ESPN’s about-face towards the US Soccer Team (video)
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
One of the staples of daily American sports journalism is ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” show, or “PTI” as it is commonly referred to, in which hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon debate the top sports stories of the day in North America. The show is known for the hosts’ straight-talking and encyclopedic analysis of sports, with the main focus being the classic US pastimes of basketball, American football and baseball.
In the last few days however, the show has been forced to talk soccer in the wake of Team America’s successes at the Confederations Cup. And in doing so the show has moved rapidly from having a negative outlook on the world’s most popular sport to quickly performing a 180 when Jozy Altidore was interviewed following the defeat of Spain last Wednesday.
Ahead of the match with Spain Kornheiser and Wilbon went on the offensive, defending for their belief that America’s escape from the group stages ahead of Italy and Egypt was somehow tainted.
The segment opened with Kornheiser announcing “We should probably have helmets and body-armour for this story because we are taking incoming action here. Yesterday on this here programme, we said that the United States’ soccer advancement in some dopey international tournament was nothing to be proud of. We disparage the tie-breaking system that put us in ahead of Italy.”
Wilbon argued back at the “soccer-heads” that “we understand the tie-breaking procedures, but we don’t like the tie-breaking procedures!” before the talking-head barked that “football should get new rules.” Kornheiser, exuding a distinct lack of faith in Team America, then went on to shout that if the US team wanted to really prove its worth that the either needed to beat Spain or not lose too heavily.
The bashing of Team America before the Spain match can be seen here.
On Thursday the pair were forced to step down from their anti-negative soccer vibe when US star Jozy Altidore was interviewed on the show after the defeat of Spain. Whether out of respect for their guest or rather because of the impact of the American triumph over the Spanish, Kornheiser and Wilborn turned down their rhetoric against football as they opted to switch off their opinions.
On particular notice was the fact that the usually shoot-from-the-hip style of commentary for which Kornheiser and Wilbon are famed was replaced as the presenters were reduced to crib-sheets in order to fire pertinent questions at Altidore.
Jozy Altidore’s interview on PTI can be seen here.
8 Responses to “ESPN’s about-face towards the US Soccer Team (video)”
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June 27th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
What a bunch of absolute chumps.
June 27th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Wilbon used to cover the Washington Whips beat for the Washington Post. He many hide it well, but he’s not exactly clueless when it comes to the sport.
June 27th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
LOLL!! so they are essentially saying “you know what, we dont want to go through even if you think we should”. what absolute cockfags. how must the USA team have felt after that? hope to god that these two get a spot when ESPN does the PL next year, will take a right grilling.
June 27th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
clueless or not, certainly didnt seem to get that what they were complaining about was ridiculous. Not the american way so it must be dumb.
Funny…..i always thought the opposite.
June 27th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
These two are the most inane head-in-the-sand soccer-hating journalists the US might have to offer, and that’s saying a lot. The antipathy US sports journalism has towards soccer is out of control. You never hear them rail against sports like rugby or cricket, for example. It reminds me of how a schoolyard bully is threatened by a force he doesn’t understand. I think these guys are petrified that if the sport gathers popularity in the US, they’re out of a job.
June 27th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Faggots like Kornheiser and Jim Rome (of Jim Rome is Burning) are why I hate ESPN. They don’t know shit about the outside world, only care about their Shaq’s and Derek Jeter’s. So much for being the worldwide leader in sports huh?
June 28th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Lets give credit to Wilbon and Kornheiser for honesty. Like it or not, they are two of the more respected and tenured sports journalists in America, and if you follow PTI (a fantastic show) you would know that they have expressed their concerns before over being forced by their parent ESPN/ABC/DISNEY bosses to talk shop about things they, or their audience don’t want to know.
Believe me, if the British basketball team makes it to the final of the FIBA World Championships, there will be several newsworthy clips of British sports writers who come off sounding like morons as well.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:09 am
These guys are horrible! Not only are they hack “journalists” but they are as about entertaining as a bag of marbles. PTI is sadly one of the worst shows on television. ESPN went the way of the Dodo years ago and these two fools cater to the lowest “fans” on the mental food chain. Any bad pub these two get is welcome.