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    ESPN Commentary and Pundits

    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.

    #2
    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.

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      #3
      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.

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        #4
        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.)

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          #5
          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.

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            #6
            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.

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              #7
              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.

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                #8
                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.

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                  #9
                  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 .

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                    #10
                    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.

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                      #11
                      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.

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                        #12
                        ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                        Ballack was much better today. He actually looked like he wanted to be there.

                        Poor Bob Ley is sounding like a local newspaper writer around here who is 70, and for whom facts kind of get jumbled.

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                          #13
                          ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                          Smyth wheeled out for the Ireland pre-game. Almost just broke my arm lurching for the mute button.

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                            #14
                            ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                            Adrian Heley is very good. Mustoe is OK but a bit monotonous.

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                              #15
                              ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                              "Oierland will meke you eat crow, Alexi." - Tommy Smyth

                              "Ireland will get spanked." - Alexi Lalas

                              Alexi Lalas 1:0 Tommy Smyth

                              I realized what it is about Smyth. He's a bitter, short, angry man who says stupid shit, then really likes it when you say that he said something stupid so he can let loose with his anger defending his stupid shit.

                              For Croatia's first goal, "that was nothing but a broken play." Yes, my dear loving asshole, that indeed was a broken play. BECAUSE SOCCER HAS NO FUCKING SET PLAYS OTHER THAN A SET PLAY YOU BIG OL' AUSTIN POWERS-TOOTHED BAGPIPE BREATH.

                              And Diego Maradona spins and beats one defender...two defenders...five defenders...Shilton...it's one of the greatest goals of all time.

                              Tommy Smyth: Thet was nuthin' but a BROKEN PLAY.

                              I seriously don't mind him one or two games a tournament, because it serves as one of those old cages they put executed bodies in to rot in front of the entire village as a warning to not steal horses. It's ESPN's way of saying "we better not get any hate mail about Kasey Keller...because guess who we can bring back at any point."

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                                #16
                                ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                For years I had heard of Tommy Smyth from OTF and then i finnally got to see some of him in action as i was in the US for a few days during Euro 2008.

                                He wasn't very good, the lady in the studio was though and clearly knew her football.

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                                  #17
                                  ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                  That was Julie Foudy. I went back to read over some posts from other sites about here from 2008, and they're just depressing.

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                                    #18
                                    ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                    The Healy/Mustoe combination is the best I've heard on ESPN so far.

                                    Mustoe isn't brilliant, but he's improved very significantly from when he first began commentating.

                                    The studio program is a gong show.

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                                      #19
                                      ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                      Ballack is improving, and nicely cut through Lalas's bullshit after England v France. Lalas was trying to maintain this was a brilliant tactical victory for England given their resources. Ballack, as bored as the rest of us by this putrid game, said this was no way to play football. Lalas started waving his arms around and shouting how results matter above all else, and that if you don't have the players, you do what you have to do to win. Ballack: "But England didn't win."

                                      Lalas also made a cutting comment about how we can't all play like the Germans, and Ballack calmly replied, "This has nothing to do with the Germans." He says what he has to say economically, and Lalas and Ley sit there staring at him as though they want him to go on a run of verbal diarrhea like every other ESPN pundit, but he just stops. He's clearly worked out that he's sitting among knaves.

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                                        #20
                                        ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                        He certainly had enough experience at same while at Chelsea . . .

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                                          #21
                                          ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                          I enjoyed the quiet disinterested Ballack better. It was comical. I have expected to see him light up a pipe and sit back contentedly.

                                          Lalas seems to be US soccer's answer to Mike Milbury.

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                                            #22
                                            ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                            GAH! WTF did we do to deserve Max Bretos? Come back Bob Ley, all is forgiven...

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                                              #23
                                              ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                              ESPN has consistently hired top class announcers to cover European football (qualifiers to come below). Mike Hill was amazing, but somehow fell off the face of the earth. Then Derek Rae took over and showed he is one of the best in the world. Adrian Healey is also excellent. And there's another guy that fills in from time-to-time, Dave Roberts, who is also really good. I have come to the conclusion that part of what makes these guys so good, beyond a general sense of how to call a game with style, is that they cover so many different leagues and research those leagues that when tournaments roll around like the Euros or WC these guys know what they're doing and know many of the players. If we compare these guys to Ian Darke, who I do like but don't think he is on par with any of the above, we see why Darke and other announcers are limited: he only covers EPL (or am I supposed to call it BPL now?). Nor do I get the sense that most announcers watch much football or research beyond the single league they cover. I wish ESPN had moved for Dave Farrar instead of Ian Darke but I also get that Darke was likely hired to fill the EPL rights in the UK.

                                              My qualifiers: ESPN has also failed miserably with that baseball announcer who called WC 2006, but that was a one-off vs. regular work calling European football. I also have very mixed feelings about JP. On one hand, I think a US announcer should be calling US NT games. On the other hand, I think JP has set the tone for a sort of angry commentary tone. He sounds like he's pissed off anytime there is something exciting happening. I know he also covers hockey and don't know which came first, hockey or soccer, but I feel like I am listening to a hockey game when he calls the game. I love hockey but I don't want to hear hockey commentary when watching football.

                                              This is already way too long so I'll save my opinions about analysts/studio teams for a later post.

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                                                #24
                                                ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                                By "that baseball announcer," do you mean Jingo Jack Edwards? He does hockey, usually. Not well. Bruins games.

                                                They should get these guys.

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                                                  #25
                                                  ESPN Commentary and Pundits

                                                  I'm a Max Bretos mark. (Get it, he does WWF pro wrestling, get it ?)

                                                  I'm starting to like the Lalas-Ballack team. I like how the producers told them to be more like each other, so Ballack has to use at least 3 more words a sentence than the 4 word sentences he usually uses, and Lalas has to fold his hands and not move like he's a camoflouged garter snake covered in hardened paper mache.

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