USMNT: The March to Brazil - World Cup 2014

[Yachtzee]

Roger Bennett of Men in Blazers sums up SunDeck's point nicely.

Yet I feel more pride than pain this morning. There was much talk about last week's 2-1 win against Ghana being "American" thanks to the Hollywood ending of John Brooks' 86th minute winner. Yet, to me, that was nostalgic "American soccer" -- a collective, never-give-up, huff 'n' puff endeavor. As devastating as the outcome of this 2-2 performance felt, I hope it redefines what it means to be "American" in relation to soccer: Klinsmann's team took on Portugal, ranked fourth in the world, and outplayed them not just with guts, pluck and tenacity but with bold, optimistic, inventive, relentless and confident football. And I love that.

http://www.espnfc.us/blog/men-in-bla...-the-world-cup

[Caveat Emperor]

If you haven't been watching the "Men in Blazers" post-match shows online (can be seen on the "Watch ESPN" app -- and I think they're archive a lot of them), you're seriously missing out.

I get Roger's point; this game was the US team actually playing soccer/football on even terms with an opponent. They generated quality chances off possession and build, they countered effectively, they defended pretty well, intelligently subbed, etc. It was fun to watch a team that didn't bunker and concede vast chunks of possession looking for the counter. It was one of the most complete performances in team history, from that standpoint.

But, the counter to that is that they let 2 points slip away and have allowed Ghana back into the conversation. And if there is one thing I know as a US soccer fan is that, when given the opportunity, Ghana will do something to crush my soul.

[Kingspoint]

Golf is not having a good year in ratings. Its ratings are down pretty significantly vs last year.

Even without Tiger Woods around -- he tied for 44th in the Farmers Insurance Open and was on the air for about 30 minutes Sunday -- CBS said its national rating for the final round was 3.5 with a 7 share, which was up 59 percent from a year ago.

The Golf Channel, meanwhile, said it got a 1.0 with 997,000 viewers for the first round of Torrey Pines, which was up 89 percent from last year. It said the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions was up 38 percent, and the Bob Hope Classic was up 60 percent, despite the final round going up against the NFC and AFC Championship games.

The Players' Championship and Masters were both down, but the other events were up by a huge margin. The Women's US Open was up.

Again, when it comes to golf ratings, they aren't as dependent as other sports, as it's a six-hour broadcast. They can get a lot of people who watch a part of the broadcast that do not count in the ratings.

I think there are new personalities emerging that will replace Tiger. The Golf Channels rating are up. These fans enjoy the new personalities.

[MWM]

Even without Tiger Woods around -- he tied for 44th in the Farmers Insurance Open and was on the air for about 30 minutes Sunday -- CBS said its national rating for the final round was 3.5 with a 7 share, which was up 59 percent from a year ago.

The Golf Channel, meanwhile, said it got a 1.0 with 997,000 viewers for the first round of Torrey Pines, which was up 89 percent from last year. It said the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions was up 38 percent, and the Bob Hope Classic was up 60 percent, despite the final round going up against the NFC and AFC Championship games.

The Players' Championship and Masters were both down, but the other events were up by a huge margin. The Women's US Open was up.

Again, when it comes to golf ratings, they aren't as dependent as other sports, as it's a six-hour broadcast. They can get a lot of people who watch a part of the broadcast that do not count in the ratings.

I think there are new personalities emerging that will replace Tiger. The Golf Channels rating are up. These fans enjoy the new personalities.

Not sure where you're getting your info, but I'm pretty familiar with this and I can tell you its not very accurate. Much of the "final round" last year was played on Monday, and was all played on Sunday this year. So if you compare Monday of last year to Sunday of this year, of course it was up, but not by 40%. Last year they didn't finish the 3rd round until Sunday, and the final group had finished only 7 holes before play was suspended. If you compare the ratings from Sunday last year (partly 3rd round, partly final round) to Sunday this year, it's a different story....and one where ratings were way down.

Golf Channel did not receive a 1.0 rating for the first round. GC sometimes reports a round's rating as the sum of their live coverage and their replay coverage. So if one got a .6 rating and the other a .4 rating, they call it a 1.0 rating, which is not really a rating. Also, a rating point on the Golf Channel is not equal in number of people watching to a rating point on CBS. Golf Channel is using a cable rating, not a national rating. It's based only on % of people who have the Golf Channel. I'm sure there's a reason they picked first round coverage to show growth, but I can assure you, it you look at their overall rating in 2014, it does not compare favorably to 2013.

