Pour a margarita, kick back and watch some fine football action. We can easily watch the EPL, Serie A, La Liga, FMF and the MLS in this country. Not hard to find. Always fun to watch. Not to mention football from Argentina and Columbia and others if you want. Hell, I watched the Arsenal/Charlton women's game the other day and was entertained. Just turn down the sound on ESPN2 on Thursday night and enjoy!
They tend to do this very clumsily. Like last night's comment about Dempsey's "80 million dollar goal." If there were in fact the kind of casual fan to whom you were refer watching last night, I'm pretty sure they would not have understood this. If they weren't familiar with relegation, they'd be utterly lost. And those who are would probably have been a bit confused. No one said, "Fulham needed to win to assure themselves of not being relegated to the 2nd level, and Dempsey hit the winner in a 1-0 match to assure they stay up. That could mean a difference in revenue of up to 80 million according to some reports." Instead Wynalda just kind of said something about Dempsey scoring an 80 million dollar goal against Liverpool. And a few sentences later something about relegation costing teams a lot of money. That's kind of typical of the rushed unprofessional manner of last night's broadcast. More than any other thus far, it sounded like they were rushing through checklists of topics. Tommy's "We haven't talked about the Champion's League yet" comment prefacing that discussion was telling. And Tommy and Eric have no chemestry at this point. They don't even seem to get what each other are saying half the time. Like Eric's "size doesn't matter" joke, which clearly went over Tommy's head. Having bitched about all that, I will say last night was worse than usual. Previously they weren't as bad.
I actually watch with the volume turned up. I am not even complaining. I am just making the observation that it sucks. That's all. I can live with it, but at the same time I'd be lieing if I said it was good. And to be fair to the commentators, that game didnt give them much to work with last night. BRUTALLLLLLLLL Match.
i can give an anecdote as to how ESPN's strategy of drawing in new fans is working. of course it's only an anecdote so take it for what it's worth. i've had a new lady in my life for a couple of months. her brotherinlaw is a huge soccer fan (domestic and international; good man!!) and been trying to get her into it and her sister's been getting into it a little lately and when she found out i was a big soccer fan, she decided it was time for her to take the plunge and become a soccer fan (she's into me; what can i say? ). well, she's from the missouri area originally so voila!! instant KC Wizards fan. (good season to be a Wizards fan it seems!) she's determined to become a real fan so she bought the mlsnet internet tv thingy for $20 and tries to watch other games when she gets the chance. anyway, she's a great fan and there's nothing like talking to a new soccer fan to remind you about some of the basics - and complexities - of the game. so on the phone after last night's game, before i could say anything, she says to me, "you know, why are those guys talking so much when other things are happening? i couldn't even tell what they're talking about half the time; meanwhile, all sorts of stuff is happening in the game which i'm trying to keep up with but i don't get half of that stuff either, 'cause i'm still learning soccer. they weren't helping me out at all. i'll take the guys on my mlsnet package (i guess she gets all the local guys like on direct kick); at least i can keep up with the game and figure out what's going on.' i had to laugh. it's not just an old, cynical soccer blowhard like me that's bitching, but i've got a newbie on my hands that doesn't get it either. so much for ESPN reaching this particular "new" soccer fan... anyway, just an anecdote.
I would expect that kind of response. I mean, regardless of what one thinks of this "complete idiot's guide to soccer approach", if you're going to do it, you have to do it well. I'm sure she didn't get the Dempsey goal. And I'm sure she was pretty lost when they were talking about the Champions League. No one could articulate,"AC Milan of Italy and Liverpool of England will meet in the Champions League final, the most prestigious club trophy in Europe, in a rematch of the 2005 final, won by Liverpool in penalties after coming back from a 3-0 deficit to tie." Just some kind of random comments about it being remarkable that AC Milan and Liverpool were playing and how AC Milan would win if they got a 3 goal lead.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I can't stand Tommy Smyth. He may be the best soccer commentator in the world, but I'd never know it, because I find his voice so distracting that I can't pay attention to what he's saying. He may be talking about the strengths of the Chicago Fire defense, but all I hear in my head is Smyth saying, "Everyone's always after me lucky charms." Would ESPN hire Dikembe Mutombo to be a basketball commentator? Of course not, because he sounds like the friggin' cookie monster. But they've got no problem hiring Lucky Charms to announce soccer.
I like Smyth but your post made me laugh my ass off. The best televised game I have ever scene was this seasons Barca vs Real Madrid El Classico. I downloaded an HDTV torrent from another well know football site. The beauty was that it was stadium sound only. I don't know how or where the video came from but it was superb quality. It was the next best thing to being there. It's on DVD and I can watch it whenever I get pissed off during an MLS match on ESPN2. I have decided to stop getting worked up over this nonsense. I prefer to watch Telemundo over ESPN2 and the only spanish I know is that pelota is the ball.
I remember reading something a couple of years ago where they showed several sports games without announcers and the people watching it prefered it much more.
I watched the whole game live, and the only commentary bitch I had was the sheer amount of times they pointed out both goals were own goals. I didn't see anything wrong with the rest. I was able to keep up with the game just fine.
Have you watched any of the Telefutura broadcasts this year? I have very little idea what they're saying, but it's obvious they're engaged and are talking primarily about the game in front of them, whether or not there's anything to "get excited about." If you're a soccer commentator, you should be excited because you get to watch a soccer game, because it's an inherently fun thing to do. If you're not, you probably shouldn't be a soccer commentator.
