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DEL.ICIO.USHeartbreak for the Horn Guys
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Barcelona is the new champion of Europe, but the chatter that will linger from Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Arsenal in Paris is the first-have red card to Gunners keeper Jens Lehmann. That’s a first in the 51-year history of the European Cup. My sympathies to the Martz Brothers (aka Horn Guy 1 and 2), whose club had a great run.
Here’s a rollicking play-by-play commentary that summarizes the activity. For what it’s worth, The Guardian observer here thinks the foul on Carles Puyol that led to Arsenal’s surprising first goal of the game was just as bogus as Lehmann’s fateful tackle.
Not a great showing by the Spanish champions, but two subs — Larsson and Belletti, who scored the winner with 10 minutes left — proved to be the difference. For all of the ballyhoo about Barca, this is only their second European Cup crown.
Does this whet anyone’s World Cup appetite? ESPN2 certainly got serious about using it as a run-up. Today the networks announced their W.C. teams behind the mic, with Dave O’Brien (not our Braves beat writer, but ESPN’s own) and ex-Yank defending Marcelo Balboa forming the lead duo. Thrashers’ TV play-by-play man J.P. Dellacamera, once an ESPN soccer announcing mainstay, also is part of the effort.
Comments
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By soccerguy
May 17, 2006 5:19 PM | Link to this
Sevilla over Middlesbrough. Barcelona over Arsenal. Italian and German soccer leagues awash in controversy. Spanish soccer reigns supreme once again. Ole!
By Nicholas Irwin
May 17, 2006 6:46 PM | Link to this
That referee was truly awful. I sincerely hope we have the pleasure of seeing him work a World Cup game. I guess the one thing that can be said is that all his terrible calls pretty much evened out, if that can be considered a good thing…which it can’t.
Also, Henry and Ronaldinho totally bombed this game. Once again, the two best soccer players in the world crap the bed on the biggest stage. I’m sure ESPN was loving that, having billed the game as Ronaldinho vs. Henry.
By John Turnbull
May 18, 2006 10:13 AM | Link to this
Referee Terje Hauge is not in the FIFA rotation for the World Cup.
Obviously ESPN has no one on board who can evaluate the merits and demerits of their constantly rotating crew of soccer announcers. Listening to Balboa during the Arsenal-Barcelona match, I was embarrassed for him. He parroted the observations of Tommy Smyth (who is no bargain, although I enjoy when he refers to Frankie Hejduk as “surfer dude”) and, despite an excellent playing career, brings no insight or perspective. Dave O’Brien has the much-coveted “broadcaster’s voice,” but his work on U.S. games thus far has been uninspiring. I suppose anything’s better than Jack Edwards, Rob Stone, Ty Keogh or the other flag-waving xenophobic shills, but will the U.S. ever develop broadcasters equal to the game?
My vote for the lead commentary team would be Derek Rae and Seamus Malin, but I often wonder if there is some hidden prejudice against assigning an announcer with the dreaded “accent” for U.S. games.
By Gus
May 18, 2006 11:16 AM | Link to this
O’Brien does have a better “voice”— he’s only been doing soccer for a short time, hopefully he’ll improve on the content side. Someone should send him tapes of EPL announcers— they keep it simple, yet enthusiastic, w/o the over-the-top”ness” of Spanish announcers. Heck, I’m Hispanic, but the “GOOOOOOOOOL” chant by every nickle-n-dime announcer is getting pretty old. I’ve always thought JP Dellacamera is one of the best— still don’t know why ESPN stopped using him on a regular basis. The match was exciting, even with the officiating travails. In spite of Mr. Irwin’s defecating references (he really should become a sports-talk guy— I can’t recall him ever making a positive comment about anything), Henry and Ronaldinho may not have taken over the match, but I thought they had some flashy moments. The Arsenal goal came from a total dive by Eboue, so I don’t think Henry or Wenger should be complaining about the ref as much as they have post-match. Condolences to the Hornguys (and my bud Andy Murphy) on the Arsenal loss. Hopefully they’ll be cheered up by a Silverbacks victory either next weekend at Charleston or at the new gorilla stadium inauguration on June 3rd (also against the despised Battery). Hope to see many of you at “The RE/MAX” on Opening Night.
By Horn Guy 2 (a.k.a. Chris in Spain)
May 18, 2006 11:28 AM | Link to this
Yes, I have to put up with this nonsense over here.
Watched the game on Sky Sports, not Television Española. Talked to my Spanish buddy who’s a ref in his spare time. Spanish TV never replayed the offside Eto’o goal. Not surprising.
It’s just sad to hear Arsenal talk about the referee so much, now they look like crybabies. What hurts is that if Barcelona had lost they’d be doing the same thing.
But this guy was just terrible. It just boggles my mind how time and time again, the refs in big matches just have brain farts at exactly the wrong times.
By Wendy Parker
May 18, 2006 11:40 AM | Link to this
All I could think of while watching this refereeing farce is how many times the linesman from Vanuatu (or is that Xanadu, Rosebud?) is going to call offside during the USA-Italy match. It will be like a night at La Scala, with Totti screeching like Pavarotti.
I hope.
By tbflowers
May 18, 2006 3:48 PM | Link to this
Yes this game whet my appetite for the WC.
