PORTLAND, Ore. – Goalkeeper is one of the loneliest positions in sports. On a good day, keepers handle the ball just a handful of times during a game. On Wednesday night, this spot on the field had a little more company than usual.
ESPN debuted new cameras during the MLS All-Star game that gave viewers a peek at what it’s like between the posts. Embedded into the goalposts, this latest innovation took six months to develop and underwent a bevy of tests, including using a cannon the day before the game to fire soccer balls directly at the posts to assess the cameras’ durability.
It’s all in a day’s work for ESPN’s soccer production staff, which has introduced several enhancements to its telecasts through the years, including the continuous score/countdown clock, ref cams, embedded microphones in the field and more.
An average audience of 862,000 viewers watched the MLS All-Stars beat Bayern Munich, 2-1, on ESPN2, the most for an MLS All-Star match telecast since 2005 on ABC. If you didn’t catch the unique perspectives of the goal area offered by the new cameras, check out the video above and this Sports Video Group story to read more about them.
