Why I Switched to Telemundo’s World Cup Coverage and your customers could be switching from you.
Last week, I wrote an article explaining why I didn’t think the United States would win the World Cup.
It wasn’t really about football.
It was about culture.
Football is woven into everyday life in countries like England, Argentina, Brazil, France, and, unexpectedly, Cape Verde. You feel it in the streets, the conversations, and the way people talk about the game. They don’t simply watch football. They live it.
Then Cape Verde happened.
They became everyone’s second favorite team, not because they had the biggest stars, but because they played with freedom, joy, and confidence. They reminded people why they fell in love with football in the first place.
This weekend, I watched Owen Wilson being interviewed before the U.S. match. Smiling, he said, “Game recognizes game,” when talking about the Telemundo coverage.
I’ve been thinking about that line ever since.
I try to watch every Inter Miami match but sometimes life gets in the way.
Like every football supporter, I spend the drive home avoiding my phone. No notifications. No social media. No score alerts. I want to experience the replay exactly as if the match were unfolding live.
Then I open Apple TV. The score is sitting right beside the replay. Game = ruined.
Every football supporter knows the drill. You cover part of the screen with your hand, squint through your fingers, and try to press Play before the final score is revealed.
This is the clue that the person who designed it wasn’t a football supporter. Hell, they probably never played sports.
Then there’s Fox. Nobody complains about commercials at halftime. That’s part of the game.
The hydration break is different. The match is still alive. Managers reorganize. Players gather around the coach. The cameras capture conversations that often explain everything you’re about to see over the next twenty minutes.
Fox saw another advertising opportunity. I saw three minutes of football disappear.
Too often, the broadcast returned after play had already restarted. The restart was gone. The tactical adjustment was gone. Part of the story had disappeared.
So I switched to Telemundo. Not because I speak Spanish. Because they understand why I’m watching.
Years ago, while I was a broker at CBRE, a software company asked me to test a new CRM built specifically for commercial real estate.
On paper it looked outstanding. Then I started using it.
The property record lived on one screen. The owner was somewhere else. The tenant couldn’t be connected. The listing broker couldn’t be connected.
I asked the developer whether the listing broker could be linked to the property.
He looked genuinely puzzled.
“Why would you want another broker attached to a property?”
At that moment, I realized we weren’t talking about the same business.
A broker doesn’t see a property as a record. A broker sees relationships. Who owns it? Who financed it? Who leased it? Who listed it last time? Who looked at it six months ago?
Those relationships are the work.
The software had captured the data. It had missed the workflow.
That wasn’t a criticism of the developer. It was simply obvious he had never lived the day to day life of a commercial real estate broker.
The company never gained traction. Looking back, it didn’t lack features. It lacked someone on the team who had actually lived the job.
That’s what Apple, Fox, and that CRM all have in common.
The score beside the replay. The commercial during the hydration break. The disconnected property record. None of those decisions is catastrophic. Each one is a tiny signal that quietly asks the customer the same question:
Do these people really understand my world?
Customers answer that question much faster than most companies realize. Not because of one big decision. Because of a hundred small ones.
They’re not just details. They’re evidence — of whether you’ve lived alongside your customers or merely want to monetize them.
Game recognizes game.
COHEN ON REAL ESTATE 
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