At halftime of the DCU vs SJ game, Ray Hudson interviewed the equipment manager of the Earthquakes. He had a series of questions. The last two were classics. Ray: Who wears the biggest cleats? Eq Mgr: Jon Conway Ray: Who wears the biggest jockstrap? Eq Mgr: You do of course Ray. Ray: Thank you very much. Classic.
good guy over all nice to see and hear him week in and week out on Gol TV and the show american soccer
You don't have to worry about Ray comming back to DC. There's a lot of bad blood between the two. Ray would also want Trask to go with him. That ain't gonna happen at DC either. Ray and John are both great guys, and really try to interact with the fans. Maybe he'll get another crack at an expantion team. Just my $0.02.
Ray is by far the most entertaining commentator in the league and always comes up with the most off the wall comments... (see signature)
"Fire Steve Sampson and hire Ray Hudson '05" I'm making political signs and putting them on the lawns of all the willing!
I remember watching a game a couple weeks ago, I think it was San Jose vs. Chicago and Hudson goes, "(Player) almost caught Zach Thornton with his panties down." Just the thought made me cringe.
Ray Hudson is a world class soccer commentator and entertainer but a third world soccer coach. Please Ray: Stick to the booth !
Agree 100%... at least, that's the way in which he helps the sport here in the US better... After MLS has achieved lasting prosperity he is welcome to get back to DCU and mess them up again.... Oh wait, Nowak is there,,,, never mind...
Its amazing that the guy is so warmly appreciated and enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of fans for his commentary skills and justifiably so of course.He`s absolutly the best and its not even close.Knowlege,experience,humor,insight and entertaining....His Fusion team was one of the absolute best,if not the best, pure footballing sides MLS has seen but I guess that was just by accident that he turned that ugly duckling into a swan,right?Great article about hiim in American Soccer this week by the way. His greatest value though,to this league,is in the booth,unquestionably. Theres a dozen coaches in MLS and the`re all the damn same,within a few boring,by-the-book degrees....Hudson is well out of that toilet-bowl and shows no inclination to get back in.Imagine any of those guys doing what Hudson does now on TV?Think about that....Bradley?Sampson?Gansler!Sarachan?Nowack?ARENA! Rays been there done that and is the closest thing we`ll ever have to soccers version of Madden/Vitale. Too many people have been saying this for years but I guess the guy is just happy "watching the weels go round" and God bless him.
yeah.. watched the online stream between dcu and the earthquakes.. really enjoyed his commentary. why cant they have him on espn2. because he has a british accent? lol.. please. best commentator hands down. well.. maybe u cant say orgasmic goal on soccer saturday.. lol.. since the audience is 7 year old kids who cant buy tickets.
too bad MLSNET.com cant have a "Ray Hudson audio drop of the week".. that could be downloaded and play... i would love to hear him say "that was an orgasmic goal" or the equipment manager interview.... that sounds like quality stuff... they should promote him more... "Best Damn Sports Show" etc
Best Damm Sports Show is not a promotion. Anything with Tom Arnold on it can't be good. That would be cool if they had a "best local calls" section every week on mlsnet.
tom arnold is occasionally funny.... and on that show.. hes good comic relief... i would love to see the "Ray Hudson audio drop of the week" on MLSNET though
Ray Hudson = Howard Cosell of soccer / MLS. (Different style of course but same impact potential) If anyone remembers Monday Night Football with Cosell - the NFL was relatively nothing in terms of TV/media prior to Monday Night Football... and MNF was Howard Cosell. If MLS corporate bobs knew anything, they'd figure out a way to get him on the tube for ESPN and ABC broadcasts. He's funny, he's passionate, and he knows what he's talking about...
Yeah, that last season with the Fusion, he went a pathetic 15 wins, 5 losses and 5 ties...you're right...inept. I guess he also takes the blame for that horrible cast of characters he assembled (Chacon, Bishop, Serna, Rimando, etc.). Soccer Doc, you smokin' crack? Those of us who grew up with Ray (as a 10 year old Striker season ticket holder, he was my all time favorite, over Best, Irving, Segota, VanBeveran, Cubillas, Mueller), are not surprised by his success. His enthusiasm, tenacity and creative tongue are second to none. Too bad this league hasn't plugged him in as THE color voice of the league. But the league seems resigned to a vanilla style, surviving, but not thriving. Perhaps someone will come along and try to spice it up--not holdin' my breath though.
