Lalas is good at talking. He doesn't really say anything wrong usually and he actually has a decent record with his predictions. Martinez has the best tactical insight as expected of an actual coach. Ballack is good for comedy.
Pretty much this. Poor Michael has an English vocabulary of about 50 words. I think he's said "fantastic" about 200 times.
Love Martinez I wished they had him in studio like the World Cup. Ballack is comedy. Is it wrong to say that Lalas is growing on me?
Talk about putting the guy on the spot. He made best point in saying it was his childhood dream. He never played games with the USSF or the fans by leading them on. He made his objective clear from the get go. That's the reason I have no ill will towards him.
Lalas is underrated. Definitely a homer at times and a bit misguided but can you blame him? I find myself agreeing with him more often than not.
I agree. He was there to add some new perspective and came across as less interesting and insightful than the gents who didn't grow up speaking English. I know it's tough to be critical or insightful about people who are your teammates, but at least be interesting. Tell us something we wouldn't know.
I agree . . . but he plays up the homer persona to draw attention to himself (and let's face it, it probably helps ratings). Same thing with Wynalda. If you ever hear his perspective when he's not being "Eric Wynalda", he is very interesting and informative. Sometimes these guys' tv personality get in the way. So then Rossi had the opposite problem. He was being way too safe, responding in the way he would when being interviewed as a player. Which i guess is understandable, since he probably still feels part of the team. But as an analyst, that makes for bad TV.
After living in Spain for the last 5 years, Rossi's ability to speak Spanish is much better than English. So I wasn't surprised he was not comfortable on ESPN. Most of the stuff he has done for the last 5 years including recent interview/apearance for Italy - Spain game on Radio were in Spanish. He would have been more comfortable on ESPN Deportes than ESPN Inglés. Anyway, Rossi is in the following commerical as part of Team Hyundai for Euro 2012. . .
It's more Lalas's mannerisms when he talks, aka the homer attitude, that pisses people off, rather than the actual substance of what he's saying. Kinda wish they had Friedal in the booth though, he did very well for the Champions league final. Maybe McBride too as he did well also.
I don't think Ballack has been bad at all, Lalas just rubs me the wrong way. Yes, we get it, you loved England's performance against France, you keep saying it over and over. Now please break down tactics or something other than just the same repetitive garbage.
Did anyone catch Lalas bagging on Ireland and totally pissing Tommy Smyth off? Good stuff. I get the feeling that if Italy and the US ever went to war Italy would throw Rossi into an internment camp--dude sounds so American.
I know the Euros are on right now and not much else is happening on the European football front, but WTF does all this have to do with Rossi?
"After living in Spain for the last 5 years, Rossi's ability to speak Spanish is much better than English." It's still a ridiculous claim, no matter how many times or ways you read it...
This is a pretty minority opinion or view, but besides the fact he doesn't represent the US, I actually like Giuseppe. He's a very genuine guy on twitter and honestly, it wouldn't shock me if he is regretting not picking the states. Dude might have missed out on 3 cups. I hope he can come back from the injury. ACL tears are always tough, espescially tearing it twice. That being said, I hate team Italy, even though all four of my Grandparents are from there lol.
If someone has not been speaking their native language for long periods, it is entirely possible that a degree of fluency is temporarily lost, especially under high pressure. If you don't use it, you will become worse at speaking over time, obviously. However, we don't know how much English Rossi speaks in Spain every day, thus this is all moot.
You should of see when Ireland and Croatia played last weekend, Lalas was pissing Tommy off crazy! I wish Tommy would of smacked Lalas he deserves it he is really annoying.
No it's not ridiculous .... I have followed Villarreal for over 6 + years and check their stuff (Radio/TV, Papers, interviews) on daily basis. Rossi abilty to speak Spanish now is much better than English after living in Spain for over 5 years. Even few of the Italian media last year said Rossi now speaks Italian w/Spanish accent. His familarity with Spanish language began @ home (his mom also taught Spanish/Italian in H.S) and his good friend @ MU was Pique. P.S. I am done on this topic.... u can believe what u want... .