ESPN has a lot to learn - not covering the field with slides of silly stats, not replacing live shots of play with shots of Wimbledon crowds, etc. From the time that the players leave the tunnel until after the match is complete the fans want to see the play on the field (stop obscuring the view with slides already) and to hear enthusiastic, informed commentary on the play - not that two players from Ghana went to the same high school, not two different stats on how Team USA has done when down at half-time (idiotic). I watched Univision for 90% of the games and I don't even speak Spanish. Cover the World Cup as the World Cup, not a competition that U.S.A. should win. Cover futbol as futbol, not a sport that has analogies to baseball, basketball, or American football. If you want to educate America on the ins and outs of soccer, do it in another program, not when you should be covering a World Cup match. On replays - get the best angles of the offsides call or foul as quickly as you can, show them twice in five seconds at the next break in the action and be done with it. Same for goals. You've got four years to get it together. I'm going to learn Spanish just in case.
Balboa is a joke. How with the help of replay, he still gets the call wrong, as the replay is showing his error in judgement over and over. HE STILL BELIEVIES MASTERONI GOT THE BALL. What an idiot. ESPN really screwed up this one. Ok, they say they wanted to use these 2 idiots to suit a more broard audince, but all they did was tick off the hardcore fans. Complete idiots. I watched half the games on spanish, or i just muted the espn games.
Thanks for taking this on. I do not have one friend who enjoyed the telecasts. The only exception was the in-studio work by Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas, and, most significantly, Julie Foudy. They brought true insight and meaningful commentary to an otherwise terrible month of coverage.
I could not bear to watch ESPN coverage of the games themselves. I only watched post-game shows, but never the games. I preferred Univision to ESPN, hands down.
It was stupid the way the commentator announced "and now Germany will have to find a way to score a goal" during the semi-final game against italy. Mr. State-the-Obvious, Duh ! Like you need to tell sports viewer "Now this team is playing so they can try to win the game." How Stupid is that?!
I ened up watching Telemundo after the first day, because either way I could make no sense of what the commentators were saying (and the Spanish are just more passionate).
The announcers are really annoying to listen to. Seriously, if the MLS is the best we can do for commentators why not just keep Tommy Smyth and let him commentate all the games. At least he made a good educated guess that italy was gonna win.
I would add that ABC/ESPN did a horrible job of transmitting the sounds of the fans during the games. Not only the play on the field but the atmosphere in the stadium is a quintessential part of the soccer experience. Instead of chants/drums/songs, etc., we get stuck hearing obnoxious "yeah, baby" crap. Thank god I spent the later half of the tournament in Germany! What seems obvious to any average soccer fan is apparently lost on the execs at the American television networks.
its not that our guys lack soccer knowledge, they lack
distinctive voices that bring emotion to a game filled with passion. that requires voices of
singular tonality and passion. bring us the emotion and we will watch and listen with fierce loyalty.
Julie Foudy obviously didn't know much about men's soccer as she made general comments on players such as: " Yea, they need a lot of work." How about some more detail please. And the commentators focused on the USA team way too much - even after they were eliminated!
why did obrien and balboa get the job when jp delacamera gets all the uefa and champions league calls? he's much better. Obrien absolutly sucked, and it was clear that he's just happy getting a paycheck from disney. i live in a major tv market and thank goodness i was able to switch to univision - announcers with passion - i watched the whole thing on that channnel, and i dont know spainish. espn you sucked.
The World Cup is over, and the ESPN announcers RUINED it for all the US viewers. It's simply unforgiveable the level of ignorance displayed by the announcers.
The World Cup may be over, but I want to make it clear that gossip minded, uninformed, irrealvant, chit-chat is not wanted or required to enjoy soccer.
O'Brien's piss-poor announcing is NOT making soccer more approachable for the masses. In fact, it is creating confusion and cementing ignorance about the sport.
