.
    
    Friday saw a bonus World Cup Qualifying game but what pray tell could
    it be when there weren't any games being played well believe it or not
    we got to see a riveting Scotland v Italy goalless draw from way back
    in November.
    
    Boy I can't tell you how excited I was (:==:) any more would probably
    have been illegal!
    
    This week we get two games:
    Chelsea v Sheffield (don't know which one) on tuesday
    U.S.A v Russia from the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.
    
    Oh and Univision has settled down and is just showing games from Mexico
    on Sundays - they used to show games from Italy and Spain.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
    

  Andrew I would skip the Chelsea v Sheffield game if I were you, I wathched it,
and believe me watching paint dry is more exciting....

                                                                                                                             
                                                            -dave-

    Dave,
    
    Thanks for the warning but i decided to watch it anyway - after the
    Scotland v Italy game it was actually a step up!!! 
    
    Some observations:
    1) Chelsa appear to be stacking up the goalkeepers don't they - using
       their 3rd choice keeper in the 1st half and their 4th choice in the
       2nd half - is this a Georage Graham influence I detect.
    2) I really don't understand how Chelsea could let Dixon and Allen
       leave and still not play Fleck. Are they trying to keep their goal
       tally down?
    3) it's difficult to see how Sheff Wed are so high in the table without
       Hirst and Bright - I think they played with a defender and a
       midfielder up front - and still put 2 past Chelsea!!
    
    But you were right it wasn't very exciting but when it's all I get
    I can't be so choosy.
    
    regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
                                                             

    
    Who is Chelsea's fourth goal keeper I only know of three, Dave Beasent
    who is on loan to wolves, Kevin Hitchcock who seems to have taken
    the number one slot and thae Russian bloke. Totaly agree with 
    you on the selling of Chelsea players we should never have sold 
    Clive Allan to West Ham, Cundy to Spurs, Joe Allon to Brentford.
    Chelsea have had to drop Fleck he's played most of the games this
    season and scored only a few goals, I think he needs a good kick
    up the arse.....

    Well it's sort of a relevant note...
    
    Joy oh Joy I have located a bar in Atlanta that is:
    
    a) open this Saturday morning
    b) will be showing the F.A Cup Final
    c) serves Fullers E.S.B
    
    It is a Scottish pub, previous visits have revealed that it is
    a popular hang-out for persons of the Scottish persuasion so I will
    not mention Portugal at all during the morning (unless provoked).
    
    Last year my attempts to see the F.A Cup live failed - my first missed
    one since 1970 - and I had a very crackly World Service reendition
    of the mighty Liverpool winning so this is definitely a step in the
    right direction.
    
    i'll be cheering for Sheff Wed (sorry Jon!)
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
                    

	I'm sure you will get great pleasure in watching Arsenal acheive
	a Unique Double!!

	Come on you Gunnnnnners....

	Mick (whos stocking up for Saturday....)

    Well I haven't seen the result elsewhere in here yet so I can report
    that Arsenal and Sheffield wednesday drew 1-1 in yesterday's F.A Cup
    Final.
    
    I got up at the unearthly hour of 8am to set off with a map and a street
    address in search of a pub called "The Ugly Mug" somewhere in
    North-East Atlanta. I didn't have any trouble finding it getting there
    around 9.30am. Admission was $10 (similar pay-per-views charge $20) and
    not only did you get to see the game but you got an 'english-style'
    breakfast of "real" sausages, scrambled eggs, toast, baked beans and
    tomatoes - not bad really.
    
    The bar has been open little under a year and is run by a Glasgow
    Rangers supporter called Jackie and the decor reflected his allegiance
    including a list of their honours over recent years (cunno would have
    been proud). he said that this was the first time he had bought the 
    satellite feed - it costs a staggering $1750 dollars!! - but with a
    large ex-pat scottish, irish, english and Welsh (well me at least)
    community he felt that with word-of-mouth, local football teams etc
    he would over time with other games be able to recoup his investment.
    
    By game time the crowd was estimated at about 150 and at least the
    commentator was to be Peter Brackley not bloody John Motson.
    
