Hearing Brad Friedel being interviewed on TV tonight I was amazed to hear him speak with a Geordie (NE England) accent. Maybe after a few years in England he has stopped being fully American. Perhaps he should now be referred to has the Anglo-American Keeper and no longer mentioned in the Yanks abroard section.
Funny that he should affect a Geordie accent, since Brad's spent most of time in England in the North West (Liverpool and Blackburn). He and Madonna should compare notes.
Yes, he has been in the NW of England, strange that. American + Merseyside + Lancashire must equal Geordie. His team mates at the USNT won`t be able to understand him if the interview I heard was anything to go by. It was proper Geordie.
Geordie? Is that as if someone from Liverpool was speaking with a marble in his mouth? Is there a website with clips of all the various British accents?
Friedel like Madonna has serious MENTAL problems! I hope Tim Howard replaces him as no. 1 US keeper soon. The guy's embarrassing. What a freaking WEIRDO!
What a wanker. There's nothing worse than some lad getting a few touches on the pitch and next thing you know he's talking like some bloody Ringo impersonator. I don't care how brilliant a football player he is or how massive his side might be, when he starts talking like a Brit he can just pi$$ off. When he comes back to the States, we'll set him straight.
I think it's more Lancs than Geordie - but whatever it is it's very odd I'm a Yank who has lived in London for quite sometime - many folks think I've developed an "Irish" accent, also many of my American mates in the UK are also accused of sounding vaguely Irish - there is something odd that happens to the American accent when it mixes with the UK accent that isn't natural - my American mates and I refer to it as the "Bermudan" accent But Brad's is particularly weird
Just think what he'd sound like if he grew up somewhere in the south (like Alabama)and then move to England. Then it would really be a freakish accent.
I also want to see a website where you have the various English accents cataloged with a video clip of them all saying the same thing, like "Friedel Fancies Foppish Accent; But Harder to Understand than Fergie."
Oh yes. Same as all the Brits hate an Englishman that moves to the staes and softens his British accent.
A similar fate befell the terrific jockey Steve Cauthen when he moved to the UK after his success in the states. He had an equally successful career in Britain as well but he forgot he was from Kentucky.
Catherine Zeta Jones. Not entirely the same (Welsh and a woman) but all the same, annoying to listen to. Mongrel. But then she is a total bitch anyway, makes it a little easier to despise.
I actually spent around 3/4 of a year living in Australia and then in England and it was very easy to pick up little words first, then the accent just kind of follows suit. There's not much to do against it. I imagine that most of you who are out there calling Brad a freak have never actually spent more than two weeks of a vacation out in England and therefore can't relate at all. Friedel's been out there for almost five years or so...totally understandable.
So why doesen't Claudio Reyna sound like some speech-impeded Brit? He's been there just as long, and still sounds like he's from New Jersey. Perhaps the New Jersey accent just overpowers everything else...but that doesent explain John Harkes, does it? Then there's Kasey Keller, who's been there for more than 10 years, and doesen't have a hint of an accent. I spent 9 months in London in the early 90's, and my friends said I came back sounding like I was from Michigan. (meaning, no accent at all).
It's also a question of how much you dive in to the culture that's surrounding you. You can spend all your time in England with other Americans or simply with your wife and kids or something, and perhaps not get the full effect. Normally I would say that hanging around the team all the time would help you get the accent, but nowadays, all teams are made up of players from so many different countries that there's probably not one dominant language or accent spoken. Then again, Reyna just may be different. I know it happened to me. I hear it in Friedel and Harkes somewhat right after he came back. Madonna's got it. Who knows?