Soccersplaining = The art of commentating on a game for the benefit of the blind, people without a TV, or people who have never seen the game before. Usually from two people with the talent to read from preprinted notes and say stupid thing for 90 minutes Both must know what players "should" have done and how managers "should" have set the team up. Favourite comments being. There may have been contact there. Not good enough for me. The referee, linesman got that wrong. From that angle, he may have got it right. A long diagonal pass with the outside of the boot. Keepers at fault on that goal. That's a penalty for me. 10 foot lower thats a goal. Etc. etc. etc.
My favorite is "he should have done better with that." Per the commentators, the average game score should be 6-5.
I used to watch quite a bit of Italian Calcio matches when I had a 12' dish. The commentators rarely added more than who had the ball or who it was passed to. Unfortunately you didn't get to know what that player's favorite toy was when he was 3 yrs old! Ps...bring back Toby Charles!
It's funny because the US tried to employ a similar strategy against Argentina. It generally worked for Iceland. The US? It looked like ten guys desperately chasing the other ten guys and the ball.
Ah yes: Toby Charles. Not sure if that was his catch phrase, or if it should be "Ooo. That was a baaaad one."
ESPN's commenatator line ups from the last two WC's are looking like sheer genius compared to what Fox is offering.
The whole World Cup, save for a few stud teams and Saudi Arabia on the flip side, plays like the U.S. used to play. Defend with numbers and commitment, then counter. Only we don't seem to do that so well any more.
Just give me whoever was calling the Peru/Denmark game and arguing about whether or not an Aerosmith song was old and I would be a happy camper.
Colombia handball & Japan penalty made it 1-0 after 5 minutes. Colombian red carded. Colombia ties it up with cheeky free kick outside 18 yrd box. Ground ball just sneaked by GK in lower right corner. The Fox commentators are butchering the game BTW. Off to Telemundo I go.
Yeah I know. She hasn't been the same since her concussion.* * Not a joke, it's true. But the doctor says that in a few more months she should be back to normal, because the impairment is rarely permanent with the first concussion.
The Japanese keeper was ill-served by his wall on that one. Started with Telemundo tpdau and stayed there. I'm done with Fox when I have any choice in the matter. This might be as bad as ESPN in 2006, when bigsoccer hurt the fee fees of head commentator and soccer know-nothing Dave O'Brien. Though that does make me wonder: Will Fox Sports commentators like Tony Meola get better as the tournament progresses, or will they, Like Marcelo Balboa in 2006, get worse? I'd appreciate any information from those who stick with Fox
For me, the best commentator has been Aly Wagner. The Brits don't really talk about the tactics, they just say things like "Oh too bad, he really should have made that." The American male soccer guys, like Holden and Meola, do a better job but they're not very good at announcing. Whereas I find Wagner to be a useful analyst and also reasonably skilled. YMMV.
I and most brits don't need someone telling me/us what they should have done. Or like the Mexico game when the comms spent the first 10 minutes on how Mexico would spend 90 minutes in their own penalty area. But it wouldn't do any good against the Krauts. In fact Mexico came out with some fine attacking football. If you need some strident monotoned voiced woman telling you the obvious tactics when you have the TV in front of you. Then I don't know what to say. The soccersplaining from the American comms means I turn off the sound. But I understand they're talking to an audience who have been brought up watching and listening to US sports.
I gave up on the Colombia Japan game and fast forwarded it just to see if there were any goals. Colombia spent a lot of time running into Japanese players then falling in agony looking for the set piece. And it worked. Yeah and screw "Hamez" if he can't pronounce his name.
1) There was no woman announcing the Mexico-Brazil match. 2) Don't kid yourself, Brit announcers spend the entire match talking about how Iceland plays 10 men behind the ball, about how disciplined the squad is, blah blah blah. Yeah, we figured that out.
Que? - I have the TSN feed which has Brit announcers that are pretty good at telling you who has the ball, with limited tactical commentary (especially for formation stuff that's not obvious via the feed) and some historical stats for relevant players as things occur. I will take this over insipid american announcers all day long.
The Latino pseudo Andres Cantor on Fox said on a Colombia throw in "hand ball for Colombia." I shit you not.
All Canadians are British wannabes. Except for the French variety. Being serious, this debate is of course one of different styles. All fair. The only thing I dispute is the contention that British fans don't need announcers telling them things because they know all that already. Bull. Shit. Americans know the hell out of gridiron and basketball, but that doesn't mean that \they have it all figured out, so there's no need for announcers to tell them stuff.
He said that a lot during the Peru/Denmark game. I like him and the energy he brings, a few mistranslated terms don't bother me that much.