    I'll leave a match report to someone else but i'll say just two things
    a) half the players looked injured: Bright, Wright, Anderson, Waddle
       Hirst all looked unfit
    b) I think Sheffiel should have finished them off in the second-half
    
    Ah well a couple of pints of Fullers ESB and by the time the game
    finished at 1pm I was happy!!
    
    The replay will be shown tape-delayed at 7.30pm on Wednesday and we'll
    also get a tape-delay feed for AC Milan v OLympic Marseille on the 26th
    
    .... and the flood of real football into the Atlanta area continues
    unbated as the programmer at Sportsouth appears to have gone crazy
    and is giving us 3 games over the next 3 nights..
    Sunday: AC Milan v PSV
    MOnday: OLympic Marseille v Rangers
    Tuesday: a premier division game
    
    phew things are looking up.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
                          

    Well the programmer at Sportsouth is obviously getting carried away
    as we have footie on 3 successive days again this week.
    
    They repeated the AC Milan game yesterday and tomorrow they're
    repeating the Rangers/marseille game - obviously drumming up interest for
    the final.
    
    Tonight the coverage of the English league finishes with the game of
    the season Liverpool v Tottenham (:==:)
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks                 

No chance to see Marseille Milan in the US ??

Thierry

    Thierry,
    
    It's on pay-per-view so call your local cable operator or a bar
    that might be showing it.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    Could someone please let me know exactly what time the game will start?
    
    thanks,
    
    Carlos

    Carlos,
    
    Your wish is my command. the PPV advert says 2.30pm and 7.30pm
    
    however I would have thought the actual kick-off time is 7.30pm
    European time which would be 1.30 here on the East Coast.
    
    regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

Did anyone in the US taped the European cup final between Marseille and Milan ?

Thierry

    re: .112
    
    Yes, I taped the game.  However, if you like to borrow the tape, I can
    lend it to you sometime next week.  Few friends are borrowing the tape
    for the next few days.
    
    Carlos

    following the U.S Cup 1993 we actually had two one-hour world cup
    specials on TV.
    
    sportsouth did interviews from Chicago (the U.S v Germany game) with
    U.S players, coaches and world cup organisers - not terribly
    interesting.
    
    ESPN (who after all will show 41 of the 52 games) finally awoke and
    produced an excellent one-hour show introduced by JOhn Paul Dellacamera
    (a former player)
    
    It covered:
    1) interviews with European Journalists over on an American airlines
       sponsored promo tour - we got Brian Glanville, Chris Davis, seamus
       Malin (irish?) and some ITV producer and the main topic of
       conversation was the skepticism/apathy of U.S journalists towards
       the world cup.
    2) we then saw the 9 stadiums briefly
    3) They was then an interview with Alan Rothenburg the head of the
       organising committee and here the topics covered security, budget
       TV coverage, logistics (e.g timezones and travel) - he definitely
       comes over a lot more convincing than Graham Kelly etc...
    4) We then a had an overview of the two current Ad campaigns 
       a) the print campaign called American traditions which has 
          pictures of say the first man on the moon and then some
          slogan such as "on june 17th one big step for U.S Soccer"
       b) the tV campaign which has 10-second slogans for each of
          the major sponsors e.g "on june 17th men from 24 countries
          will invade the U.S" then a snippet of old WC action and then
          the normal coke or snickers advert follows.
    5) They was then some details about ticket availability in the U.S
    6) a feature on Inner city football!
    7) Coverage of who the sponsors are a brief glimpse of the hundreds
       of items you can already buy that have WC logos on them - it's
       scary i've never seen so many items.
    8) Some news footage of the U.S's victoty over ENgland in 1950
    9) then they finished with a list of the fixtures in each city.
    
    The trailing comments said that this was the first in a series of 4 but
    they didn't say when the next one was. Even though it was a good
    roundup and no Jimmy Hill in sight1
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    Update...
    
    UNIVISION will be showing two games from the South american qualifiers
    back-to-back every sunday at about 1.50EDT and 4.50EDT up until Sep 5th
    and then one game until group B ends on Sept 19th. They also have 
    highlights program of all 4 games played that day (subject to the 
    satellite feed arriving - they didn't get one from Venezuela last week)
    at 11.30pm EDT.
    
