The Official USA Thread

[Confused Clarity]

Why do you get Ian Darke and we get the idiots?

it's annoying isn't it.

The only good thing about us not getting Ian Darke & Martin Tyler is that we're not also getting Andy Gray.

Can you imagine how much he'd be breaking out "tekaboo" if he were allowed to commentate on the World Cup?

[minisav]

Would prefer him to the guy on BBC who was calling Bruno Alves, Bruno Alvsh.

[Jason the Yank]

Full numbers in.

Thru 40 Games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, Ratings Up 40% and Viewership Up 49% vs. 2006

ESPN3.com Logs Largest U.S. Audience for a Sports Event on the Web

To tweet this release: http://es.pn/bRpuQh

Wednesday morning’s United States vs. Algeria FIFA World Cup match on ESPN – in which the Americans scored a dramatic goal in stoppage time to earn a 1-0 win and a spot in the Round of 16 – is the highest-rated and most-watched soccer game in the history of ESPN networks, delivering a 4.6 rating (4.0 household U.S. rating), 4,582,000 households and 6,161,000 viewers for the two-hour contest (10 a.m. ET - noon).

The previous households record was set five days earlier with the U.S.-Slovenia match (June 18) – 3,906,000.

Excluding holidays, ESPN's coverage of the U.S.-Algeria game ranks as the most-watched weekday morning telecast ever for ESPN, surpassing the U.S.-Germany World Cup match from eight years ago (June 21, 2002) – 4.4 rating and 5,335,000 viewers.

The game ranked as the highest-rated program of the day on any network among M18-34 and M18-49.

Through Wednesday, June 23 (40 games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2), the 2010 World Cup is averaging a 1.8 U.S. rating (for the two-hour match window) -- up 40% from 2006 (1.3). Household impressions are up 46% (from 1,389,000 to 2,025,000) and P2+ impressions are up 49% (from 1,789,000 to 2,658,000).

San Diego was the top market for yesterday's Team USA game, delivering an 8.9 rating – all the more impressive considering the 7 a.m. local start time. Rounding out the top 10 were Baltimore (6.7), San Francisco (6.1), Washington, D.C. (5.4), Sacramento (5.4), Houston (5.4), Las Vegas (5.4), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (5.3), New York (5.3) and West Palm Beach (5.3). San Diego was also the top market for both the U.S./England game on ABC (11.5) and the U.S./Slovenia game on ESPN (8.5).

U.S. - Algeria Sets Records for ESPN Digital Platforms

ESPN3.com – The U.S. vs. Algeria game marked a milestone for online video, logging the largest U.S. audience ever for a sports event on the web. It attracted nearly 1.1 million unique viewers with an average time spent viewing of 43 minutes. The match also averaged 328,000 viewers per minute in its live coverage. When combined with the concurrent England vs. Slovenia match, ESPN3.com reached its peak point of viewing at around 11:30 a.m. ET when 513,000 viewers were watching each minute.

For the four World Cup matches on June 23, ESPN3.com captured 1.4 million viewers who watched for 84 million total minutes. Through 14 days of World Cup coverage (June 10-23), five million viewers have watched the World Cup on ESPN3.com and consumed more than 9.2 million total hours.

ESPN.com & ESPNSoccernet.com – ESPNsoccernet.com set an all-time record Wednesday with more visits than any day in its history. On June 23, ESPN.com World Cup content generated 8.8 million visits and 33.3 million page views. To date, the site has had 68.7 million visits and 239.3 million page views of World Cup coverage.

Additionally, GameCast for the U.S. vs. Algeria match reached one million visitors who spent 10.1 million total minutes watching the match. ESPN.com also logged a record day of delivering live scoring updates to fans. The site peaked at 1.7 million concurrent users, beating its previous record by 42 percent.

ESPN Digital Audio – ESPNRadio.com logged the largest concurrent audience ever to a single stream according to Ando Media. The player peaked at 180,000 listeners connected to the U.S. vs. Algeria match, nearly doubling its previous record for the U.S. vs. Slovenia (June 18). Additionally, ESPNRadio.com saw record online traffic with 668,000 visits and 1.1 million page views throughout the day, according to Omniture.

From June 11-20, the World Cup had generated nearly 3.8 million total listening hours, with an average time spent listening of 47 minutes.

