Rate ESPN's announcing for yesterday's US game.

[simont]

I was watching the US play Latvia, and I was thinking how well Dave O'Bryan (forgive me if I spelled his name wrong) did the commentary. If I had to rate him on a scale of 1-10, I would give him a 7. I thought he did a decent job calling the game, but the only thing I did not like was when he started talking about Barry Bond's breaking the record during the game. I can understand its a big story, but I I really didnt like him talking about it while the ball was in play. what did everyone lese think of his commentary?

SimonT

[Eastern Bear]

I like O'Brien. I'd prefer Wynalda because he has stronger opinions and has a little more respect for his audience. Balboa still calls MLS "the" MLS. Balboa states the obvious constantly.

[OldFanatic]

I hate the way Balbao starts stuttering when asked a question. He shouldn't be asked any questions at all.

O'Brien has inexplicably gotten somewhat better since his disaster Poland friendly duty. He's not ideal of course, but I can put up with him a little bit. I didn't care about his Barry Bonds remark, and was glad Balboa kept quiet when he brought that up. But it wasn't something that big to make me dwell on it.

[montabon]

I do not care for either O'Brien or Balboa. O'Brien has "American Sports Announcers' Disease" (ASAD), which compels its victims to ensure that there is not one moment of silence from the broadcast booth, regardless of the value of the commentary being offered. Balboa overstates the obvious and is unwilling to offer candid opinions a la Wynalda.

Note that ASAD is sometimes reffered to as the "Dick Stockton School of Broadcasting" (DSSB).

Thank goodness for the mute button!

[monster]

I'm leaving this here for now, but there is an extensive thread (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=359832) on this subject in the MNT fora. Hopefully things can stay consolidated.

[sidefootsitter]

Thank you, Mrs. O'Brien, for starting this thread.

[Elisa Uranga]

Honestly O'Brien is awful. Kasey is a great goal keeper, but the world's best... The commentating is embarassing. I am going to give ESPN and 7 first dibs at my WC Tivo viewing, but if they suck as I expect. I will be watching it on Univision. (Which is not my preferred station, I prefer Telemundo). Fortunately, I will be watching the 2nd week of the Group stage in Europe.

[TarheelJTK]

I wish that ESPN would have their announcers do a little research on the proper way to call a game. Watch some tapes of announcers that are considered the best and hear how they go about doing it. O'Brien just doesn't get it, the game is beautiful without you blathering on over it. It's not baseball where there are lots of starts and stops which require talking to keep the viewer interested. I think he could do a good job but won't become one because after the world cup he will never call another soccer game for ESPN. He's improved a little bit each time he's called a game.

Balboa is a completely different beast. He is truly awful and has been consistently awful for as long as he's been in the booth. He doesn't offer any insight that someone who stopped playing in high school couldn't give. Drew Carey would be a better option at this point, at least he follows the game on a wider level.

[GutBomb]

i wonder why people don't get it. there will be MORE non-soccer fans watching the world cup than soccer fans. casual sports fans will actually watch this because it is being presented as a "big deal". The networks will appeal to them, not us. They've already got us and know we'll watch with non-traditional commentators. but they also know that those non-traditional (to soccer) commentators are VERY traditional to every other sport here. They are appealing to those masses, not our few. Dave O'Brien is a perfect mesh between what they want and what we want. He has the voice and style that they want, but is still able to talk about and understand the game for us. It could be MUCH MUCH worse.

[sidefootsitter]

i wonder why people don't get it. there will be MORE non-soccer fans watching the world cup than soccer fans. casual sports fans will actually watch this because it is being presented as a "big deal". The networks will appeal to them, not us... Bullsh*t.

If that was so, the Superbowl announcers would be a pair of pretty boy Hollywood stars to appeal to a "casual football fan" ... yet, all networks put their best football announcers up for the big game.

The same goes for basketball, figure skating, luge, hockey, you name it.

Unfortunately, with the WC coming up, DOB and 'Celo are not ESPN's best soccer men.

[GutBomb]

Bullsh*t.

If that was so, the Superbowl announcers would be a pair of pretty boy Hollywood stars to appeal to a "casual football fan" ... yet, all networks put their best football announcers up for the big game.

The same goes for basketball, figure skating, luge, hockey, you name it.

Unfortunately, with the WC coming up, DOB and 'Celo are not ESPN's best soccer men.
our 2 viewpoints are compatible. they put forth the best football, basketball, and baseball commentators because they are what the majority of viewers will want. The majority of people watching the world cup don't want someone with a foreign accent. They don't want the best (in our opinion) soccer commentator even with an american accent. They want a classic sports commentator that can explain this weird game to them in words they can understand and a voice they are used to listening to in other sports they are more familiar with. Dave O'Brien fits that role.

The world cup is not the super bowl. the super bowl is watched by people that don't like football much. It is watched because it is on. The world cup is different. it is much smaller scale than the super bowl to most people and they need to pander more to get viewers. that is what they are doing with Dave O'Brien. And luckily he's good enough to satisfy me and them. Only the few people like yourself that actually care about it will be bothered.

[szazzy]

Dave O'Brien is exponentially better with anyone but Balboa. He needs someone like Wynalda to defer his questions to instead of having to do all the work. They have gotten better together, but Balboa makes Ty Keough look insightful.

I did notice he repeated himself slightly less in the Send Off Series. However, when his most detailed analysis is that grabbing jerseys is great defending, and diving is smart, it makes me want to punch him. I'm pretty sure he's on there because he's overwhelmingly positive about the US all the time, and not because of any actual broadcasting qualities.

[eneste]

As American soccer announcing teams go O'Brien/Balboa is one of the worst on any network and the Latvia game was a typical performance.

[sidefootsitter]

our 2 viewpoints are compatible. they put forth the best football, basketball, and baseball commentators because they are what the majority of viewers will want. The majority of people watching the world cup don't want someone with a foreign accent. They don't want the best (in our opinion) soccer commentator even with an american accent... I am not sure we agree here. :(

I am a firm believer that a quality announcing pair would make soccer a lot more popular to the non-soccer fan than a complete idiot like Marcelo Balboa and a fly-by-nighter like Dave O'Brien.

Unfortunately, there's not much to choose from after you pick the "accented" Derek Rae.

BTW, "accented" Thomas Rongen and Ray Hudson do OK for themselves.

[GutBomb]

ray hudson sucks. his analyisis is not insightful, and he always attempts to PBP over the PBP guy. aside from that he says really inappropriate things like "He's having an orgasm with that ball" over and over in a SJ Quakes game last year and other things of that nature. Just because he has a nice one liner once in a while and an accent it does not make him a good commentator.

And thomas rongen is terrible as well. no insight other than "that was a nice pass there, that is what is usually lacking in this league" or "he really knows how to hustle"

Derek Rae is the best we have in this country as far as a traditional soccer announcer goes, but what we, as fans of a niche sport in the US like is not what the rest of the fans like. If it makes soccer more popular (or tolerable) to americans to have a baseball guy do PBP and a sycophant do colour, then I am all for it.

[simont]

I have to say that I disagree with what you said about Ray Hudson. To me he can be a bit annoying when he screams through the mike, but every time that i have tuned into Goal Tv and herd him analysing, I have always felt like he has done a good job. he's a very funny guy, and a lot of his statements, like a team is playing "like a bunch of school girls' had us all rolling in the aisles.

Simon T