2011/2012 English Premier League thread

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

So what's the deal with watering the pitch right before kickoff and at halftime?

keeps it soft, ball bounces less

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Makes sense.

[d_phaneuf]

oh

my

god

I can't even laugh at that

[I wanna be like Miikka]

I feel bad for Torres, unbelievable.

[d_phaneuf]

he played good midweek, since he scored in the 2nd half he had been probly the best player on the field

now his confidence is just going to crumble again

definitely feel sympathy for him at this point

[Blaster86]

what happen?

[Barnet Flame]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

what happen?

[Blaster86]

Oh. Oh my.

[Cactus Jack]

Between when Torres scored and his gaffe, he was dominant. Nani was really on his game, made some sick set ups

[Locke]

Congrats to Spurs on the win, they were top class today. I am one depressed Liverpool fan. I think that was the single worst Liverpool game I have ever seen.

Just watched the Torres miss during the replay and the game has gone on and on and the commentators still cant get over it. For people who only can see the gif, it is exactly as bad as it looks. No pressure, goalie beaten, beautiful move, completely empty net and a mile and a half wide.

[mac_82]

Any recommendations for sites to watch highlights?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

oh

my

god

I can't even laugh at that

Also, this reaction was priceless and my reaction to watching it was exactly the same!

I cant believe he missed that. Cant believe it. He could have done absolutely anything. He could have gotten on all fours and crawled the ball into the net on his hands and knees. Anything. Missed.

[Montana Moe]

They're replaying the Man U-Chelsea match right now on the Fox broadcast channel here in the States. Supposedly the first EPL match ever on U.S. broadcast television.

I'm curious what the reaction will be. Obviously, most fans will already know the result, and likely watched it on Fox Soccer earlier today. The lead in to the match was an NFL game, but with CBS broadcasting a new NFL game at the same time, I don't see a lot of NFL fans sticking with Fox.

[Jimmy Stang]

With the Setanta preview over, I decided to give premierleaguelive.tv a whirl for $15/month to see what it is like. My primary goal is to watch Norwich, preferably live, and with a lot of the matches on Setanta being tape delayed, this service intrigued me. I figured that I'd share my thoughts just in case anyone else was considering it.

Basically, you get the ability to watch every EPL game live, with the exception of the games that are broadcast on TSN. So most weeks, that means 9 matches I believe. For me personally, once I have been able to get my Norwich fix for the week, the matches on Sportsnet and TSN are plenty for me. I PVR them and watch them as I am able. With Setanta, I literally have too much content to watch on any given week. I'd probably reconsider it if it was offered on Shaw in HD and 16:9, but then again, seeing games live and on demand is kind of cool.

The service itself is very easy - you just sign up, give your credit card, and away you go. The subscription is $14.99/month and is rolling, so unless you cancel it, you'll be billed again next month. The site is fairly barebones, but I logged in right at 8:00 on Saturday morning and clicked on the Norwich game and it started streaming nearly immediately. My netbook struggled a bit with the feed, but my more powerful computer handled it just fine. It was broadcast in 16:9, which is very important to me, and the quality was better than I thought. I didn't hook it up to my TV to see if it was comparable to HDTV, but I'd say that it would be pretty close.

There was no half-time content - just some stats. No analysts. The commentary was the same as what was rebroadcast on SN later that night. The branding and graphics were all in the familiar Premier League theme.

As an added bonus, after each match concludes (a few hours later, I believe), you can watch each game as a 45-minute match, as well as 2-minute highlights for each. You can't watch full matches after the fact.

Advantages of premierleaguelive.tv: 16:9, better quality than Shaw's feed for Setanta, all of the SN/Setanta-owned games live (great if you follow a specific club, particularly one of the non-marquee clubs).

Disadvantages: With so many live games on at the same time on any given Saturday, and no ability to watch full matches after, you'll still need/want to PVR the games on Sportsnet and TSN. And this may be a big one for some people: you'll either need to watch it on your laptop or hook it up to the TV. I tried the PS3 browser, but as anyone with a PS3 knows, it is probably the worst web browser on the planet and it couldn't handle the newer version of flash content.

So sorry for being so wordy, but I'm certainly not the only one who resents paying $15/month for the fuzzy, cropped excuse of a channel that Shaw offers. This may be a good alternative to some of you.

[d_phaneuf]

if I didn't have Bell and the HD Setanta that comes with it, or I supported a club who didn't get many live games on tv I would definitely get it based on that

thanks for the review

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Barnet Flame

Rooney and some other red shirt blowing a 2-on-0 breakaway wasn't much better. Not as dramatic as that miss, mind you, but no better.

[d_phaneuf]

was Berbatov

Ramires missed a wide open net as well on a great pass by Torres

Rooney gave some lols on a penalty

could have had 10 goals in the game

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Montana Moe

They're replaying the Man U-Chelsea match right now on the Fox broadcast channel here in the States. Supposedly the first EPL match ever on U.S. broadcast television.

I'm curious what the reaction will be. Obviously, most fans will already know the result, and likely watched it on Fox Soccer earlier today. The lead in to the match was an NFL game, but with CBS broadcasting a new NFL game at the same time, I don't see a lot of NFL fans sticking with Fox.

People who have Fox Soccer or made the effort to find out the result aren't the target audience for this game, it's more about those people who watch every four years but otherwise don't make much effort to watch soccer. It's a game that people get into when they're exposed to it, and hopefully this will increase that exposure.

[d_phaneuf]

I do think after seeing how bad the first quality team they played marauded through their back line that Chelsea isn't on the same level as United

most people have been saying it's a 3 team race for 4th

looks to me like it's a possible 4 team race for 3/4

[Montana Moe]

Originally Posted by valo403

People who have Fox Soccer or made the effort to find out the result aren't the target audience for this game, it's more about those people who watch every four years but otherwise don't make much effort to watch soccer. It's a game that people get into when they're exposed to it, and hopefully this will increase that exposure.

I know that's what they're hoping for, and it sets up their Champions League coverage on FX, as well.

I'm just not sure how successful they'll be in keeping the folks that were tuned in to Bucs/Vikings from changing the channel to Bengals/Broncos.

Are you suggesting that non-NFL fans would see it on the schedule and tune in?