We here at Avoiding the Drop have made it no secret that we’re not very fond of Max Bretos, and his tendancy to get over excited by the littleist things, or his over pronunciation of Spanish sounding words. Well news today came out that he is no longer with Fox Soccer.
From the Media Notes of the latest post at the NY Times Goal Blog
Max Bretos, one of the lead play-by-play announcers (and one of the most entertaining) for Fox Soccer Channel, has resigned from Fox and will soon start a new gig at ESPNews.
Awesome no more Bretos on FSC….Oh wait, Bretos on ESPN now. No idea if he is strictly working for ESPNews or will be doing other stuff, but one can only assume that this probably means that he will be involved in ESPN’s World Cup coverage in some way. Your guess as to what his involvement will be is as good as ours though.
It will be interesting to see who FSC brings in to replace Bretos as the color man for games produced in house.
Max Bretos at the World Cup? Nooooooooooooooooooooooo.
If I may blatantly speculate for a second, perhaps ESPN is forging ahead with an all soccer channel in the wake of Setanta’s last gasp?
I wouldn’t say that’s too far fetched an idea, the word about ESPN starting an all soccer channel has been around for some time, and I’m sure word of Setanta falling has been out there behind the scenes for a little while. My guess would maybe be introducing the channel for the World Cup or for the 2010/11 EPL season.
Still don’t get the all soccer channel thing. Didn’t Setanta’s shares of the games starting next year get cut in a third?
This move just further shows how little ESPN cares about soccer fans.
ESPN has the buying power to buy more slots away from Fox, Gol, or whoever may own rights to games.
I think it shows they think they care about soccer fans, like any time a company tries to venture into a new market they pick someone stupid that’s out in the public eye that they just assume everyone loves.
OK…I couldn’t resist….so I looked up Max’s Wikipedia entry: In addition to FSC, it also lists him as an announcer for the WWF and Florida Championship Wrestling.
Does this clear anything up or just muddy the waters?
WWF:FCW::EPL:MLS?
I for one welcome Max’s replacement at FSC…
…inanimate carbon rod!
How is this different? Oh, wait, you said ‘inanimate’ not ‘insensate’. Sorry.
Maybe ESPN does something like, let JP Dellacamera and Martin Tyler be the guys in South Africa, let Bob Ley handle highlights from outside the stadiums, and give Bretos a 1 AM daily recap show on ESPN2. This of course means that we are perilously close to a Bretos-Tommy Smythe partnership, which would be indescribable.
If I have to listen to Max Bretos (YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH) on top of vuvuzelas at the World Cup, I’m watching the ENTIRE COMPETITION on mute.
Just saying.
I think Bretos-Alexi Lalas would be even worse than a Bretos-Smythe combination. I’m voting for bringing Derek Rae back!
Oh, forgot about Rae, I think ESPN still employs him, he does SPL now I think .
“ESPN has the buying power to buy more slots away from Fox, Gol, or whoever may own rights to games. ”
I thought the packages for the next few years were already settled. This year’s packages were the end of the contract. And if ESPN actually has the buying power, why didn’t they outbid anyone the first time when everyone kept saying they were going to? Setanta’s coverage for the new package starting next year was going to be something like only a game every two of three weekends.
The packages are settled, but the way I understood it in the US was that Fox owns like 90% of the current packages but leased or sold some to Setanta. ESPN has some packages right now Fox originally had that they sold to Setanta. (I might be totally wrong on this though)
It could go a couple of ways next year:
1. Fox makes tries to hold onto most of the Soccer broadcasting power in the US and drops some games onto FSE and FSN, or even comes up with another channel to put stuff on since they will have so many games, and a lot will overlap.
2. ESPN buys up 20-40% of the games Fox owns rights to as well as some other leagues to start their own channel.
3. (most likely) ESPN maybe buys 1-2 packages off Fox and just runs games on ESPN2 like they’ve been doing.
If he goes to ESPNews, that’s it’s own separate channel (that never has anything but third tier bowl games and, um, probably soccer). We might never have to deal with him again, really. That’d be cool.
This does make me wonder, though…what will happen to Christopher Sullivan?
