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ESPN’s World Cup experiment

Not only is the score crawl disappearing from the bottom of ESPN screens during the World Cup, but the Worldwide Leader is attempting to show the sport to an American audience on the world’s terms … to some degree:

“Starting with the opening match between host South Africa and Mexico, the World Cup happens to be the biggest sporting event on Earth. ESPN, which for the first time fully owns the English-language rights here, has decided to behave as if America hails from that same planet. It is either a visionary or a foolhardy experiment in sports culture-building on soccer’s final frontier. The outcome may be tougher to peg than the winner on the pitch.”