Red Card to ESPN

Latest News on ESPN and Soccer:

Wynalda dumped from telecasts
Posted: Friday February 01, 2008 07:46AM ET
ESPN announced a new broadcast lineup Thursday for its Major League Soccer and U.S. national team telecasts -- and it doesn't include Eric Wynalda. Wynalda did himself no favors last season after derogatory comments he made to a soccer blog about a fellow ESPN personality who's also a notorious soccer critic. ESPN suspended the former U.S. national team forward for the MLS season opener.

Basically, Wynalda said (while drinking a few beers with a soccer blog guy) "Jim Rome Can Suck My Dick!" He was suspended by ESPN because the comments were published. He later went on Rome's radio show to apologize. That should have been the end of it, but basically ESPN fired him and replaced him with John Harkes (the same John Harkes who allegedly "slept" with Wynalda's wife just before the 1998 World Cup in France. Ouch!

Wynalda is the best thing for ESPN soccer --he is actually critical and makes insightful comments. Yes he tends to pop off, but that's why we love him. As for Jim Rome (who makes a thing of hating soccer), Wynalda simply said what every soccer fan was thinking.

Bring back Wynalda ESPN! Where do I sign the (futile) petition?



UPDATE: ESPN Sucks.
Wynalda loses network job
Posted: Wednesday February 06, 2008 07:42AM ET
Just weeks after ESPN made the decision to remove Eric Wynalda from its broadcast team for MLS and U.S. national team games, the network has completely severed ties with the controversial analyst. Sources have told SBI that ESPN and Wynalda have parted ways after weeks of negotiations to find a new role for Wynalda. The original plan was to have Wynalda work on Champions League broadcasts but the network and Wynalda could not agree on his role. It is believed that ESPN bought out the remaining year on Wynalda's contract.