The first thing that I wondered when I saw that the Cup was on ABC, ESPN and the Deuce was what the lead-ins would be from the programming before the games. How the announcers of the Good Morning America or whatever cheering-leading or miniature golf show ESPN 2 was airring would verbally attempt to keep their viewers around for soccer. Before the game this morning on ESPN 2 I was treated to the remaining 5 minutes of “World of Saltwater Fishing” which was pre-recorded, so no lead-in, but the promo for next week's show where they fish for sharks (yes sharks) was pretty entertaining. ABC’s Believer’s Voice of Victory Bible show before Mexico vs. Iran later should provide a laugh as well. However the actual coverage provided by our historically two largest sports networks, and ESPN 2, is abysmal to say the least.

--- Sweet, Robben just scored, more fantasy points for me ---

Bad camera work, ####-poor announcing and giant graphics that take over the screen and state the obvious (holy #### Netherlands is really wearing orange!) are staples of the coverage we have seen. Living in Tucson, I haven’t been able to see any games in HD. We don’t get ABC in HD and I’m not one of the 5 Americans who get ESPN 2 HD, so I have to wait till match 20, Sweden vs. Paraguay, on ESPN HD before the empty sides of my screen get filled.

My ####ing aside, the camera work has sucked. Yesterday’s England match looked like it was shot from about a mile away. Use the #### zoom. When I can’t decipher between Peter Crouch and Ashley Cole and can see both sides of the pitch we have a problem. Also, it looks like they have figured it out for the game today, but ND filters really help kill the contrast between shadows: use them.

I know the announcing, especially on ABC, is intended to cater to first-time soccer viewers, but please shut up. If someone happens to be watching a game at 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning, I’m sure they’ll know what a corner kick is or have enough interest to figure it out or look it up. I also have to agree with my friends that Marcelo Balboa’s hair is creepy. I think the network has figured some of this out because the matches have recently been immediately jumping straight into the game and not showing any shots of Celo’s doo.

Oh, and more crowd shots please. I had the pleasure of accidentally pausing my Tivo on a Dutch girl in a tank-top while I fixed breakfast. The World Cup girls are hot, just give in. Seeing the Brazilian girls crowd the streets of Palo Alto during World Cup ’94 when I was 11 was a site to remember. I think I went through puberty overnight. FIFA’s & Yahoo’s website has been masking their girls of the world cup photo galleries as "fan shots" and splicing the beautiful scantly clad female fans with old guys in make-up. Kudos to Fox for just giving in and calling their gallery “Babes of the World Cup”.