The attempted tie-ins with other FOX SPORTS events are the most cringe-inducing parts of that show. Yesterday, the twitter question(cuz the kids luv social media!) was which player would you like to see as a driver in the Daytona 500. Sometimes the amateurish community access-looking Winnipeg show seems like it was better than this plasticky corporate Toronto version. At least that one had a knowledgeable soccer anchor in Eoin O'Callaghan, and a lot more Bobby McMahon.
Whaaa.......? I'm wondering what the hell that would sound like! I'd love to see Derek back in the US, and his normal accent will do just fine. I have fond memories of ditching my high school classes to watch the knockout stages of the Champions League in 2005-07. He's probably one of my favorite commentators.
So if this is even a benfit then why did ESPN bring announcers over that either work from London year round or hire foreign talent just for this event. If the World Cup brings in all types of new viewers then why would a Martin Tyler or Ian Crocker make them tune ou. ESPN didnt fly Dick Vitale to South Africa! Its stupid. In 2006 I remember JP Dellacamara doing all of the US' matches. The action will be top notch at the world cup so why wouldnt the most knowledgeable regardless of their country of origin. Derek Rae has been a football fanatic since he was a child he just knows his shit, same for Martin Tyler. Gujo will have a whole 5 years of knowledge of the game come 2018 WC. Sure itll be enough to "get by" but is that what we're looking for? The sad thing about this for me is when Fox won the rights the 1st thing I thought was, cool, FSC is owned by Fox which has the same owner as Sky. Sky doesnt have WC rights so it seemed like a great way to use their knowledgeable panel of talent. But I can just see Joe Buck and Gujo doing the commentary with Curt Menefee in the studio with Terry Bradshaw!
We still might. In past years, ESPN has used the "American guys" for the USA games. We all know there's no channel on Earth who can rely on one announcing team for all games. They'll need at least four teams.
You're also watching an American TV channel pimp their big event of the weekend. Such things aren't uncommon, as we all know. But isn't FOX Soccer News produced in Canada or is this new incarnation only for the US viewing audience?
Right around noon ET, we got the score for the final score for the West Brom - Sunderland game. The noon game is a delayed broadcast with a hint (not necessarily a spoiler to) Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler watch the full 90 minutes. FOX used to be good about hiding results of delayed games. Rob Stone now talking about the Daytona 500 with more of the "Game before the Race" stuff. This is obviously a FOX directive to pimp their race...could it be a beginning of the upcoming merger/combining/blending to FOX Sports?
More idiocy. Like people watching a premier league match are goikg to say, "wow! What a match, That really made me want to watch guys drive around in a circle for 4 hours!" Wheres the connection. Same thing with the game before the game for the super bowl. If you dont know/care that its the Super Bowl is watching an english football matchake you interested in it. Its ass backwards. If anything they should be hyping fox soccer matches during American sports broadcasts to build up exposure for their soccer channel that surely few American sports fans watch.
This is how insane the Gus Johnson tactic really is: I don't like basketball, but I like soccer. I might watch basketball if Martin Tyler covers the games. Martin will be great at covering basketball for me now because we are both novices. Core basketball fans will like him in about 5 years. In fact, by then more soccer fans will watch basketball and subscribe to NBA packages growing the sport and revenues, globally.
Any idea can be supported as a good one if it was financially sound. For example if the sky feed was silly expensive and you had this newb jackass who was thought to be a clown to most American sports fans that actually like sport and not the thought of going viral at any minute at your beckon call then I would chalk this up to"oh ok, fox is cutting costs". But youre not, basically you're already paying or not for the sky audio feed and now on top of that youre paying this guy who is a turnoff to your regular viewers to call these matches. So its not $, and is this all really worth it for the guy to call the 3, maybe max 4 US matches in the world cup in 5 years?
There was a game earlier this year they showed Dyer scoring for Swansea in the highlights package after the 12:30 game but before the delayed broadcast of Swansea and Soton. And this was right at the beginning of the broadcast window I had taped on DirecTV. (something like 2:30-4:30). Since he didn't start the game, didn't come on until the 56' minute and Soton scored in the 64', it was kind of a letdown when he actually scored. You are right they used to be much better. Then again, they used to be much worse, too. Thx, Jay!
So again its pointless. Theres no crossover and if there was crissover it surely existed. I can see running a NASCAR conmercial during halftime, etc but the game before the race? Wtf is the point of that. Most people probably wonder what the race is, maybe they find out and then go back to not giving a shit about it! Why not just have Rob Stone hype up American Idol or something like that, it has the same level of relevance, NONE!
In a few months Fox soccer channel is not going to exist. Get used to a lot of crossover advertising. Especially when it comes to motor sports.
I have to agree to the above poster. Fox Soccer will not exist soon. There is NO weekly soccer they can show next season as ALL of the contracts went to other channels this summer and fall. They bet the house on EPL and lost. I'm a little sorry about that actually because I know what games I am getting with Fox. NBC, I can only hope they do as good or better job.
