May 31, 2002

6:00 AM

so which site has the best soccer live coverage? is it yahoo!'s fifaworldcup.com? is it the bbc? is it someone else? right now from here (germany) it looks like none of the big sites is holding up to the traffic. is any site as well prepared as msnbc was for the olympics? oh, and it looks like senegal is winning the opening match.
posted by HeikoH (17 comments total)

I haven't found any other than those you've mentioned, but it certainly is frustrating to encounter errors every time I try to refresh the page. Any alternatives? Please?
posted by trox at 6:01 AM on May 31, 2002

HeikoH and everyone watching the matches live: please, please, let's all avoid World Cup result spoilers on FPPs... some of us are working during the games and look forward to watching them later without knowing the scores!
posted by talos at 6:18 AM on May 31, 2002

oh, sorry, did not consider that. will not happen again. so let's stick to the discussion about the sites...
posted by HeikoH at 6:21 AM on May 31, 2002

BBC Radio 5 Live is always a favourite – I've routed the radio broadcast version thru our telephone system for our company's hold 'music' during WC02 ;-) – altho' the streams may get overloaded due to the popularity...

***deleted on preview*** Just in time talos!
posted by i_cola at 6:24 AM on May 31, 2002

I like ESPN's Soccernet, which doesn't necessarily have the best coverage but I think it gets a bit less traffic than some of the more internationally known sites. It's been slow but usable so far.
posted by jalexei at 6:28 AM on May 31, 2002

All I know is that France just lost - yay!!!! 1 - 0 to Senegal
posted by monkeyJuice at 6:33 AM on May 31, 2002

BBC five live webcast audio was a big let down - fuzz. Doh. Still, you had to watch the France Senegal match - an entire cafeteria turned into Senegal fans over the course of those 90 mins - great stuff..
posted by Mossy at 6:34 AM on May 31, 2002

ahhh shoot (which france never did) - sorry i didnt read any of the comments.... erm.. only joking yeah <:-0
posted by monkeyJuice at 6:35 AM on May 31, 2002

Ball handling. Ball handling. Ball handling.

What was the question again?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:51 AM on May 31, 2002

* I will be out of the MetaFilter office for the next 4 weeks. Should you require me urgently, you can contact me at - www.sportsfilter.com Love - Frasermoo
posted by Frasermoo at 6:52 AM on May 31, 2002

All I know is that France just lost - yay!!!! 1 - 0 to Senegal

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. That has made me very happy.
posted by Summer at 7:05 AM on May 31, 2002

Me too. Oddly.
posted by XiBe at 7:17 AM on May 31, 2002

Mossy: No-one has the rights to broadcast live commentary over the web, so all 'terrestrial' stations that stream on the web as well have to turn it off for the duration of the game.

I don't know about the WC, but during the olympics you could not even broadcast news about the olympics, at least in the UK.

As for the sites, www.football365.com's text commentary was best and most frequently updated, once you got past the front page.
posted by barnsoir at 7:25 AM on May 31, 2002

I like www.sportinglife.com
posted by Summer at 7:46 AM on May 31, 2002

The world cup is one of those precious chances that "second class citizens" have to celebrate. Go third world! :)
posted by papalotl at 8:00 AM on May 31, 2002

barnsoir: indeed.

Sorry 'bout the dodgy recommendation - I forgot about broadcast rights...

The Guardian do pretty good text commentary too...and they've got a World Cup 2002 weblog as well.
posted by i_cola at 8:07 AM on May 31, 2002

I just thought it was a bit odd how it completely cut out all of a sudden. Poo. They had the buildup, the prematch stuff, then, just as it was kicking off.. Bzzz. Ugh.

Bank holidays rock. God Save the Queen for she gives us two days off to watch Football, yay..
posted by Mossy at 8:38 AM on May 31, 2002