Crap soccer announcers part 1: Dave O'Brien
| 6
|
by user SSreporters
This ESPN "commentator" makes me want to drive my head through a wall. Can't get name pronunciations right, like Tomas Rosicky (pronounced Ro-zits-ky), he said it like Ro-sick-e. What's even worse was the incompetence by ESPN to put a guy up there who has never done soccer before, and have his assignment be the World Cup! He consistently did the "storytelling" style of commentary, with the human interest stories that are 150% irrelevant to the game itself. According to Wikipedia, Davey boy repeatedly referred to controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 's comments on the Holocaust, and later wondered how Iranian soccer players felt about playing in close proximity to the podium Hitler used to give speeches in Nuremberg ( German : Nürnberg). Also it was evident to the fans who were familiar with the game of soccer that this broadcast team was focusing on off the field issues more then on the game itself with the mentioned reference to Iranian president and with rhetorical opinions about the nations playing instead of following the game itself.
One time, he talked about a soccer player playing for AC Roma. Uh, Dave, there's and AS Roma, and an AC Milan, but you can't combine the two! O'Brien said that he spent several months in Europe watching soccer games while preparing for the World Cup, but obviously that didn't work. Another time he talked about a player who played for the Wolverhampton Wolves. It's actually the Wolverhampton Wanderers. Why did ESPN decide to put him as the immediate lead announcer when he knew very little about soccer? Well, ESPN said that they wanted to target the majority of the American audience that didn't know the game. So you put in a guy who doesn't know the game much himself?
Now I can't blame him completely, his co-commentator, Marcelo Balboa was beyond awful, and probably took it to a new level. He never shuts up, always contradicts himself, and frequently mentions his playing career. I despise you Canada. ESPN's sister network in the north, TSN, didn't get the ESPN guys, but instead, received one British commentator, with their own analysts. In 2010 ESPN, can't you guys do the same thing?
