DISQUS

I have to be honest. This episode, though explosive, does not strike me as being like the Kevin Keegan "I would love it" rant.

Why? A couple of reasons. One is that its not coming with just one or two matches to go. We're still just over the halfway mark, and that's a lot of time for things to move around in the Premier League. The dust is nowhere near settled.

Two is that Rafa was almost on a script. When Keegan made his rant, he was all over the place and clearly didn't have a direction for his aim, and it lead him to say if and show his doubt. In comparison, Benitez was more surgical, with notes he had made at some point, either in his head or on the paper he looked at. While I don't agree with a lot of it, at least he was trying to keep his head.

Overall, I have a feeling this will make a nice footnote to the season regardless of result, but unless we really get into a war of words, I doubt its going to mean much. But if nothing else, it'll be fun to see what comes about from this when they do meet on the pitch again.

Kartik, we can go back and forth on the form England had for the win. It was a poor first half, better second, which may have been a function of the team Fabio trotted out to start and the halftime subs. The tactics worked, but thankfully they still have time before going to Croatia. That said, you shouldn't be caught looking ahead anyway.

But you are going to argue Andorra is underrated?

Here's something for you to chew on: these are results of the last 5 international qualifying campaigns for Andorra-

Euro 2000: 0 points, -25 GD
World Cup 2002: 0 points, -31 GD
Euro 2004: 0 points, -17 GD
World Cup 2006: 5 points (4 of which came against one team, Macedonia), -30 GD
Euro 2008: 0 points, -40 GD

A total of 1 win and 2 draws over 52 matches (not counting the two they have already played for World Cup 2010). They lost more matches by four or more goals during Euro 2008 qualifying (4) then the number they lost by one (2).

Want to defend an average performance out of England? I have no problem with that. You want to make Andorra out to be anything other than an UEFA bottom feeder? I'm sorry, but I have to wonder if your seeing the same game everybody else sees.

John:

I wrote that based on what I hear. There's seems to be grumbling about the Sky/Setanta situation, with more towards the latter than the former. Do I think it's fair? No, absolutely not. Setanta can't mimic Sky's model at all (kind of hard to do when you don't have your own full-service satellite network to sell), and I think they're doing well with what they have.

Kartik: the Belgium match was a friendly though, just like the England match.

But if we want to talk about match scheduling (and I agree, FIFA mishandled this), let's talk about CONCACAF. Aside from one match in UEFA (Kazhakstan v Andorra, two teams who clearly had no Olympic ambitions), the only other World Cup qualifying matches tonight are in North America... and all 12 teams are in action, including the two Olympic sides (Honduras and the USA). Not only that, but both teams got rather big matchups in their group (Mexico and Guatemala). FIFA deserves their lumps, but their too easy a target on this one.

Oh man. That's a Baros goal, but you have to give the assist there to Ashley Cole. Very poor there.

Setanta Sports in North America is showing the match live as well. Given the match is on Setanta in the UK, I think Setanta here will go with their in-house feed while FSC goes with the international broadcast. It would be interesting to compare the two.

Johnathan already caught point 1. ESPN does those updates across all sports, including in the middle of a baseball inning. Usually however, there's enough time to squeeze it in if kept to the 30 seconds or less it usually is.

A lot of people talked about the brilliance of their Euro 2008 coverage, but part of that was UEFA's requirement of a standard look in broadcasting across all nations. ESPN couldn't do much to change things on-screen, and didn't have a massive on-site presence to come up with things off-screen.

Ultimately, Jon's right. It's ESPN, you should know what you are getting by now. And ESPN's shown it works: they are the most profitable arm of the entire Disney corporation. Why ruin a money-making game plan?

Rattzie:

Usually yes. It's on Setanta broadband's 2nd channel.

Kevin:

Yes it is... in most cases. The only exceptions I am aware of is Southern Hemisphere rugby, Australian Rules Football, MUTV and Chelsea TV, which are not available on broadand (note: MUTV and Chelsea TV is not the same as regular Premier League broadcasts). Everything else (including what I described earlier) is on both at the same time.

Kevin:

I would say the quality of Setanta broadband is in the middle as far as online video goes. Not the best or worse I've ever seen. The only issue you might have is you can't resize the video, so you can't make it full screen on your computer. Live streams are available at 300K or 600K, whereas on-demand is only 300K.

Setanta broadband shows live the BPL (over 140 games a season), the Coca-Cola Championship (roughly 60 games), the Carling Cup (20 or so games), and French Ligue 1. Setanta also has the SPL, though they don't often get shown live, and the UEFA Cup on an irregular basis. Setanta also just picked up rights to the FA Cup and a bunch of European World Cup 2010 qualifiers, though they haven't announced yet how or if those will be broadcast online.