And last year's Hyundai didn't even start until Monday of the following week due to weather. So it's impossible to compare this year to that.

I can tell you that very few events have been up this year, so I'm not sure where your information is coming from. And I'm also not sure what you mean by golf isn't as "dependent" as other sports. Anyone who watches for 1 minute is included in the ratings. Golf's ratings are down quite a bit this year no matter how you look at it. There's been plenty written on the topic.

[Kingspoint]

Not sure where you're getting your info, but I'm pretty familiar with this and I can tell you its not very accurate. Much of the "final round" last year was played on Monday, and was all played on Sunday this year. So if you compare Monday of last year to Sunday of this year, of course it was up, but not by 40%. Last year they didn't finish the 3rd round until Sunday, and the final group had finished only 7 holes before play was suspended. If you compare the ratings from Sunday last year (partly 3rd round, partly final round) to Sunday this year, it's a different story....and one where ratings were way down.

Golf Channel did not receive a 1.0 rating for the first round. GC sometimes reports a round's rating as the sum of their live coverage and their replay coverage. So if one got a .6 rating and the other a .4 rating, they call it a 1.0 rating, which is not really a rating. Also, a rating point on the Golf Channel is not equal in number of people watching to a rating point on CBS. Golf Channel is using a cable rating, not a national rating. It's based only on % of people who have the Golf Channel. I'm sure there's a reason they picked first round coverage to show growth, but I can assure you, it you look at their overall rating in 2014, it does not compare favorably to 2013.

And last year's Hyundai didn't even start until Monday of the following week due to weather. So it's impossible to compare this year to that.

I can tell you that very few events have been up this year, so I'm not sure where your information is coming from. And I'm also not sure what you mean by golf isn't as "dependent" as other sports. Anyone who watches for 1 minute is included in the ratings. Golf's ratings are down quite a bit this year no matter how you look at it. There's been plenty written on the topic.

I went back and looked and it must be from a previous year. The article has no date at all listed other than a picture from one season that was 2010, but the picture wasn't trying to be representative of "the year before". I hope it changes, but I doubt it will. There's too much competition for the sports' dollar.

I'm really enjoying this season. While Kaymer's destruction of the rest of the field made viewers run away on Sunday, I watched five or six of his holes, while catching moments of others' shots. I definitely made sure I watched some of the final. But, then I've always enjoyed sports that "the common" person turns away from. I enjoy 2-1 baseball games more than 12-9 games. I don't enjoy 42-35 football games. I like the cerebral part of sports as much as the physical part. To understand the cerebral part, you have to know the players' themselves, the trends their on, their weaknesses and strengths.

My favorite moment in sports moment is always the Kentucky Derby. It incorporates so much of the history of man in it. The horse has the greatest combination of strength, athleticism, grace, intelligence, and desire of any animal in the world...to me. I like the combination of all that goes into it much more than a World Series, a Super Bowl, and NBA Final, a Stanley Cup Final, or any other sport (World Cup, Indy 500, Daytona, The Masters, Wimbledon, the Summer Olympics, etc.)

[WMR]

It is happening more and more. I teach high school and I see more kids in soccer jerseys than anything else, and I'm not sure it is even close. They argue as much about the Champions League and Manchester City as they do the Eagles and Cowboys if not more. The game itself has taken root more deeply than ever. At my high school there are impromptu games popping up all the time. It will take some time, but it is happening. Amongst the younger generation, there is no argument against soccer, as there often is amongst the older generation. When my students are in their 40's and 50's, the World Cup will be HUGE.

IMO, soccer is already the 3rd most popular sport to play behind football and basketball.

The popularity of playing baseball is waning, IMO, and hockey is #5.

[SunDeck]

Roger Bennett of Men in Blazers sums up SunDeck's point nicely.



http://www.espnfc.us/blog/men-in-bla...-the-world-cup

Wow, you'll make my head swell, mentioning me with those guys.
I don't even really follow the game that much, even though I played it for 25 years. Maybe that's the benefit I have, since it's really about every four years that I dip back into it and see differences that have occurred over that time frame rather than every day.

[Hoosier Red]

IMO, soccer is already the 3rd most popular sport to play behind football and basketball.

The popularity of playing baseball is waning, IMO, and hockey is #5.

You may be right, but the popularity of baseball has been waning for about 100 years.

[reds1869]

You may be right, but the popularity of baseball has been waning for about 100 years.

