ESPN Drops The Euro Ball

The first semi-final of the Euro 2008 tournament, pitting Germany against Turkey, had all the earmarks of cracker of a game. Shame ESPN dropped the ball (I know it is soccer!), because I would of loved to have seen it. The game was overshadowed by the technical difficulties that plagued ESPN's telecast. Bad thunderstorms were to blame apparently, but when you have exclusive rights to one of the biggest professional sporting events in the world the handling by ESPN was, well, amateurish.

I had settled in at my favourite pub like thousands of other Americans to watch the game on Wednesday. Things started out well with a injury- and suspension-ravaged Turkey throwing caution to the wind and going at Germany tooth-and-nail from the kickoff. The Turks' tenacity finally paid off in the 22nd minute when a weak shot by Kazim Kazim hit the crossbar and the rebound was poached by Uger Boral with a shot that deflected off German keeper Jens Lehman's legs and in.

It didn't take the Germans too long to reply. In the 26th minute Bastian Schweinsteiger brilliantly deflected a cross from Lucas Podolski past a helpless Turkish keeper to even the game. The rest of the first half was punctuated with a fairly relentless Turkish attack and a number of questionable calls and non-calls from the Swiss ref, Massimo Busacca. The best efforts came from Hamit Altintop and Kazim Kazim, who had a shot hit the post.

After several visits to the men's room and a fresh beverage, my comrades and I at Small Bar settled in for what promised to be an exciting second half. Six minutes in saw the closest thing to a penalty when Turkish defender Sarioglu checked Philipp Lahm a meter or so into the box. Lahm went down with a knee to the inner thigh (ouch!). Mr. Busacca was having none of it. Play evened up in the second half with Germany finally getting their attack together. That's when things started to go wrong for ESPN.

Around the 75th minute we lost the picture. The startled studio crew had to ad lib as they sweated out the affair. The best they could do was give a shot of one of the fan zones (viewing areas with huge screens for those unfortunate enough to not have a ticket). It was through watching the reaction of the German fans that we learned that the Germans had scored (a header by Miroslav Klose that would do Aussie Rules proud with it's athletic leap . . . apparently). Then we got the picture back. Feeling a little cheated we were determined to enjoy the last 15 minutes or so. Turkey has had quite a knack for the comeback in this tournament - just ask the Czechs and the Croats! Lightning struck again at that point. Back to the studio and shots of the fan zones. You'll never guess what happened then will you?

Turkey scores (a tighter version of the Schweinsteiger goal started with a beautiful move at the right corner by Sabri, who then squared the ball to Semih Senturk who deflected it in . . . apparently). Was this really happening? Could this get any worse? Well . . . yeah! This time we regained the picture in time to see the Turks celebrating what was looking like one of their trademark comebacks. Everyone was now hoping just to watch the last five minutes or so with no more interruptions. Wrong! We lost the picture with about two minutes to go. Once again we learn from fan reaction that Germany has scored (Philipp Lahm finishing off a great give and go at the top of the box . . . apparently). And that was that.

After commiserating with my fellow patrons we came up with some advice for ESPN: If this were to happen again they could play the radio broadcast (they still have them I think) instead of forcing the studio analysts to grasp at straws. One ingenious suggestion was to turn the camera from the faces of the fans onto the screen which they were watching! But the most sage advice would be to rent out some backup satellite space. After all, it is just one of the biggest professional sporting events in the world, although you'd have never have known it on Wednesday . . . apparently!

-

Andrew Kingsford is from Australia. That's why he talks funny.

-

COMMENTS:

1. From Dave:

It wasn't just ESPN. The official international feed out of Basel was lost. Cuatro, ZDF, ATV, TF1, HRT - all went dark. ZDF in Germany resorted to pirating the signal from idee suisse out of Switzerland, the only channel with an independent feed from the stadium. They even plastered their logo over SFsport after a while.