20 September 2013

The WAT: Correspondent wowed by Champions League match after reading live text updates, watching Russian highlights


Arsenal secured a victory over Marseille, according to live text updates from The Guardian, this past Wednesday at
Better than actually watching?
(screen capture from theguardian.com)
Stade Velodrome.

This correspondent was lucky enough to be given unfettered access to theguardian.com's "Live scores/fixtures" section this week, its live text coverage of the 2-1 Arsenal victory a reminder that this is, truly, the beautiful game.

The press pool was also treated to almost four and a half minutes of low-definition highlights -- broadcast in the original Russian, or whatever -- creating an audio/visual delicacy of color, shape, sound and perception of movement before this reporter's very eyes.

Goals from Theo Walcott and risen phoenix Aaron Ramsey were enough to secure the Group F win at Marseille, adding to Arsenal's already impressive away record. The goal was Ramsey's sixth already this season, in only seven games, and sounded like it probably looked pretty fucking sick, according to the liveblogging service.

Ramsey looked in fine form throughout the match, one assumes, while Ozil continued to impress, probably. Theo Walcott was very fast, it has to be said, and his tightly cropped hairdo was immaculate as always.

At times throughout the match, Arsene Wenger appeared nervous, occasionally wringing his hands, leaning forward and grimacing. But when Walcott finally opened the scoring and Ramsey put the match to bed, Wenger, in all likelihood, leapt to his feet shaking both fists, an apprehensive smile forming on his lips but never quite metastasizing to his world-weary eyes.

The other players, it stands to reason, did their usual business on the day, running all over the pitch, kicking balls, dribbling balls, trapping balls, playing defense and offense, and just generally trying not to disappoint their dads, who were presumably also checking the match's progress from their work computers when they had a free second.

In other news, many of The WAT's correspondents are thinking about climbing back aboard the sinking FoxSoccer2Go ship, just to watch the Champions League.

1 comment:

  1. My understanding of the Champions League is very, very text-based.

    ReplyDelete