This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
If Wednesday's CONCACAF Champions League game between Real Salt Lake and Monterrey is any indication, I feel sorry for Mexican soccer fans.
That was the single worst-directed telecast I've ever seen.
The feed originated with Mexican broadcasters and was picked up in this country by Fox Soccer Channel. And, despite the joy the 2-2 tie brought to Real Salt Lake fans, it was an incredibly frustrating viewing experience.
Throughout the game, we were subjected to replays - many of them replays of meaningless action - as the ball was in play. Even if you could somehow justify that, there's no way to justify all the times the director cut to shots of the coaches standing on the sidelines - as the ball was in play.
Not that I have anything against seeing the coaches, but it's far more important to see what's happening on the field. And, time after time after time, viewers were missing the game because the director decided we should see a replay. Or the sideline.
Throw in multiple close-up shots of players that prevented viewers from seeing the field and it was just miserable. And incredibly clumsy.
You know it's bad when you can hear the crowd react to something you can't see. And that happened with alarming frequency.
Fox Soccer Channel wasn't entirely blameless. It put up full-screen graphics of the starting lineups in the opening minutes of the game. While the ball was in play.
Dumb.
All in all, we were lucky we didn't miss Javier Morales' game-tying goal in the 89th minute. There was a strong possibility that we might have been watching a replay.
Or a shot of the coaches.