Area soccer fans wanted to give Bangor television station WVII (Channel 7) a red card Sunday morning as they turned on their TV sets to watch a World Cup match only to find nothing resembling soccer.

Instead of the first round game between Croatia and Japan, viewers tuned in to either religious programming or reruns of The Odd Couple.

WVII’s switchboard was flooded with calls and more than 50 messages, most of which presumably were not positive, were left on the voice mail system.

Station general manager Mike Palmer said the game wasn’t carried for a couple of reasons.

“It’s a case of a scheduling conflict and commitment,” Palmer explained. “We have a longstanding relationship with a couple of religious organizations, one of which has been on the air for 30 years, and I’m loath to kick them off the air so they had to run.

“If I take them off, I’m just going to get calls asking why their service isn’t on the air.”

The live broadcast started at 8:55 a.m., but that was at the end of Soul’s Harbor and just before the start of Bible Lesson, a half-hour show that begins at 9 a.m. Joining the game in progress at 9:30 a.m. was not an option either.

“The shows, one of which is an hour and another which is 30 minutes, are on from 8 to 9:30 a.m., and the network does not allow us to join games in progress and jump in a half hour into the game,” said Palmer.

Palmer said the same thing happened at least once during the last World Cup four years ago. Reaction from fans was no less critical this time around.

“Some were understanding and some weren’t,” said Palmer. “We had a couple dozen calls, but again, I would have gotten calls if I’d taken the church services off.”

There is good news for futbol fans, however, as this Sunday’s full slate of games will run, starting with Ecuador vs. England at 10:30 a.m.

“By then, the church services we have on are over, so that won’t be affected,” Palmer said.

Enberg puts sports In Focus

The team that created the award-winning documentary series “Beyond the Glory” is now paying tribute to some of the most compelling sports moments with “In Focus”, a new series on Fox Sports Net New England.

Veteran NBC and CBS sportscaster Dick Enberg will host the 30-minute show, which will air weeknights on FSNNE at 6 p.m. The first of 36 episodes will debut Monday with a look back at the Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight in Las Vegas during which Tyson bit off part of Holyfield’s ear.

Other episodes center around sports rivalries such as Michigan-Ohio State, dominating teams like the 1988 Oakland Athletics, and historic moments like Cal Ripken, Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig’s streak for consecutive games played.

Frank Sinton and Steven Michaels – executive producers of “Beyond the Glory”, which ended a five-year run on Fox Sports Net last October – serve in the same capacity for “In Focus.”

Setting up a classic

A&E Home Video has teamed up with NBC to produce a seven-disc DVD set titled “The Cincinnati Reds 1975 World Series: Collector’s Edition.”

Boston Red Sox fans will want to check this set out as well since the Reds’ opponent in this series, hailed by many as the best ever played, was Boston. This set features each of NBC’s seven game broadcasts in their entirety and also offers extras such as championship rally footage, pre-game introductions and rarely-seen interviews.

The set, released last week, carries a suggested retail price of $69.99 and is available at local retailers and online at amazon.com.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net