Red Bulls fans waiting for Wednesday night's game to begin commented that an Internet stream was better than no video feed at all. By game's end, those same fans were no longer sure such a statement was true.
The Montreal Impact defeated the Red Bulls 1-0 in a friendly that took place north of the border on Wednesday. A full game recap can be found here.
The stream: The Internet-only video was not as bad as I feared on Tuesday. The quality also wasn't very good. The pregame show had zero audio, presumably because it aired in French. Even still, it would have been nice if such a fact was acknowledged by the two commentators. Those gentlemen actually stole the show for Red Bulls fans discussing the game on Twitter and the in-game chat. The two men, both of whom remained nameless throughout the 90+ minutes of action, both mocked the Montreal club and discussed what they would eat as the national anthems played at the arena, not realizing that they were on the air at the time. The play-by-play announcer did his best Jon Miller impersonation all evening long, throwing out his best Spanish and French accents whenever he pronounced names such as Juan Agudelo and Thierry Henry. "Dear commentator, pick an accent. Don't be American the whole time and then bust out with Teeeeahree Aaaaaanreeee," one fan commented on Twitter.
The video quality was subpar and the Full Screen view covered less than half of the actual computer screen. The audio, while unintentionally hilarious at times, was three to five seconds behind the action throughout the entire match. By the time the final whistle blew around 9:40 pm ET, less than 1,300 viewers had survived from start to finish. I certainly don't blame anybody for choosing the Celtics vs. Heat game over the last 20 minutes of this particular soccer match.
The game: Those that missed out on Wednesday's friendly involving the Red Bulls missed nothing at all. The New York players on the pitch were clearly in second gear from the start, trying to conserve energy while not embarrassing themselves or the Montreal Impact. The Red Bulls actually slowed down further after Thierry Henry's goal in the 35 th minute was waved off due to the striker being ruled offside. Those watching the game were never treated to a replay but the commentators and fans online all seemed to agree that the goal should have been allowed. Montreal struck just two minutes later when Ali Gerba buried an impressive header past keeper Greg Sutton, who was very unsure of himself in Wednesday's friendly.
The evening has to be considered a success for the 2012 MLS expansion club. The Impact players looked understandably nervous during the first 20 minutes of the match, but they eventually settled into a groove en route to scoring the only goal of the contest. Over 12,500 fans made their way to Saputo Stadium for what was essentially a meaningless exhibition contest. That's not bad considering the attendance at some Major League Soccer arenas during regular season matches. I won't name any such arenas here.
Overall: For Montreal soccer fans, this was a chance for their club to play against and impress one of the best teams in all of MLS. New York fans, however, were thoroughly bored, so much so that many simply logged off the stream once the halftime whistle blew. If nothing else, Wednesday's match was a reminder that having a club play a friendly in between two regular season matches in a span of eight days probably isn't a good idea;
for the team or the fans.
没有评论:
发表评论