ESPN Mobile -- June 23 was the most-trafficked day to-date for World Cup content across all of ESPN’s mobile platforms. ESPN's FIFA World Cup 2010 iPhone app delivered 3.2 million visits and 19.9 million page views for the day. Since the World Cup began, the app has seen 30.8 million visits and 200.6 million page views. World Cup content on the ESPN mobile Web site also added another 2.4 million visits and 13.7 million page views to the mobile tally. To date, the mobile Web has generated 20.2 million visits and 90.7 million page views.

Nearly 650,000 users accessed the U.S. vs. Algeria match via mobile GameCast and generated 7.9 million minutes of usage.

[boots]

Italy are out, adopting the US as my team for the rest of the tournament.

[Jason the Yank]

The more on this bandwagon, the merrier.

[Jason the Yank]

[Meitheisman]

Good to see the numbers increasing but it'll still take a while for soccer to come anywhere near the other major sports unfortunately.

[Oypus]

Gotta watch it with the vuvuzela thing on for the full effect.

[Kizzak]

was coming in to post this (iirc this was the thread where someone said that no one in the US pays attention to the WC)

However, on the not of best song, there can only be one - co-opted from Stone and Parker of course

I'd also like to see Univision and futbol.univision.com numbers because there are probably as many people watching univision feeds as espn3 feeds in my office (partly because univision is completely free and partly because the commentary > *) and I suspect that trend is represented nationwide

[Meitheisman]

Haha, great video. I like how in the rest of the world very few cities are represented but my hometown is. xsmug

[Confused Clarity]

Italy are out, adopting the US as my team for the rest of the tournament.

I'm currently supporting Mexico & the United States. Leaning more towards Mexico right now as i'm writing about their progress for gonch's website.

[Confused Clarity]

oh and where's Gambit?

He briefly showed his face in the England/USA match thread then disappeared again

[Kizzak]

I'm currently supporting Mexico & the United States.

that's like dividing by zero or supporting Liverpool and Manchester United

[Meitheisman]

tbf you're in different sides of the draw now so you probably won't play each other and he can happily support both.

[Kizzak]

there are a level of rivalries in which that is fine, but there are a level in which all you want is for the other side to fo&d - and that describes the attitudes of both American and Mexican supporters in the 21st century

[tdpatriots12]

why do you get ian darke and we get the idiots?

espn = $$$$

[Jamos5000]

more to do with the fact that he's contracted to Sky who aren't covering the World Cup tbh

[Confused Clarity]

there are a level of rivalries in which that is fine, but there are a level in which all you want is for the other side to fo&d - and that describes the attitudes of both American and Mexican supporters in the 21st century

Oh I understand that you two sets of supporters hate each other, however, I like to support an underdog team and I like how you both play football.

With me probably having no chance of Wales getting to a finals, I just pick the sides I enjoy.

[MyNameIsJohn]

Will Onyewu come back into the team for the last 16 game?

[Rio_V]

Can 230 tomorrow arrive already?

[Gambit]

oh and where's Gambit?

He briefly showed his face in the England/USA match thread then disappeared again

Hello. What can I do for you Gregg?

[Confused Clarity]

I've just missed yah, yah big lug!

[BamBamBam]

What was so good about Ian Darke's call?

[DJ]

As there's no official match thread yet (they're left to supporters of the countries playing, get cracking already!) I'll just use this thread to say GO USA! Give that Boateng barsteward a few good kicks with kind regards from Germany

[Ceching You Out]

One hour till kickoff and it's all there to play for.

[Emperor J]

I'd probably say Bob Bradley has to go after this. The decision to start Clark as well as the continuous conceding of early goals definitely have to count against him. It isn't as bad as having to pay to bring in a high-priced foreigner in to manage the team, but I don't see it working long-term with him in charge. We're still probably 12-20 years away from really contending for this aren't we?

[LokedOut420]

who to blame

1. bob bradley

2. ricardo clark

3. ricardo clark

4. bob bradley

[bflaff]

I blame Ghana.

[Emperor J]

who to blame

1. bob bradley

2. ricardo clark

3. ricardo clark

4. bob bradley

I have it as:

1. Sunil Gulati

2. Bob Bradley

3. Ricardo Clark

4. Asamoah Gyan

[Splendifornia]

Do I need to say Bradley out?

