At the weekend, many matches attracted headlines for what happened on field.
Ole Gunnar Solksjaer and Manchester United stunned the reigning champions of England in their own backyard, perhaps alleviating the pressure on the 1999 Champions League Final hero.
Celtic defeated Rangers in a fierce Old Firm derby final despite Steven Gerrard’s side dominating the game and playing with one extra man for most of the second half.
Finally, we saw Juventus slip up again in the Serie A. Lazio stunned ‘La Donna Vecchia’ in a 3-1 win at the Stadio Olimpico, concurrently opening up the title race.
But perhaps some of the most interesting news for football fans, especially those who stream 99% of the games they watch was that the first vertically-streamed game of football took place in the Bundesliga.
Werder Bremen gained a valuable three points with a 3-2 win against VFL Wolfsburg. But the news of the DFL’s trial stream comes as very fascinating, given the situation streaming is currently in.
Amazon Prime recently streamed a full round of Premier League action for the first time, which will hopefully become a constant for fans everywhere. As we know oh so well here in Australia, Optus is the major service provider for games in the Premier League, Champions League and the Europa League.
But vertical streaming will allow many fans a different perspective on the game. Many can watch games horizontally through their mobile devices. But this concept is uncharted territory. So far.
Andreas Heyden, Executive President of the DFL for digital innovations, said that the growing rate of vertical videos on social media sites led to the development of a vertical streaming service for games.
“We see that vertical videos in social media on mobile devices are better received than ones in horizontal orientation. The successful test in Wolfsburg provides us with a good basis for further considerations as to how we can do even better justice to this usage behaviour in the future.”
Watching football from a horizontal perspective is something we often take for granted when watching a game. Not that it’s a privilege, more so that it’s the way we’ve always viewed the sport, either live or otherwise.
Traditionalists may perhaps believe that this is a step too far and that the current methods are more than adequate and don’t require changing. But vertical viewing is an interesting proposition and as football fans, we’d be remiss to not see what it has to offer.
The DFL will conduct its own review of the stream before deciding to open it up to all of us, but in the name of being progressive, it’s hard to see them not giving it a shot at the very least.
What are your thoughts on this innovative way of watching soccer from the comfort of your own couch? Or even bed, in this instance? Get involved in the discussion on Twitter @Soccersceneau