I hadn't watched soccer on ESPN2 on Saturday for a long time. I realized why. Is there a worse commentating duo than Stoner and Wynalda? Of course not. The arrogance, smugness that those two halfwits displayed is utterly incredible. They really do believe they are part of some sort of soccer intelligentsia, and they hold the answer to every question, and can explain the unsanswerable questions of soccer. By the way, the best bit of soccer analysis, I've ever seen, was during the Euro championships. During the half-time shows with Peter Schmeichel, and the rest of those guys (forgot names). Absolutely incredible. The detail with which they described plays, who made mistakes, etc, was astounding. That is the way commentating should be, not the garbage we are forced to listen to with Rob and Eric. Hudson is a step in the right direction.
I like Ray in the booth, he's great, but give him a year or two on a regional channel so he can get his chops up -- he talks over his broadcast partner constantly and other little mistakes that experience will correct -- but even still -- best guy in the booth...
He's made some other classic comments "He was all over that ball like dracula on a plate of liver" and "he read that one like a fairy tale book" Without a doubt the best commentator that works for Fox, the rest of em put me to sleep
Ray gets WAY too dissed for being an MLS coach. FACT: He took over a bad team in Miami midway through 2000. They'd won one of their first nine games when he was made coach and were in last place in the East. He went 11-11-1 with that team and almost got them into the playoffs, missing by two points. He also got the Fusion to the Open Cup final, losing to Chicago. The next year, he won the Supporters' Shield, and did it in style with a very entertaining team that he put together, going 16-5-5. They lost to the eventual champion Earthquakes in the second round of the playoffs, losing the series 2 games to 1 with the third game being a 1-0 loss. That the Fusion folded after the season wasn't his fault. He didn't get fired and he didn't under perform and it wasn't like his team played bad, unattractive soccer as they lead the league in goals (2.19 per) but were solid enough in D to be fourth in fewest goals allowed (1.38). In short, a very good, entertaining team. FACT: When he became head coach of United, DC hadn't made the playoffs in two seasons. In 2001, Rongen's last season, they were 8-16-2, seventh in goals scored and ninth in goals allowed. In 2002, Ray's first year in DC, they didn't make the playoffs but IMPROVED to 9-14-5, and while they couldn't score in a whorehouse (last in MLS), they were fourth defensively. In 2003, Ray's second season, he guided United TO THE PLAYOFFS for the first time since 99, improving for the second year in a row, this time to 10-11-9. They improved their scoring to eighth in MLS - not great but better than last - AND improved defensively, up to third. (For a guy who wanted to emphasized attack, his full three seasons in MLS his teams were 4th, 4th and 3rd in the league in defense.) Despite TWICE taking over bad teams, his career coaching record in MLS is a winning one, 46-41-20 and he made the playoffs in two of his three full seasons as head coach. He played entertaining soccer, though the goals didn't come in DC, and his clubs were fundamentally sound on defense. And yet, he's always getting dissed as a coach. Look, I'm not gonna say he was Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho or Bruce Arena or even Steve Nicol. He had shortcomings. He didn't emphasize the college draft enough and wasn't that great with young players. He was always looking for an international home run and in a league so reliant on homegrown talent, that's a dangerous way to go. He also didn't captain the tightest ship on the sea in terms of discipline. But the guy has a winning record as coach despite taking over for bad teams in both his gigs and compared to some of the yo-yos coaching, and who have coached, in MLS he was pretty damn good, certainly far better than he gets credit for on these boards. I see no reason why he shouldn't be allowed to coach again in MLS. Yeah, he'd need to agree to scout the college game more and use younger Americans, but whose to say he can't learn from past mistakes. Certainly other coaches have shown they can adjust, why not Ray?
Well--WELL--said. Of course your use of indisputable facts is bound to p*ss off some of these morons that cannot be bothered with the facts.
don't forget the one along the lines of... "beautiful, gift wrap it, grandma in her rocking chair could have headed that one in" and they were discussing how both teams needed the points for one game and he said "both teams would be willing to push their grandma down the steps for these 3 points"
I'd love to see that but I think they may be afraid to put him on "the big stage".. Afraid that when we play Mexico and after the USA wins and the Mexicans say "we did control possession today", Ray will come back with his "Possession without penetration is just masturbation" thing on the air..