ABC/ESPN's World Cup coverage plans revealed
 

ABC/ESPN will formally announce Monday its announcers for live coverage of the World Cup's 64 games, starting June 9. That lineup:

• Its top team for games —Dave O'Brien and three-time World Cup player Marcelo Balboa — will be in Germany and call all U.S. games. Two other TV pairs —JP Dellacamera/John Harkes and Rob Stone/Robin Fraser — will also be on site.

• Two announcing teams —Glenn Davis/Shep Messing and Adrian Healey/Tommy Smyth — will call games off monitors at ESPN's Connecticut headquarters.

• ESPN studio analysts will include Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas and the only woman in Cup coverage —Julie Foudy.

Tim Scanlan, ABC/ESPN senior coordinating producer for Cup coverage, says ESPN's studio will include a new demonstration area where analysts can run around. But game coverage, relying on the Cup's world TV feed, which uses 22 cameras a game, will be straightforward and not involve ESPN cameras: "It would be ridiculous to cut away from the feed — you could miss a goal."

ABC/ESPN will carry all Cup games in high-def TV — up from zero in 2002 — and put all its TV game coverage online via ESPN's broadband service. And Scanlan, saying retired ABC newsman Ted Koppel addressed his production meetings, expects coverage to extend beyond sports. He cites the Mexico-Iran game June 11 as a case where "the world's biggest sports event and biggest news event will collide." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose nation risks international sanctions for its uranium-enrichment programs, is expected to attend the game.