During the 2024 Copa América Group C match between the United States and Uruguay on Monday night, fans at home got very sick and tired of the zoomed-out broadcast lens that made the action harder to follow at first.
Indeed, the first part of the Fox Sports broadcast from Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium was very difficult to make out, as the camera needed a much closer look at the players on the pitch than what viewers got on the live feed.
While Athletic reporter Chris Vannini noted that the camera feed and angle came from tournament organizer CONMEBOL and not Fox, fans still griped aplenty about how hard it was to watch the broadcast.
Here’s a sample of how widened the focus was on the live feed to start things out.
The official pulls out a yellow card and then proceeds to allow Uruguay to play on 🤔 pic.twitter.com/8CSLusQCiv
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2024
Game broadcaster Stu Holden even got a very funny jab with a Zoolander reference at the camera feed during the Fox Sports broadcast.
“This is not a stadium for ants. This is a very high camera for the CONMEBOL world feed.” 🤣🎥🐜@StuHolden shares what everyone’s thinking 😅 pic.twitter.com/V7ps4Ag8Of
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 2, 2024
The camera angle eventually refocused to something more watchable for the fans at home, but we still got some good, frustrated reactions out of it.
Copa America camera angle for USA vs. Uruguay pic.twitter.com/RzDSETJER8
— Will Kennedy (@ByWillKennedy) July 2, 2024
Umm that camera angle is something #USMNT #steep
— Rob Stone (@RobStoneONFOX) July 2, 2024
The ref is way worse than the camera angle. 🤦🏽♀️ #USMNT
— Carli Lloyd (@CarliLloyd) July 2, 2024
Camera 1 #CopaAmerica #USMNT pic.twitter.com/1aTfDMvkGP
— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) July 2, 2024
THE FIELD
THE REF
THE CAMERA ANGLE
WE ARE NOT SERIOUS PEOPLE— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) July 2, 2024
The camera for USMNT-Uruguay is actually on the moon. pic.twitter.com/0AjtsaOAlB
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) July 2, 2024
Very high camera angle in an NFL stadium. As if it’s the All-22 camera pic.twitter.com/OXCXcnXVj8
— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) July 2, 2024
from the moon https://t.co/ZksGLbuQJo pic.twitter.com/LSS61e3snB
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) July 2, 2024
A look at tonight’s camera angle at Arrowhead Stadium for the crucial USA-Uruguay match in Copa America. pic.twitter.com/qW3MkHBGzT
— Matt Viser (@mviser) July 2, 2024
CONMEBOL and Fox quite literally set up the camera at Arrowhead in the same spot as the NFL’s all-22 camera 💀 pic.twitter.com/xYGj9N4EQN
— Andrew Joseph (@AndyJ0seph) July 2, 2024
the one club coach in the soccer group chat is delighted by this camera angle and everyone else is furious
— Nate Scott (@aNateScott) July 2, 2024
This camera position is suborbital
— Michael Davies (@embassydavies) July 2, 2024