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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

ESPN expects American audience to know soccer

Ronald Blum Associated Press

When Ian Darke and Steve McManaman broadcast the European Championship final from Kiev today, they’ll assume their audience back in the U.S. has a fairly deep knowledge of soccer and the Spanish and Italian players on the field in Ukraine.

“I think it’s made such massive strides now that it really would be an insult if somebody like me and Macca came on trying to sort of teach people to suck eggs about the game,” Darke said. “I think they tune into it because they know it and they love it – or most of them do.”

ESPN was criticized when lead broadcaster Dave O’Brien displayed a lack of soccer knowledge during the 2006 World Cup. For the 2008 European Championship final in Vienna, the network had Adrian Healey and Andy Gray provide commentary from a studio in Bristol, Conn.

Then two years ago, ESPN used Martin Tyler, Darke, Healey and Derek Rae – all British – as its four lead broadcasters for the World Cup in South Africa, and that September ESPN hired Darke as the primary soccer voice for its U.S. networks.

He was paired with McManaman, the former Liverpool and Real Madrid star who had been a studio analyst at the World Cup. They have become a steady presence on ESPN’s Premier League telecasts, which air mostly at 7:45 a.m. Eastern on Saturday mornings and have become as much a part of weekend breakfast for American soccer fans as coffee and orange juice.