One of the stranger rounds of technical difficulties in a while took place in Vancouver, B.C. Tuesday night. With the Canadian women’s soccer team facing off against Australia in an international sendoff match for Christine Sinclair, the all-time leader (men’s or women’s) in international goals with 190, the feed cut out shortly after a goal from Canada’s Quinn near the end of the first half. But it doesn’t appear the Canadian feed on TSN was impacted. The U.S. one on FS2 certainly was, though, and in an unusual way: the audio remained while the picture crashed, and Fox eventually pulled the plug and went to a Skip Bayless Undisputed commercial featuring him talking about sports at a funeral.
FS2's feed of Australia-Canada Tuesday night, Christine Sinclair's international sendoff, hit major picture difficulties after Quinn's goal near the end of the first half. They eventually cut to a Skip Bayless funeral-themed commercial for "Undisputed," then more ads. pic.twitter.com/3ro3qrO4R4
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 6, 2023
The FS2 feed stayed away for 21 minutes, which covered the end of the first half and the halftime. They showed only ads and men’s soccer clips during that time. And when they came back, there was no discussion of the missed time:
The FS2 feed stayed away for the rest of the first half and halftime. Here's how they came back to the game at the start of the second half, 21 minutes later. pic.twitter.com/vOMXn3GAEB
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 6, 2023
Major picture issues (and even longer-running ones) happened in Australia as well, where the match was being shown on Paramount+ and Channel 10. There’s no word on if they also got Skip Bayless commercials.
Amazing game today! #CANvAUS pic.twitter.com/FhGu4kaIXl
— burke (@ejburke_) December 6, 2023
thank you channel 10 that makes it all better xx #CANvAUS pic.twitter.com/tamMgI6Tf2
— burke (@ejburke_) December 6, 2023
Channel 10 put out a statement on this blaming the world feed, which makes some sense given that at least part of this also hit the FS2 coverage.
We apologise to viewers for the quality of the incoming feed from Canada late in the first half. The World feed supplier has resolved the issue in time for the second half. @TheMatildas @FootballAUS @Channel10AU #CANvAUS
— 10 Football (@10FootballAU) December 6, 2023
It’s unclear what led to this. Feed issues of this magnitude are often from weather, but the roof was closed at Christine Sinclair Place (the renamed B.C. Place for a night) on Tuesday. And there don’t appear to have been issues with TSN’s Canadian broadcast.
This was an unfortunate occurrence for sure. While this didn’t involve an American team and only had a limited American audience on FS2, there are certainly many in the U.S. who have long followed Sinclair, whether with her international career for Canada or with her five U.S. domestic league titles (across WPS and the NWSL) and two NCAA titles (with the Portland Pilots). And this was particularly bad for Australia: while this was just a friendly for their national team, it was an important one against a big opponent. At least this was resolved in time for the second half.
The second half of the broadcast seemed to go as planned, regardless of country. And that included the showing of a fitting salute to Sinclair when she was subbed off (for Sophie Schmidt, who along with teammates Sinclair and Erin McLeod is also retiring from international soccer) in the 58th minute:
Sinclair for Schmidt.
All of the emotions. pic.twitter.com/BqLfjDnl3c
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 6, 2023
Canada won the match 1-0. Sinclair plans to play one more year with the NWSL’s Portland Thorns before retiring, but this was a notable sendoff for her. But it’s unfortunate that it was marred by technical difficulties for quite a few international viewers.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter; image from Undisputed on YouTube]