Tommy Smyth does much better when he doesn't have some arrogant ass treating him like a funny little retard with a cute accent and who tries to get him to say those funny little things like "the ol' onion bag" whenever possible.
Speaking of, the Toronto FC home game had some great commentating. But then it sounded more like an EPL game, minus one accent.
It's just one of those things that hits people differently. Like some people don't mind people talking on their cell phone near them, whereas it drives me out of my effing mind. Hearing these bozos babble just bugs me. And turning the sound down isn't an option, they do occasionally have something interesting to say, and at least there's always a hint of crowd noise in the background.
You call them "odd[est] tidbits," but to a casual fan these facts and rumblings give insight into the League. I watched the Colorado game with a buddy of mine back from home, who's never followed soccer at all. He was actually pretty enamoured at most of the discussions that took place.
Unlike people who aren't idiots, Dave O'Brien doesn't have these stories committed to memory and he reads them off cue cards in front of him. To prove further his inability to think ahead, he hasn't figured out a way to make these stories "soccer succinct" and still uses his regular "baseball format", which has 15+ seconds for the in-game stoppages. Now, compare him to Derek Rae, who's a consumate pro. When he's doing a CL game with, let's say PSV, he'll mention Jason Culina and quickly refer to Jason's dad Branko, who's a head coach with Sydney in the A-League. Moreover, he'll pronounce the last name in its proper Croatian (~Tschu-leena) rather than in its Anglosized form (Koo-leena). Or, when talking about Philip Cocu, he'd say something like, "An ex-Barcelona man still hasn't made up his mind whether to retire after this season". That's also background story but it's told with 2-4 second soundbites because it's soccer and not any other sport. Dave is just too stupid to realize that.
Anyone who is lucky enough to have a CBC affiliate on their cable/satellite system can do a quick a/b test tomorrow for TFC vs Chicago (and for Any game with Toronto FC). I prefer the guy who calls the matches for the CBC to Dave O'Brien or even the FSC guys. Knowledgeable about MLS, and to the point. No crap useless information from him. So yeh, I'll be watching Toronto FC vs Chicago half on CBC and the other half on FSC.
I totally agree. How friggin hard is it to change your commentating style youve been doing your whole career??? It be like telling a lefty to start writing right handed and him struggling to do so. Oh well we just have to deal with these morons I guess....
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the apparent tie-breaking goal about midway through the second half of the Colorado/RSL game, that turned out to be offside instead. It was about the only highlight in the second half, and ESPN missed it by turning to splitscreen for an ESPN Sportscenter Update, therefore the viewer only got to see this "goal" in the tiny window with the game sound turned down, and then the guy in the other studio finishes his update by mentioning non-chalantly like "oh, there's a goal." I could imagine the egg on their faces for missing such an important moment, but that the offside flag was up must have had them going "whew!!!" instead, although they'd never admit it. They got a reprieve this time, but if next time the goal counts, they're going to get a lot of flak for it.
Exactly! Well said. I absolutely agree that Derek Rae is clearly the best choice for MLS PbP. I think Seamus Malin is the best choice for analysis. The crux of it is that there is nothing Dave O'Brien can do that Rae can't do. But there are huge amounts of insights and nuance and passion and knowledge that Rae can offer that O'Brien will still be unable to offer three years from now. Smyth and Wynalda I can live with, although there are certainly better choices out there. What's frustrating is that there is no proper rationale for ESPN to keep feeding us this crew. It doesn't make sense at any level. Again: there is no reason why Derek Rae couldn't be giving us some of these personal asides that ESPN thinks are so important. But he would do it the correct way as you've described in your post, Sidefootsitter.
I agree with this. I don't have much problem with the various stories or even the time they spend on them, though I think they did to vary them a bit talking about different players or happens just just continuing discussing Freddies Adu, Beckham and the fact that there were 2 own goals. But the thing that is really lacking IMHO if they are aiming to bring in the casual soccer fan, is more actually information about the game. What I mean is that they need to definate off-sides when it occurs or explain why there is "stoppage time" at the end of a half or explain the difference between fouls and cards. It might be annoying for people who know the game, but I think it's sensible to make the game understandable to people who don't watch regularly.
Any announcer, including the much copied and much revered Vin Scully, changes his style a little depending on what sports he is covering. When Vin was doing the MLB on NBC with Joe Garagiola, Vin let Joe talk. When Vin did golf on CBS, he was playing the set-up man to Ken Venturi. When he did the NFL games on CBS with John Madden, he let Madden go over the top. When he does the Dodgers games by himself, he tells stories and the background bits non-stop. I've seen Vin Scully many times. Vin Scully is a genius announcer. Dave O'Brien is no Vin Scully. Or Al Michaels. Or Jon Miller. Or Mike Emrick. Or that Mike Lang dude in Pittsburgh, who coined the "beat him like a rented mule" phrase. Or ... well, you get my point.
Sorry people, but nothing is worse than having to listen to GREG LALAS say what the players SHOULD HAVE done. Until you suffer through multiple seasons of that nonsense, you can't really complain.
I should be so lucky. At home, I live near Detroit, so I get the CBC feed from Windsor, and I get their broadcast for Toronto FC. At school, I live in New York, and I get JP and Shep. These two broadcasting duos are arguably the best in MLS and somehow I am lucky enough to be getting both. How did I pull that one off? P.S. You get CBC on satellite? That would be nice, as my cable doesn't have Telefutura or HDNet.
Look on the houston chronicle website at the dynamo soccer page. Brian ching has a player blog where he expresses the view the guy who started this blog.