Ian Darke's commentating is really annoying. He never stops blabbering, and half of the time he is talking about irrelevant trivia instead of calling the game. Derek Rae is excellent.
Heads up on final group A matches this Saturday switching networks: Czech Rep. vs Poland on ESPN Greece vs Russia on ESPN2
The Euro 2012 Tonight show will air on Saturday at 5pm ET on ESPN2. Bob Ley usually hosts on weekends, when viewership is the highest.
=== ESPN2 will use its "bench" for the MLS "Lone Star Showdown" (Houston vs Dallas) at 7:30pm ET: Play by Play - Glenn Davis Analyst - Julie Foudy Reporter - Monica Gonzales (on loan from ESPN Deportes/ESPN Dos)
I thought Max Bretos was going to be calling games when Healey was gone for some reason. I'm in the minority on this but I actually like him as an announcer. He's over the top sometimes but I find it funny.
Bretos is based in Bristol. Davis lives in Houston so it makes more sense for ESPN(2) to use Davis for the Lone Star Showdown from the Orange Oven (TM). Gonzales was born in Texas but is now based in Mexico City because of her modeling work in addition to reporting at live events in Spanish and English. Foudy doesn't have many high profile soccer assignments available at ESPN now that FOX Soccer will replace ESPN as the U.S. rights holder for the Women's World Cup starting 2015. Assigning Foudy to an MLS match when Twellman is tied up with Euro 2012 and Keller is not available due to his primary gig with the Seattle Sounders make sense. (Whatever animosity between Foudy and MLS as a result of Foudy's rhetoric from the WUSA vs MLS "death match" era in 2000-2001 is water under the bridge. MLS survived because of Phil Anschutz. WUSA collapsed because Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Turner Sports couldn't get out fast enough. The hatchets were buried a while ago.)
Rebecca Lowe is hosting (instead of Bob Ley).The producers finally figured out which host the viewers are willing to tune in 30 minutes early to watch.Studio panel: Alexi Lalas, Michael BallackTwellman is calling Greece vs Russia with Rae so he is not available for studio duty.Keller is back with the Seattle Sounders in Montreal tonight.Smyth is only used in the studio when Ireland is playing (one more show on Monday.)Fernando Palomo will be in the studio (in English) on Sunday when Spain is playing.
My thoughts: - Absolutely LOVE Ballack (I'm biased) so I can see why some people were bashing him, if he wasn't Ballack I would've criticized him too lol - Lalas is great, he has gotten so much better than where he started - Rebecca Lowe is great. She seems so legit for this tournament. Idk if its because she's from the UK or what but I like her FAR more than Bob Ley or Bretos - Taylor Twellman does a nice job as a Color commentator. Don't like Kasey Keller at all on color commentary but he's an ok studio analyst. rossi is terrible... never again - I like Tommy Smyth wish he would partner Derek Rae more often. I can see why some dislike him though. He's great for the Ireland matches. He embodies the Irish fan perfectly I'd say - Derek Rae is good but I hate when he shouts when someone scores. I don't mind when subtle raises in his voice change of tone, etc. but it seems like he is trying to out-talk someone. (ie: Shevchenko's goals vs Sweden). - Absolutely LOVE Ian Darke and Steve MacManaman (yeah... there's some Real Madrid bias, but he really is good!). They go well together like Nutella on your toast/bagels in the morning - Roberto Di Matteo is a waste of time, don't really like his commentary at all. Would be better to leave him out of it altogether. ESPN should stop trying to pretend like he is in Poland/Ukraine. Its funny how they show him reporting after the 2:30 match and its day time in the background. - Speaking of the background, think its kind of corny. They should at least pick a good background such as a lit up city or vivid stadium instead of a depressed town. - Also I dislike how they have the actual noise from the stadium in the background when they are talking in the studio
Correctiion: Rae and Twellman are calling Poland vs Czech Republic Healey and Mustoe are calling Greece vs Russia
Whatever mental barrier that existed with regards to hiring a British female to host studio coverage for major men's international soccer in the U.S. is gone. The producers figured out that the U.S. viewers would tune in early specifically for Rebecca. She is sharp and intelligent. Roberto Martinez is reporting from a studio in Warsaw (the IBC?). The backdrop is just that, a backdrop.
