...Have got to go Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know a bunch of you will say that DOB is "growing" into the role and Celo was a great player so cut him some slack. People, this is just not good enough! Broadcasters should enhance our enjoyment of the game not cause us to scream at the TV. O'Brien simply does NOT know the game. He can memorize all of the factoids he wants until his head explodes (not to mention MY head), but his reluctance and inability to actually do play by play says to the viewer "the actual game is crap, so I'm going to tell you a bunch of stories". If he DID know the game he'd by ID-ing the players and picking up on all of the subtleties of one-on-one duels, overlapping runs, etc. like the EPL guys do, because they've been doing it all of their lives. Look, I'm not a broadcaster and I know the job is tough to do well, but I do know that -- as a fan who didn't play soccer as a kid -- it took me a long, long time of watching soccer to appreciate all of the wonders of the game. And I still don't know the sport as well as people who have been playing and watching the game since they were 4. For ESPN, the USSF, and MLS to even think for a second that O'Brien could get up to world class speed as a broadcaster in less than 6 months -- just because he can broadcast baseball -- is simply sheer lunacy. He is incompentent as a soccer broadcaster, and to get up to acceptable level he'd need at least 2 or 3 YEARS of doing MLS local broadcasts and watching as much soccer on FSC as we soccer nuts do and THEN he might be ready for prime time. As for Celo, the guy played in 3 World Cups, played in Mexico and in MLS. He KNOWS the game but he can't tell us anything important. Why? For one thing he won't do what any analyst MUST do, criticize bad play. Look he may have played with some of these guys, but his JOB is to analyze why things work and don't work. He's not even close to doing this. OK, tonight we get Stoner and Waldo from the LA superclassico. Sure they have their faults, but compared to DOB and Celo, they sound like Derek Rae and Seamus Malin, or Martin Tyler and David Pleat. Come on MLS and USSF, the announcers should make people WANT to watch the games not aggrevate us.
I am generally a pretty easy going guy. I don't make a big fuss about most things. However, it is completely ridiculous for O'Brien & Celo to be the lead team for MLS & WC. They make me wanna punch the tv. What really set me off today was when D.O. started talking about Gaven and how he was born during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series and how big of a Mets fans he was. SHUT THE ******** UP AND DO PLAY BY PLAY. Call the players names. It is not baseball where there is TONS of time between plays. As for you Marcelo, grow a backbone and criticize somebody. I actually turned the sound down and watched for a while. I never do that. This is a huge statement for me but I'd rather have Jack Edwards than Dave O'Brien. Stick to baseball.
The funniest part of that is that in his next sentence he said something along the lines of "He like all Mets fans remembers that day well." Yup, at the age of not even 1 day old.
I caught that too and being more than a few years older than Gaven, I recall Keith Jackson working that World Series and I was furious -- he was obviously so bored calling baseball, even though it was one of the most exciting series ever -- he only showed enthusiasm when he was plugging the upcoming college football games and now we get O'Brien calling The World Cup -- is there any sign of intelligent life at ABC Sports HQ?
so many doozies to choose from... how about when a Fire player takes the ball down the line, gets into a 1v1 situation, does a move that brings the ball juuuust over the line before kicking ahead into space. linesman flag goes up, signals for the throw. DO'B: "...and that's an offsides call... er, a throw in for the crew." or... mapp comes up the middle, gets knocked over, ref reaches for the yellow card. "...and justin mapp will get a yellow card." whaaaa? oh, and apparently, the penalty area is now called the "18 box." oddly enough, though, decent questions during that abomination we call the coach's corner. ok, now we've got some single table threads, an ESPN commentator thread going... i'm sitting back now and waiting for a referee thread to pop up after what happened in the 55th minute or so... c'mon, bigsoccer, don't let me down!
Univision and Telemundo... seriously... waaaaay better options. It's like watching a Latino soap opera, you don't need to know the language to follow 'em.
Agree. O'Brien and Celo make me want to turn the sound off. I wish our announcers would listen to Paul Green Turner and just emulate.
