When Michael Bradley scored in the 82nd minute of the U.S. match Friday against Slovenia, it knotted the score at 2, kept alive the team's hopes of advancing in the World Cup and helped some ESPN executives breathe a little easier.Had the United States lost to Slovenia, the team's chances of reaching the elimination round of the tournament would've been damaged almost beyond repair. The chance of ESPN of continually attracting casual soccer fans here in the United States would've decreased as well.
Instead, the team remains alive and ESPN has a breathless, come-from-behind tie to promote leading up to next Wednesday's match against Algeria.
Through two games, the U.S. team has attracted abundant TV attention, which will again show in ratings for Friday's match as well as information about the number of viewers/visitors at ESPN3.com for streaming coverage online.
And, while the team on the field has been entertaining, the broadcast crew has been even better.
Ian Drake provides a reason to listen, watch, whatever. He's emotional, entertaining and insightful. While some fret about the lead announcer/play-by-play man not being born and bred in the United States, they represent a misguided minority because Drake is great.
Even better, he makes former U.S. standout John Harkes strong as color commentator because they banter and Drake asks questions or creates room for Harkes to make points. They're a good broadcast crew -- and sound like they've been working together longer than they have.
From a broadcast point of view, ESPN has used its own cameras and people to complement the international TV feed well. Plus, the story during games has been the story of the games themselves -- spiced with appropriate statistics at the right times (Drake mentioned early Friday that the U.S. team was 0-15-3 all-time when giving up the first goal) and enough context and criticism to work well.
Specifically, neither Drake nor Harkes pulled punches when addressing the officiating during the game. But, ironically, Drake, often sounded more critical and almost like a homer, even though he's not from the United States. Because of that, his points mean more. He's coming from a good-of-the-game, overall-soccer perspective and it just works.
Conversely, ESPN's Bob Ley and former U.S. player Alexi Lalas sounded angry (and Lalas certainly was) when analyzing what had happened. Their analysis/criticism fell a little short -- despite the fact that emotion and opinion are necessary -- mainly because they sounded as if this game had happened in a vacuum. But international soccer has a reputation for poor officiating, and that context was missing.