That’s kind of what I’m hoping- that he’s one step away from doing team handball highlights on the “Ocho.”
As for Christopher, Gol TV would be a perfect fit for his abilities with Spangloguese and Fretalian.
My only thought is that it says he “resigned”. now it certainly could have been a resignation in line with a you did such and such and got caught, so you can resign or we can fire you, but he jumped right to ESPN so I’d imagine that it wasn’t that sort of case.
My guess is that he’s kept over on ESPNews 90% of the time and then brought over to play with the big boys when soccer is involved.
Actually, I’m wondering if ESPNews will, starting with the World Cup, start actually showing soccer highlights when it happens. He shouldn’t really be getting into the rotation for the commentary folks (who, all things considered, are pretty decent and better than him); presenting highlight packages, however, is something he’d be pretty decent with.
I wonder if ah-dee-DAS will pull their commercials until he pronounces the name right?
i for one, really like Max Bretos and think he will do very well at ESPN. The fact that he pronunciates the players name correctly is a plus. he’s much better than the chumps that pronunciate everyone’s names with a terrible american accent!
good for max bretos. paid his dues at fsc and is moving on espn. probably a better fit for him.
espn is run much better than fsc, in terms of production.
hopefully he does well.
as for fsc, why do they release the fscHD without making it available to any major cable company in the US (DirecTV, Cox, Uverse, etc.)? you would figure that they would negotiate with those carriers before announcing the channel is available in HD. asenine.
that’s fsc for you.
FSC need to do a better job with their shows and hosts. The also need to figure out whether they are a knock-off British football channel or something original. Everything they do smells of 90s British television. The hosts, the sets, even the branding.
Why does the highlight show have to be in a mock pub? Lastly, how long has Nick Webster been in the US? Some of the terms he drops are from the 80s and only ex-pats who immigrated to the US in the 80s and 90s knock what he is chatting about.
Oh, and Keith Costigan is a wanker.
I don’t get the Bretos haters at all. Max’s enthusiasm for the game and his attempt to produce some originality to his play by play mark him as a cut above the vast majority of soccer play by play guys, who seem to be transplanted US football and basketball announcers with little feel for the game.
Or maybe the ones complaining about Bretos actually prefer bland, mock excited announcers who only get worked up when the ball goes in the back of the net. Boring.
Or maybe they just enjoy ragging on people with jobs much cooler than theirs.
To me, Bretos always seems a step behind the play. The best announcers are the ones thinking with the game; “#7 passes to #8″ should be being said as the pass is going, not after it’s arrived, and Bretos tends to do that. His insistence on turning everything Hispanic (i.e., “con-CA-caf” instead of “CON-ca-caf”) is also irritating.
In general, though, none of the FSC commentators (or the ESPN commentators, for that matter) are particularly good at simply narrating the game; I’m a little bit of a Eurosnob here, but I vastly prefer the English commentary that’s not afraid to not talk to the American commentary that feels the need to fill in all the empty moments with chatter.
Not hearing Max’s voice has made watching FSC tolerable, it was clear he loved hearing himself. I can now watch Fox’s World Cup coverage. Wynalda has been doing a nice job I just hope he lets the other talk and he keeps his ego in check.
I was watching FSC’s MLS preview tonight (don’t get me started) and was wondering where Mad Max was. Interesting his name didn’t turn up on ESPN’s list of talent. Wonder if he consulted Allen Hopkins, considering how Hopkins has been buried since he switched.
BTW, Mr. or Ms. Haaskivi, just seeing that name and the Force logo brought a smile to my face. And I was a Minnesota Kicks and Strikers fan back in the day. (RIP)
From bad — Bretos — to worse. It appears that at least one of his replacements, at least on MLS matches, is Dave Johnson, the mega-jerk who has mangled DC United matches for far too long.
What a bunch of annoying wankers. Is there any commentator you actually like?
What are Max’s faults again? Being genuinly enthusiastic about the game of football and pronouncing names correctly instead of butchering them? OK then.
Fortunately, ESPN recognized his talent. His move there is a step up. Good luck to him. I really enjoy his commentary.