The Brazilian Ronaldo was at the PSG match last night. FOX commentator mentioned how he had a couple of great years at PSG. Got me thinking... is he mixing-up PSG with PSV? Or Ronaldo with Ronaldinho? So basically he announced to the country that he's only started watching soccer some 5 years ago.
So I forgot to DVR the Norway - Hungary match yesterday so I said to myself no sweat... ...I can just watch the rebroadcast this morning on FS2. I am usually not the type to complain about spoilers but at about 45 seconds into the match the Final score is flashed on the bottom of the screen in their scoreboard crawl. Simply idiotic.
So watching Sweden-Denmark on FS2. At halftime they inexplicably cut to college football and directed everyone to go to FSToGo for coverage of the soccer game. They managed to rejoin the soccer broadcast two minutes into the second half. And that's all you need to know about the state of soccer coverage on Fox Sports today. Thx, Jay!
they would never do the reverse of course Like espn scheduling back to back little league world series or WNBA games and soccer, you know it's going to run over....
This was infinitely dumber than sicking with a baseball game or whatever that runs over its time slot. Either stupid or just plain sleezy. Isn't fox soccer to go a paid streaming service? So I'm supposed to pay to continue watching the soccer match?
I meant Fox Sports to Go, their regular sports app. At any rate, I heard the halftime there was the football game as well. So whatever they were directing you to do wasn't actually helpful in watching soccer. Thx, Jay!
Gus Johnson reflects on his time broadcasting soccer on @richarddeitsch’s SI Media Podcast: https://t.co/647Z6V7S3H pic.twitter.com/7h6ggiwDhh— SI Soccer (@si_soccer) December 22, 2015 This week's @SInow Media Podcast guest is... Fox's Gus Johnson: https://t.co/Xmzz5CPp0Y— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) December 23, 2015
Sad that he looks back on his time in terms of "well, I'm proud that I did the best I could", which is tinged with a bit of regret regardless of how he says it. I think he still doesn't quite get what he did wrong, which makes it even sadder. I like the guy as a person, and he's a real pro, but he never should have been hired for that job and that blame lies at the feet of the Fox execs who also didn't know anything about soccer.
Yeah. It's my understanding that he was the SJ radio guy. That's probably fine, but give a guy some practice before you cast him into the limelight. Even the legendary announcers had to start out somehow and I'm sure when guys like Derek Rae and Arlo White were starting out, people were criticizing them. The Gus Johnson experiment had two failures. They cast a rookie into the limelight and didn't coach him. I posted an article in here a while ago about how Jim Nantz understood how he would never announce a golf tournament the same way as a basketball game. If Gus didn't bring his screaming maniacal self to a soccer game, would it have been different? We'll never know.
Yeah but there's a big difference. I'm sure that both of those guys grew up steeped in the game, having watched countless hours of footy, developing a broad and deep understanding of the nuances. GJ might've done that with basketball but it sure seems like he didn't with soccer. That is what made FOX's decision to place him into that role so short-sighted.
Exactly this. This is why the call for "more American voices" in and of itself is not practical at this time. There just aren't enough pros out there who have the depth of understanding from growing up the with game. Some of them fake it ok, but the majority are crap. My hope is that there are kids out there now who love the game and are practicing soccer play-by-play day in and day out like so many of the great sports announcers did in their sports as young people.
Kyle Martino & Chris Sullivan are good examples of Americans who grew up with the game, know it really well, and tend to say insightful appropriate things. There are a few others out there but we need a lot more. Until then I'm still very happy to listen to Darke, Champion, Tyler, Drury, and yes, even White.
Indeed. The original MLS'ers have all retired. Some have taken broadcasting jobs. As those who are now considered "seasoned vets" retire, hopefully they'll find broadcasting jobs. I think that's the biggest issue... we need people who have played in MLS and know the league who can announce the matches....and up until recently, our options have been fairly limited.
Former players don't make good play-by-play announcers typically. That's a special skill that requires years of practice, a pleasant voice and something of a gift. Unfortunately, in the US, these guys don't grow up with the game, so you end up with what we usually get, which is play-by-play announcers from other sports retrained for soccer. The results are mixed at best. Players usually end up being analysts or color commentators if they go into broadcasting. They are usually there to add insight to the play-by-play man who almost never has playing experience. We've got these guys in spades now.
It's my understanding that overseas (not just the major European powerhouses) announcers also announce other stuff. Is this true? Because soccer is king in other countries, what type of job do those announcers do when they announce other sports?
Ian Darke used to do boxing as well as soccer when he was at Sky - I'm sure he could make the most boring sports seem exciting
Doesn't every network have a guy who announces 2 or more sports? Fox-Joe Buck: MLB, NFL, Golf CBS-Jim Nantz:NFL, CBB, Golf ESPN: Mike Trico:NFL, Tennis, NBA So if you notice, even announcers in the US do multiple sports
For Germany both is possible. You're an football announcer or do other sports as well. Football exclusive most likely means you are working for SKY or Sport1. They're usually considered the best since private pays the best. Or you're working for Germany's BBCs(ARD or ZDF) then you're most likely an allrounder. E.g. Bartels announced the 2014 final and is currently announcing the Four Hills Tournament which is a big deal over here. But hey there are also legends like Rethy who's a football exclusive announcer(Brazil 7-1) but works for ZDF. And there is Buschmann a former basketball player working for Sport1 announcing just everything: football, american football, hockey, basketball. But yes, ARD or ZDF have the public mandate to broadcast sport and therefore normally bring in experts in the resp. sport but not as color announcer. There are no color commentators. They have allround journalists. The quality of broadcast is generally also on another level. E.g. would it be totally unacceptable to pronounce players names wrong or appear not well-informed enough. Or to make an epic show out of something thats just some pretty boring shite. So Id say they do a good job but it is a complete different job profile and of course there are guys whose way of announcing fits better this or that sport.
Yeah, that's the point. FWIW, I believe Chris Fowler also does horse racing in addition to his college football duties. But as white/blue says, it seems that most channels in other countries have the same procedure, they're just better informed and maybe because that's because they're journalists and not necessarily hired hands. I guess the equivalent here would be if people like Jim Rome, Tony Kornheiser (although that was tried and failed) and Dan LeBatard took the places of the PbP guys.
Damn! Spurs have moved to Leicester, England! How will this impact their rivalry with Arsenal? Discuss...
Not much to discuss really. The FOX staffers are a lot more clueless about the culture & geography of England than NBC staffers are. I noticed something else last night while I was watching that match... they showed little gray squares of upcoming matches and at first they listed "Milton Keynes"... 10 min later they'd changed it to "MK Dons".