I have no love or hate for the studio crew. They don't really say anything that helps me see the game in ways that I didn't get on my own, so they're just in the background as I do other stuff when I watch live or I fast forward when I watch on delay and it's like they don't even exist.
I will say, though, that I can't understand why these studio shows are all bogged down with ex-players. It's good to have one smart ex-player to give us the perspective of what it feels like to play in a major tournament for a national team, one coach who can offer that perspective, but then they should add a thoughtful journalist and give her/him some time to talk. Just imagine if someone like Marcotti or Jonathan Wilson could do one of these shows, we'd get much better analysis.
Keller has really improved from the first game. He still tends to repeat himself; he's much more composed and will get into some good analysis.
A combination of both repeating himself and good analysis is that he loves to point out whenever a defender allows an attacker to cut back into the middle to take a shot on goal and how defenders should force their man outside.
Twellman's good, but seemed obsessed in the first half with telling us how well Balotelli was doing. Balotelli trips over ball - look, he's getting involved in play! Balotelli gets fouled - look, he didn't respond by smacking his opponent in the face! Well done, Mario! Balotelli shoots and misses - look, he's getting into shooting positions, even though he's as accurate as a British Rail platform clock. This guy's entire career consists of people making excuses for him.
Tommy Smyth pops up again for the Irish match. In 'analyzing' the Spain goal, he manages to tell us it was the fifth minute (it was the fourth), then runs through his usual spiel about how Torres hit it really hard "into the back of the ole onion bag". He's been saying this now for how many years? It's like they wheeled gramps in from the old folks' home for the afternoon. Yet no one at ESPN has ever taken a look at this guy and said, "Okay, enough. No more ole onion bag."
When Ballack talks, Smyth sits back and looks at him like he's some strange foreign intruder whose language and presence he doesn't really understand.
Prior to the second half, Smyth is mercifully not asked for his opinion.
Some quick name dropping after the fact, but my wife was having lunch with Julie Foudy while you guys were discussing her back at the start of the tournament.
That might be as good a claim to fame as I've got, come to think of it.
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