It was a feckless decision from CBS to refuse to show any Champions League group-stage matches on TV. Forcing anyone who wants to watch a match from start to finish to pay for CBS All Access is far shadier than Turner Sports’ cash-grab B/R Live service that bombed harder than Quibi.
We had high hopes for the Golazo Show on CBS Sports Network when it launched, but those hopes quickly faded and on Tuesday were torn to shreds by more scummy practices by CBS.
Tuesday’s Champions League lineup featured some enticing matches all around the continent. Without a doubt, however, the most anticipated match was the battle between Lionel Messi’s Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus for top spot in Group G. So you’d expect the Golazo Show — which provides whip-around coverage of all the UCL action — to show plenty of that game, especially with all but Group H essentially decided in the other matches.
When PSG’s match against Istanbul Basaksehir was suspended, there were really only two games worth watching. And yet, the Golazo Show simply refused to show the Messi-Ronaldo showdown. Instead, nearly the entire 90 minutes were spent watching Manchester United flame out against RB Leipzig. We saw more Chelsea-Krasnodar or Rennes-Sevilla than Barça-Juve on the Golazo Show.
Sure, the Golazo Show would show the highlights when Ronaldo scored a penalty or Weston McKennie SCORED THE GOAL OF THE CENTURY. It cut in when there was a disallowed goal or a penalty kick awarded, but that was just about it.
I counted: after the opening minutes, the “whip-around” coverage showed the Juventus-Barcelona game just one time for a highlight that wasn’t a goal, penalty decision or disallowed goal, when Messi stepped up to take a free kick from a wide angle in the 58th minute. After that, the coverage flipped to scenes of the Parc des Princes, where no one was on the field because the game was suspended.
I get that Manchester United is a big draw, especially in the U.S., but a bigger draw than Messi vs. Ronaldo, the two best players of this generation (and arguably ever)? Do we really need to watch 80 minutes of that match, most of which were played with the Red Devils having no real hope of winning?
The Golazo Show has had its problems, but not knowing what’s going on hasn’t been one of them. It’s clear what was going on here: This was an intentional ploy to get U.S. soccer fans to pay for CBS All Access.
Fortunately, U.S. soccer fans are smart enough to see through this bullshit. They’ve probably already figured out how to watch the Champions League on TUDN and the Univision family of networks, which sure beats giving money to another greedy American corporation.
