Fox Soccer Channel does not know soccer.

By: Robert | August 6th, 2007

One of the more important duties of the internet blogger is that of media critic; in my everyday role as a part of the media (I’m a producer) I’ve come to realize that we don’t police ourselves until the bottom line is affected and at that point its too late. Facts are forgotten or misconstrued, ideological inconsistencies are unresolved and all the while the general public pays for the arrogance of an oligarchal media society. Therefore it is up to the blogger, the sole independent media source to protect the populace from the mainstream media; to call out these inconsistencies, to point out factual omissions, because when the media fails to do its job we all suffer.

I know it seems like I’ve built up my soapbox pretty high for a sports blog (especially one that only covers FC Dallas) but take a minute to consider how often you hear information on a sports network – be it the four letter network in Bristol or otherwise – and take it as gospel. When you tune into Fox News or CNN you’re predisposed to the networks editorial slant yet we forget this very idea in our sports coverage. Take for example the pre-game interview of FC Dallas defender Drew Moor during this past Saturday’s Fox Soccer Channel (FSC) broadcast of the Hoops/Colorado game. The “reporter” (I forget his name) asked Drew about the patching up the holes in a defense that had allowed nine goals in the past two games. A seemingly innocuous question of the “how do you feel” variety that characterizes sideline reporters, yet the simple “fact” that defined this question, “nine goals in two games,” was flat out wrong. In FC Dallas’ last two games, against the LA Galaxy and Mexican-side Pachuca, the Hoops have allowed six goals and one goal respectively and while seven goals in two games isn’t much better I think its fair to say that the 6-5 LA Galaxy game skews all defensive stats (For arguments sake in the games prior to the Pachuca match FC Dallas allowed one goal to Chivas Guadalajara and three at D.C. United.) From that question I think it’s obvious in FSC’s pre-game meeting they decided they would discuss FC Dallas’ supposedly porous defense on-air and if you caught the broadcast they did. But there is a saying that goes “lies, damn lies and statistics” and I think its clear that FSC tread upon the first two without ever touching the third.

When six goals are allowed in a game questions much be asked and anyone who saw the 6-5 Superliga match between the Hoops and the Galaxy knows that Bobby Rhine, whom was playing in place of injured Clarence Goodson – whom the broadcasters stated never missed a game yet missed the previous game – could not keep up with the pace of play. He was substituted out after 25 minutes, with the score 4-0, and the defense played fairly well afterwards, considering everyone had to go forward and try to score. The only other competitive game in the month of July (I’m not counting friendlies in which Steve Murrow fielded a second-rate squad) in which FC Dallas allowed more than one goal was the aforementioned 3-3 draw at D.C. United, a game in which defensive midfielder Pablo Ricchetti was suspended due to yellow card accumulation.

If Fox Soccer Channel was going to discuss FC Dallas’ defensive woes Goodson and Ricchetti’s names should have been the first things to come up in the discussion, by not doing so player absences get twisted into fundamental team wide problems. Next Saturday FSC will be back in Dallas where hopefully the FC will stand for “facts are correct.”

HOOPS PRIDE!

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