World Cup 2006 In HDTV on ABC, ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD - All 64 games! - Page 60  

Posty-McPost already covered the next international events involoving national teams but there is also international tournaments coming up/wrapping up at the club level like Copa Libertadores (currently in quarter finals) and FIFA Club World Championship where the club champion from each region is invited :

AFC Champions League
UEFA Champions League *
CONCACAF Champions Cup
CAF Champions League
CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores *
OFC Oceania Club Championship

*Automatic seed to semifinals

I think this tourney is interesting and I hope FIFA continues and expands this one

Maybe Univision will surpise us with HD but I doubt it

I bet Univision will go HD within two years. I have a strong urge to learn spanish. It would be much more fun to watch World Cup on Univision HD than on ESPN. Besides football, those latin girls are hot.

I rewatched a couple of games from my Vip622 DVR and found a problem. I could rewind but I could not watch from there. e.g. I watched till minute 67 and I wanted to watch from minute 50, so I rewinded to minute 50 and pressed play. The DVR jumped to 67th minute again and did not sarted from 50th minute. I had to restart from the very beginning. If I fastforwded to Minute 50 and pressed Play it wouldn't stay there. It either went back to vey beginnning or jumped to 67th minute which was the last viewing minute. I had to use Skip button so many times to fastforwd to 50th minute. Haven't got a chance to talk to Dish and the waiting sucks.

I watched the Argentina-Germany game on Telefutura with my son, who is fluent in Spanish - having had it in school since first grade. Just after the Argentines made a bonehead substitution (which ultimately cost them the game) my son suddenly burst out laughing. The announcer, who was appalled by coach's move, was exclaiming "Oh, speak to me, Jesus!".

You can forget all about Copa America 2007 in HD. HDTV is still nowhere to be found in South America, let alone Venezuela, and the host broadcaster will probably be a local TV station. A more realistic hope for HD soccer on Univision is the 2009 Confederations Cup... or Mexican league games in a couple of years.

He was just asking his co-announcer to comment, who happens to be named Jesus. :)

yeah, his name is Jesus Bracamontes.

:D

I might use line next time I see a move that I thought was strange.

You're probably right forget the Copa America in HD.

Probably those two countires will be the the first ones to HD in Latin America as they have two of the best economies in the region but it will probably take a long time for them to be where we are as only a few there may aford the technology required to get hd.

Zinedine Zidane was banned by FIFA for three games and Materazzi was suspended for two matches. World soccer's governing body also fined Zidane $6,000 and Materazzi $4,000 after a disciplinary committee heard the former France captain's account of what led to the incident. Because Zidane has retired, he agreed to do three days of community service with children as part of FIFA's humanitarian projects.

"We respect the definitive verdict by FIFA's disciplinary commission," Italian soccer federation commissioner Guido Rossi said. "But the episode was captured on television and (any opinion) is up to the judgment of people throughout the world." Former Italy captain Paolo Maldini said: it was "scandalous to ban a player for having said something." "It's the first time that it's happened and it's only because Materazzi is Italian and because they want to justify the gesture of a great champion, who made a mistake," he said at AC Milan's training camp.


I support such disciplines.

What distrub me is the whinning from the Italian side. How can a player deliberately insult other players on such a stage and get away? Where is the sportsmanship and ethics? What example do people want for children? Why the hell do you think Materazzi is punished because he is Italian? It's so mean to stress the video but ignore the unheard verbal just because one has evidence and the other does not. There is no precedent of punishment does not mean you can do it forever. No setting rules don't mean the authority can't do anything. It's time to clean up these dirty play if fair play wants its way. I used to like Italian team vey much and they lost my respect during the last two world cups. I take no side and just want to see good football and fair play. If Zidane is Italian but Materazzi is French I would say the same to each party. I know a lot of people won't agree with me.

Just ask yourself this: If Zidane is Italian and Materazzi is French, how much of your view will change?

Actually, there is HD from one cable provider in Brazil and HD OTA will start by the end of 2007 at least in a couple of cities.

Getting them for "dirty play" is one thing but they are assessing the penalty just because of the trash talking by Matarazzi. Both sides have agreed nothing racist was said and the insults were of the family variety. While not the most polite form of communication is that something that warrants a 2 game suspension? Especially when Zidane only got 3 for his head butt and De Rossi got 4 for his elbow on McBride? Was what Matarazzi said half as bad as splitting a guys face open? No possible way.

I don't think any penalty was warranted against Matarazzi. If it sets a precedent for future penalties it will turn international soccer into a joke. Between the two rounds of CONCACAF WCQ's there are 16 games. Should a player miss 1/8 of that for a "Tu Madre"?

Next we can add an official in the NFL to stand between the linemen and make sure no feelings are hurt before the snap. We can also re edit Bull Durham so Crash Davis only says nice things behind the plate to distract hitters.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...279237,00.html

The article says this ruling could open the door for more violence as players responding to insults will know the penalties will be similar.

Please explain. Or don't. Your words drop like turds onto this board and are just as appreciated.

Actually it does. That's what rules are. They tell you what you can and can't do. You ever get pulled over for going the speed limit?

Don't bother responding to me cause I won't read it. You went past "On Notice" and are now officially "Dead to Me".

Your words are more like turds dropped onto this board if compared to mine. I just explained why the two should be disciplined but you did what Materazzi would like to do. No wonder why you have been defending him so desperately.

