Dave O'Brien Part Duex (R)

[Cweedchop]

A much better performance today. Not many mistakes if any I detected today.

Still a little too story happy as opposed to describing the action on the field, but I think that too will improve with time.

Marcelo now has his picture in the dictionary under the phrase "Master of the obvious".

It's going to suck having to listen to him in Germany.

[DMunited]

A much better performance today. Not many mistakes if any I detected today.

Still a little too story happy as opposed to describing the action on the field, but I think that too will improve with time.

Marcelo now has his picture in the dictionary under the phrase "Master of the obvious".

It's going to suck having to listen to him in Germany.

It's amazing how much Celo can talk without ever saying anything interesting.

[Dooglas]

yea really. DOB is alright, i dont like his voice much, he sounds too much like one of those old football broadcasters or bball. he and celo dont have much on air chemistry going on, stop telling us who you think is a bubble player etc. and talk about the game. of course USA needs to calm down and spread the ball out Celo, we know that. jebus :)

[ty webb]

He was much better today. I hope he keeps improving.

[joehill]

there was one weird bit in the first half when O'brien was wondering why a foul wasn't called against Guatemala, he seemed to have no understanding of advantage, which the ref was clearing allowing the US to play with.

much less in the way of human interest stories this game, thankfully.

[ty webb]

yea really. DOB is alright, i dont like his voice much, he sounds too much like one of those old football broadcasters or bball. he and celo dont have much on air chemistry going on, stop telling us who you think is a bubble player etc. and talk about the game. of course USA needs to calm down and spread the ball out Celo, we know that. jebus :)

DOB's job is to sound like one of those old football and Bball broadcasters. He has announced many sports. His voice is what got him the job to announce the WC.

[ursula]

I miss JP.

[DoctorD]

Not DOB, but just how much time does Marcelo spend on his hair?

[Saltenya94]

It's going to suck having to listen to him in Germany.
You still have time to perfect your spanish and watch it on Univision. :D Just remember:
Tiro de esquina: Corner Kick
Tarjeta Amarilla: Yellow Card
Tarjeta Roja: Red Card
Pelota/ Es-Phe-rico; Ball
Yega al Poste : Hits the post
Incha / Afficionados: Supporters
Technico : Coach
Arbitro : referee
Juego de adventaja : Offside
everything else is in english (i.e. Penalty, offiside...etc.)

[Sachsen]

Good job by O'Brien. You know what I really like? Every time the US did something dangerous in the offensive end, like get ready to take a shot, O'Brien's voice rose up a couple notches with real excitement, but not totally over the top like Stone. You can tell he's a real fan of the team and the game. I don't really care that he doesn't have a PhD in the nuances of the sport yet, his PBP will get better with time.

I like his voice, his controlled enthusiasm, and the gravitas he brings to the broadcast. JP is still our best, but with time, O'Brien could give him a run for his money.

[ProfZim1]

A much better performance today. Not many mistakes if any I detected today.

Still a little too story happy as opposed to describing the action on the field, but I think that too will improve with time.

Marcelo now has his picture in the dictionary under the phrase "Master of the obvious".

It's going to suck having to listen to him in Germany.

I heard him say Ching plays for San Jose. Apparently, there is a team in San Jose AND a team in Houston. Otherwise, I thought he did ok. I switched to Telemundo after the halftime show.

[SUDano]

there was one weird bit in the first half when O'brien was wondering why a foul wasn't called against Guatemala, he seemed to have no understanding of advantage, which the ref was clearing allowing the US to play with.

much less in the way of human interest stories this game, thankfully.

I noticed that too, and the bench rolling the ball back into play. Celo doesn't help him much either. He said and the US bench 'played' the ball to Klein and Olsen? What? It wasn't that the bench rolled the ball back into play it was the ball was still rolling. Dead ball mean dead ball, no rolling. Important but subtle difference.

[dncm]

DOB is not great at all, and is really not an improvement over Stoner. At least Stoner knows about soccer. DOB started with better PBP, but by the second half, he was droning on and on and on.

DOB did refer to getting a goal before "intermission", which I guess is being really picky. My first reaction was "nice hockey reference" but I guess it is okay.

Celo is the worst, the worst, the worst - he is the new Ty Keough.

[kcscsupporter]

Celo is the worst, the worst, the worst - he is the new Ty Keough.

ty is twice the color man celo is... and ty was terrible.

[lemons]

O'Brien did much better today. However, I did get a good laugh out of this one: "Eddie Johnson is currently on the bench. However, we expect to see him at the top of the second half."

Batter up! :D

[The Big Ticket]

DOB was alright.

Once again Marcelo's insightful analysis went completely over my head. The guy must be thinking on a completely different level, my mind is merely ordinary. Tell me, did I get this right: are Rolfe and Wolff players who are good at getting into positions? Do they make runs and get into positions? And when they get into those positions should they or should they not score?

And how was the weather at the game? O'Brien never talked about that at all. Was it cold? I couldn't tell.

[sidefootsitter]

I switched to Telemundo a few times in the first half when his stories went on for way too long.

By the 2nd half, I was getting used to him ... which is the point - the game was so in hand by then, you can talk about whatever you feel like, but don't go yammering about the wedding licenses when the game is back and forth.

BTW, he completely missed Pearce's yellow, whch makes me think he often watches the game on the monitor, as many baseball and Am. football PBPs do. This is soccer. Follow the damn action on the field in front of you.

[Simply notken]

there was one weird bit in the first half when O'brien was wondering why a foul wasn't called against Guatemala, he seemed to have no understanding of advantage, which the ref was clearing allowing the US to play with.

much less in the way of human interest stories this game, thankfully.

I noticed this too. However, it was a wierd play because the ref was calling advantage but shouldn't have because the ball was played in a negative way. Should have noticed the refs signal though.

One thing I liked that he did today was he pointed out some off the ball runs that weren't visible on TV that players in the TV frame weren't picking out. Not that this is probably important to most, but I feel like you miss something when the only pbp concerns the people touching the ball. I remember one time he incorporated a run that Klien was makeing out of the frame. Who ever had the ball didn't make the pass, but I wouldn't have known he had a better option than he took, if he hadn't said something.

[wjarrettc]

there was one weird bit in the first half when O'brien was wondering why a foul wasn't called against Guatemala, he seemed to have no understanding of advantage, which the ref was clearing allowing the US to play with.

much less in the way of human interest stories this game, thankfully.


I've seen this hundreds of times by commentators with way more soccer experience than O'Brien. It will come in time.

I thought he did much better. He even mentioned "the 7th minute" at one point instead of calling it 6mins 23secs into the half :)

It's also no wonder he was confused on the restart late in the first half. It was supposed to be a free kick but Navarro allowed them to play a rolling ball. I really don't have a problem with him doing that but by the letter of the law it was not a correct restart.

[Stan Collins]

It's official: DOB stopped calling him "Jason" long, long, long, long, long, long before BS posters stopped spelling his name wrong.