Prelude - I can already tell you this isn’t going to be one of my greatest blogs. It’s not the most exciting topic but I gotta give the fan(s) what they want! (Plus international breaks suck.)
NFL Sundays are practically a holiday each week in America. Whether you attend games in person or watch at home, American football demands the country’s attention each weekend (Premier League mornings want their say in that). In the morning slate of Sunday games, most fans only have a choice to watch a game or two out of the eight(ish) that are playing at a time, thus giving birth to NFL Red Zone. Instead of staying on the same game, Red Zone switches from game-game, usually on whichever game has a team close to scoring. Whatever the case, it has become synonymous with the true Sunday football experience for fans and fantasy football players alike.
The Champions League follows a similar pattern of games. There is an early slate with 2 group games, followed by the primetime slate with 6 games in the group stage. Cable/streaming services typically broadcast a couple of these games, but similar to the NFL games, the majority cannot be accessed unless you pay for a premium subscription. Until September 2020 (to my knowledge), there had never been a place to watch all the Champions League games at once.
When I went to watch the first day of Champions League games this season, I scrolled through my channels looking for whichever game was on, only to find a couple of games televised in Spanish. Then I landed on CBS Sports Network, and low and behold, the “Red Zone” for Champions League does in fact exist! It’s called Golazo, and it’s exactly what it sounds like - it constantly switches to whichever game has the most exciting. That means you get to see every goal or close opportunity without having to change the channel.
It’s hard to talk in great detail about this (I warned you this wouldn’t be my most fun blog topic lol), but I highly, highly recommend checking it out for the next slate of Champions League matches. I hate to be this guy, but for those who find soccer “boring”, this is a far more exciting way to watch.
I’ve always thought the “Red Zone” model could be applied to multiple sports (looking at you college football and NBA), so it’s really cool to see it being used in soccer. I can imagine it’s all the more exciting if you’re gambling on the games, too. Cheers and hope everyone enjoys the international break! I’m very excited to see the USMNT play with a largely European-based roster for the first time.
Author: Living in Southern California, Robert Sweeney has been a fan of soccer since he played as a young child. Since then, he’s become a diehard Tottenham and US National Team fan. Rob enjoys writing about the impact soccer has had on his life in hopes that it betters others as well. Twitter: @robsweeney11