Yeah, I was going to say, it's not shocking considering Lalas is retarded. I have no idea how or why he is even there.
ooooooohhhh, a lady! it looks like Bob Ley did her make-up right before running out the door to do a line of cocAAAin. All english women look like english men, but in bad makeup. Never mind the ballack is feeling it! Macmanymans flirts with himself with every comment. Go Darky, you wind in the willows you! Get drunk! It's england!
finally some effing conflict! lala's is right NMT Ballack is right martinez unites them. whig.blond.man
Lalas is pretty much ruining this for me. Especially with his "beautiful" comments and over excitement for absolutely nothing.
I will allow Lala's this moment as he is defending Uncle Woy. England did the impossible. They are...waiting for shrek.
Martinez just made both of them look retarded giving a proper analysis. Ballack is right, but is too short in his analysis. It's not enough to just say "I am not impressed"But he is also being a hypocrite because he played in a team that did the exact same thing if not worse a couple of years ago against Barcelona.. Lalas is dumb and biased as usual. As a defender he only values hard work and parking the bus, what else can you expect ...
I'm not as tough on Lalas as some on this board, but it was funny to see how many times he felt to the need today to say how England are an inferior team to France.
So England not pulling off a hard fought (nevermind if it would have been unfair) win kind of slowed down the underdog-that-rises-above-adversity-to-finally-get-the-title-that-a-great-footballing-nation-deserves-when-least-expected yarn that the british EPSN gamecasters seemed to be in the process of spinning. But the tie doesn't put it to rest either, despite Herr Ballack's blitzkrieg attack post game. Unfortunately, Ireland's performance was so bad that the huge Éire boner that ESPN was sporting could not be sustained in the second half even if Tommy Smyth had been force fed a bottle of viagra. As Lukas Podolski would say: that's football, sometimes the better team wins.
Overall I'm satisfied with ESPN's presentation, but here are some of what I deem negatives for their broadcast: -The sound byte of the theme they do before and after every commercial break is rapidly becoming grating. -Super-slo-mo is over-used. -Too much commentary about players' club minutiae. Look, I get it that you spent hours upon hours of preparatory research for commentating this tournament, but listening to an incessant spiel about club football to the point where the actual tournament seems like a mere backdrop is mood killing. (I'm sure others feel differently.) -I don't need to be told 9 different times throughout the course of the game who plays later that day, the following day, and next October. -Rehashing "_____ and _____ drew so now this group is wide-open," after every group opening match draw, of which there were three. Just indicative of the relatively uninsightful analysis.
This isn't ESPN's fault, it's the main feed that everyone is being sent. Friends watching on ITV were having the same complaints.
I think I've finely put my finger on why I usually don't like American announcers thanks to Keller (who is no worse than most of them). They talk too much. Not in total, but when they make a comment they tend to draw it out into a long sentence or two rather than just a sound bite and then onto the next one. They also tend to talk down to the audience as if they don't know the game at all. Also seems like they are too "professional" and rarely banter with their co-host.
Lalas is a bit of an oaf. But I have to say, my favorite studio moment so far may have been Lalas trying to tease Ballack about his header against Portugal in Euro'08. They showed the replay and Ballack clearly gives a slight push to the back of Paolo Ferreira before heading into the net. And Lalas is yelling "A push!... Was that a push!?.. Did I see a push there..!?" And Ballack was so quietly displeased it was hilarious. He doesn't really react--he's just having none of it. "No.....No....Come on, now... No." With his clipped accent, and the whole 'Germans have no sense of humor' thing.... I dunno--It was just one of the most perfectly stereotypical things I've seen in a while. My mind just kept going in Ballack's voice -- "No..... this not amusing... please you must stop now..... you are not at all correct and your jocularity is totally inappropriate.....please start to being quiet....."
Getting Ballack away from the commentators' desk appeared to help him appear less stilted (i.e. no papers to look down at when he had none handy). I thought his comments on English players were interesting: He praised especially his former teammates, but also noted that they had a propensity to become too nervous before big games.
i agree totally che- gre game they were trying to make epl based player rositsky to be the best on the field but then great shut down by cze coach taking rositsky off. espn 2012 is becoming how much can we promote epl where the best players for other nations play for. and about english nt so true this is becoming annoying. when they asked ballack and lalas who inpresed most lalas said italy and then that girl was hoping that ballack will say germany but when he said italy she interrupted him and said o right see you tommorow. this is not english tv it is american tv i don'tcare how much english hate or try to put down italy.if somebody wants to give credit to italy you don;'t interrupt him