Joel Bulkley
June offered a summer of soccer with lots of exciting TV games in the Euros (Germany) and the U.S. (Copa America). Earlier we had the U.S. Open at Pinehurst and other fun events like NBA, NHL playoff games.
Thought the Ian Darke/Landon Donovan pairing on Fox Sports for Euro games was great. Donovan offered insight as a former player on a number of things like fouls, strategy and success. There was good interaction between the two and even some humor. The game broadcasts were pretty good though sometimes the international video feed lagged in terms of key replays. Fox has no control of that.
The Copa broadcasts, also on Fox, were generally OK as long as you didn’t stick around for post-game commentary (poor). Their announcing/analyst crews were stretched pretty thin with simultaneous tournaments. I’m just tired of Alexi Lalas and his petty thoughts and comments, like a spoiled child sitting in the corner.
The differences in the stadiums for the two events were distinct. Euro games were played in boisterous sold out 50,000-seat stadiums while many Copa games were played in giant 75,000 seat NFL arenas often not sold out with 50,000 fans. It was a trial run or dress rehearsal for 8 of 11 WC26 game sites. The fields will be widened to regulation width for those games and presumably better field conditions and security provided.
The two Charlotte Copa games were intense, emotional, exciting, but BOA Stadium is not a WC site.
We lost two more sports greats, Jerry West and Willie Mays, and the stories that followed were wonderful about their grace and spirit in dealing with others.
The Longhorn Network is now a free streaming network of UT content after Texas moved to SEC July 1. No games, only highlights, features, interviews.
The ESPYS are usually fun and informative. One highlight was the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award, saluting the best in sports to help a community, presented to the Maui surfing community for their work ferrying food, supplies and aid for victims of the Maui wildfires last summer when traditional routes were blocked.
Another good thing was MLB agreeing to pay retirement benefits for all living former Negro League players.
Coach K giving one hour pep talk to U.S. swimmers at their Raleigh hotel during pre-Olympic training camp in Cary. He even fired off a few jokes at N.C. State. An assistant State swim coach later asked “where were the jokes against UNC?”
Not so good was Team USA’s performance against Panama in men’s soccer and a filler-type story on what four UNC basketball players deserve a statue outside the Smith Center.