in his analysis of late-20th century communications media, marshall mcluhan had assessed that radio was emphatically a "hot" medium. on the other hand, he rated TV as "cool". he contended that there was no better way to "hot things up" and get a war going than using radio propaganda targeted at specific and localized geographical areas. following the albion through streaming digital audio transmissions (internet radio) online tends to bear out the professor's hypothesis for me, week in and week out. indeed, the ALBION RADIO commentary supplied through the PLAYER service on the club website has had me hopping up and down, furious with referees, cursing players, managers, chairmen, owners and any other football functionaries you care to think of more than a few times this year. i can't remember which match it was, but an offside call that pulled back what would have seen a winning goal for the baggies had me uncharacteristically steaming at the ref and pronouncing how much i'd really like to see a replay of that on TV in order to examine the extent of the injustice perpetrated by such irresponsible officiating. the commentary had me convinced that west brom had been blindly and blatantly robbed in the most obvious and controversial of fashions.
this, however, turned out to be a combination of perspective (on the part of the commentators) and the media being decidedly "hot". when i actually saw the play in question on the football league highlights show, there was no real controversy - as the player was indeed offside and the call by the referee correct - and routinely so - with little question as to the fact.
audio commentary has its own particular qualities to incite and inflame the individual.
as "radio" fare goes, the baggies' league clash with ipswich town at portman road was very entertaining, accurately described and everything about this match eventually "hotted-up" through circumstance and the medium.
on an evening that saw all of the albion's "contemporaries" in the challenge for automatic promotion gain maximum points and - in several cases - substantially improve their goals against averages, the albion once again ran afoul of a stingy defense from the lower part of the league.
the tractor boys, while not playing the most beautiful football in the world, are very organized at the back and have become expert at avoiding defeat by creating a lot of low scoring draws. the baggies have not done well under these kind of circumstances this year, and - as against QPR at home - the team had to dig deep and exert their style of skillful, attacking football until the death in order to manage a draw.
once again, di matteo started the same eleven as the last two matches and kept the 4-5-1 formation seeing roman bednar as the lone striker with graham dorrans and robert koren in the midfield as his attack force. gabriel tamas, the club's new romanian centre-half showed that he possesses an extra degree of skill that we couldn't have been aware of from his performance against nottingham forest and has proved a much needed acquisition by the baggies.
the controversy of this one began with the penalty awarded against jonas olsson, which was quite inexplicable. the big swedish defender was - by all accounts - harshly penalized for routine jostling and shoving for position on an ipswich corner kick. even the mainstream press reported it as a poor decision on the part of the referee.
there was nothing particularly distinguished about this match. the baggies just couldn't break down yet another well organized and pedestrian defense. it was clear why the town have been involved in a lot of low-score or no-score draws of late and the baggies were eventually forced to gamble on a 2-5-3 formation that was absolutely hilarious to listen to.
"i think olsson's wondering who's playing left back and he's being told, 'you are mate!'" one of the commentator's noted.
truly, with bednar, miller and simon cox all playing up front supported by brunt and thomas on the wings, the albion had indeed gone into something resembling a 2-5-3 formation like a team from the 1940s or 50s. even scott carson came up on one of the last corner kicks as the baggies fought to the end for a draw in this one.
the overall effect of the commentary - and with the gross injustice of the penalty decision as its focus - got this match sufficiently "hotted up" that when chris brunt dramatically equalized in stoppage time, it all felt as good as a win and the point taken vital to the baggies' promotion campaign.
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