I will add that baseball is booming in the inner city. I teach in Cincinnati Public Scools and thanks to the Reds Community Fund, MLB Academy and RBI most of my male students play baseball now. It is the same in other RBI and MLB Youth Academy cities. The decline may be continuing in suburban and rural areas, but a revival is currently happening in the cities.

[Redsfaithful]

You may be right, but the popularity of baseball has been waning for about 100 years.

I think baseball fandom is very healthy, but actual participation levels do seem to be dropping. I'm sure there's actual data one way or the other, but that's my gut feeling.

[westofyou]

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/ratings-and-pastimes/

I do think about one other factor, one I don’t hear too many people talking about. It seems that as a country we now demand EVENT television. We want one show, one night, everything at stake. The Super Bowl. The Academy Awards. Game sevens. Even the television series we generally watch like Scandal or Game of Thrones often have that “if you miss tonight’s show, you will regret it for the rest of your life” vibe. Heck, if you miss a Game of Thrones, seven of your favorite characters might have been killed off.

Sunday’s World Cup game had that now-or-never energy — if the U.S. had lost to Portugal their chances to advance would have been pretty slim. It really fit perfectly into the American mood.

Baseball almost never has that one game. The sport just isn’t geared that way. I can come up with dozens of scenarios where a World Series game would draw 35 or 40 million people, but they probably won’t ever happen. Say it’s a Game 7 between the Dodgers and Orioles. Say Yasiel Puig had done some sort of crazy Puig thing in Game 6 — he hit a 500-foot homer and danced the Mambo around the bases while glaring at Buck Showalter. Say Showalter after the game said the Orioles had something special lined up for Puig. Yeah, the ratings for that game would be INSANE, they would lap the World Cup game. Or say Clayton Kershaw is going for his third straight no-hitter. Or say that Nelson Cruz has homered in seven straight at-bats.

But baseball just doesn’t have that sort of one game drama very often. The game isn’t built for one-game drama. It’s not really built for playoff drama — something that I think Bud Selig and others have missed. Baseball is about 162 games. Baseball is about seeing the game in person. Baseball is drawing SEVENTY-FIVE million fans over its very long season — compared to 16 million NFL fans per season, 22 or so million NHL and NBA fans, Minor league baseball as a whole draws 40 or so million people too.

[westofyou]

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/ratings-and-pastimes/

I do think about one other factor, one I don’t hear too many people talking about. It seems that as a country we now demand EVENT television. We want one show, one night, everything at stake. The Super Bowl. The Academy Awards. Game sevens. Even the television series we generally watch like Scandal or Game of Thrones often have that “if you miss tonight’s show, you will regret it for the rest of your life” vibe. Heck, if you miss a Game of Thrones, seven of your favorite characters might have been killed off.

Sunday’s World Cup game had that now-or-never energy — if the U.S. had lost to Portugal their chances to advance would have been pretty slim. It really fit perfectly into the American mood.

Baseball almost never has that one game. The sport just isn’t geared that way. I can come up with dozens of scenarios where a World Series game would draw 35 or 40 million people, but they probably won’t ever happen. Say it’s a Game 7 between the Dodgers and Orioles. Say Yasiel Puig had done some sort of crazy Puig thing in Game 6 — he hit a 500-foot homer and danced the Mambo around the bases while glaring at Buck Showalter. Say Showalter after the game said the Orioles had something special lined up for Puig. Yeah, the ratings for that game would be INSANE, they would lap the World Cup game. Or say Clayton Kershaw is going for his third straight no-hitter. Or say that Nelson Cruz has homered in seven straight at-bats.

But baseball just doesn’t have that sort of one game drama very often. The game isn’t built for one-game drama. It’s not really built for playoff drama — something that I think Bud Selig and others have missed. Baseball is about 162 games. Baseball is about seeing the game in person. Baseball is drawing SEVENTY-FIVE million fans over its very long season — compared to 16 million NFL fans per season, 22 or so million NHL and NBA fans, Minor league baseball as a whole draws 40 or so million people too.

[reds44]

What time is actual kickoff tomorrow? I'm trying to plan my lunch around watching the 2nd half and I've seen 11:30 am and noon.

[improbus]

The Posnanski point is an interesting one. I do find myself having to explain why I'm a baseball fan more and more. I have to sell the game the same way I had to sell soccer 10 years ago.

[BuckeyeRed27]

What time is actual kickoff tomorrow? I'm trying to plan my lunch around watching the 2nd half and I've seen 11:30 am and noon.

Noon kickoff EST. Coverage starts at 1130.