With all the talk about the ESPN commentators (such as Dave O'Brian, Marcelo Balboa, and Eric Wynalda) being so inept, I thought that we should single out Glenn Davis as the soul person (and maybe John Harkes, as well) who does a decent job. He's always insightful, fair, and keeps his head. While Wynalda consistantly brings negativity to the scene (especially about the US), Glenn Davis keeps it optimistic, and reminds us how far we have come. For those of you who do not live in the south, you should check out his radio shows on Monday and Wednesday broadcast live from Houston (It streams live on the internet at www.espn790.com ). He's doing great things for the game, and we should all latch on to his coattails. Basically, rather than pointing out the obvious (Balboa), or exaggerating problems (Jamie Trekker and Eric Wynalda), we should think about things rationally and avoid the sort of knee-jerk reactions that are so common in American sports. Glenn Davis does this, and ESPN would be well-served to appoint more analysts of his stature.
What's your point? Are you suggesting that Davis or someone with a more rational person shouldn't be considered because of JP and Rob Stone? Personally I'd welcome just about any new blood doing analysis or play-by-play for USA games. I think most of the "old guard" are extremely poor and most don't seem to understand the game all that well.
Yes, in fact, I watch soccer almost every day. FORTUNATELY, I've been in Europe for most of the world cup (as I went to the games), so I suppose I wasn't able to hear JP or Rob. All I've heard is what Balboa and the like have done. I've been fortunate to hear Glenn's analysis many times. He's fresh, likeable, and doesn't refer to David Beckham as "Michael Beckett" or call Luca Toni, "Toni Luca." Basically, he actually knows what he's doing. Anyway, it was just an observation. I apologize that I didn't name every single commentator that ESPN has hired.
my point was that you completely ignored ESPN's two most well established commentators. are you saying that ESPN should take davis as the primary guys in the future and give a greater snub to JP? Dont get me wrong, I like davis, but when you live in houston and still cant pronounce a spanish name like "Wanchope"... especially after calling costa rica in the 02 cup...
I went to the espn790.com website and immediately got distracted by the "Babe of the Day." The site has an interesting bio on Glenn Davis. I didn't realize he was a former player. The Soccer Hour show airs from 9-10 p.m. Central Time on Wed. That would be 7-8 p.m. for us left coasters. Couldn't find anything about a Monday airing of the show. Bayernguy are you suggesting Glenn be an analyst rather than do pbp? I wouldn't think he would be interested as most pbp guys want to be the lead.
I agree on Glenn Davis. He is a class act and has a real passion for the game. He is definitely one of the good guys. I hope he is one of the main guys in South Africa. I think he will be doing the FC Barcelona matches when they come to the U.S. in August. He also writes a soccer column in the Houston Chronicle. Here is the one he put out today. A very balanced look at U.S. Soccer. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/soc/4018617.html
^Rae would have to drop his accent before Disney lets he act as a primary or for any USA games. ...casual fan...blah,blah,blah...
Adrian Healey and Tommy Smyth were the top team of the Cup IMO. Closely followed by JP and Harkes. I normally like Glenn Davis very much and was glad to see him involved but I thought he had a poor performance by his standards. Didn't seem to prepare as well and had more mispronunciations than normal. Maybe Shepp Messing brought him down a notch. I don't think their styles go well together. Both kind of have a 'shouting' voice when they get excited and it made the commentary sound harsh on the ears.
While I think that Healey did a good job (smyth got on my nerves this cup though), he was far from one of Disney's "primary" announcers. I'm not sure if he was given any matches that were on ABC... the games expected to have the highest viewership due to timeslot and matchup were all pretty much done by JP and OBrien.
haha...ok ok, you caught me. But seriously, I know I exaggerated a bit by saying he should be the only person to commentate...but...I suppose my point was that he is one of the few commentators who actually knows what he's talking about. Next time, I shall clarify.
My ESPN PbP rankings: 1. Derek Rae 2. Adrian Healey (though that's based on a limited sample) t3. Glenn Davis t3. J.P. Dellacamera 5. Rob Stone 99. Dave O'Brien I'd like to see Dave Johnson (D.C. United) get a shot to call internationals and MLS on ESPN.
Since we are talking about the coverage on ESPN/ABC, why do they have Brent Musberger hosting the pre game and half time show? Is he the big main stream sports name that they feel the need to add? I think I would have preferred someone more like Bob Ley.
To be honest, I thought Musburger has done a good job. Not brilliant, but Foudy and Wynalda have been able to cover him.
Are you kidding me or something. If they are covering well for him let me pose this question. Today they were all live in Berlin.They beat to hell the story that Frings was suspended , which was fine. They had a half hour but not once in that half hour did they discuss who might take his place. They were in germany and should at least be able to take a guess as to what Klinsman would do. I can tell you if it had been an NFL player who went out the guys in the studio would be all over the choices that the coach might make. I feel they had no idea what the Germans would do to replace him.
I like Glenn Davis as a commentator and think that he's in the top three American soccer commentators, but he's always pronounced Bundesliga as boon-desh-lee-gah, instead of boon-des-lee-gah, which is the correct pronunciation. It's always grated me a little bit as a fluent German speaker.