Get ready for enhanced coverage of Inter Miami matches

Let’s be honest, soccer on television is fine, but here in the U.S., it’s pretty vanilla.

You have a couple of camera angles, at best.

It works, but it’s certainly not at the level of NFL games that feature mic ’d-up players, improved sound and every angle covered.

Well, it seems Apple TV is trying the same enhancements with its Major League Soccer coverage … especially Inter Miami CF.

I’ll dive into what that means.

The Leagues Cup and Apple TV

The Leagues Cup is in its first season and features a World Cup-style of the tournament with teams from Major League Soccer and Liga MX in Mexico — 18 teams from Mexico and 29 from Major League Soccer.

Teams are paired based on geography with group play starting July 21 — Inter Miami will take on Cruz Azul at DRV PNK Stadium.

LAFC earns a bye as the 2022 MLS Cup Champion and automatically advances into the knockout rounds. Pachuca also earns a group-stage bye as the Liga MX champion with the most points across both the Clausura and Apertura seasons.

That leaves 15 groups as Inter Miami is paired with Cruz Azul and Atlanta United FC in the South 3 group.

The top three teams at the end of the group and knockout stages earn a spot in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup.

Apple comes into the mix because the service will stream all 77 matches in English and Spanish … and French for matches involving teams from Canada. All matches will be broadcast as part of the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Apple TV Blows Up Coverage of Inter Miami

Where Apple is really changing the coverage of the game begins with Sunday’s unveiling of Lionel Messi.

The network will have a one-hour English and Spanish show available on MLS Season Pass. It will feature commentary over the duration of the show.

Then things get really exciting for Inter Miami fans as Apple plans to augment its coverage of Herons’ matches in the League Cup.

According to a release from MLS, Apple will provide 18 cameras, a Steadicam, four super slow-motion cameras, Skycam, a drone, sideline reporters broadcasting in English and Spanish, a one-hour pregame show and a postgame show to wrap up the match.

Jake Zivin and Taylor Twellman will host the English Leagues Cup games for Inter Miami while Sammy Sadovnik, Eduardo Biscayart and Carlos Hermosillo will broadcast the games in Spanish.

This will bring Inter Miami’s matches to fans in more than 100 countries and regions around the world and provide an NFL-like experience for both matches.

The good news is that if Inter Miami advances to the tournament's knockout stage, the coverage will remain the same. If they don’t, the Herons’ next match will be the same as traditional MLS broadcasts.