Cnotes

2009-2010 Premier League season banner

Late last week ESPN officially acquired the rights to broadcast the early Saturday Morning English Premier League game (typically 7:45am CST sometimes 9am CST) and the Monday afternoon game (usually 2 pm CST) in the United States.  Even better news, the games are in HD are you listening Fox Soccer Channel?

The debut of the EPL on ESPN featured perennial power Chelsea v. Hull City, minus the service of Jozy Altidore, who was still in the states waiting for his work visa to go through.  The game received very good ratings considering the circumstances.  ESPN did not announce the deal until about 12 hours before game time, and most of you would have looked on your cable or satellite guides and seen that there would be a hunting show or Bass fishing in the time slot.  Acctully my Dish Network guide still says Fishing and hunting this Saturday morning too, so Dish Network hasn’t caught on.

For the past few years I have been relying on a few peer to peer TV sites and ustream’ers out there on the internet to stream pretty much any game I could image online these days, but the quality would normally be sub par and the chance that the stream would go down at least once was very likely.  The down fall of watching streaming games is that I would have to watch games live.  So having the luxury to sit down and turn on ESPN makes for a very nice way to start my Saturday morning coffee, or sleeping in and catching it on my DVR whenever I’m ready.

EPL TV Schedule in the US thru November 2009

Here is how ESPN introduces the 2009/2010 English Premier League season in the UK:

After the first two games, I was pretty disappointed with the boys.  It took a miracle to get the U.S. out of the group stage.  They needed to win by at least 3-0 and have Italy lose by 3-0.   I didn’t think it was possible, but it was in the cards that day.  U.S. over Egypt 3-0, & Brazil over Italy 3-0.

So, that set up a huge match-up of USA vs. Spain.  Spain ranked #1 in the FIFA world rankings, for whatever that’s worth.  They had won 15 games in a row, and they were undefeated in the last 35 going back to 2006.

The U.S. was ready for the task at hand, getting out to a goal lead on a power turn and shot by 19 year-old, Jozy Altidore.  The second half Spain had plenty of chances, Howard and his back line came up huge time after time.   With a 74th minute goal by the Nacogdoches talent, Clint Dempsey, the yanks held on to the 2-0 win, setting up the finals with Brazil.

Brazil needed late heroics to advance on a Daniel Alvez free kick that he was able to curl into the right side netting of the goal.  Really you couldn’t ask for a better start for the Yanks.  In the 9th minute, after looking dangerous form the start, Dempsey again was able to volley in a cross from the impressive West Ham United Right Back, Jonathan Spector.  The US continued to look dangerous throughout the 1st half.   The second goal came on a perfectly executed breakaway by Charlie Davies and Landon Donovan.  This left Landon with an easy finish past the Brazilian goal keeper Julio Cesar in the 27th minute.

Brazil began to play much more organized and by the end of the first half they had a few chances, but the US back line was able to bail them out.  The Second half’s beginning was a sign of how fast Brazil can strike.  In the first minute back after the break Luis Fabiano made a quick turn and a shot through Jay Demerit’s legs to score to Tim Howard’s left.  After the 1st goal, the U.S. backed off and became a defensive shell as Brazil forced U.S. turnover after turnover.  For the final 44 minutes they dug in on the final third, but the Brazilians were simply too crafty and made chance after chance.  In the end, there were too many for the US back 4, which at this point of the game was more like a back 8.

Luis Fabiano was able to head in a ball sent to the box by a cross by Kaka, tying it at 2-2 in the 74th minute.  After this goal, the U.S. showed a bit of potential to hold the Brazilians @ 2 goals and force extra time, but a late corner kick set up the Brazilian Captain, Lucio (who I swear has make-up on),  to beat Dempsey’s attempt to clear and put the 3rd goal away past Howard.  There were also a couple of other near goals for Brazil.  One of which really looked like the entire ball got past the line, but the linemen didn’t call it a goal.  3-2 Brazil was the final, but it could’ve been worse.

So, after the tournament got to such a sore start, the Americans were able to regroup, come up with 3 solid efforts, and play probably their best football in a really long time. This might have been their best since their 2002 World Cup run to the quarterfinals, which inevitably lead to a 0-1 loss to the hands of football power Germany, a game dominated by the Americans.

This tournament has me completely stoked for the World Cup next year!

I can’t say I was too disappointed with the result tonight, but the fact that they were up 1-0 @ the half down a man I thought a tie could be in order.  The red card on Ricardo Clark in the 33rd minute was a very questionable call.  A foul for sure, and potentially a yellow card, but a straight red was a ridiculous call. Donovan converted a Penalty kick, to make it 1-0 right before the half.  The 2nd half was all Italy, 3-1 final.  19-year old Jozy Altidore really played well holding up the ball and creating the penalty kick for the only US goal. On the defensive end I thought Jonathan Spector played really well.

Italy pretty much had their way in the second half a lot of chances, most of their efforts were thwarted by the US back line and Tim Howard’s brilliance.  Being down a man there was a pretty open area in the middle of the midfield and the Italians took advantage of it.  2 of their goals were shots outside the box.  I thought we’d get at least one point after the 1st half performance, turns out the Italians class was too much for the undermanned Yanks.

Next Game: Brazil 6/18 @ 9am, ESPN360.com, ESPN2.