They were awful today - as a crew they have not improved...individually they have not improved. One of the worst was DOB constantly refering to the humidty and then right near the end he drops this gem...."So, Celo, with the humidty you would almost think that a team might be ready to make a mistake" Celo's response "Well, yeah, neither team wants to make a mistake" And the absolute killer was DOB's "So it looks like Columbus will be quite satisifed with a point at home in their home opener" WHAT??!! The Crew have not won a game, they are home with a decent crowd....and they are happy with the point? Wonder what Sigi would say to that. And Celo didn't call him on it, he actually played into it by saying both teams were happy with the point. They really are awful.
Only comment to this one...Garber busted his ass to learn the game, admitted when he made mistakes, and listened to the fans to make the game more in line with the world, all pretty quickly. DOB has done jack to learn anything about the game or the players that he can then get across in a broadcast (where they played, who's a rookie, who played for baby nats, how to do play by play). Instead he harps on the weather and whatever dumb fact he remembers and keeps repeating it over and over. Again, I have no problem giving him time to learn the game....in MLS. But don't expect me to be impressed when the World Cup is less than 2 months away, and this is the guy they are going to make the lead announcer because he wanted a vacation in Germany.
It's been 3 weeks . People expect him to learn some of the finer points of the game--runs off the ball, positioning, and spacing, in 3 weeks???! Gimme a break (maybe he did a NATS game over the winter, still, 2 months max.) Most people on here would gripe if the MLS lead broadcasting team consisted of Bob Costas, Vin Scully, and Ernie Hartwell.
That's the whole point, man, NONE of these people have any right to be near a mic at a soccer game because they don't know squat about the sport. Anybody who thought it was a good idea to let DOB do soccer with ZERO experience (other than watching his daughter's U-8 games) is a moron.
he is not totally new to the game, just broadcasting it. His daughter plays at a relatively high level in the youth game so he has seen soccer before.
I corrected your post. Sorry, most people, including myself, gave him the benefit of the doubt after his first nightmare back in January. But he has shown no effort to make himself better, learn the game, learn the player pool, and learn how to call a soccer game. I wouldn't expect anyone to accept that. I really hope he becomes a great soccer announcer. The problem most have is that in 4 months he has actually gotten worse, and he is suppossed to be the lead announcer for the World Cup.
DOB was bad today. funny, because i wrote that he wasn't that bad in the Chivas game he did (i.e. not as abhorrently offensively bad), but today he was just tired and disinterested. i think part of the problem is the whirlwind schedule ESPN keeps him on. i'm pretty sure he has done 3 different sports this week, in the MLB, MLS and something else (an NBA game, i believe ... someone correct me if i'm wrong. it was something that caught my eye like, "DOB's doing THAT too???' ). i honestly think the guy bit off more than he can chew with this soccer deal (and i know knowledge-wise that is obvious). but i'm just talking pure work load. it would be one thing for DOB to get a breather, and be allowed some free time to study up for the WC. but ESPN has kept him on his exact same schedule, PLUS they've added in the soccer games. in his interview, DOB talked about his family and how much he loved going to his daughters' soccer games. well, i don't know how he ever has time to see them with this ridiculous schedule they keep him on. this week he was at 3 different games in three different cities spread out all over the country. we were hoping that at least he'd be able to cram some research in the 3-4 months leading up to the WC ... but there's clearly no way he would have the time or energy to do that. as this rate, i'm worried DOB might drop dead in the booth in Gelsenkirchen from pure exhaustion.
2 of the best are not considered options by Don since they have accents: Derek Rae and Adrian Healy. MtMike, how do you feel about JP, Glenn Davis, or even Stoner? Actually Asprilla9 brings up a good point. If DOB is stretched too thin, then he can't possibly get any better before the World Cup. So, it is still a crappy decision and situation, and as a fan, we deserve better.
I just rewatched the video on ussoccer.com where O'Brien is interviewed before his first match. He says "the essence of what I do is tell stories." He says in his negotiations with espn that he asked to do the World Cup then says, "I hope I don't screw it up."
yep these guys suck hard. no way in hell do i want to listen to these two do the WC. Dont be fatuous Jeffery.