    Also the Wednesday afternoon ESPN Latin Futbol game has stopped for a 
    while but yesterday they showed Genoa v Milan from some pre-season
    tournament - who knows what they'll show next week. I'm hopeful that
    ESPN may take football a little more seriously this season since they
    will be showing 80% of the games next summer.
    
    Sportsouth haven't started showing football again yet and the
    information desk said that they didn't have any information (uh?) to
    give me on their plans for this season.
    
    No news on whether we get to see the Mancs v the Arse this weekend
    though i guess it'll be on one of the satellite channels.
    
    Regards,
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
    

    For those guys that live in the Londonderry, NH area (or get cable
    service from Harron Cable), every Sunday morning (at least the past 5
    weeks) on channel 59 they show a live game from Italy (I believe it is
    thru RAI network). Yesterday, I saw the game between Inter vs AC Milan.
    Inter blew few chances at the end to tie the game.
    
    They usually start showing the game around 8:30-9:00am.  So far they
    have showing some of the top teams (e.g Milan, Parma, Juventus,
    Sampdoria).
    
    I hope they keep this up every Sunday because it is nice to wake up
    just in time for a good soccer match.
    
    Carlos

    ESPN are advertising 
    
    Barcelona v Man Utd live on Wednesday at 2.25pm EST
    
    Regards
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    ESPN 1 or 2?

    Gerry

    gerry,
    
    It says REAL ESPN i.e 1
    
    Regards
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    and more...
    
    tomorrow at 2.25pm ESt on ESPN 
    
    Ajax v A.C Milan
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    ESPN are showing another european game tomorrow wed at 2.25pm - I'm
    not sure whether it's the Mancs getting thrashed by some foreign
    part-time shopkeepers or not.
    
    Also Pay_per-View is advertising the Brazilian Championship on either
    a per-game or buy-all-four for one low price.
    
    Regards
                  
    Andrew.D.Wicks

    Well ESPN have wimped out of their agreement to show Euro-96 and will now
    only show 3 games - and not even the final.
    
    The England, Scotland and Holland games will be on ESPN2 which is
    only on cable in about 1% of U.S households (not mine) and the final
    is also condemned to the trailer parks of the midwest.
    
    About 20 games aren't even on at all. Thanks ESPN i'm sure log cutting
    and mug buggy racing will draw a bigger audience!
    
    Regards
    
    Andrew.D.Wicks
    
    ================================
    
abc	u.s v ireland		su jun 9    3.30pm	L
	u.s v mexico		su jun 16   3.30pm	L

espn	ger v italy		we jun 19   2.25pm	L
	qf4		        su jun 23   4pm
	sf2			we jun 26   2.25p	L

	u.s v scotland		su may 26   12pm	L

espn2 	spain v bulgaria	su jun 9th  9.25am	L
	holland v scotland	mo jun 10th 4pm
	eng v scot		su jun 15   9.55am	L
	eng v holland		tu jun 18   2.25p	L

	qf1			sa jun 22   9.55a	L
	qf2			sa jun 22   3.30p
	qf3			su jun 23   10.30p (PST)/1.30a EST

	sf1			we jun 26   10.55a	L
	final			su jun 30   1.55p	L


	u.s v bolivia		we jun 12   7.30p	L
    

    
    Well when the world's 3rd biggest sporting event gets snubbed by the
    American networks it seems rather lame. However, I don't suppose big
    tournaments like the NBA finals or the World Series or the Stanley Cup
    get shown in Europe ...and we must admit the quality of these sports is
    unsurpassed anywhere else in the world.
    
    No, its down again to the advertisers getting cold feet...
    
    Dezzz.

>    American networks it seems rather lame. However, I don't suppose big
>    tournaments like the NBA finals or the World Series or the Stanley Cup
>    get shown in Europe ...and we must admit the quality of these sports is

Sadly, we get only too much top American sporting action in Europe - at least 
on the satellite channels (with the possible exception of baseball). You just 
have to look around the streets to see the popularity of skating, hockey and 
basketball. Where are the kids with the tin cans (kicking them I mean) these 
days?

g

    
    Hi Dezzz,
    
    C4 covers American football, basketball and baseball often live. They
    also do the Italian football and the Sumo wrestling.
    
    It is, of course, in terrestrial TV terms a minority channel :-)
    
    Richard.