Every Soccer Pleasure Negated

Stats, stats and more stats. That’s all the ESPN commentary teams and graphics seem to be able to announce. Being from England, I’m used to world class coverage and analysis from the BBC, ITV and Sky. They may say the odd little factoid during play and show the match stats at half and full time. ESPN insists on putting up these quarter to half screen covering statistics during play. And the commentators regularly referring to and comparing with other sports, what the hell? Oh, and make sure what the commentator says and what the graphics read match up! I have seen/heard mistakes. Concentrate on the match we are watching and don’t assume the viewing audience are a bunch of ignorant asses that need patronising. Save the ‘rules’ for matches the USA play in, as surely the casual American World Cup viewer wont be watching the likes of Costa Rica v Ecuador, and those that do will be well versed in the game of football.

I am used to shouting and cringing at the game-play on the pitch, but never the actual coverage of the sport. If I have what a yellow and red card means explained to me one more time…

This morning, during the Ecuador v Costa Rica match, I lost count of the number of times it was said (either by the announcer or by an annoying graphic) that “Ecuador has a chance of advancing to the Round of 16 with a win.”

Excuse me! Simple math tells everyone that Ecuador will advance with a win. The only question is “Do they go through as 1st or 2nd place?”

No qualified commentator should have made that comment.

Just an example of how ESPN’s coverage is poor.

Posted from  United States

and people say there is no advantage to being Mexican-American in the USA! – At least I can switch to Univision and get some decent play by play.

Posted from  United States

I live in the SF Bay area, and found a spanish AM radio station broadcasting the games (at least the PAR/SWE game anyway). It is 1170 AM, and is about the same quality as univision. I don’t speak spanish, but I listen to this while watching the game on ESPN in HD.

ESPN/ABC need to understand that enthusiasm and excitement are the biggest part of announcing a soccer game, not covering the screen with ton’s of stats and having boring monotone people announcing the game (i.e. JP Dellacamera and every other american announcer)

Posted from  United States

I was lucky enough in 2002 to be living on a Canadian border city, and had the pleasure to see CBC’s feed of BBC coverage. The elequent simplicity of John Motson’s commentary made the games extra special to watch. I desperately wish I had that now.

Obivously, there are numerous problems with the ESPN coverage of the World Cup. Fortunately, most of the points have been made so that I needn’t repeat them (particularly with the graphics which ALWAYS seem to pop up when someone has the ball in PRECISELY the part of the screen that’s obscured).

Yet I’m most glad that Jack made the point with regards to the airing of the national anthems, or the lack thereof with ESPN. I also have to switch to Univision just to get that little extra taste of how global this competition really is. They didn’t even show the anthems during the opening match, a time when anyone would figure the pageantry Dave O’Brien often makes reference to would be on its fullest display.

Do they cut out the Opening Ceremonies from Olympic coverage?! It’s certainly on par, considering this is the only sporting event which rivals the Olympics in popularity (although it’s really vice-versa).

Adding insult to that, when they broadcast USA v Czech Rep., they had the gall to air only the “Star Spangled Banner” and cut away from the Czech anthem to air silly commercials! Could you be any more disrespectful to an opponent?!? That’d be like cutting off the mike during “O Canada” whenever a Canadian team visits a US arena.

Little things like this epitmomize the lack of foresight, and the diminished appreciation of the importance and grandeur of the World Cup of whoever’s in charge of sports programming at ESPN.

What should we expect for the final? World Cup Live in studio before they send it to the booth 5 minutes before kickoff?!?

Posted from  United States

The commentator on espn does not sound like a football commentator. Whenever I switch to espn his tone reminds of a game of baseball or basketball it really does not feel like football, sometimes I wonder if I had the misfortune to listen to him through radio broadcasting that I could tell what game the commentatot is commenting on. Just hearing his deep voice makes me sick.

