LIVE in HD: Real Sociedad vs. Athletic 1/28 @ 11am ET

[Ilya]

LIVE FUTBOL: Spanish Primera Liga
Sunday, January 28, 2007 at 11am EST on WorldSportHD

Real Sociedad vs.

Athletic Bilbao​

The live broadcast begins 2 minutes before the game.
Please post in this thread if you are watching!

For the latest schedules, please check the following thread:
Schedule of Live Soccer Matches on WorldSport-HD Season 2006-2007
Logos are courtesy of www.hqfl.dk

 

[Ilya]

From Paul:

01/22/07

Well the winds that whipped in across Northern Europe last week managed to stay well away from Spain, where things remained rather subdued both in meteorological and footballing terms.

It was an oddly passionless weekend in the Primera Liga, that becomes clear just by looking at the scores: Levante-Athletic, Villarreal-Sevilla, Deportivo-Espanyol, and Zaragoza-Recre ALL finished 0-0, with the remaining matches also failing to produce many goals, Getafe beat Celta 1-0, Valencia won 1-0 in San Sebastian, and Betis drawing 1-1 with Racing.

Special mention should go to Atletico Madrid, who won 1-0 at home to Osasuna, who can't be accused of lacking passion after they had 4 players sent off!

"The referee was perfect" said Osasuna coach Jose Angel Ziganda afterwards, although there may be a touch of irony in that.

Real Madrid also won 1-0. This time away to a poor Mallorca with a Reyes free kick 15 minutes from time. Madrid have scored 3 goals in their last 6 games in all competitions, all of them have come from set pieces. Capello fans will point to the league table and say that is enough to back up his tactics.Others will have probably nodded off by the time that comment is made.

So all in all the 3-0 win in the Camp Nou was the highest scoring game of the weekend, although it still leaves questions to be answered about Barca's current form. They look sluggish at the moment and need to improve because Gimnàstic are the worst team in the league by a mile.

Anyhow, time to look ahead. Next weekend we take our gaze down to the relegation battle with a trip to San Sebastian (or Donostia to use it's Basque name) for the Basque derby: Real Sociedad - Athletic Bilbao.

By now you probably know my loyalties lie in a red and white shirt, but Athletic are improving after an awful start to the season. A win in Anoeta should start to see them open up a gap above the relegation zone.

Real Sociedad however, are second bottom, they have only 14 points, anything other than a win would be a disaster for them.

Basque derbies are always special in terms of atmosphere but this one has plenty of spice, not least the fact Athletic have signed a couple of former Real players in the past two years and that has not gone down well.

It will be fast and furious and while we won't see the beautiful game as practiced by Barca on a good day, it will be football that is 100 percent passion and commitment. After a rather subdued week in Spain, that's just what the doctor ordered.

See you there PAUL

 

[Ilya]

The game is on. Should be a good one. I missed the last week's game: was out of town. Glad to catch this one.

 

[Kopek]

It would be nice if Mr. Giblin and Mr. Lowe would visit this forum from time to time. To Mr. Giblin, could you PLEASE use the "in there", which is usualy called the penalty area, or the box, and the "my word" (whatever that means), just a little LESS. To Mr. Lowe, I think your knowledge of the game if fantastic, not as much as in the Laws, but in the Spirit of the game, which I, as a former referee, is a lot more important. By the way, I do enjoy your Spain overview in World Soccer. Also, could you please raise the center channel volume output for us folks with 5.1 Dolby. That is your voice, by the way, and it gets drummed out by the crowd noise on the other audio channels.
Other then that, you guys both are doing an excellent job. You could use a former Ref in the booth....I am available... Keep up the good work.
Maybe Ilya can forward this to them.
Go Barca

 

[Ilya]

It would be nice if Mr. Giblin and Mr. Lowe would visit this forum from time to time. To Mr. Giblin, could you PLEASE use the "in there", which is usualy called the penalty area, or the box, and the "my word" (whatever that means), just a little LESS. To Mr. Lowe, I think your knowledge of the game if fantastic, not as much as in the Laws, but in the Spirit of the game, which I, as a former referee, is a lot more important. By the way, I do enjoy your Spain overview in World Soccer. Also, could you please raise the center channel volume output for us folks with 5.1 Dolby. That is your voice, by the way, and it gets drummed out by the crowd noise on the other audio channels.
Other then that, you guys both are doing an excellent job. You could use a former Ref in the booth....I am available... Keep up the good work.
Maybe Ilya can forward this to them.
Go Barca

Well, Paul did see your post and he replied on the air just a few minutes ago!

 

[Kopek]

Thanks, Ilya, I did hear that, and thanks Paul for visiting the forum and mentioning. By the way, it seems to me the center channel sound was better yesterday.
While we are at it, 2 more things. First, on a handfull of games , the pictures seems to be just a hair out of focus on the main camera. And speaking of cameras, is their placement a logistic issue, or you put them wher you are told?
We seem to miss the most crucial angle, to determine offside. I know you guys in the booth do not see the same feed as we do in "glorious HD"! and we rely on the replays you guys see in the booth or on the stadium screen, which we can't see.
Thanks Paul and Sid, doing a great job. Now abot that "in there"....

 

[Ilya]

Here is a reply from Paul for Kopek et all to clear things up..

Hello, just been reading the post about camera positions etc....The problem is that we don't have a camera position specifically for offside: We have 6 cameras, 2 main in the middle of the park, one near each goal and two midway in each half of the pitch - sometimes they may get an offside, but sadly not always. Sid and I often call down to our control truck and ask for replays on offisde, but they don't always have the perfect angle...a real paid I agree. Sadly we DO not have a big sceeen TV in the grounds for replays - in LA LIGA (nor in England for that matter) they don't have instant replays on a big screen, probably to save the referees from a lynching. All we have are our 8 inch monitors to clear things up. In some grounds such as Bernabeu or the Camp Nou that's not a problem because the press area has TV's or even Getafe where we are close enough to see everything. Somewhere like the Calderon it is a nightmare - ie we are really high up and there is no TV and ...anyhow we hate the Calderon to work in...

..As for our verbal ticks, we all have our bad habits..."In there" - obviously means 'in the area' or 'the danger zone' ie the penalty area...I am working on it, as for "My word!" the only alternative that springs to mind is "F*** me!" ...but i suspect the bosses would not be happy if i said that...

apart from that, glad you enjoy the games.

cheers PAUL