Television coverage of the Copa America decider between the United States national team and Uruguay was criticized by fans, who claimed the strange camera angle made the game “almost unwatchable.”
Christian Pulisic and his U.S. national team teammates played at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium on Monday night, and the stadium’s height meant the camera angle for FOX Sports’ coverage was unusually high for a soccer audience.
When the game began, fans immediately took to social media, with some even claiming that the “crappy” angle was “making their heads hurt.”
ESPN football reporter Herculez Gomez was among those criticising the high angle, telling his 268,000 followers: “This camera angle will make me vomit. Wow!”
Another added: “This better not be the camera angle all the time,” while a US fan wrote: “FOX keeps finding new ways to disappoint.”
There was an unusually high camera angle for the early stages of the USA-Uruguay match.
Fans and analysts alike took to social media to criticize the high camera angle for television coverage.
Barstool Sports podcaster Francesca Mariano wrote to her 200,000 followers: “I can’t believe how bad this camera angle is. It’s almost impossible to watch. There are ants running everywhere!”
Fox Sports is not responsible for the camera angle and the blame falls on the organizers of the Copa America.
In fact, even the commentators were quick to comment on how high they were in the stadium and how difficult it was to follow the match through television coverage.
After 38 minutes – and apparently some quick changes by the production team – a new angle was used for television coverage, and it was so low that the first few rows of fans inside the stadium were visible.
One fan joked that it was as if television viewers were watching from a helicopter above the stadium.
Shortly before halftime, some quick-reacting producers managed to find a new angle for the fans.
Social media praised Fox Sports for listening to criticism about the camera angle
As the high angle was shown, even FOX Sports’ lead analysis host Rob Stone took to Twitter to write: “Umm, that camera angle is something. #USMNT #steep.”
At half-time he joked: “How’s everyone’s vertigo?”, and the reaction during the second half to the new angle was much more receptive.
Analyst Carli Lloyd was also quick to weigh in, taking a different tack by noting, “The referee is way worse than the camera angle!”