Michael Ballack is outshining Alexi Lalas for humor and insightfulness. He doesnt even speak english! Lalas is not informative, interesting or controversial. Bring someone else in. So far, Darkey and Macmanymans doing fine.
Probably learned Russian until he was 15, and started to learn English then. Well, and maybe living in London for 4 years helped.
You are probably quite right. 1st language is English, but 2nd language speak/write Spanish and learning French. In my humble opinion, he is rather fluent in English.
Ok, now we have Krazy keller in the booth. His PacNorthWest accent is grating, but he is knowledgeable. Thank goodness for the Brit next to him. Ballack is now reading from his paper...I liked his comment about russia-cze: now we see football.
Well, the Wall came down when he was 14...did they continue to teach it even after Bruce Springsteen brought freedom to eastern europe?
Alexi Lalas is a puss. He's overly PC and does nothing but tow the line for ESPN and FIFA. Granted he isn't John Harkes bad, but seriously dude. Balls up.
I find that Harkes is quite good on the radio where his unibrow has no axe to grind. He can just be a professional instead of bagging on the US.
It was David Hasselhoff who tore down the wall. However, they had lots of Russian teachers in East Germany, but very few English teachers, so it took some time to change the curriculum.
I liked when Roberto Martinez was a studio analyst..Very insightful and knowledgeable about the game..Lalas is clueless but i suppose Espn has to have one American covering soccer..
Yeah, didn't lala's play soccer? didnt he manage several teams? soccer viewers in the US are largely more intelligent than he gives them credit for. Go deeper man. Get into tactics a bit, dont just headline things. Martinez is probably a better TV analyst than coach. I am happy with Krazy Keller in the booth, but I would like him to get anecdotal about his playing days and put us inside the match more instead of once again, glazing over things, american style.
Let's keep a list of stupid/ethnic comments that the in-game commentators make: "...here come the Russians, rushing forward.." - Russia vs. Czech Republic "...it's 3-1 and it looks like it's check mate..." - Russia vs. Czech Republic "...Spain capable of literally passing the opposition to death..." - Spain vs. Italy Feel free to add
G.Rossi added nothing. When asked what Volatelly needed to do, response: He knows he needs to do what he knows? Huh? That nugget earned him 15k for the day? How are the spanish lined up: the spanish are lined up like spain. Really?!? Magnificent. He didn't join the US team as the witty english banter of the German players outdistanced him.
The only player ESPN could have covering a tournament that American soccer fans hate more than Rossi is Blanco. Great job ESPN...
I was expecting Rossi to sound more North Jerseyan. I think Ballack has significantly improved in the last three days at looking comfortable on camera offering his thoughts. It appears to me that ESPN have been coaching him each day to improve on one thing or another.
Ballack's crush on torres, while understandable, he likes blondes, is bad TV unless he really froths it up.
Let's keep a list of stupid/ethnic comments that the in-game commentators make: "...here come the Russians, rushing forward.." - Russia vs. Czech Republic "...it's 3-1 and it looks like it's check mate..." - Russia vs. Czech Republic "...Spain capable of literally passing the opposition to death..." - Spain vs. Italy "The Irish luck ran out there..." Croatia vs. GUESS?? Feel free to add
At least Tommy Smyth brought some life to the panel. Rossi was either petrified and woefully unprepared or he's lost his comfort with English. Even Ballack spoke more fluently to be honest.
I felt like he was trying to be 'clever' by not betraying any information on Italy. But he said virtually nothing about anything. Bob set him up nice enough. Waste of time.