We hate being right.
Last week, CBS won the bidding war with ESPN, NBC and Fox for the U.S. Champions League TV rights. We worried it could be bad for English-language viewers.
Our fears were confirmed Tuesday.
Well, we did not expect this. The U.S. Champions League TV rights went up for bidding recently and, according to Sports Business Journal, CBS has pulled off a surprising coup.
As first scooped by John Ourand, CBS won the English-language U.S. Champions League TV rights for the 2021-22 season through the 2023-24 season. Univision, meanwhile, held on to the Spanish-language rights for a second cycle.
If you’ve got 15 minutes to spare during today's commute or lunch break (you know what, it’s a Monday, just watch it at your desk), you should spend it watching this short film entitled “Nefta Football Club” by Yves Piat.
It’s got everything: comedy, suspense, soccer and a brilliant ending. The film was released back in 2018 but it’s just come out on Vimeo. To date, it’s scored nearly 50 prestigious film awards, including a silver medal at the Manhattan Short festival and the Best Comedy prize at Aspen Shortsfest.
It’s not been the best week for Neymar. On Monday, the Brazilian missed out on the 30-player shortlist for the 2019 Ballon d’Or award. On Tuesday, he missed PSG’s 5-0 beatdown of Club Brugge due to a hamstring injury he picked up on international duty.
Watch as ESPN’s Katie Nolan pretends to be the soccer mom of USWNT stars Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Kelley O’Hara. Nolan picked up her girls from practice and came with all the post-practice necessities: orange slices, juice boxes and conversation about what happened at practice.
The superstars act like children and it's a must-see!
The numbers are officially in, and the 2019 Women's World Cup viewership totals are astronomical — double what they were in 2015 by some of the most important metrics.
A curious reporter decided to take a week’s worth of ESPN transcripts to see just how much the Worldwide Leader talks about certain topics. The results weren’t flattering for soccer fans.
Using data pulled from closed captioning, the most commonly used word on ESPN for a week (ending 7:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday) was, with 58,967 uses … drum roll please … “the.” OK, no one really cares about articles and prepositions. Let’s get to the names:
Ted Lasso is coming back.
Saturday Night Live alum Jason Sudeikis is reprising his role as the clueless American coaching Premier League soccer in London with the return of his character Ted Lasso in an upcoming Apple TV+ series.
Jason Sudeikis first portrayed Lasso in 2013 as part of a promotional series for NBC Sports, which had just obtained the U.S. TV rights to the English Premier League. Lasso was a stereotypical American football coach who had no idea what he was doing coaching Tottenham Hotspur.
It's no secret that soccer is growing in the United States. More children are playing the game, it's become much more accessible on TV with a myriad of different streaming options and soccer jerseys are almost becoming a fashion statement on the street.
We’ve all been there at one point or another.
You get all excited about a big game, join a bunch of like-minded fans and get ready for what you hope is an event to remember.
Then your team gets absolutely hammered and you respond by getting absolutely hammered.
Except, only Steve Nash has to go on TV afterward.