Has this been covered in another thread? If so, don't bury me b/c I looked for a thread about this but didn't find it. Who are the announcing teams this year???
us team will be dave o'brien and celo... they will probably have a reporter and someone else with them... they will actually be in germany jp, glen davis, shep messing, wynalda, stone and a few others will most likely also be in the pool... but they will call games from the states there will also be 2-3 people doing studio work (maybe more)... wynalda would be a good bet for this too i'm sure you can dig out a fair amount of who is involved right now, but i'm not sure that much has truly come out yet on it
absolutely disagree that whoever calls the games will be in the states, they will be in Germany the whole team of broadcasters. ESPN/ABC showing all the games they will have 23 teams and travel from spot to spot or broadcast from Germany
Must be different than 2002 where I believe almost all the games (not the US ones though) were broadcast via the studio in Bristol.
I would like some brittish commentators to do our games instead of Marcelo and whoever the other person will be....as long as the brittish boys don't constantly poke fun at our #4 ranking, I'm cool.
Most of the announcers will be in Bristol or NYC, unless ESPN changes course substantially. Dave O'Brien, Marcelo Balboa, and Shelley Smith will apparently be in Germany for the USA games and other "A-list" matches.
I'm sorry but you don't know what you're talking about. Only the US games and perhaps the final will be actually called from Germany. All the rest will be from Bristol... Think about the logistics of having every country in the tournament broadcasting games from the stadium... ESPN will save a hell of a lot of money doing it this way.
Well if Dave O'Brien and Celo are announcing the U.S. games, I would be pretty disappointed. I mean, who is Dave O'Brien???? Celo seems like a nice guy, but not only is he master of the obvious, he is pretty boring too. He also won't criticize the US players even when they are playing like total crap. Conrad and Berhalter got torched against the Germans, and he went VERY easy on those 2 guys. Waldo would have lit them up, which is what a good analyst does.....calls it as he sees it. Give me JP and Waldo on the US games, or even Rob Stone. They have earned the right to be the # 1 broadcast team in the US. This is also one of the few times the marginal soccer fan will tune in to watch US Soccer, and they should get the most entertaining broadcast possible.
They confirmed during the Jamaica game that it would be Dave O'brien, Celo and Shelley Smith doing all US games.
And before someone chimes in that ESPN hates soccer, it should be noted that most countries will do this.
And while it isn't ideal, they do a better job of it than the studio called games that FSC put together. I get why ESPN is using O'brien, but what will it take for them to get the clue that Cello is absolutely horrible at TV work. He has been calling games this whole cycle and I actually think he is getting worse. Waldo and Harkes are much better TV guys than he is.
I agree, I liked Celo at first but over time his act has grown tired. He always chimes in to interrupt or seems like a know-it-all on every call. I like Waldo, he has his moments of "what?!" too but at least he's more entertaining.
Marcello Balboa is arguably the worst thing to ever happen to soccer on TV. Not only does he epitomize everything that "soccer-haters" in the U.S. dislike about soccer, but he is just an absolute atrocious commentator. Christ, the guy can barely speak. He bores the shit out of me and talks to the audience like they're 4-year olds. Is ESPN trying to turn off its audience? I would give anything to have a competent team of commentators in the booth for the U.S. games. Hell, Derek Rae and Tommy Smythe would be fine (even though I don't think they're the best available by any means). Why does ESPN force-feed us these God-awful commentators? Can't they understand that there is a huge following of educated soccer fans in the U.S. and that by talking down to them they're alienating their largest fanbase? Even if you have no idea what the game of soccer is, it doesn't help to have guys like O'Brien and Celo explain it to you. I'm not joking when I say this: I turn off the volume when Celo and O'Brien are calling. They are just terrible and painful to listen to.
Brent Musberger is going to Germany. Can you imagine Welcome everyone to the BIG K Kaiserslauten!!!!!!!! He might not be the best announcer, but he will always put some emotion during the broadcast. Something that 90% of english soccer commentators never do.
Well if you guys are serious about getting good announcers, please complete this petition. 3700 have signed so far. Please spread teh word around http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/World_Cup_Announcers
The sad thing is, the only complaint I had about the 2002 World Cup was the announcing. The games itself, the picture quality, camera angles...everything were spectacular. Jack Edwards was such a douchebag though, that at times I wanted to just shut the sound off. I thought anyone would be an improvement over him and Ty. Unbelievable that 4 years later we aren't in a better situation. I mean WTF, who is making the decisions at ESPN? I guess they are just following in the long line of forgettable announcers for the World Cup...Twibell, Gannon, Malin, Vermes, Edwards, Keough, O'Brien, Balboa.....(Bob Ley not included b/c he was very good IMHO) Most of them have more knowledge of figure skating or baseball then they do about soccer.
ESPN likes having a former player in the booth (Theismann and Maguire, for example) to give the player's view, when they can get it. I guess the thought was at least some US fans will recognize Balboa from his playing days rather than simply a career announcer.
In my experience: -Cello simply sucks as an on air personality. As someone said he defends everything a US player does. He praised a US forward for grabbing in the Box "Wow" he said..."Look at him...hes doing what a Pro should do and oull the defender down". Sad. - Rob Stone is a nice guy, but he doesnt have the voice to be the main man. His voice sounds like a 12 year olds. - Play by play to me...Spanish anouncers are the best. Even better than Brazilian TV guys (which most suck in my Opinion). Brazilian Radio guys OTOH are usually pretty good and exciting. I personally like the British play by play style...the US though seems to be a fish out of water when it comes to soccer play by play. To "Maddenish", too X's and O's. A few though do SOUND RIGHT...JP Delacamera to me always sounded like a quality play by play guy in US terms.
Funny you should say that...over here when there is coverage of USA sports or an American sport being played on this side (ie British Basketball League), they have Americans in studio or at the event doing PBP and/or Analysis...and the Brits that cover it really know the game well. We've got a guy Jonny Gould who is the American Sports anchor for Channel five and he seems like he not only knows the sports on five really well (they do NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, NBA) but he really enjoys covering American Sports. I wish ESPN/ABC would take a page from them.