www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Someone needs a geography lesson Yesterday, Mike Tirico of ESPN referred to Costa Rica as an "island nation" Overall, I'd rate ESPN's coverage of the World Cup an A-. It's been very good, with a few exceptions. Bob Ley from ESPN has been excellent , and the commentary from the ex-players (Alexi Lalas, Michael Ballack, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gilberto Silva, Roberto Martinez, et al) has been excellent. Very insightful. Julie Foudy from the US Women's team has been OK. But...what is that blonde haired girl doing there? Who is she? She's added nothing to the discussions. The two bald-headed British guys ('Men in Blazers') in their 'Boot Room' have been hilarious Another complaint...at the end of regulation play in the Costa Rica/Greece game yesterday, Univision continued to show the players and coaches on the field, but ESPN cut to six or seven minutes of commercials

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

I use online streams to watch the World Cup and found I enjoy the British announcers a lot be it ESPN Europe or BBC. Very knowledgeable, quick and accurate. Link I've been using has the games in about any language you could want however, the stream qualities aren't that great. If anyone wants to watch the CR games online, Teletica (local channel 7) has a high quality stream.

http://www.feed2all.eu/type/football.html (multiple links to streams in multiple languages)

http://www.teletica.com/en-vivo.aspx (Costa Rica Channel 7)

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The only thing that matters is happiness in all it forms...

Even if you don't understand Spanish it STILL sounds a WHOLE lot better on Univision compared to those boring commentators on ESPN and other English speaking stations.

+100 And I can not imagine anyone who does understand Spanish watching an English speaking network if they have a choice!!! A much more entertaining and knowledgeable commentary on Univison!!

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Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

Espn has improved from the days of their first broadcast of the World Cup when they took commercial breaks during the game despite warnings from advertisers (me included) that it was a bad idea.

I still do my viewing on Univision. They know how to broadcast a fútbol match. Although there are a couple of Latino announcers that were pretty good on Espn. Maybe they'll have them do Colombia v brasil

The british commentators are by far the best and most knowledgeable, however the espn guys have made huge strides since the last few WC broadcasts they had. The tico commentators are horrid.

I think the foreign guys on ESPN are good, but I can't stand the way the US guys treat the US team with K*D gloves. They won't say anything negative about the US team until they have to. The worst is Lallas who was also the worst GM in MLS history. They never tried to get into the story of why Klinsmann cut Donovan, and fluffed it off with the usual B.S. To me that was story of the US performance, because the US team sure missed their leader. The never talked about how Bradley was the worst player in the tourney until he was voted the worst player in the tourney in an international on-line poll and then they thought they had to defend the guy.

I was disgusted with the US performance. They got to the first game of the knock-out round. So what? Been there--done that. They were lucky that Renaldo was hurting. They looked much worse than 4 years ago. I was far from the only disgusted US fan. I think my favorite sign was a sign held up by a disgusted US fan that said, "Uraguay bites but the US sucks."

GringoTim: please take this with ALL the sarcasm intended...but do you really have to ask why they have a pretty blonde girl on the telecast?? And you really have to ask why they went to commercials after 45+ mins of straight coverage?? Seriously??

Lomo: excellent insight on the US play, BUT you totally discounted the effect of losing Altidore! And enough with the Donovan stuff. No way he would have contributed like 4 years prior. He wouldn't have lasted on the conditioning side. To use an American football analogy, "the most praised guy on the team is the backup QB, until he plays" IMO I think Klinsmann did a good job of infusing new, young talent and getting them WC experience. And for the record, none of this conversation is taking place if Wando pops in that bunny in the 92nd minute!!

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In honor of Jimmy V week, "Don't give up, don't ever give up!"