ESPN is gearing up for the World Cup, and word came down just this week that JP DellaCamera will not be announcing any of their televised matches. He will be limited to the radio broadcasts only, while ESPN chooses to go with a much more Anglo-based set of lead announcers.
While Derek Rae and Adrian Healey have made the cut (deservedly so) and are familiar to North American viewers, the other two lead announcers are Ian Darke and Martin Tyler. Both are fine veterans and terrific announcers, who’s level of gravitas will definitely add some much-needed credibility to ESPN’s coverage. While DellaCamera is usually effusive of his praise of Bob Bradley and his squad, Harkes has a typical player’s attitude that follows through in his announcing. The referees are almost always at fault when something goes wrong, and Harkes typically never wants to claim that players in the game he is calling are either not up to snuff or capable of making horrendous errors.
I believe we’ll have a write-up with some analysis of the USA/Netherlands match yesterday, but I can tell you that from a television perspective, I felt the broadcast once again failed to deliver on key points, such as the horrendous play of both Jonathan Bornstein and Robbie Findley. I didn’t hear much from Harkes (who is supposed to deliver the criticism when it’s due as the match analyst) on either competitor. The USA has a real dilemma on it’s hands heading into South Africa with the back line. Harkes seems to want to maintain that if Oguchi Onyewu was available, things would be fine, which I find specious at best. I’ll let Mags cover his thoughts on the match, though.
Not much new to report on Fox Soccer from last week, as just about every carrier other than Dish does not have them in high definition yet. It appears there are a fair few cable carriers who don’t have a plan to bring FSC Plus to the airwaves. It will be a busy weekend on both channels, though, as the schedule is loaded with FA Cup quarterfinals, Barclay’s Premier League, Serie A (Roma v. AC Milan!) and an A-League match at a watchable hour. It’s been widely discussed that when Setanta US went away, we would lose their access to Ligue 1, and that has come to pass. This weekend’s HUGE Bordeaux-Montpellier match is nowhere to be found on the airwaves, which is a real shame.
Still, though, positive developments this week, mostly, and if anyone gets any tips about FSC Plus coming to cable systems, please email us or put it in comments. Cheers.