The big thing with going annual instead of monthly, as I noted above, is that you get the PPV matches alongside the regular games. That gives you access to about 35 live UEFA Champions League games, plus whatever else might end up on PPV in the future.

I personally like it a lot. If your willing to accept the technical limitations, I think it's good value for money. Certainly, getting it on TV is probably better, but its not a bad option.

Game:

I have Setanta Broadband, and I can tell you that last year, all EPL games were included in the regular subscription price. I don't have any reason, officially or unoffically, to believe it's going to be different this year.

But, if you want some extra security on that, and can afford it, there's the annual package at $150, which includes all regular and pay-per-view content. That, by the way, would give you access to Setanta Broadband's Champions League matches on top of the EPL.

Simon:

The plan, based on what Verizon said, is that Setanta will be added as part of the current channel realignment. That upgrade is being handled one individual market at a time, so some areas are going to get it sooner and others later. It should be completed in a couple of months across the board.

CFTV:

Not necessarily. Looking through the schedule, there were six matches for Manchester United that were not chosen for TV in the UK through the 15 rounds. One has been postponed to an unannounced date due to the UEFA Super Cup.

The remaining five after that are:
Sep. 27 v Bolton
Oct. 25 at Everton (which has been moved to Noon GMT)
Oct. 29 v West Ham
Nov. 1 v Hull City
Nov. 15 v Stoke City

The Bolton match is probably a given, but the Everton match would either require tape delay or giving up the normal 12:45 GMT start. The West Ham date (which is midweek) also has Arsenal/Tottenham at the same time, so it falls under your exception. So we are left with the two home matches against promoted sides. I don't know how thrilled Setanta would be with what appears to be two blowouts. That won't stop them from doing so, but if there's a closer option with a big 4 side, they might go for that instead.

As far as Setanta love or hate goes... I understand not liking it or not paying for it. But when you consider that, just two years ago, the other possibility after FSC was a $20 per match pay-per-view, you'll understand why I'd rather have Setanta.

Ryan:

Sorry I didn't reply back sooner. So far, FSC hasn't announced any. I don't recall them really showing any last year, but I could be mistaken.

Eplnfl:

Last year, the official Superliga website offered the games online in English. It looks like they are doing the same this year. Check here for the links

http://www.superliga2008.com

Ric:

Setanta confirmed on its website that its time slots for this year will be the same as last year. So, odds are the same is true for FSC.

http://www.setantaus.com/en/NA/News/Get-Ready-f...

Ossie:

This doesn't include whatever picks Setanta and FSC will make for the 10AM ET Saturday (3PM GMT) matches, so it's possible they'll be on several times before then. These are only the ones that can be confirmed from the UK tv schedule that was announced.

Kartik, are you sure about that number for MLS? I had that as a 1.2 from another website.

Todd: I won't disagree persay, but for the sport, anything that works to break the 'every four years' (World Cup only) menality as far as paying attention to it is good news. This is a starting point more than anything else.

Fred: weekends in summer tend not to draw high viewership anywhere, mostly because a lot of people take the opportunity to get away from the TV. Even the weekly NASCAR race (which was part afternoon/part prime-time) the same day just managed to get 6 million viewers.

Yes, the signal went out worldwide. I was chatting with people in other countries at the time, and they reported the signal was down too. From the sound of it, not even play by play from the other TV guys was getting out for a time. The BBC reverted to it's radio commentary from Five Live to fill the gap.

...answer your. How did that happen?

To answereyour question Betsy, the numbers are from an ESPN press release made today.

Just thought I'd pass this along: Sky has announced it's first 9 picks for TV coverage for the Championship this season. The two matches they've selected for opening weekend is Birmingham City v Sheffield United (Saturday August 9) and Nottingham Forest v Reading (Sunday August 10).

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11979_37...

PZ: Just so you know, ESPN ended up walking away from Setanta, reportedly due to Setanta's asking price.

ESPN did, however, purchase the North American Sports Network (NASN) from Setanta in Europe last year, and is planning on rebranding that ESPN this fall.

Damir:

I remember during the Atlanta 96 Olympics that travelling on MARTA (Atlanta's transit system) was free with a game day ticket. Its done as a way to cut back on road congestion and keep people moving, since few roads anywhere can handle that number of moving traffic at any time. I'd assume tickets were priced in a way that it took this move into account.

Just to add: I didn't think about this until after I saw him, but Rece Davis, who is scheduled to be the head studio host, was assigned to report on the Belmont Stakes today, which would explain his absence.