As one mentioned before, wht the hell abc/espn will not hire some of the premiereship commentators if only for the duration of the world cup. Maybe they think they are doing us a favor by hiring people who repeat everything as if we are total ignorants. They are really insulting my intelligence and spoiling the joy of the world cup for me which I eagearly awaited a whole four years, what a pity.

Posted from  United States

O’Brien Responds! fron 6-14 USA Today. Calls us a “petulant clique”

from USA Today

Marked man:

Dave O’Brien, the play-by-play announcer paired with analyst Marcelo Balboa on ABC/ESPN’s lead World Cup soccer on-air team, says he faced hostility talking about balls hitting heads, not bats. “I’m a baseball guy,” says O’Brien, who calls ESPN baseball. “And that’s a dirty word among soccer enthusiasts. There was a backlash before I did a single game.” That happened in January. Online and elsewhere, soccer die-hards weren’t welcoming.

O’Brien warns that talking about the prejudice he faced “is a dangerous story to write.” (Dangerous being a relative term: Writing this doesn’t seem like reporting from Iraq.) “There’s kind of a petulant little clique of soccer fans. There’s not many of them, but they’re mean-spirited. … And they’re not really the audience we want to reach anyway.”

Networks airing big events most Americans don’t follow — such as Olympic events — usually assume viewers need human interest touches to stay tuned. That can seem dumb or distracting to aficionados.

Announcers in soccer-mad countries can be minimalist, O’Brien says, but he’s “introducing story-telling elements. And that antsy clique I’m talking about doesn’t want that — or any effort to entertain.”

U.S. soccer TV ratings, outside the Cup, are microscopic. And, O’Brien says, “If we cater to the clique, they’ll stay there. Soccer hasn’t been presented well to guys like me who played it in high school and are raising daughters on travel teams.”

So O’Brien, calling Germany-Poland today, wonders if he should “spend even 15 seconds describing what the Bundesliga is?” (Ja: It’s a German soccer league.) “Should I explain what (soccer governing body) FIFA is? My 11-year-old daughter doesn’t know. If I do that, the clique will say I don’t know soccer. But we’re putting on a TV product, not a soccer clinic.”

Why is it that the other ESPN announcers are OK letting the game happen, but this uninformed boob thinks HE has to make it happen for us ?

Not only does he not know soccer, he does not know how to call a soccer game !

Posted from  United States

What? ESPN’s broadcasting the World Cup? I flicked through, on my way to a regular set in front for Univision’s broadcast, and noticed all these tickers goiong abck and forth on ESPN2. I thought that maybe Bloomberg had purchased the broadcast to display stock prices.
I was worng about that? It was football the talking heads were discussing?
Sorry to have missed it. Seems I didn;t miss much, though.

Posted from  United States

Thanks for the clipping there Gaetano. Got a link? He says’s he’s a baseball man, but also thinks he knows what he’s talking about with football. Does anyone believe his style of commentary will attract and keep bigger TV audiences? And does he really think there are that many soccer-novice viewers (bar the USA games) watching? (I’d be really interested to know)

I’ve read peoples comments about non-soccer fans in bars seeing the WC on TV even saying that the commentary is crap!

I’m liking the “petulant little clique of soccer fans” comment… it’s just funny… there’s only a few million in it.

The ESPN rage continues over here too; http://www.fbtz.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=122

Here’s the USA today link

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-06-13-miller-contract_x.htm

Posted from  United States

A lively thread on ESPN’s coverage, and a great mock foto of D O’B and ‘Celo

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366148&page=13&highlight=esp

Lastly, is it just me or can anyone else picture the suits at Disney putting this “Al Michael’s soundalike” in this job thinking the US would create some sort of “miracle on grass” moment ?

Crede en los Milagros ? Siii!!!

Posted from  United States

Please ask your guest (ex-USA player-Alexi Lalas who sometimes sits in with Rece Davis and Julie Foudy) for world cup soccer commentary to be more culturally sensitive. His comment was to the effect of “if you have dread locks (hair style) don’t come to the world cup.” This comment was made today (June 16; app. 11:30 a.m.) about the Trinidad and Tobago’s defender during the game against England. The statement was irresponsible. There is already enough racism in European soccer against Black and Brown players. We all must do our part and not contribute to this disregard for human rights.