michael is great nobody else knows anythig about football. lalas , keller , maca and twelman played but it's like they don't know body language of the players or formations or when some players are not compatible with each other so they are blabbering about something that has nothing to do why netherland is loosing. ballack make its short and informative while other guys run their mouth all 30 mintes and never make a informative point
See, this is so odd to me. I have no doubt that Michael Ballack knows more about big-time European football than anyone on that set. That's a given. But why does that matter, if he's incapable of actually conveying it? Nothing he actually does makes him a "better" analyst than Lalas, et al., because being a TV analyst is about communicating your thoughts. It's not like Ballack is sitting up there dropping incisive pearls of wisdom left and right. His remarks consist of stuff like "That was great." You just regard him as "better" because he's... Michael Ballack.
Lalas is dreadful as always. Is there anyone more annoying than him? Especially when he gets excited and his voice cracks as if he were 14. I can't see how anyone would respect him. Also, they need to get rid of that bumper. That's annoying too, with that snippet of bizzare Euro dance or whatever the hell it is.
Precisely. Paying big money to hire a "big name" analyst to do TV for the first time is risky, as we have seen with Ballack. The studio show was unwatchable during the first weekend with Ballack until the final match last Sunday, when Ballack was subbed out (along with Rossi, who was afraid to say anything critical) in favor of a "combustible" panel of Lalas, Keller, and Smyth. To their credit, Lalas and/or the producer figured out a way to use Ballack effectively: have Lalas take the opposite side of Ballack in order to manufacture arguments and tension. Some of those arguments appear to me to be heavily scripted, but that's a small price to pay in order to save the studio show. We will never know whether Lalas or the producers are the driving force, as we are outsiders and we have no knowledge of what really happened during production meetings. If Lalas were the driving force, then hats off to Lalas for being a "team player".
Yes that's who I meant thank you! Didn't know he was actually in Poland, but the backdrop is bland lol
This is by far what saved the studio show, Ballack and Lalas constant fight of " what football " is suppose to look like. I think today was a win for anti football.ha!
This is just my opinion, but in Latin America, the studio hosts are usually football journalist that have knowledge of the game, and every so often they bring a manager type to talk strategy and tactics of the the game. Not every great player can become a studio host, but unfortunately, ESPN does not have the luxury of bringing a soccer journalist that is going to give you the analysts and professionalism that the American audience is so use to like in any other American sport. Fox uses former NFL players to talk about the game, and they do a great job, but I believe this is going to be more challenging with football. Bringing foreigners to speak to the American audience will always have its' challenges.
Sunday's studio show. (Photo courtesy Fernando Palomo via Twitter.) Host: Bob Ley Analysts: Michael Ballack, Alexi Lalas, Fernando Palomo (on loan from ESPN Deportes)
I can't be the only person who turns the TV on when the matches begin, leaves the room at halftime, and switches off after the match is over. I'm sure all of the studio teams are fine, but how do the ratings for the pre-game stuff compared to the actual matches? It seems far more important to me that they get the in-game announcers right, than that they get the studio host right. (And I'm not a casual fan who doesn't really care, I've watched every match so far, including the simultaneous ones, speaking of which, second half has begun.)
I guess my point is that I wouldn't tune in, even if I loved every word out of Lalas' mouth. That's why I wonder about the ratings for the pre/post-game material. Does Ley or Lowe make a difference in the ratings, enough so to raise ad rates? Same with Ballack, Lalas, Keller, Martinez, or whoever. I could be wrong, perhaps the ratings change significantly depending on who is sitting in the chairs during the studio segments. But the ratings that matter are the match ratings, and I'm guessing what matters most there is 1) who is playing, 2) how good the HD picture is, and 3) who the announcers are, with #3 vastly more important than who chairs the studio segments. Swapping Darke/Rae/Healey for Jack Edwards is what matters; swapping Mustoe/McManaman for Ty Keough is what matters. Whether Bob Ley or Rebecca Lowe does a good job seems less important, given that fewer people are watching in any event.