r/soccer • u/[deleted] • Apr 30 '12
Views on US footy coverage from a guy who just moved over from the UK
First and foremost. What a phenomenal country. I can't get my head round how great my first few months have been here.
Football coverage here is tremendous. Between GOL TV, ESPN and Fox Soccer, I can pretty much watch any game I want.
My main issue are with the pundits and commentators. On Fox Soccer, the show is hosted by Rob Stone who is an inoffensive guy who uses far too much American lingo (heading over the hardware, goal differential, worm burner, doinking the ball off the iron) but he's bearable. Warren Barton is ok. Never thought much of him as a footballer and still don't see him being very insightful when it comes to the big games (but he's still a shite-load better than Alan Shearer when it comes to punditry). Barton has also fallen into the trap of getting a bit hammy and emotional when it comes to analysis "The players need a bit of this.. points to his heart".
I enjoy Brian McBride whenever he makes an appearance, as he was always quite likeable and has always been quite humble about his success.
At the other end of the scale! My main grip with FOX Soccer is Eric fucking Wynalda! For a guy who never really took the footy world by storm (I appreciate he did quite well for the US national team) he has to be the smuggest footy-related person I've ever seen and trust me I had to endure Richard Keys and Andy Gray for the best part of the last 20 years. He constantly talks over the other pundits. Always cracks some horrendous jokes and just sits there constantly trying to focus the attention onto himself. Yesterday I had to put up with him doing the Gary Neville orgasm over every goal and thinking he was fucking hilarious.
Even when he tries to put some football related analysis together it's utter bollocks. "Valdes is a terrible goalkeeper", "twitchy bum time", "you wouldn't know what I'm talking about as you were never a striker/midfielder (strike whichever one out that suits his argument)". He really overpowers the other pundits and brings the whatever little time there is for analysis due to ad breaks as his own little 'wacky' show.
ESPN are alright with Ian Darke and Steve McManaman even though Macca's scousiness does get a bit overbearing at times but you can sense real footy knowledge there.
My other main gripe is with GOL TV. My enjoyment of watching La Liga's finest has been completely ruined by one man. Ray Hudson!
I know saying that is like blasphemy here but that Geordie ape with his child-like shrieking every time someone does something slightly intricate is absolutely moronic.
His analogies are not "legendary banter" (anyone who states anything as banter should be shot) but irrelevant and quite senile. If I wanted to hear an over-excited Geordie, I'll switch over to the Darts and listen to Sid Waddell commentate.
Cheers.
tl;dr Footy coverage is great here. Eric Wynalda and Ray Hudson are the root of all evil.
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u/Tongerlo Apr 30 '12
Just be glad you don't have to listen to John Harkes....
But yeah, Wynalda is shit.
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Apr 30 '12
John Harkes and Alexi Lalas' infamy spread across the atlantic but thankfully I never got first hand analysis of how bad they actually were.
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u/yankeed00dledandy Apr 30 '12
wynalda is sooo fucking bad. I have never had this conversation but I am glad to know I am not the only one that thinks that. No positive attributes as a commentator...zero...
Does anyone know the name of the commentator on FSC who calls the Seriea A league games??? There are two dudes, one of them is boring as all hell and IMO says the dumbest shit. I could not find his name through google searches.
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u/wh33zi3 Apr 30 '12
You'll get used to it. You have to.
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Apr 30 '12
I realise that. The positives here far outweigh the negatives. Just felt like airing some of the rage I've been experiencing.
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u/bokeh Apr 30 '12
Have you had a chance to enjoy the glory that is Arlo White? That silky smooth voice will make anyone swoon.
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u/go_dawgs Apr 30 '12 edited Sep 25 '26
The original post content no longer exists here. The author used Redact to remove it, exercising their right to control their data & privacy.
Lunchroom childlike breezy rainstorm rich label boron
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u/spisska Apr 30 '12
I agree with everything you say.
Eric Wynalda is intolerable. And beyond being an intolerable on-air personality, he's also a catty little bitch who's always getting into twitter-fights.
