Charles Apple

World Cup watchers here in the U.S. are mighty pissed at the mysteriously disallowed third goal in Friday’s match that would have given Team USA a 3-2 win over Slovenia.

Soccer world, if you hope to win over the hearts of Americans and turn them into soccer fans: That’s not the way to do it. Never mind Jim Joyce and his non-perfect baseball call a few weeks ago. Americans don’t like imprecision and arbitrariness in their sports events — after all, the U.S. is the home of instant replay and the overturned call.

So the World Cup made it to the front page of a lot more papers today than I would have normally expected. But not necessarily in a good way.

These are culled, as always, from the Newseum — which has my eternal thanks for making their collection available to visual journalists everywhere.

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SATURDAY PAGES FROM THE U.S.

We’ll start in the media capital of the United States, New York City. The famed tabs had an awful lot of fun with the Slovenia debacle:

That’s the New York Post, circulation 525,004. The action shot of Maurice Edu scoring the uncounted goal is from Reuters.

The New York Daily News, circulation 535,059, took an even more amusing approach using an Associated Press photo. That’s the questionable official on the left, wearing yellow:

Even the New York Times led today with a screaming four-column-wide stand-alone action shot by David Gray of Reuters:

Average daily circulation for the NYT is 951,063.

Over on the left coast, the Los Angeles Times, too, ran a four-column action photo shot just moments later by Hassan Ammar of the Associated Press:

You can see Edu looking back over his shoulder at the official, just out of the frame. CrazyRefereeSayWhaa?

Average daily circulation for the LAT is 616,606.

The Houston Chronicle — circulation 366,578 — used the same picture and tried wit with the headline:

Nice try. But that’s a joke that works only if you say it out loud.

The Bergen County Record of Hackensack, N.J. — circulation 161,659 — also used that same picture…

…as did the Arizona Republic of Phoenix, as a secondary shot. The main art — by staffer Mark Henle –  is of a local fan taking in the action at a local joint.

Average daily circulation for the Republic is 351,207.

One of my favorite pages of the day is this one by the Contra Costa Times of Walnut Creek, Calif. I love the horizontal crop and the pun hedline:

The picture is by Ezra Shaw of Getty Images. The Times circulates 67,464 papers daily.

The Times of El Paso, Texas, attempted the same thing today but the photo by Darko Bandic of the Associated Press just wasn’t quite up to the task:

We can’t see the official’s face in this angle. And Edu isn’t in the frame at all. Average daily circulation for the Times is 72,027.

The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune — circulation 52,459 — wisely chose a picture by Elise Amendola of the Associated Press for its’ huge A1 display:

The Daily Herald of Provo, Utah — circulation 30,910 — used the same picture at five columns with a much looser crop, and still worked pretty well:

Even deep in football and basketball territory, the Charlotte Observer used that same photo at the top of A1, albeit as secondary art and below the floating decapitated noggins of Shaquille O’Neal and Dale Earnhardt Jr.:

The Miami Herald – circulation 191,873 — chose a more positive approach, downplaying the phantom call angle and emphasizing the heroic comeback from a 2-0 deficit the U.S. team performed to achieve a draw:

The celebration shot is by Luca Bruno of the Associated Press. Average daily circulation for the Herald is 191,873.

Bruno also took the picture used by the Tampa Tribune, circulation 152,568:

That Drawing strength headline, though, I’d say is so Polyanna-ish to be laughable.

And a handful of U.S. papers played Friday’s Cup match prominently in eye-catching over-the-nameplate ways.

The best of these was by the Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., circulation 86,928:

West Hawaii Today of Kailua — circulation 13,000 — focused on fans in the stands in Rustenburg, South Africa, waving the U.S. flag:

The Courier & Press of Evansville, Ind. — circulation 68,151 — built a complex and textured photoillustration for its giant top-of-the-page refer:

And the Journal of Sioux City, Iowa, also focused on the positive, emphasizing the comeback and a “fantastic finish” to the Friday match:

Again, though, my understanding is that the U.S. was expected to beat Slovenia quite easily Friday. So I’d think the fact that the U.S. found itself two goals down by halftime is a much bigger angle than the fact that they made it up. And the officiating shenanigans is a bigger story than either of those.

Average daily circulation for the Journal is 39,986.

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SATURDAY NON-U.S. PAGES

Only two Slovenia papers posted their front pages to the Newseum today. One was Delo of Ljubljana, a very serious-looking paper that uses huge blocks of text and a very serious-looking photo by Tomi Lombar:

The other paper — Dnevnik, also of Ljubljana — used a Reuters shot huge, in a way I’d expect to see after a big day like the Slovenian team had Friday:

Earlier Friday, Serbia defeated Germany 1-0. This is Vecernje Novosti of Belgrade, with a truly awesome action photo:

And here is Politika, also of Belgrade, with a picture taken the same moment, but from the opposite side of the field:

Play in German newspapers, as you’d imagine, was quite a bit grimmer. Here is der Tagesspiegel of Berlin, playing up a picture by Pressefoto Ulmer of a key red card ejection:

Berlin’s Die Welt featured a photo of the German coach throwing — literally — a tantrum during the match.

As a matter of fact, a lot of German newspapers used that shot by Kai Pfaffenbach of Reuters. I’m only giving you the highlights here.

Heilbronner Stimme of Heilbronn led with a DPA photo of a dejected player after the match:

Nürnberger Nachrichten of Nuremberg played up a nice DPA action shot of an attempted goal:

And Nürnberger Zeitung – also of Nuremberg — featured a hurt player wallowing on the pitch:

That picture was from the Associated Press.

