Others See “Redeeming,” “Extraordinary,” Courageous” US Tie vs Italy; The Los Angeles Times Tells Us … Sorry, I Fell Asleep Reading Their Story
The Los Angeles Times’ Grahame Jones apparently attended Saturday’s US World Cup game — the most important in four years — and he leads with … the pace?
The United States soccer team’s reputation, in tatters after a meek loss Monday to the Czech Republic, is again intact.
The Americans can still advance to the second round of the World Cup after their 1-1 tie with Italy at sold-out Fritz Walter Stadium here Saturday night.
The game, defined by a flurry of cards that sent off one Italian and two Americans, moved at a hectic pace from start to finish.
Jones awakes to describes Kasey Keller’s “series of excellent saves,” but aside from that the story is a series of quotes that tell the reader little about the game.
Perhaps it was somewhat more dramatic than “hectic.” The NYT game report:
“When this strange and exhausting and potentially rewarding game had ended in a 1-1 tie with Italy, the United States playmaker Landon Donovan fell onto his back, seemingly unable to take another step.
Several teammates bent over, drenched in sweat, drained of energy and emotion. Victory had not been achieved Saturday, but as important, defeat had been avoided.
In a classic underdog effort, the United States kept its hopes alive in the World Cup with a redeeming and defiant performance against a three-time winner of the tournament.”
(NYT columnist George Vecsey has a piece titled “Keller Backstopped an Instant Classic” with the subhead “The draw that goalkeeper Kasey Keller protected Saturday is now a top-five national memory in the short history of American soccer.” But we can’t read it because of the TimesSelect anti-popularity wall.)
The Washington Post also recognized the drama of the moment:
When it finally ended, after Brian McBride’s bloody face had been repaired, after the three red cards and the own goal and the disallowed goal, after the breathtaking saves by Kasey Keller and the sideline tirades by Bruce Arena, the U.S. players fell, one by one, to the turf.
Mostly it was a product of the exhaustion of playing short-handed for nearly half the game against one of international soccer’s most fabled teams. However, the enormity of what they had just accomplished — securing a 1-1 tie with Italy in a gripping World Cup match played in a mountainside stadium before a deafening crowd and a network TV audience back home — sapped the Americans of energy and emotion.
“These guys bled today for our country and our team,” Keller said.
And because of that effort, just five days after one of the lowest moments in Arena’s coaching career, the Americans (0-1-1) are still very much alive in their pursuit of a round-of-16 berth.
Even the weaker AP game story had more drawing power:
They lumbered from end to end, desperate to stop the blue surge of Italians and salvage their World Cup. Two U.S. players had been ejected. What could have been the winning goal was disallowed. And in the end, with players dropping to field in exhaustion, the United States managed a wild 1-1 tie Saturday night that gave the Americans their first-ever World Cup point in Europe and a chance to advance to the tournament’s second round.
And it’s not just domestic writers who were able to find their thesaurus in describing one of the most significant games in the history of soccer in this country:
- The BBC: “gutsy … A point was the least USA deserved after a display full of spirit and determination in Kaiserslautern … the Americans claimed an extraordinary point to kick-start their World Cup campaign.”
- Guardian: “The US …. could have been filled to the brim with weariness and self-pity following the 3-0 drubbing by the Czech Republic but showed an extraordinary commitment to recovering their lost pride. They were fitter than Italy, with greater powers of endurance.”
- The Telegraph: “the United States (displayed) wonderful bravery and daring that almost brought one of the greatest shocks in the competition … At times, blue dominated white so much that the pitch resembled the Scottish flag, but the United States showed tremendous courage.”
It’s not too late for the LAT to send staff writer Mike Penner, who seems to have a soccer-writing pulse, to Germany to rescue its coverage. Otherwise it’s back to the NYT for us …
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The game got a 5.2 national rating (about 5 million households) which is likely higher than this weekend’s US Open (3.2 on Saturday, Sunday not yet released). Yet golf — the favorite game of sports editors? — received noticeably more column inches in today’s LAT than U.S. – Italy yesterday.
Technorati Tags: LA Times, LAT, Los Angeles Times, soccer, United States, world cup
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June 19th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Even the coverage in Penthouse was more inspired: “I never thought those World Cup stories were true, but something happened to me in Fritz Walter Stadium that I feel I must share. I had just entered the elevator to go to the Press level when two women from the Korean delegation got on board. I found myself staring at their firm bodies as we began going up. One of them noticed me staring at her stiffining nipples as she pushed the Stop button. Soon I was bending them both like Beckham…
June 25th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Outstanding post on the World Cup coverage by the LA Times’ main soccer writer, Grahame Jones.
Here’s the important thing you need to know about Mr. Jones; he’s a British ex-patriate whom looks down his nose at both Major League Soccer (MLS), and Team USA.
Therefore, expecting him to write a game summary which is highly complimentary of Team USA when they performed courageously against one of Europe’s traditional soccer powers (1-1 tie vs. Italy) is about as likely as snow in June in downtown Los Angeles.
You really ought to read Jones’ May 8, 2006 column where he committed most of that column to blasting President Bush for the crime of “not being a lifelong soccer fan.”
It went beyond Mr. Jones revealing he is a partisan Democrat—it was just plain bizarre—and angry.
Mike Penner at least writes with a pulse, as you stated, and he is a talented writer.
Penner first ‘came to soccer’ when he covered the 1998 World Cup in France, for the Times.
However, Penner has written in various soccer articles over the years that American commentators whom reveal any sense that they’re rooting for Team USA to win, is upsetting to him.
He ripped apart ABC/ESPN announcer Jack Edwards for merely exclaiming “Mine eyes have seen the glory !” when Clint Mathis scored a key goal at the 2002 World Cup.
Penner felt Edwards was being “jingoistic.”
Additionally, when Real Madrid played the LA Galaxy last summer at the Home Depot Center, the following day Penner wrote ripped the Fox Sports commentators Max Bretos and Allen Hopkins because he felt they were rooting for the hometown Galaxy vs. Real Madrid.
Interestingly enough, I’ve never seen Penner criticize Vin Scully, Bob Miller, Chick Hearn(R.I.P.), or the Spanish language commentators for “rooting” for the teams THEY broadcast for.
By the way, Penner is a Democrat whom is known for his anti-Republican, anti-Fox News rants in his personal life.
I imagine one can conclude that both he and Grahame Jones see rooting for Team USA as some sort of affirmation of President Bush, therefore, they just don’t root for Team USA—nor do they approve of anyone else doing so.
Check out Jones’ May 29, 2006 column where he trashed ABC/ESPN sideline reporter Shelley Smith for being “pro-USA” in Team USA’s warm-up games, prior to the World Cup.
Jones wrote that watching such ABC/ESPN’s jingoistic coverage was enough to make him want to throw a brick thru his TV screen.
Smith is the sideline reporter, and like any sideline reporter, she reports on player injuries, substitutions, and 45 second interviews as the players head to the locker room for half-time. I bet if you used a stopwatch, you’d find that she had a total of 4 or 5 minutes of face-time for the entire game.
I mean, I think she may have said, “Good luck in the second half, Brian” to Team USA striker Brian McBride.
You have to look up these articles to believe them.