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The Pitch
Showing entries for Category: ESPN

POSTED April 17, 11:21 AM

Had a great conversation with John Harkes yesterday as he was at RFK preparing to call tonight's match. Only a smidgen of it made it into today's paper. Here are some other highlights:

Harkes on his TV experience:
"I remember back here in 1996 I was doing a show on NewsChannel 8 with Dave Johnson called Soccer Sweep. I was able to do some stuff with Sky TV in England when I was there. It always interested me. I thought it was fun to do. It was challenging for me to give back to the game, but also talk about the game, let the game breathe, it’s so important to do that.
Now you stand back, you watch games, and you’re able to see a lot of soccer, I’ll tell you that much. My wife keeps telling me, 'Which game are you watching now?'"

On the pitfalls of watching so much soccer:
"Sometimes you can over-analyze when you’re trying to prepare, and then that creates a little bit of anxiety. You’re like, 'Which points am I making?' You gotta keep it simple just like the game, and you’ve got to be able to focus on certain things, key aspects – game changers. The main thing is gathering those points: the shape of a team, how the players complement each other, the individual match-ups on the field, who’s going to win those battles for the day. It’s a lot of soccer to watch, but it’s fun. It’s a labor of love."

On the genesis of the current job and what ESPN wants from the broadcasters:
"I had a great World Cup. I enjoyed working with JP Dellacamera. We covered 18 games in eight different cities in Germany. I got a lot of praise from that, the way we covered the game, gave back to soccer and kept it soccer-specific.
You want to tell some stories here and there, you want to keep it light at times as well, but the main thing is just let the players do it. That’s what people want to see at home. They want to hear why this player did that particular thing, or why the team shape has changed from the coach in the second half.
When ESPN gave me this opportunity after coaching with the Red Bulls for a year, I said it’s a great chance for me to stay in the game, do things right but just broadcast the way they want to do it. They want to give the people the game. That’s their philosophy, so when they said that, I said okay. I don’t want to go in there with all this other hype and three-ring circus, juggling act and all that."