Posted from  United States

I agree with Margaret’s statement there is really not much room for such derogatory comments especially when representing yourself on a world scale. But the comment was made by Eric Wynalda and not by Alexi Lalas. There are many players in the World Cup that have dreadlocks as their hairstyle and it does not affect their playing ability. Next time Eric should think before he speaks so that he would not make a fool of himself for the world to hear and see.

Posted from  United States

I stand corrected. Thank you Rhonda for pointing this out and my deepest apologies to Alexi Lalas – you got game. Your name has never been associated with any irresponsible statement. I received your name from an ESPN2 receptionist.
Eric Wynalda, you need to step up your commentating game.

Posted from  United States

Come on People! They were showing England’s crouch grabbing the guys dreadlocks so he could head it into the goal. Wynalda was not being racist at all!

Posted from  United States

Looking at what O’Brien said to USA TOday again…
” So O’Brien, calling Germany-Poland today, wonders if he should “spend even 15 seconds describing what the Bundesliga is?” (Ja: It’s a German soccer league.) “Should I explain what (soccer governing body) FIFA is? My 11-year-old daughter doesn’t know. If I do that, the clique will say I don’t know soccer. But we’re putting on a TV product, not a soccer clinic.” ”

Looking at the end of this paragraph, O’Brien contradicts himself.
If you do the explanations of football fundamentals, you are putting on a ’soccer clinic’. Dumbass.

To quote a comment on another footballing forum;
“It isn’t good for anyone. It’s annoying for the knowledgeable fans and misinforming for the casual fan.”
‘Bout sums up most of the ESPN World Cup coverage for me.

I cant believe watching a language I don’t understand is actually much better than listening to these fools in English. Does it make sense to talk about a game that has not even started yet, i.e. USA v. Italy, during another match? They should be fired.

Posted from  United States

As much as I am annoyed by the announcers talking about other matches during the one that is played (normally about the USA), I think the ABC coverage is better than on ESPN, mainly due to there not being an irrelevant news ticker at the bottom of the screen and the use of obnoxious screen covering graphics is minimal and the score bar is right at the top of the screen!
Watching the Italy v USA game yesterday, I have to say I think O’Brien and Balboa are getting better – by no means perfect and Balboa’s views on situations seem ridiculous at times, but something was less irritating about them.

Watching ABC’s coverage right now, I’m not liking this old timer heading the studio team – I don’t know his name. He really comes across as having zero football knowledge prior to the World Cup and is just reading off a teleprompter with no personal views whatsoever. Why not have Alexi or Eric Wynalda chair it? Also, why don’t they analyse the games? After the Croatia Japan match, the chair guy said something like we’ll be back to analyse this match and they come back after the break and they spend all of 1 minute tops on it then its all about Brazil and USA again! And why is Joulie Foudy in Chicago too? She’s not great at analysis (or isn’t given the opportunity, like Alexi and Eric too), but she does know the sport.

Oh, and after the Italy USA game, anyone with eyes and/or ears would agree that there was plenty of incident to talk about in that match. Analysis after the game? No, an episode of Cheers instead…..?!

I actually found Univision in my cable package and I was shocked to see how much better the picture quality is on that channel over ABC’s/ESPN’s picture. I’d think it was just signal issues in my region but I’ve read a lot of posts around the net saying this. Also, there’s bugger all on the screen except the score. How good does it look!? ESPN/ABC should be a bit ashamed at this, or is there a technical reason they can’t control as to why their picture is inferior? They have the money, surely more than Univision, but they are beaten. Spanish speaking folks have it made. I do not… maybe if I put two tv’s together, one for sound, one for picture…

Who else is annoyed at the amount of times Balboa says as a result of a miscue by an attacker in front of goal: “Oh, I’m sure he’d like to have that one back. The look on his face says he’d like to have it back.”