Well, it took 40 minutes but I'm officially done with Gus. Saying the MCFC striker (I forget who) hit it with too much power as the ball went over the goal. When it was OBVIOUSLY TOUCHED OVER by Cech. Then failing to realize it was a corner kick until it actually happened. All announcers make mistakes, you can't see every last touch on the pitch, but you need to correct it, pronto. He shouldn't have problems with the speed of the game, and despite the clock running all the time, and no timeouts like in basketball, or reset's after every play like in football, there's plenty of time between soccer "plays" to analyze, digest and correct if necessary, especially if they are showing a replay. He might be fine in a couple of years but he's too much a novice to be put on big games right now. Definitely needs to cut his teeth on lower-profile matches, and many of them, before getting assignments that actually draw eyeballs to them. Thx, Jay!
I have heard Gus is going to be doing the ManU-Madrid return leg in March. At least here in Canada we get Martin Tyler on Sportsnet which is where the Fox Soccer Report is produced.
The Daytona 500 is, whatever your opinion of NASCAR, one of the biggest sporting events of the year in the U.S. It will be on FOX. Cross-promotion is natural.
I started watching the City/Chelsea game and thought I'd enjoy it, but Gus ruined it. I could only bear to watch the first 20 minutes. 2 min - "Can't keep it in" - reality: he let the ball roll out for a corner 3 min - "headed out by Chelsea" - reality: Ba doing great defensive work as the furthest forward and good header of the ball. Probably assigned to help on corners with Terry out. 5:36 - "knocked down but no call will play through" - reality: he wasn't knocked down, YaYa just fell. It wasn't a 'play through' but rather, a 'play on' situation. One might say 'the ref let's play continue'. 5:44 - "an overlapping ashley cole" - reality: it's not an overlapping run EVERY time the outside back gets the ball. It's only an overlap when he double-runs outside of someone else more inside, and the player advances. 5:55 - "hazard the talented young french player" - reality: he gets word of his mistake and sends a verbal correction. 6:45 - "Ba crosses over" - reality: Ba simply changes direction after dropping a shoulder, and takes the outside run. What is a cross-over Gus? 7:37 - "Nice ball movement right now by Manchester City" - reality: they lost the ball after 5 one-time passes. Better would be to discuss the ball movement in relation to chances, or how they had good movement to get out of their own half. Also, at 7:37 the true observation is how hard Chelsea players are working to win the ball from City. 11:01 - "Now Mata, leaves it, Lampard CROSSES" - reality: Gus, this was the time where you might say "overlapping run" as that's what Lampard did. Mata also didn't "leave it" for him, Mata passes it to Lampard on the overlapping run, thus opening up space for the cross. No need to get excited on the cross either, it was a wasted chance after everything just before was well worked. 11:23 "Aguero knocked down" - reality: it was a clean tackle by Mikel to win the ball, Aguero just felt after feeling the sting of the tackle. 40 seconds later, Gus, we see Aguero show his frustration as he elbows Ivanovich on the challenge to win the header. Instead of reading the situation and pointing this out, he mentions how many goals and appearances Aguero has. 14:13 "ball headed down" - reality: it was a FREE header Gus with poor marking and he should have scored. Player makes a mistake, probably because he has a rush of blood to the head, finding himself so free a few yards from goal. Commentator bails him out of this finally by 15:08 nearly an entire minute later. Good commentator would nail that as it happens. 16:50 to 17:01 - says almost nothing, when on the field there was good approach play, YaYa gets a shot off but it was expertly blocked. 17:45 - "Czech comes off his line" - reality: he easily collects it from a shot that was blocked 17:53 "Silva" - reality: now is when he needs to say "Silva plays Aguero through" or "Silva finds Aguero, who's now in on goal" 17:55 "Makes the extra move" - reality: Czech comes off his line very quickly and Aguero misses his chance to finish. He knows a first time shot would have been better. A good commentator would see what's going on and probably say something like "Aguero squanders his opportunity to shoot first time". 30 seconds later, the other commentator bails Gus out of this one, again. 19:58 "Clichy overalaps fires" - reality: finally it's an overlapping run, sort of. What he should be saying is "YaYa, patient build-up, picks out Clichy, delivers the ball but no one attacks his cross". These are only comments on things he said and a few things he missed. What's really difficult is to give feedback on all the things he doesn't say. It's as if he's missing the entire game. Oh wait, he is missing the entire game - because he doesn't know the sport ! ok I give up ..... this is horrible unwatchable ...
poor.. very poor... Gus even made Eden Hazard French... wow... when did that happen?? cant wait to watch the dayton 500 with all my Chelsea and Man City fans.....NOT Cantona---
talk about a gulf in class.. had the sky stream on the laptop.. about 30seconds ahead.. amazing how the goal calls were called... nice to have reserved enthusiasm from Tyler .. opposed to the wail we heard from Mr. Johnson... when will the "experiment" end.. ?? time for the american to ply his trade on some lower level matches where he will receive less criticism.. he has potential if the goal is the usa voice for the world cup.. but stop insulting football fans and having this twit do the best matches in the champions league, fa cup and premier league.. he is HORRIBLE... you may have gotten a couple of fan boys.. ie Redbullsnation - Gujo fan#1... but you are losing more and more.. check out twitter.. people are not happy.. i bet talksport got the biggest hit this morning after people realized your man was doing the commentary... Dixon didnt save him either.. he was bad as well.. reason you dont see him on sky commentary too often anymore. Cantona---
I'll be watching the Daytona 500. And I managed not to see or hear any advertisement for it during the match, the #GB4R bug not-withstanding. Most American sports broadcasts advertise upcoming events on their network, deal with it. Thx, Jay!