[Puedlfor]

The decision to start Clark and Findley, despite the fact that we're so much better with Feilhaber and Edu is inexplicable. Play the players who can kick the ball, and reliably expect it to go where they want it to.

With Clark and Findley we couldn't string two passes together - and Findley doesn't move off of Altidore the way that Dempsey and Donovan do. We bring in Edu and Feilhaber and all of a sudden we have much better passing in midfield and our two biggest goal threats are now in a more dangerous position working off a big, physical striker. I don't understand it.

[georginho_juventusygr]

I want to congratulate USA for a good campaign. Yeah, it could have been better, but if we think positively, everyone has done his best.

[buckyRover]

Get on the phone to Sven. He's your man

[Splendifornia]

Findley should be about a thousand miles away from the national team. He's just Brian West redux.

[LokedOut420]

Get on the phone to Sven. He's your man

haha.

he's done enough for us with his mexico stint.

[Cinnabon09]

feel sorry. for you guys. you played at least as well as ghana but lacked a little at both ends of the pitch. ghana definitely didn't receive my sympathy after all that play-acting and time-wasting

[Emperor J]

So who are we left to turn to? Dominic Kinnear? Steve Nicol? Paying way too much for Klinsmann?

[Splendifornia]

So who are we left to turn to? Dominic Kinnear? Steve Nicol? Paying way too much for Klinsmann?

USSF hardly hard up, by the accounts I've heard. Will be raging if they appoint one of those two.

[LokedOut420]

we should just wait for the english to fire capello after tomorrow.

[bflaff]

Our defense was way too spotty to be reliable, even with Super Timmeh in net. That second goal to

Gyan so painful to watch. Demerit gets destroyed on that longball.

Coach seems kind of hamstrung until he gets better players.

Bradley hardly covered in glory, but Confed Cup final plus winning your group at the WC might persuade the USSF to keep him on.

[LokedOut420]

howard should have done better. the shot was straight down the middle.

[Emperor J]

Our defense was way too spotty to be reliable, even with Super Timmeh in net. That second goal to

Gyan so painful to watch. Demerit gets destroyed on that longball.

Coach seems kind of hamstrung until he gets better players.

Bradley hardly covered in glory, but Confed Cup final plus winning your group at the WC might persuade the USSF to keep him on.

That's exactly what I'm afraid of. USSF will ignore his complete failings at tactics and squad management and just look at results, and let him stay on for another 4 years.

[tdpatriots12]

It's not like Bradley doesn't get what works, it's just he waits 45 minutes to implement it, which I don't understand.

[Splendifornia]

Our defense was way too spotty to be reliable, even with Super Timmeh in net. That second goal to

Gyan so painful to watch. Demerit gets destroyed on that longball.

Coach seems kind of hamstrung until he gets better players.

Bradley hardly covered in glory, but Confed Cup final plus winning your group at the WC might persuade the USSF to keep him on.

Because USSF is short-sighted in this regard. To have not made it out of this group would have been hugely disappointing. He barely made par to set this game up.

[Rio_V]

Charlie Davies accident finally making an impact.

Not happy with this at all.

[tdpatriots12]

Charlie Davies accident finally making an impact.

That was a defeat for all automobiles.

[Gordon Comstock]

Our defense was way too spotty to be reliable, even with Super Timmeh in net. That second goal to

Gyan so painful to watch. Demerit gets destroyed on that longball.

Coach seems kind of hamstrung until he gets better players.

Bradley hardly covered in glory, but Confed Cup final plus winning your group at the WC might persuade the USSF to keep him on.

coach is also hamstrung when he chooses obviously inferior players and systems to start matches.

robbie findley?! ricardo clark?! **** off bradley.

[bflaff]

Because USSF is short-sighted in this regard. To have not made it out of this group would have been hugely disappointing. He barely made par to set this game up.

Yeah, this. Helped a couple key players develop, but the fact that we seem to perpetually start out wrong is a killer. Making the right half time decisions only gets a 'two for trying' kind of credit.

[Uncle_Sam]

who to blame

1. bob bradley

2. ricardo clark

3. ricardo clark

4. bob bradley

Jonathan Bornstein has to be in there somewhere

[Splendifornia]

USSF need to send out a binding order for all youth coaches to force their best players to play center and fullback.