while gabriel tamas' goal in the 3rd minute gave every indication that the baggies would progress easily enough to the next round of the LEAGUE CUP against what was unquestionably the least experienced line-up that liverpool has ever fielded in senior level competition, nuri sahin's superb individual effort in the 16th minute set the stage for what seemed, in the end, a surprising comeback.here in canada, the state of broadcast football (TV and radio) changes yearly. this year, while there is expanded coverage of the english top-flight as well as the UEFA and EUROPA leagues, there is no more coverage of any other domestic league football; and with the apparent demise of EUROWORLD SPORTS, i have seen no english language broadcasts of LIGUE 1 either.
the cup competitions have traditionally changed broadcaster from year to year. for example, in 2005-06, the FA CUP was shown exclusively on FOX SPORTSWORLD CANADA; and another year, it was exclusive to TSN (canadian ESPN affiliate). SETANTA SPORTS (now taken over by SPORTSNET) even used have a weekly BLUE SQUARE PREMIER LEAGUE match!!! but the LEAGUE CUP doesn't seem to get any coverage here until the quarter-finals.
because it was impossible to get any west bromwich albion radio broadcasts streamed online in north america, since 2009-10 i have subscribed to ALBION PLAYER, a service that supplies live audio commentary of all west brom matches and posts video highlights, as well as news items and interviews in video format. most clubs in both the PREMIER LEAGUE and FOOTBALL LEAGUE provide the service, and transmissions for all matches from the CHAMPIONSHIP down are available through signing in to a single site. for the PREMIER LEAGUE games you have to be signed in to a specific club website. however, the subscription allows for access to all participating club sites and it is only the really big clubs who ignore the service altogether or run their own subscription schemes unique to the club's official site.
however, while i did listen to this match live on the ALBION PLAYER, no video highlights were offered on the site. i did eventually find a 9 minute video posted in several places on the internet.
with gates for both major cup competitions severely down at the top-clubs - and in these days of the season ticket culture - with increased importance placed on success in the league, i would have thought that perhaps international TV revenues would help the situation out. this doesn't, however, seem to be the case. apparently, the TV markets here in north america have even less interest in broadcasting games from the LEAGUE CUP competition than the general football attending public has for actually going to watch them live at the stadium.
due to the good start that the baggies have had in the league this season - and the fact that the opposition was one of the country's biggest clubs - they did attract a gate of 21,164 for this particular fixture. this is 4 or 5 thousand more than one might expect for a cup game at this stage of the competition. however - and despite steve clarke's stated goal of a cup run for the albion this year - the team folded in the second-half. despite being the stronger side, it seemed that as the game wore on the baggies were taking it all a bit for granted and a much anticipated second goal never materialized. ultimately it seemed that their hearts just weren't in it and a really cohesive passing move by the reds set up the winning goal for nuri sahin in the 83rd minute.
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