And why can’t these clowns pronounce players’ names properly? There something about listening to the Spanish announcers’ foreign pronunciation, but the ABC/ESPN coverage just lacks the overall ability to pronounce names comfortably…even after a dozen times. (How many times during the Argentina/Ivory Coast or France/Korea match did the commentators have to refer to a player as “Korean defender”) And did anyone else hear them referring to the Ghanian team as “Ghanans?”

And someone, please spare us from the biggest fairy of them all- Shep Messing. Certainly someone in the corporate suites has to have noticed the miscast- his awkward jibe, sloppy delivery, and senseless ramble coupled with sound effects “BAM!”- for a shot preceding a goal. Or “PKKKKKKK!!!” as an attempt to emphasize the fact that neutral football viewers eventually have something exciting to look forward to with the possibility of a goal. (ArrghhhH!!)

Has it always been this bad???

Posted from  United States

These American football commentators (yes its football not soccer) are driving me nuttttttts. Can we please do something about getting ESPN to get the Tommy Smith and Healy team to commentate on the crucial matches from the second round onwards. The art of football commentating is a beauutiful one and these guys covering the matches for ESPN/ABC is killing that thrill.

I dont even know where to begin, their reading and understanding of the game is totallly pooor, and even the guys like Balboa, and other ex American players who are in that commentating team, can’t commentate properly.

Further these guys would rather blabber on about something thats totally unrelated than give a play by play. In most cases the play by play guy only gives the play by play for the known famous guyts when they are touching the ball or passing, thats not commentating you idiots. Ahhhhhhhhhhh Crazyyyyyyyyy

Posted from  United States

If this O’brien guy is a baseball guy, what business does he have doing play by play football. I find that strange, you hire people who know the game. As for Wynalda and lalas, I am really disapointed in them, sore losers at times their comments reminds me of the school yard bullying style. You can tell they are not good journalists and are not good communicators, even their comments hen asked question sounds like a child who doesn’t what he’s talking about. Shame on them I expected more from them, but once you rub shoulders the O’briens you’ll become them. I am also sick and tired whenever the camera comes back to the studio, the anchor mentions wynalda being the higest goal scorer in the us history. Fine we’ve heard that, how many times do we need to hear it. The funny part wynalda is enjoying, as if that makes him better than todyas players. He should’ve told him to stop saying that everytime, but that shos us who are our hosts isn’t it. Lets start an independant channel for soccer only, by fans like us and hire the best in the world on such occasions.

Posted from  United States

The worst football commentary I ever heard in my life. Iwouldwatch in chinese rather than watching these silly clueless commentators.

ESPN, I beg of you, PLEASE PLEASE sack your entire soccer analyst crew. Dave (I will mispronounce every city, player, team I talk about) O’Brien and Marcelo (I am the world’s biggest douche bag) Balboa are beyond terrible, they are criminally incompetent.

JP Dellacamera and John Harkes aren’t nearly as cringe-inducing as Balboa and O’Brien but they still suck.

If you couldn’t find real commentators why didn’t you just use your Champions League crew of Tommy Smyth and Derek Rae?

Seriously, soccer in America will never get a chance if you continue to use these guys.

(And Eric Wynalda is just a daft prick who needs to be beaten up by small children – please send him packing)

FIRE FIRE FIRE these clueless twits.

Posted from  United States

Marcelo Balboa surely needs the use of my glasses,also the referee that failed to call foul on the the two Portugese players trying to butcher Rooney prior to his sending off. It’s no wonder Rooney stood on somebodies family jewels, there was nowhere else to put his feet. In my opinion poor commentary thoughout the game and poor judgement by the ref for thar particular incident

Posted from  United States

Really love your blog!!
New to the blogging world and in need of traffic, would really like a link exchange.
Thank you!
Pablo.