I really love Herculez Gomez and Alejandro Moreno's commentary on ESPN, I'm sad they didn't get to do commentary for any of these WC matches. Also a fan of Taylor Twellman. Would have liked to see Donovan in the booth too, I think he can provide very honest commentary. They should have hired some other recent USMNT players who have free time on their hands - I bet Jermaine Jones and Onyewu would make great commentators. Mastroeni might also be good, given his coaching experience. I don't find Guus Hiddink to be that entertaining or informative (much like Michael Ballack in 2014 WC). But Ian Wright is decent. And say what you will about Lalas, at least he has strong opinions and is never boring.
Does Ally Wagner’s tone bug anyone else? She puts the same strange emphasis in every sentence. “France will want that chance BAAACK”, “you don’t get many like that in a GAAAME.” Every.single.comment.
Yes. But I am biased towards English commentaries, and the only female sports commentator that I've liked (as opposed to negative/neutral feelings towards) is Jessica Mendoza, who does baseball. And that's partly because she's got some good chemistry and livens up some pretty bland "Baseball Tonight" PBP guys...
Tell me why we have to go to Enger-fing-land to get e FEMALE soccer commentator? If there is one place in football we are clearly superior to the Brits it is in women's soccer. if we want a commentator for our studio show, why not hire one of them instead Kelly whatever-her--name-is?
yeah I find that people who are desperate to hate someone (usually women doing a 'man's job') they find really odd things like that she has bad 'tone' or 'has strange emphasis in every sentence'....to complain about like they are some kind of phd in speech or something.
Umm, I don’t think you understand sexism. Critiquing something someone does that is annoying regardless of sex isn’t sexism. Not criticizing her for that because she’s a woman IS sexism. It bugs me because that’s not the way she talks in the studio. If my wife spoke like that only on the phone I’d be asking her what the hell was going on. It’s not a small thing, it’s literally the way she is talking for 2 hours. She is a good commentator, and I prefer her to Meola and especially better than Cobi Jones. I asked a simple question because I’ve never heard anything like it before. My brother in law feels the same way independent of me. I critique everyone. Stop stretching.
The Stone-Lalas dumbumvirate sums up Fox's botched World Cup coverage The broadcaster’s efforts at Russia 2018 were the TV equivalent of Marouane Fellaini, a player who tries to do everything and succeeds at almost nothing https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/13/fox-sports-world-cup-coverage-soccer-criticism
the guardian has been after fox since before the tournament started...they also said kelly smith is basically the voice of the world cup in the us. this is like fox news saying 'republican good...liberal bad'.
Yeah, I have issues with Fox, but that Guardian piece has a "masturbating to the sound of your own voice" vibe to it.
"Mark Followill’s basso profundo has reached depths previously unexplored in the history of American broadcasting; and I’ve even grown to like Tony Meola, whose every lachrymose regular-shmo sentence sounds like it should end with him inviting you round to his place for burgers and Buds." Sounds like a failed literary critic who had to settle for reviewing sports commentators.
I thought the studio crew has been good, Kelly Smith and Lalas the best of them. Hiddink, not so much.
One positive was a little more tactical analysis than I had come to expect from the ESPN era. Especially true of Ally Wagner and Stu Holden. I agree that her tone was a little off putting, but unlike with Meola at least I was awake.
Schedule of Gold Cup commentators on FOX Sports, Group Stage https://worldsoccertalk.com/2019/06/14/schedule-gold-cup-commentators-fox-sports-group-stage/
Strong/Holden have to be among the worst announcers across any sport of all time. Their calls of Copa America are horrendous. It's unwatchable. The studio analysis is garbage as well but that's goes without saying. Lalas' halftime analysis was pretty much summed up as Almiron is fast but Messi is faster.....
We get Lalas, Wagner, Edu, Cobi Jones, Rodney Wallace, Rob Stone, Stuart Holden, Jon Strong, Kate Scott, Adrian Marquez, Mariana Trujillio, Jake Zivin, Warren Barton, and Dr Joe. No idea the pairings yet for the games outside of Holden/Stone. I like they at least dedicate people with soccer knowledge to host these things, so it's better than ESPN, but the PBP is rough a lot of times and has to be better.
Ummm...ESPN's Euro coverage has dedicated Soccer people too...same with all of their coverage on ESPN+ for the leagues they have rights to.
Reece Davis and Dalen Cuff are basketball hosts asked to host and with Davis you can tell. He tries and is a nice guy but doesn't know much. Cuff is the same. All of the networks have analysts that are soccer people, ESPN puts little effort into soccer these days.
Uhhh...Rob Stone is a college sports and bowling announcer. ESPN puts "little effort" into soccer? How many soccer properties does Fox have? They don't even do a studio show for their coverage the majority of the time. ESPN's coverage of the Euro's has been lauded for how much better a presentation it is than what the other networks have and are doing (CBS, Fox, etc.).