Seeing Red

Following United and the EPL from the US has historically taken serious effort. If you were to tell me in the mid-90's that I could watch every single Red Devils match from the comforts of home or a pub, I'd be thrilled. In that day and age I was grateful for ANY and EVERY United match. I was delighted to listen to the matches live via the internet in the late 90's. Such was the world.

Fast forward to the present, with the advent of the internet, satellite TV, and DVRs, I expect to watch each and every game.

Which leads me to the sad state of affairs today.

For some unbeknownst reason, our DirecTV DVR flakes out once every 3-4 months and fails to record something.

Unfortunately, I lose about one football match per year to this maddening defect. My suspicions lie with some software download upgrade at 3:37AM that somehow nullifies something on the list to be recorded.

Which leads me, boys and girls, to the story of how ether swallowed the United v West Brom match.

Given the match didn't record, at least initially, I wasn't concerned, as I knew the match was on ESPN, who also happens to stream their EPL matches free and online. “I'll simply watch the match off ESPN3” was my first reaction.

Smartly, I have my wife log online and look up the match, so as to keep the media blackout in effect. It'll just take a moment...

Well, after an hour of troubleshooting, including emailing ESPN to fix the link to replay of the match, which instead starts an old college football match, I give up.

I MUST KNOW NOW, as I log on to look up the score, all the while knowing that I'm giving up my much anticipated football fix.

Thus...

No delight in watching Rooney's first goal from open play in nine months. No pained relief from what by all accounts was a stone-cold-penalty-red-card for Gary Neville. No joyous victory dance in the living room when Chicharito put United ahead in the 75th minute. No ultimate relief in three road points.

My footballing year isn't off to a good start... or, is it?!

By all accounts, United gutted out a victory today with the luck missing from the Birmingham City match. Truly these things tend to even out over time, but usually not in back-to-back matches. Maybe this is good fortune...

No spilled coffee all over myself, our fox terrier, and the couch. No first-hand angst over SAF's selection of Gary Neville as right back and tension watching him play. No long wait before my large, brunch breakfast.

Ah, who am I kidding?! This angers me to no end, as I'm tired of football – or soccer dear suits in Bristol – being sooo disrespected by ESPN.

First, ESPN3 routinely posts entire games fairly quickly after completion. Thus, I expect it, as it's the only EPL game they have today, which they advertised heavily on both ESPN3 and ESPNSoccernet this morning. Fair expectation, but their link leads to Northwester v Texas Tech in college football. Strike one.

Second, when we emailed to report this problem, all links were taken down to replay the match within 20 minutes, but the picture of Rooney remains up on the ESPN3 soccer-sub page, even now some 5 hours after the match. Maddening to say the least. Strike two.

Third, where are your priorities?!

You paid truck-loads of money for each and every World Cup match, thereby seemingly being committed to your footy audience. What gives today?

If you want to cultivate a football – er, soccer – following, make your single EPL match available for replay and don't make excuses you're short of server space for online streaming, even today, the holiest of days for college sports in the US. I don't buy you're that cheap, after all you have specific sub-websites devoted to following sports for specific cities, for the love of God.

But, if you are really short of streaming capacity, for the sake of argument, and it's a business decision to NOT make the match available for replay, then don't advertise so on multiple internet pages. Strike three. Batter out. [In an analogy you can at least understand]

If you really aspire to be the big, bad and respected global sports brand ESPN, you'd better not continue to screw with the followers of the most popular sport on the planet in your original market.

You've already lost esteem with football fans for past scheduling miscues, hiring almost exclusively Brit-analysts for the recent World Cup, and of course, the onion-bag man himself, Tommy Smyth is the coup de gras. Never-ever would you tolerate employing someone so annoying as Mr. Smyth in any sport except soccer.

You'll never be respected in world football, nor as a global sports brand for that matter, if you leave footy fans seeing red - especially on the very first day of the New Year. Your complete lack of understanding and care for the beautiful game speaks for itself. Always has. Always will.

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Back at you after the Stoke match. Cheers.