Thought the commentary was acceptable. Would have loved to have seen 11v11, but the keeper and the ref screwed the pooch. Was a wonderfully attacking game up to that point. Barcelona saved the ref’s bacon by scoring 2. He’d have been infamous had Arsenal been able to hold on.
By Horn Guy 1 (a.k.a. Colin)
May 18, 2006 4:24 PM | Link to this
My view of the final is very different from my brother’s (heck, we’re thousands of miles away for chrissakes!!!)
In my opinion, it was a fair result. I can’t blame the ref for sending off Lehmann. As far as playing the advantage and allowing the goal, you can’t blame him for blowing the whistle in the heat of the action (even though the ref admitted he should have allowed the play to continue to see what transpired).
The Arsenal goal was one of those plays where if you’re a fan you’ll take it, while if you’re rooting for the other team, you’re steaming mad. Great ball by Henry, great header by Campbell, sorry marking by the defense. But it was a set up by a non-existant foul on Eboue.
As far as the Eto’o goal was concerned, I didn’t think it was offsides while watching the game live. I only saw one replay, and even then it was difficult to tell. Anyways, if he was offsides, it just cancelled out one bad call with another.
Belletti’s goal was off errors by the (tired) defense and a goalkeeper who was playing out of his league.
The thing that really irks me is that Henry was complaining about the referree immediately after the game. Thierry, you’re Arsenal’s money man. You’re paid to score goals. When you have two golden opportunities (including one to make it 2-0 with 20 minutes left), you have to convert. You have no right to place the blame on the referee (except for that horrible call on the yellow you received).
What I’m most upset about is the fact that Dennis Bergkamp ended his career sitting on the bench. “THERE’S ONLY ONE….DENNIS BERGKAMP!!!”
So here’s to next season (with or without Henry), here’s to a successful Silverbacks’ season, and here’s to my brother coming home in two weeks.
By Nicholas Irwin
May 18, 2006 8:43 PM | Link to this
Agreed on Dellacamara, Gus. Granted, he’s not as good as Derek Rae or the best British announcers, but he’s certainly the best American soccer announcer, and it isn’t really even close. Maybe they’ll pair him with Tommy Smyth like they did for the last World Cup. That made for a crew that was better than the No. 1 crew (Jack Edwards and I forget who the analyst was) by a mile. Although I know some people don’t like Smyth, so I may be alone on that one. Marcelo Balboa is awful, in my opinion, but since they’re gonna be hell-bent on having an ex-U.S. MNT star as the analyst, I’m guessing we can’t expect much better.
In any event, ESPN’s cluelessness when it comes to soccer announcers continues. If they had been grooming Dave O’Brien for the last couple of years (like, since the start of qualifiers maybe), I could see him becoming halfway decent. He is a good announcer, generally speaking. He’s one of the top three baseball announcers ESPN has. But he’s only been doing this since the beginning of the year, and his lack of knowledge shows often.
By Wendy Parker
May 19, 2006 11:32 AM | Link to this
During the ‘98 Coupe, Brent Musberger did a great Don Criqui imitation by referring to Dennis Bergkamp as Dennis Bergman.
As far as Balboa goes, that’s what ESPN does: It’s star quality, with devotion to craft secondary, especially when it comes to what is regarded as secondary sports. For years they put former All-Americans in the booth during the Women’s NCAA tourney. Now that they’re taking it seriously, they finally did what was obvious and put the best analyst there, Doris Burke.
If W.C. and other soccer keeps rising in the ESPN “inventory,” they might follow suit. We can hope for 2010, anyway. Or learn Spanish and enjoy it more on Univision.
By Gus
May 19, 2006 11:45 AM | Link to this
Spanish would be an option if it was Telemundo, but Univision’s announcers suck.
By Nicholas Irwin
May 19, 2006 3:41 PM | Link to this
I guess we can watch it on Univision if we feel like hearing two hours of chatter about how the U.S. team sucks. Their contempt for us in the Gold Cup was slightly ridiculous. Although I guess it would be kind of funny to tune into the Togo-Switzerland match and hear them talking about us the entire game.
By Chris in Spain (Horn Guy 2)
May 21, 2006 4:43 AM | Link to this
I can’t stand those idiots Pablo Ramirez and Jesus Bracamontes on Univision. I mute the TV when somebody scores. Andres Cantor on Telemundo is equally annoying. I really wish that Azteca America or Fox Sports en Español would get the rights to the WC, their broadcasters are top notch.
But that’s what you get, Univision and Telemundo are universally railed by all intellectual Latinos for their constant trash TV. Unfortunately they let it slide over into their football telecasts, appealing to the lowest common denominator.
By Wendy Parker
May 22, 2006 10:48 AM | Link to this
Sounds like Spanish-language sports TV is assimilating just fine into American TV culture.
By Nicholas Irwin
May 22, 2006 2:25 PM | Link to this
Maybe ESPN should get O’Brien and Celo to do nothing during the tournament except badmouth the Mexican team. I bet that wouldn’t cause an uproar or anything. Again though, if nothing else, it would make the Togo-Switzerland (or any other boring match. I’m sure there are others, Togo-Switzerland is just the first one I though of off the top of my head) far more amusing.