ESPN earned an 8.6 overnight for Japan's win in penalty kicks over the U.S. in the FIFA Women's World Cup Final yesterday, marking the net's best overnight ever for a World Cup game, men or women. ESPN's previous high for any World Cup match was a 4.4 overnight for U.S.-Algeria in last year's men's World Cup pool play. The net's previous high for a women's game was the '99 U.S.-Brazil semifinal. Baltimore topped all U.S. metered markets for yesterday's match with a 12.3 local rating, followed by San Diego (11.8), West Palm Beach (11.7), DC (11.5) and Norfolk (11.1) (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
GOLDEN GOAL FOR ESPN: USA TODAY's Michael Hiestand writes ESPN deserves credit for not turning Japan-U.S. "into an us-vs.-them melodrama." ESPN analyst Julie Foudy, a former member of the U.S. team, "didn't succumb to boosterism as the U.S. team couldn't finish on various scoring opportunities." The network's pregame coverage "was also muted as it neither overhyped the U.S. team nor overplayed the Japanese team's potential to bring good news to a nation still recovering from its devastating earthquake and tsunami" (USA TODAY, 7/18). In Salt Lake City, Scott Pierce writes ESPN should be "proud of itself for hitting exactly the right tone in its coverage." Pierce: "This was the American network bringing the American team in the World Cup final to American viewers, but there was no sense that ESPN was cheerleading. ... ESPN’s coverage was enthusiastically even-handed throughout the tournament." The network "once again did a fantastic job of conveying all the action and all the emotion that came with it." The entire ESPN team -- led by Foudy and play-by-play voice Ian Darke -- "proved to be absolutely correct when they told viewers that the Americans’ inability to finish on chance after chance in the first half could come back to haunt them." Once again, the "only major flaw to ESPN’s coverage was Foudy’s inexplicable confusion over how much time remained in the game" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 7/18).
A JOB WELL DONE: Prior to yesterday's final, SI.com's Richard Deitsch wrote "no sports network loves to celebrate itself more than ESPN, but the network has reason to gloat over its production in Germany." The game visuals "have been terrific," and ESPN's traveling studio "provided sumptuous backgrounds for its pregame and postgame shows." The network "hustled to get reaction from the players immediately after games." For women's soccer fans, ESPN's "tonnage across its platforms has been impressive." Meanwhile, the chemistry between Darke and Foudy "is a work in progress, and the duo seemed unaware, at times, of the clock during the extra session against Brazil." Foudy is "smart, and has significantly improved from her early work on ESPN's chat shows." But where she "can still improve is drawing the line between advocacy and commentary" (SI.com, 7/16). In Ft. Worth, Gil Lebreton describes Foudy as "ESPN cheerleader -- I mean, color commentator" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 7/18). In West Palm Beach, Hal Habib writes, "Since signing with ESPN more than a year ago, England's Ian Darke has educated thousands, if not millions, of newbies about 'The Beautiful Game' while entertaining the hardcores, too. Good show, Mr. Darke, for truly blazing the trail" (PALM BEACH POST, 7/18).
BIRD'S THE WORD: Japan-U.S. set a new record on Twitter with a peak volume of 7,196 tweets per second at the end of the match. Several other sporting events have held the Twitter tweets-per-second record, including the '10 NBA Finals and the men's World Cup last year. But the Women's World Cup beat out New Year's Eve '10/'11 in Japan, which most recently held the record with a peak volume of 6,939 tweets per second. The Women's World Cup game beat Super Bowl XLV in February, which at one point held the No. 2 Twitter volume slot with 4,064 tweets per second, by a whopping 77% (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal). NBC’s Anne Thompson reported "thousands of fans tweeted support” for the U.S. team, including President Obama, “who watched the game with his family” (“Nightly News,” NBC, 7/17). Meanwhile, ESPN's Darke noted USSoccer.com "had something like 600,000 hits on the day of the France semifinal ... which is some kind of record" ("Women's World Cup," ESPN, 7/17).
