ESPN ALE - No Ballacks! Seriously, when asked why Cristina Ronaldo can't play the same for team as club, he answers: "I dont know." When asked what he needs to do to change, he answers, "play the way he does for his club." How about this, when not surrounded by the best players in the world all his step-overs, and speed and crushing shots are found out for what they are...useless. I'd take Quaresma over Ronaldo at least he'll throw a robona in there or something.
Twellman is irritating, but at least he says football related things that make sense. Jolly Boy Ley is back. Mad Max Burntoast is gone as is his need to over-emphasise spanish words, please pass the salsa, for my tortillas and frijoles. That spanish/mexican whatever guy was the best so far. And Krazy Keller is calm and instructive.
Good commentators in dane match. wish the game had some more urgency. Portugal need to get that goal.
The Danes are considered the Italians of northern europe, but they play like the US of europe. Never give up, counter, and find the goals somehow....Maybe the US plays like the danishland of north america.
Never mind the Ballack speechless about C.Ronaldo's brain farts. I appreciate the teutonic steeliness.
haha, Anyone see Lala's The Roxbury Guys outfit? Purple stain shirt, black pants explaining how the dutch will attack. Sweet dutch kits by the way.
I've enjoyed the coverage so far. I like Ballack on the commentary. I wish they had more time to let him collect his thoughts and make his point. This isn't a dig on him or his intelligences, but you can see the gears turning in his head as he translates his thoughts from German to English before he speaks. I kind of wish he'd put Lalas in his place just once.
I think the refs also wear monitors, like the players to track heart rate and the miles they've logged...of course howie might have a silk slip and garters under there.
rain coming down on me. I have to handle it to the panel, not bad impromptu rubbish talk. Never mind the ballacks only talks when blondy singles him out. Jolly Bob Ley did a better job on her make up this time. Krazy Keller doing well. I have to give a shout to Twellman, the only guy making 'football' comments.
Agreed. They did a good job covering there. Ballack has been better than the first couple of days he was on. Maybe someone told him to let Krazy Keller and the red-headed greek say all the stupid stuff. Ballack still look like it is taking him a second or 2 to come up with what he wants to say. Translating it in his head again.
After a rocky start, I think Ballack's been quite good, especially given his understandable bumps with the language. I think he's got a future.
Agreed. Who is the blonde British bird? She isn't horrible, but she struggles at controlling the red-headed greek.
she has to cover his bad jokes with giggles...but again at least he covered the 15minutes with something. For all the crap we give Lala's if he didnt talk it would be blondie v. ballack bedroom eyes, and Keller flashing back to '98 gold cup against brazil. The ' how will they handle 15minutes of rain delay' was a bit silly. This isnt Wimbledon after 2hrs. It was 4 minutes of bunker v. possess. Everything on schedule.
Does the "E" in ESPN stand for England? I thought the announcers today were going to orgasm when the English scored. Ridiculous.
My take on the teams so far: D - Ian Darke and Steve McManaman; Darke is a "C" but McMan is horrible. Darke will make an observation (instead of doing PBP) and McMan will say ... pause followed by more pause and then something like ... yep. If it is England we get some insight straight from English "FO". His additional comments are all negative. Classic, a wonderful header from Carroll elicted this input: I can't find anything wrong from the defenders on that one! Well no shitte; why does everything have to be NEGATVE? C - Adrian Healy and Robbie Mustoe; Healy is fine, he does well will the names and some of them are very tough to say in English. Healy is prepared. Mustoe like McMan is very negative. Always spins what we just saw to agree with his analysis even if replays or rewinding the DVR and watching in slo-mo says the opposite. Skip talking about the past plays and start predicting the next responses on the pitch! B+ - Derek Rae and either Taylor Twellman or Kasey Keller; this could have been a disaster. Twellman's track record on the MLS level has not been good and Keller is new to the big time booth. Rae is an "A" as usual. Stays in the match, gets the names right, sets the scene. Twellman has been a big surprise for me. While he spins what we just saw (see McMan and Mustoe above), Twellman at least ventures a projection on what one team's response might be in the immediate future to counter the other team. Keller needs to speak into the mike. Ok maybe that is not it, but Keller's tone seems to drift off in the match. This is his first big show, Keller needs to do better . The booth guys need to go. ESPN owns Bretos, put him in there and get him going. Go get Americans such as Wynalda and Sullivan and maybe a Ballack (for German matches) Smythe (Ireland), Henry (France), etc. If ESPN wants futbol to go more mainstream, featuring foreign accents is just plain nuts.
They're not bad. I like Ballack, although if his English was better he could be more eloquent. They are lightyears ahead of the SportsCenter crew. When they do highlights it is just so horrible. They would be better off just playing a highlight clip without commentary. A couple of weeks ago one girl butchered Ribery's name. She said "Frank R......... (long pause)... Ribery"... I mean come on. Ribery is not that hard to read. It's not like she couldn't say Blaszczykowski...
haha on McManyMans, you have to understand Darkey says these things right as McMM is taking a swig of single malt coffee vodka. He's getting plastered the whole way through. Kasey has been the surprise. Very steady, very calm, he even manages to put us in the match. Twellman for all his ra-ra frat boy charm, will generally try and give one actual footballing reason for why something happened instead of the platitudes.