2/6 USA vs Mexico soccer on ESPN2 in HD?

comcast iguide says it's HD too. Hoping.

SWEET! Thanks for the heads up.

I'll be attending this game and I'm glad to know ESPN2 will broadcast in HD.

HD broadcast confirmed

http://www.hdsportsguide.com/other.php

Even confirmdier:

http://hd.espn.com/hd/schedule.jsp

Great news! For all the talk about how much espn hates soccer they have stepped up coverage in the past 12 months. Seeing a big friendly like this in HD is another mark. I wonder how many fans of El Tri will watch to see some HD colores. My prediction 2-0 EEUU.

I read on Soccernet that 53,000 tickets have been sold at the Houston Stadium (can't remember the dome's sponsored name).

I don't care the score as long as its a Yanks win.

Reliant Stadium

muchas gracias

de nada

I think I'm going to watch the game in HD.
And I'm a mexican fan.

But yeah, if it's a tie that'll be good for Mexico.

They broadcasted the Brazil/U.S. friendly in HD in September, I don't see why this is so shocking...

Shoot, a goal would be good for Mexico.

I know, I know...

I keep thinking, before every US Mexico game, that this will be the game that Mexico finally wins. But it never happens! Why can't Mexico, which arguably has the better talent, not beat the yanks unless they play in Mexico city?

Ohhhh-watch the hubris please!!!! they scored 1st in the Gold Cup final!!!

I disagree with you that Mexico has the better talent. With more and more Americans transferring over to Europe, the U.S. National team has improved a lot, plus the MLS is improving every year. The U.S. has a lot of young talent that possibly could become very good players. Freddy Adu is finally showing what's he's capable of in Portugal. His move to Benfica has helped him out so much. Clint Dempsey, Beasley, Tim Howard, Bocanegra, plus others are doing very well over in Europe. On the other hand, some of the good Mexican players are aging. They do have a few young players that show promise such as Giovani Dos Santos and Nerry Castillo plus the veteran Marquez. Castillo is out for a while I believe with a broken shoulder. Anyway, I can't wait until the game. Hopefully it will be another USA victory over Mexico.

How come I don't see that game on that schedule?

Oops, had to scroll down to the ESPN2 schedule, not ESPN.

I Highly recommend people check out this match. Even if you're not a soccer fan, this is a great rivalry with a great history and the matches are always quite memorable. Plus the game is sure to look beautiful in HD

Background on the rivalry:

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/stor...st-wasn't-...

The last 11 matches:

http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news...._mls&fext=.jsp


Mexico has called up every last one of their players in an effort to end their futility streak against the US. (however they are missing a few stars due to injury such as Castillo and Guardado) The USA team is the essentially our strongest one available as well with a few exceptions due to injury (Beasley) and club considerations (Eddie Johnson)

Mexican coach and legend Hugo Sanchez had promised to turn things around in this rivalry when he campaigned for his position, and yet tomorrow he risks falling to 0-3 against the USA.

Check it out.

Definitely will be going DVR if I"m running a few minutes behind for this one. Should be awesome to see the heated US-Mexico rivalry in HD too.

Finally, Cablevision got us ESPN2 HD. Didn't make it for the World Cup but at least we have it now.

It should be really interesting. Landon Donovan already said it "we just played against Sweden and it was just another game. Not this game against Mexico, we want to win."

Of course in Mexico all the sports media is in a frenzy about this "friendly" game. Everyone is obsessed about winning.

Thank god we get the new announce team of John Harkes and JP Dellacamera.

Come on Yanks, lets lay another whooping on El Tri

I'll miss Wynalda.

I'll never miss Dave O'Brien

Really, Wynalda?

I really wish ESPN would send their camera peeps over to England and make them sit with SkySports/BBC camera people and learn how to properly film a football match. There is way to much zooming in on the ball and the player with the ball. The camera needs to zoom out and give you a better field of view. Allow the home viewer the see the play develop, watch the wings making their runs into the 18yd box or a midfielder close off a run my an opposing mid/forward. Had the camera not been zoomed in on the run up to the called off Dempsey goal, we would have seen that the far side judge had his flag up and Clint was offside.

Also, the camera behind the goal used for goal kicks has got to go, watching the ball from that camera made my stomach turn.

Glad for the tie, wish it would have been a win. Where was Boca when Mexico was awarded the corner that tied the game? Why was he not questioning the refs decision after the US knocked it off the Mexican player in the box (should have been a goal kick)? Even if you don't get the call, give your team a few extra seconds to get your defense organized and hopefully clear out the set play.

Seconded with much enthusiasm.

If they are going to broadcast Futbol, they need to break some OLD Football habits. The BBC crew could definetly teach them a thingy or twelve.

Much like US hockey coverage, which regardless of what network it's on, they can all take lessons from the CBC.

I think the issue is US broadcasters apply the same production values & decisions for all sports, in a generic sense. In other parts of the world, where a single sport is the dominant sport, like hockey in Canada and soccer in South America and Europe, the TV coverage becomes much more specialized.

This was my first US game on ESPN 2 HD as I just got FIOS the other day. Picture looked great, camera angles were horrendous at times though. Mexico totally outplayed the U.S. as the Americans did not have any real cohesion in this game. As one of the announcers said, it was more of an all-star game with up and down action and little defense. I did not see the possessive ball control offense the US usually has nor did I see the attacking defense you usually see from the U.S.

Saying that, the US still should have won the game because I still don't understand why Dempsey's goal was called back in the first half. Nobody was offside, and even if the other two attacking players were, they were not involved in the play. Only thing I could think of was that Dempsey came back from an offside position, but we never saw anything supporting that. There was no signal for a foul against Dempsey that I saw either. Even later in the game, some bad offside calls went against the US. One I recall, 2 players were in an offside position at time of pass. However, pass went to a player that was still onside outside the box. The offside players came back and were onside before the ball was passed to one of them...but it was still called offside. Horrible call.

During halftime, they showed where the offside call was made (about 20yds up field of the 18yd box). When Dempsey made his initial run he was about a step offside, before the entry pass came from the midfield. ESPN made excellent use of the their technology, showing a line on the field that followed the last defender, all the way across the field.

Had the camera not been so zoomed in on the midfielder making the pass and Dempsey trying break away from the defenders, we would have seen the side judges flag go up immediately.

After seeing the replay, I was very surprised that neither JP nor Harkes caught the offsides flag during the action. However, I'm not sure how the press boxes are setup in Houston and they could have poor sight lines for soccer.

It was actually one of the best calls of the game, as I wouldn't want a goal like that to stand and give El Tri something to whine about.

Much of that had to do with several guys playing together that had never played together, and the fact that the MLS players are in their off-season. That being said, Michael Bradley (coach's son) looked lost throughout most of the game and generally played awful. He should have been subbed-for much sooner. Once Feilhaber entered the game, ball control improved greatly.