Little Jamaica continues to amaze. With a population smaller than some American cities, Jamaica has beaten the mighty US to reach the Gold Cup final. It’s the first time in Gold Cup history that a Caribbean island team has achieved this remarkable feat.
Now, it’s on to the championship for the Reggae Boyz. They will face Mexico on Sunday in Philadelphia.
Can they beat the six-time Gold Cup champions? Don’t rule that out. They beat the US didn’t they?
And, while Mexico struggled to win its semifinal match against Panama (2-1 in overtime), the US trounced Cuba 6-1. I saw the US-Cuba semifinal, and it was no-contest.
I didn’t see the US play Jamaica, though. How could I have missed that?
Blame it on my ineptitude at figuring out the way sports are televised these days. I never know what channel an event is likely to show up on. The US Open golf tournament mysteriously appeared on Fox, for example. And the British Open was broadcast not by the Golf Channel but by ESPN. I keep trying to catch the Pan American Games but most often end up with some basketball contest between countries I’ve hardly heard of.
Of course, the media hereabouts don’t provide much information about the Gold Cup or the Pan American Games. They’re too busy telling us what outrageous thing Donald Trump just said.
I suppose the way we get to watch TV is dictated by the corporations that have bought up American media outlets. They schedule events to get as much advertising revenue as they can, not to make us viewers happy.
Through a confusing maze of mergers and acquisitions, global corporations have acquired control over what Americans see, hear and read. One corporation often owns several network and cable outlets and they decide what outlet gets to broadcast what event based on their corporate interests.
I am doing my best not to miss Sunday’s final, though. I Googled the event and it looks as if it’s being broadcast by Fox Sports at 7:30 p.m. Now, all I have to do is figure out what channel Direct TV assigns to Fox Sports.
Wish me luck.
Click for a report on the game.
