Anyone else smell the fear at ESPN?
They paid a bundle for the American broadcast rights to the World Cup, and now they can't get anyone to watch. The ratings are going to be huge everywhere else in the world.
They have been hyping it endlessly for the last couple of months, both directly and subliminally. It has been advertised directly, which is to be expected, but they've also taken to more subtle things like having the 'Top 10 Plays Of The Day', include at least 2 goals being scored somewhere in the world, or an 8 minute sidebar story about the controversy over how the new ball is constructed.
I'm not saying this is good or bad. I just find it interesting. Apparently, the ESPN folks were late in realizing that it's going to be hard to get Americans passionately interested in any sport where the over/under is 1.