If you are living outside America, consider yourselves lucky that you are not subjected to the ESPN/ABC World Cup announcers. The main announcing team is Dave O'Brien (play by play) and Marcelo Balboa (color analyst). They are horrible.
Balboa is a long time US international and was captain of the US team. But he's a terrible announcer. He talks too much and says too little. And I can't stand that he defends players who dive. Nay, he even ENCOURAGED the Italian team to do it in their game vs Australia. Along with low scoring, diving is the #1 complaint about soccer from the casual American fan. The casual fan sees this and is disgusted. Then he hears the 'expert' heaping praise on the cheaters.
Dave O'Brien is worse. He never announced soccer before this year. He called a few US friendlies and now he's the lead announcer in the World Cup. It's like a football announcer calling a few NFL Europe games and then being handed the Super Bowl. It would never happen. This insults the intelligence of soccer fans. But not as much as some of O'Brien's commentary. I know Dave is trying hard but it's just not good enough. He should've spent a year or two cutting his teeth on MLS or the US national team before getting handed the World Cup.
A few tips for Dave:
-The guy standing between the pipes in soccer is called a goalKEEPER. He can also be called a keeper. We can gnash our teeth and tolerate him being called a goalie. But he is not, under any circumstances, a goalTENDER.
-You should not be announcing professional soccer.if you don't know the difference between injury (or stoppage) time and extra time.
-If a player is fouled (or dives) in the 18 yard box, he can be awarded a penalty. Calling it a penalty kick is redundant. A penalty and a foul are two different things in soccer; if you need to explain this once to your newer viewers, so be it. But NFL announcers don't say, "The Cowboys are attempting a 48 yard field goal kick."
-Do NOT say Team USA or Team Italy or Team Whatever. All games have two teams no the field (excluding the officials, I suppose). You can simply say USA. Team USA is redundant and unnecessary; even non-soccer fans can figure out that it's not the whole country of America on the field. Would you praise Team Miami for their win over Team Dallas in the NBA Finals? I didn't think so.
I know ABC/ESPN wants to use its "big guns" for this big event. I can tolerate non-soccer people like Brent Musberger, Rece Davis and Shelley Smith in studio or reporting roles. The TV people like Eric Whine-alda in the studio because he's a 'straight shooter,' but as any MLS fan knows, he comes across as a pompous, know-it-all jacka**. Alexi Lalas isn't much better.But the game commentary should be strictly limited to people who know something about soccer and are halfway coherent.
The other commentary teams are ok. JP Dellacamera is always top notch; his partner John Harkes is a newbie but could get better in the future. Everyone seems to be seduced by Adrian Healy and Tommy Smyth because they have foreign accents; I like Healy and Smyth is ok, though he's a bit overrated. Rob Stone and Robin Fraser? Better than O'Brien and Balboa is all I will say. Glenn Davis is ok and I love his partner Shep Messing. Messing proves that you can be a straight shooter without coming across as a jerk.
The main play by play guy should be the always excellent Dellacamera. As color analyst, ABC/ESPN should've stolen Ray Hudson from GolTV. If you've never heard Hudson call a game, it's quite an experience. He'd single handedly keep the casual fan tuned in, unlike the current duo who annoys even the hard core fans.
With the explosion of soccer on TV, US viewers should expect better than what they're getting.
No comments:
Post a Comment