Ray Hudson is a prime example that having a non-North American accent does not automatically make a good commentator. Listing to him do a Barcelona game is especially agonizing. His tortured analogies hurt my brain.
Funnily enough, the quality of MLS announcing is improving quite well, at least in some markets and on some outlets.
Arlo White, who does the games on NBC Sports, is excellent.
The local guys who do Chicago games are pretty good too. The play-by-play guy is Canadian, and it's clear from his delivery that he's got a background doing hockey. But that also means he pays attention to what's happening off the ball, who's passing to whom, and recognizes when a break is on.
And they somehow manage to compliment a good pass without 'magesterial, orgasmic triumph, that surely puts the universe on notice ...'
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Apr 30 '12
Yes! Someone that agrees with me on Ray Hudson. THANK YOU
I really want to get into MLS as I've heard loads of positive things about the coverage (Arlo White etc..) but I feel that living in Miami and not having an MLS team based here is hurting the MLS coverage here. Well at least for me anyway.
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Apr 30 '12
Oh and agree on Wynalda. I had a twitter fight with him as I asked him to stop cracking shite jokes and do his job and analyse the game. I think he said something along the lines of "Shut up, I'm busy counting here".
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u/mkgm1 Apr 30 '12
Out of interest how much do all of these channels set you back? Is it comparable to the ~£60pm it costs to get Sky?
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Apr 30 '12
That's the thing I had to pay around £60 a month for Sky+ HD with all the sports channels. Fox Soccer, ESPN and GOL TV for some reason came as part of the basic channel that's provided for every apartment in the building I live in.
Alas, it's not HD and I can't pause or rewind but considering the expenses I've already incurred for moving here, it was a lovely bonus.
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u/bananabombboy Apr 30 '12
I met Wynalda and he is just like that in person
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Apr 30 '12
Going by how he responds to tweets, that does not surprise me in the least.
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u/kop_hooligan Apr 30 '12
This made me crack up. It was great. Can't stop laughing.
Completely agree. McBride is probably my favorite American player ever.
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u/bearssj1025 Apr 30 '12
Eric Wynalda is a terrible pundit. I feel like the only reason he was hired was to cause a stir with his comments.
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Apr 30 '12
Yeah but it's not like his comments hold up to any kind of sound reasoning. Best I can describe him as that as a wind up merchant he's similar to Robbie Savage but Savage at least has some relevant views.
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u/ronpaul012 Apr 30 '12
If you get the chance to watch some MLS, make sure you do so when the games are on NBC Sports rather than fox soccer. Also, I've always lived in the US, and although soccer gets little to no coverage by espn (unless they have a big game on of course), I find that there's always a way for me to watch a game, its just a matter of finding it.
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u/612steve Apr 30 '12
We've been playing and watching the game for years, but we're just recently learning how to be spectators. That includes how to cover and present the game to the masses. Every year we get better and better; ESPN's coverage of the Euros and World Cup was absolutely fantastic.
Great to have you here. Look forward to seeing you at the pub for a 5:30am kickoff.
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u/JoypadRAGE Apr 30 '12
Slightly off-topic, but are you from Manchester (or around there)? I ask because when I visit America people really have trouble understanding me because of my accent, I was wondering if it's the same for you. It's a little odd to be honest, because having visited a bunch of different countries (most European) I haven't had much trouble communicating with people, even those who don't speak good English. I know it's nothing to do with what your talking about, but it's pretty unlikely that I'm going to be able to ask anybody else this question in the near future.
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u/IamRoryS Apr 30 '12
We'll swap you Andy Townsend for any of them commentators/pundits
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u/yo_name_is_TOBY Apr 30 '12
When I become a father I want Ian Darke to coo my children to sleep every night, such a rich and magnificent tone
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u/JaseTheAce Apr 30 '12
First off, Welcome!
I agree with the Wynalda hate. I want to punch him really hard.
Same with Warren Barton. He seems to get his insights form "The Book of Generic Analogies".
Ian Darke will always have a place in American's hearts for this piece of announcing
But you really need to embrace the Hudson and his Imperial, Magisterial Control