Also disappointed Friday was England, which expected to beat Algeria. Instead, the best the English could muster was a 0-0 tie. Even that paled in comparison to the U.S. draw. The U.S. now has an advantage over England because it’s scored more goals.

The Guardian led A1 today with a picture by Action Images’ Jason Cairnduff of a dejected Wayne Rooney…

…Who, in his disappointment, made a bit of an ass of himself after the match.

Rooney also featured prominently afront the Saturday Times of London, but with a different angle by Carlos Barria of Reuters:

I’m not sure that crop was so wonderful. I like drama in my page one photos, but the back of Rooney’s semi-bald head and all that space up top makes no sense to me.

I do like the sarcastic headline treatment below the picture, though. Biting, yet understated. Ya gotta love the English. We Americans have done everything we can to ruin the language they gave us, but they keep proving their mastery of their tongue.

Now, please travel with us in our time machine, back two days to next-day coverage of Wednesday’s Cup matches…

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THURSDAY PAGES

The huge, huge story Wednesday was the 1-0 victory by Switzerland over Spain, the team most experts picked to win it all this year.

El País of Madrid pretty much summed it up with this picture by Gerardo Pérez:

No headline or story necessary. The picture tells it all.

Equally telling is this picture by Reuters’ Susana Vera on the front of Diario de Burgos of Burgos, Spain:

These folks are genuinely shocked. As well they should be.

Meanwhile, Tages Anzeiger of Zurich happily displayed this Keystone shot of a Swiss player celebrating:

That headline says:

The Indian Ocean in seventh heaven

Not sure what that means. But it’s kinda nice.

And Basler Zeitung of Basel built its front around the moment of truth: A Keystone picture of the actual goal:

Both of those pages are wonderfully done. Great work, Switzerland.

And Uruguay defeated the host team, South Africa in convincing 3-0 style Wednesday. Here’s how El Pais of Montevideo commemorated the win in Thursday’s paper:

A giant step, the headline says. The photo is from Reuters.

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FRIDAY PAGES

Enough of these losses, ties and draws. Let’s look at somebody who won for a change, shall we?

Thursday morning, Argentina slaughtered South Korea 4-1. You can see the excitement in the face of Argentinian coach Diego Maradona:

That picture was from the Associated Press. El Territorio is in Posadas, Argentina.

La Nacion of Buenos Aires chose to lead with possibly the most boring sports celebration photo I’ve ever seen:

That’s by Miguel Acevedo of Reuters.

Perhaps the best Cup front of the day was this one by Clarín, also of Buenos Aires, which played up a picture by Carlos Sarr:

Nicely done.

Here are two examples from Seoul, South Korea. This one is Donga Ilbo, whose choice of action photo was less than inspiring:

I’m unclear as to the origin of this lead art afront Joong Ang Ilbo: Was it before or after the match?

If you can’t tell, it’s usually a bad sign.

Thursday’s second game was a 2-1 victory over Nigeria by Greece. I’m surprised this Greek gentleman could celebrate his goal, given that he was coughing up that ugly-ass FIFA logo:

That was To Vima of Athens.

And Mexico scored a big 2-0 win over France to end the day Thursday. The Cup found itself on the front of a number of Mexican papers Friday, but these three caught my eye.

Here is Diario de Yucatán of Mérida, with a nice display of an Associated Press picture:

Here is el Diario de Sonora of Nogales, leading with a truly nice Getty shot taken at that same moment:

There’s lots of sequences and other cool things happening on that page. I sure wish I could read it. Even after completing her second year of high-school Spanish, my daughter just looks at it and shrugs.

And here is Guanajuato’s Correo, which used a lot of different elements to create an illustrative effect:

The biggest belly-laugh of the week, however, comes courtesy of the Times of London. An event at the Royal Ascot race track in England brings out folks wearing outrageous hats.

Even this woman, who clearly has a thing for those vuvuzela horns:

The picture is by Times staffer Richard Pohle. Click it for a larger view. If you dare.

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AMERICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA

In case you haven’t heard, Detroit Free Press page designers Robert and Amy Huschka are spending their honeymoon in South Africa, taking in as many World Cup matches as they can.

They’re blogging their trip for the Freep, but because internet access can be a little iffy at times — boy, did I learn that the hard way — they’re not really posting all that often.

However, when they do post it’s great reading. Check it out here.

Find Robert’s Twitter feed here. Find Amy’s here.

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Are you doing anything interesting for the World Cup? Send me PDFs, please.

Previous World Cup coverage, here in the blog:

• Sunday, June 6: Preparing readers for the World’s Cup
• Monday, June 7: Monday’s World Cup pages
• Wednesday, June 8: World Cup pages from South Africa
• Thursday, June 9: Talking soccer graphics with Konstantinos Antonopoulos
• Thursday, June 9: Tooting horns for the World Cup
• Friday, June 10: Opening day pages
• Saturday, June 11: The front page of Saturday’s Johannesburg paper
• Saturday, June 11: The most fun I’ve seen yet on a World Cup page
• Sunday, June 12: U.S. Cup fronts after the tie with England weren’t so gracious
• Wednesday, June 16: More Cup pages from South Africa and around the world
• Friday, June 18: The Mercury of Durban, South Africa, and its stunning “twinning” project
• Saturday, June 19: Advance pages and graphics from South Africa’s Sunday national papers Rapport and City Press

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 8:30 pm and is filed under A look at the day's fronts, International newspapers, News design, Photojournalism, Sports design, World Cup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.