Went past "On notice" and are officially dead to you? who do you think you are? Don't pretend to be a VIP and you are not live to me either if you keep this gesture. Of course you have freedom for whatever you think and do.

I support such disciplines too for physical violence but not for verbal taunting. IMO the actions taken by FIFA were uneven. I think most popple would agree that in a lot of sports with so much at stake there is a lot of trash talk going on and that is no means for disciplinary action (banning you from playing games because you insulted an opposite player). There is no sportmanship and ethics in soccer or in any other sport on verbal abuse as they know they can get away since none can hear them except the targeted victim.

Supposedly Zidane called the ref SOB (reported by the media) Is that ethical and does it show any sportmanship? I don't care about Zidane nor Materazzi just giving my opinion while trying to be subjective

I understand your reasoning on the trash talk. It may sound unfair to Materazzi personally since he may be the first guy got punished though hundreds may have done that. It propably has been going on for decades or over a century. What I wanted to stress is this is a high profile case and if he gets away from it players in all sports will intensify the trash talk and children will think it's OK to insult others and do that too. When the children grow up they would 100% think trash talk is justified. Prevailing truth does not necessarily mean it can be justified. On the opposite people should stop it now, at least minimize it and set a tone that it's unacceptable and unethical in sports. Right now I think both Zidane and Materazzi are in their peace on this incident. This case deserves discussion in all sports and among fans.

I think FIFA should employ a rule where if a player goes on the ground as if both of his legs were broken, wastes 2-3 minutes of playing time and then comes back in to play as if nothing happened an immediate yellow.

Of course if that player was fouled by Materazzi than he probably was really injured. Materazzi should be banned for life from playing for being a dirty player (although I'll agree that what he did to Zidane did not warrant as harsh of the penalty. HE has done much worse things in the past)

the unfortunate thing is that this "simulation" seems to be common already with the young players or the next generation, which means that kids are incorporating this in their play... look at the worst offenders (aside from the italians ;) ): wayne rooney, arjen robben, cristiano ronaldo.
my suggestion: (1) referees should institute a blacklist and the worst offenders will very unlikely not get the benefit of the doubt when they "fall"; (2) allow referees to give out a yellow card after a match after video review. referees meet together and review calls. they could look at potential diving instances and with a unanimous decision, they could hand out a yellow card to that player and possibly add him to the "blacklist".

I like your idea. Another would be that if they have to stop play to cart someone off, that person should have to sit out a certain amount of time before coming back in. The NFL has a rule that if they stop for an injury, that injured player must sit out at least one play...perhaps something like that would be in order here.
If soccer player goes down like he got shot and (for whatever reason) cannot leave the field under his own power, FIFA might consider making it a rule that the individual must be taken to the locker room, examined by physicians and cleared to play again before returning (or of course his team could substitute for him immediately...) I have a feeling the number of "injuries" would be reduced by such a rule. FIFA could easily justify it...anything to protect the health of the players ;)

Bad idea. Gives teams an incentive to deliberately injure an opposing player.

Thats what red cards,suspensions & big $$ fines are for.

Ya the worst offenders are a black eye to the game. Like this guy.

http://www.vinniejones.co.uk/images/.../vj_pg_big.jpg (by the way thats from his personal website...an action he is obviously proud of)

http://www.voetbalstats.nl/nedxi/foto/533.jpg

No one wants to pay to see an a**hole like this.

http://www.sci-fi-london.com/2005web...nnie_jones.jpg

Or maybe you need to accept soccer is a contact sport. There is a fine line between going for the ball and going for the nuts. But you can't penalize everything as if it were a deliberate act of violence when it's not. When Michael Barrett cold cocked AJ Pierzynski he got a 10 game suspension out of 162 regular game season. How many important games a year does a national team play? This year Italy will play the most, 11 (7 WC + 4 Euro Qual). So Matarazzi will miss 18% of his teams games and AJ misses 6%. FIFA has made on field insults, which are so much a part of US Sports that we advertise around those who are good at them, 3 times worse than an actual crime of punching someone. Worse yet, there is no rule against insults so any penalty is absurd.

Every sport will have it's share of good guys and bad guys on the field and off. But this is the 21st century and on field insults are part of every sport short of polo and will remain so despite draconian measures to stop them. Players will rat each other out and carry wires...maybe even doctor tapes to gain an advantage by getting another player suspended. Sportscenter will start every day with the list of potty mouth suspensions. Do you really want the sports world to be like that? Just so you can tell your kids that sports figures are heroes when then aren't? Instead of worrying about what your children think of an insult they didn't even hear maybe you should explain to them why it is wrong to respond to words with violence.

I've been telling people a similar solution for years.

Player goes down, referee comes over and give him 2 options. One chance to get up, or goes off the field for 5 minutes of clock. If player stays down, 1 medical person comes on the field with the stretcher crew, no magic sponges, etc. allowed. Medical person ok's player to be moved, player gets stretchered off, game restarts, 5 minute clock starts.

If the player is legitimately hurt, well, those aren't the guys that get sprayed and are looking to get on the field before the whistle has even blown to restart. An actually injury easily takes 5 minutes to rectify and/or decide on a sub. If the player delays getting on the stretcher, etc. then an immediate yellow card.

If you start this kind of discipline at the beginning of World Cup qualifying 2 years before the Finals, you won't have the kind of first round that happened this year with the sudden changing of emphasis on the rules.

Farwell good friend. :)

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5807090