ESPN Commentary and Pundits

[Incandenza]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

True. Euro 2004 was only available in the US through Setanta PPV ($20 for one game, or something like $150 for the whole tournament). I recorded each game so I could make my own highlights packages. Which I shared with Matej (and Soccer Scrimmage got something also, I think--maybe the full Czech Rep-Holland game) on the advanced technology of VHS tape.

I really should put my Euro 2004 stuff on DVD. It's damn near impossible to find any decent clips online.

[Reed John]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

We really shouldn't be too critical. 15 years ago, I never would have imagined this event getting this much coverage in the US.

[ursus arctos]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

There is a significant portion of ESPN's typical audience that has yet to emerge from the "Eew, girls, cooties" stage of male development .

[Reed John]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

Taylor Twellman was Philadelphia Union's local guy and did so well that ESPN hired him.

Alexi Lalas is ok. He likes to harp on certain points, like that England isn't all that good (he's not wrong). He comes off as unnecessarily annoyed much of the time.

People who didn't like Julie Foudy are either sexist or just plain wrong.

[Incandenza]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

I thought Foudy was good also, but it seems like a lot of people hated her...I think because she had the nerve to be a woman talking about men's sports while not trying to demean herself or pander to the audience.

[scratchmonkey]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

Can't remember his name, he was pretty decent. Twellman was good, better than Keller I thought, who tripped over himself a lot and tended toward stating the obvious. Derek Rae, as always, was fantastic, especially with the Russian names (Keller, less so).

I can't watch the studio sequences at all. I like Bob Ley a lot; I just don't think he's settled into a groove yet, he comes across as awkward and probably isn't helped by ESPN wanting to keep things relatively basic for an American audience.

Ballack is hilarious. They'll throw a question to him and it'll be like that one joke interview with Klopp.

[Reed John]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

Kellar was ok for a rookie. Not annoying.

Who did the PBP for the USA v A&B match? I saw it was Taylor Twellman and somebody I didn't recognize. I was watching it with no sound in the gym.

Ballack is is amusing. He seems like the stereotype of the modern ultra cool German.

[jason voorhees]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

I think my running gag this tournament will simply be transcribing Ballack's segments.

Too bad, because I really liked Julie Foudy with everyone other than Tommy Smyth in the studio during the last Euros. Lalas and Macca were also good together, especially when Lalas said "England simply isn't as good as we were led to believe" right to his face.

Here's what I like about Darke:
- The voice has a low rumble, so it's non-descript and blends with the crowd.
-That "Hoooooaaarrrhh !!!!" scream matches pretty well with exciting goals.

That's about it. He asks pretty good set-up questions to his co-host.

Not by any means saying he's the best, but he was decent enough for the Womens World Cup (I would say the respect he treated it with, until some days when the hangover was pounding and some double-entendres slipped, made it as successful in the States as it was,) and the Euros. He makes the games feel big, so he's like the Jim Ross of football.

I must say I really miss Foudy, and I really think the world of her. She paired nicely with Darke, as it was the low drunk mumble with the energetic high-pitched passion. I hope she appears during this tournament (haven't been up on my ESPN announcer contracts.)

[alyxandr]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

McManaman's little vocal tic sure gets annoying, doesn't it? He seems to do it at the end of almost every sentence, doesn't he? And once you've noticed it, you can't ever go back to ignoring it, can you?

Derek Rae is a living god of play-by-play, usually excellent at foreign-name-pronunciation and, most importantly, knows when to STFU.

[Incandenza]

ESPN Commentary and Pundits

I must admit that I don't get the love that so many people here seem to have for Ian Darke.

I like Derek Rae, and while I of course do not mind Tommy Smyth no longer being in the booth, I didn't think that Kasey Keller was that great in the Russia-Czech Republic game, but maybe he will improve.

[Satchmo Distel]

Lazy thinking of ESPN to employ a random German just because Klinsmann is doing well over there and was a good pundit in 2010.

Ballack makes no attempt to pronounce names properly: e.g. he pronounces the surname of David Villa the same as Aston Villa.

I'm OK with Darke and Macca although I would prefer Peter Brackley. When Darke mentions games from past tournaments (like the 1976 Cz v Ned semi) he shows no signs of having watched them at the time. He's professional enough but isn't he just a boxing man who got lucky to be given the soccer?

Lalas is always good: far more communicative about defending techniques than Hansen or Lawro.