Where would American soccer be without… is dedicated to the people, places and things that have been instrumental in the growth of soccer in the United States. The growth of the game in the US has not taken the most conventional route and this series hopes to pay homage to those who came before us in making the beautiful game truly beautiful in the United States.
Today’s we follow up last week’s message board post with an entry inspired by an old forum thread, Where is Lionel Bienvenue, or more importantly Where is his EPL Review Show?
What athlete did you most want to be when you were growing up?
As a child, when I started to play a sport I immediately pretended to be a professional athlete from that sport. In hockey it was Darren Puppa, in Baseball it was Ryan Klesko, in football it was Jerry Rice, in basketball it was Christian Laettner…
However, when I played soccer, I didn’t play as anyone.
This was not a knock to American soccer as in the late 1990′s MLS was in it’s infancy and I didn’t have the goatee nor the dreadlocks to play as Alexi Lalas or Cobi Jones.
In fact, I had no clue what teams existed in England if it was not for two incredible pieces of media that changed my life. One was the Sega Genesis FIFA Series (now an empire in itself) and the other is the often imitated but never duplicated EPL Review Show on Fox Sports World (broadcast in Buffalo on the now defunct Empire Sports Network.
Hosted by the mythical Lionel Bienvenue, the two hour long English Premier League review show was the only gateway for many of us to soccer outside of the United States, and the beginning of my love for Liverpool Football Club, whom I picked as my side because I liked their red kits.
Every Sunday n
ight at 8:30 I would turn in as Lionel ran through a series of frantic EPL highlights as I sat transfixed looking at the screen, taking in all the information that was humanly possible.
For Americans, this was the ONLY consistent view of foreign soccer we got. Sure we got the odd Italian game on fuzzy Channel 1 on Sunday mornings at 1am, but Lionel’s show was the real deal, and our maiden voyage on the international soccer train.
A few years back, there was a thread started on BigSoccer asking ‘Where is Lionel Bienvenue? Lo and behold he still continues his sports reporting to this day, now plying his trade in Denver, Colorado at STATION NAME.
One of the BigSoccer correspondents even took to emailing him, thanking him for his contribution to the American soccer landscape. His response.
Chris, thanks for the e-mail.
Very flattering! I’d still be doing that damn show if Fox would not have shut it down. It’s all Max Bretos’ fault!
Yea, that guitar riff. They sometimes use it on the FSC soccer soap opera “Dream Team” (a personal favorite.)
As a matter of fact, I still show EPL highlights here in Denver and show the table. I always put Harcester United on top of the table just for a goof.
Thanks again and take care,
So, thank you Lionel for all that you’ve done to bring English soccer to the United States, and for giving me the opportunity to stop playing as myself, and to bring Liverpool so many Remington Drive backyard soccer trophies which the club so rightly deserved.
Coming next: The FIFA Video Game Series
