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Search: ' Brad Friedel'

Stories

Blackburn Rovers 2 Aston Villa 0

Simon Hart describes the scenes as Blackburn play their first match under the watchful eye of their new owners

There are three Robbie Savages grinning in front of me as I take my seat in the press box high in the Jack Walker Stand. The one-time Blackburn Rovers midfielder is appearing in a book-plugging interview on his former club’s in-house TV channel, playing on monitors suspended from the ceiling of the stand. The sight of Savage, very much a man of his time with blond highlights and perma-tan, is juxtaposed with the more traditional spectacle unfolding on the hill behind the Riverside Stand opposite. This Sunday lunchtime kick-off is still over half an hour away and supporters trail down the brown hillside before crossing a bridge over the River Darwen and filing into the ground. Today is very much about the old and the new.

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Letters, WSC 277

Dear WSC
In response to my letter published in WSC 275, Mark Brennan Scott accepts that we send someone to each of the weekend’s Premier League games, to commentate live, but not unreasonably asks whether Match of the Day commentators ever “re-record bits they are unhappy with”. Not exactly, but the beauty of an edit rather than a live game is there is scope for tweaking both the sound and visuals by transmission time. Every now and then, a commentator will, for example, misidentify a goalscorer and then correct themselves, in which case we have been known to remove take one in the edit. I’ve found a copy of a letter I had published in WSC 240 in which I said: “If a commentator gets something wrong at the time we may even spare him his blushes at 10pm by removing the odd word.” That remains the case, but most of the time the commentator’s natural reaction works best. If it takes a couple of replays before they identify a deflection or suspicion of handball, that will nearly always feel more authentic than trying to look too clever after the event. In shortening a game for transmission, we may occasionally “pull up” a replay or remove a few words, but would almost never re-record any section of a commentary unless there’s been a technical problem. Furthermore, in all cases the commentators go home after the post-match interviews and a producer back at base edits the pictures and sound recorded at the time. In early days of the Premier League, only two or three games had multi-camera coverage and commentators present, so there were occasional attempts to add a commentary to single-camera round-up games, for example, for Goal of the Month. However, not every commentator was a convincing thespian and one or two “Le Tissier’s capable of beating three men from here and curling one into the top corner. Oh my word, he has…” moments did slip through. With multi-camera coverage and a commentator at every game, that no longer happens.
Incidentally, call us old-fashioned but there was a degree of pride in this office in MOTD’s recent use of “crashed against the timber” as cited in Steve Whitehead’s letter. Better that – or maybe “hapless custodian” – than some unpleasant modern notion like “bragging rights”.
Paul Armstrong, Programme Editor, BBC Match of the Day

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Thinking Outside the Box

by Brad Friedel with Malcolm McClean
Orion, £18.99
Reviewed by David Wangerin
From WSC 268 June 2009 

Buy this book

 

No colourful boots for Brad Friedel – no self-aggrandising tattoos, no trophy wife, and certainly no flamboyant hairstyles. But, almost inevitably these days, there is a book. Not that we should begrudge this Premier League stalwart a foray outside his penalty area; indeed, how a collegiate star from Ohio became one of England’s most dependable goalkeepers and a hero of the 2002 World Cup would seem to be a story worth reading.

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MLS Division One 1996

The MLS was formed two decades after the NASL finished. Graham Hughes reports that it's still going strong ten years on 

The long-term significance
Twelve years after the North American Soccer League (NASL) had fizzled out, a new professional league was launched in the United States. As part of the agreement to stage the 1994 World Cup, FIFA had insisted on a “Division One” league being formed. Despite persistent financial losses and a failure to make a major impact in the American sports world, MLS has enjoyed far more stability than its chaotic predecessor and approaches its tenth anniversary in reasonably healthy shape.

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January 2005

Saturday 1 Chelsea stride on, with a controversial 1-0 win at Liverpool who are denied a clear penalty in the first half before Joe Cole gets the late, deflected, winner. “Sometimes you have the luck of champions,” says José, cupping an ear for the squawks of outrage from Old Trafford and Highbury. Arsenal stay in pursuit after a 3-1 win at Charlton. “No one is playing as well as us,” says Sir Alex following Man Utd’s eighth win in nine, 2-0 at Middlesbrough, though Spurs might contest that after their 5-2 thrashing of Everton. Bolton stop the rot, just, a late equaliser forcing a 1-1  home draw with West Brom. Palace’s 3-1 defeat to Fulham returns them to the bottom three, below Norwich who play 85 minutes with ten men after Marc Edworthy’s dismissal at Portsmouth but still get a  1-1 draw. Wigan regain the lead in the Championship, winning 2-0 at Sheffield Utd, while Ipswich lose by the same score at home to West Ham. In League One Hull’s 2-1 victory over Huddersfield brings them level with leaders Luton, held at home by Sheffield Wed. Yeovil’s 2-0 defeat  of Swansea allows them to catch up League Two leaders Scunthorpe, beaten at home by Darlington. The FA will probe a half-time incident during Bristol City’s 2-0 win over Peterborough that makes it a happy new year for  City defender Tony Butler, who suffers “eight displaced teeth”.

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