2014 World Cup

[FunkMonk]

I find it very unusual (but good for me) that American coverage of footy always has british commentators.
Why is this? Does it not put off American viewers?

You miss a key demographic feature of American soccer fans. For a lot of them a big thing is about being international and not just some American rube focused on American centric things like baseball, american football, and bombing 3rd world countries.

If you read articles for American soccer fans, you will often see some british / non american phrases too and references to just how important it all is in some other country. The point is to keep feeding that part of the audience what they want to hear: you are now on some plane above a narrow american perspective--you have progressed into the global community.

Yeah I think there is an element of that. To Americans who weren't brought up in the game but want to get into it, there's definitely a bit of "learning the language and culture" of the sport, and that can be an appealing aspect by itself.

[Viking]

My strategy of picking favorites is paying off.

[Norgy]

I thought I had done the same. 

You're still ahead one point. Well done!
Celedhring has so far: 0-0-11. Which must be some kind of record.

[Sheilbh]

I find it very unusual (but good for me) that American coverage of footy always has british commentators.
Why is this? Does it not put off American viewers?

We have American commentators for American football. But also I think it's not the main 'national' sport so it's not much odder than us having Aussies commentating on the cricket. And, perhaps, there's not enough prominent retired/old/available American footballers to do it. Maybe once Howard and Donovan (from abroad they seem like the first American footballers to get much attention at home) retire they'll take over.

[Liep]

I thought I had done the same. 

You're still ahead one point. Well done!
Celedhring has so far: 0-0-11. Which must be some kind of record.

If you look at the Picks matrix you can see he hasn't chosen any picks. Luckily, otherwise he would have to be mental.

[Norgy]

Or a huge fan of Honduras.

[Liep]

They did a 'Hold the Line' montage on tv here. The Japanese referee clearly had the best spray technique.

[celedhring]

I thought I had done the same. 

You're still ahead one point. Well done!
Celedhring has so far: 0-0-11. Which must be some kind of record.

If you look at the Picks matrix you can see he hasn't chosen any picks. Luckily, otherwise he would have to be mental.

Huh? I did make picks.

Guess they didn't get saved

[Ed Anger]

I find it very unusual (but good for me) that American coverage of footy always has british commentators.
Why is this? Does it not put off American viewers?

We have American commentators for American football. But also I think it's not the main 'national' sport so it's not much odder than us having Aussies commentating on the cricket. And, perhaps, there's not enough prominent retired/old/available American footballers to do it. Maybe once Howard and Donovan (from abroad they seem like the first American footballers to get much attention at home) retire they'll take over.

Howard sucks. NBC used him on the Sunday games and he has the television presence of a refrigator.

[Valmy]

They always have Alexi Lalas (though hard to recognize without the hair) in studio though.

[Valmy]

Distinct absence of French surnames on the team.  So with the absence of the very French Ribbery, this team's Frenchiness is only 50% of the previous team's.

Benzema is what, an Arab name?

Is it any surprise?  The glory and cultural excellence of France draws in the best and brightest from around the globe.  Well that and many regions of France itself have different sounding last names.  But, you know, France's first two Presidents were President Bonaparte and President MacMahon, not exactly Ethnic French (whatever that may mean) names.

We went through this back around 1900 when there was much hand wringing that so many of our Major League Baseball players were Jews, Irish, and Germans.

[dps]

I find it very unusual (but good for me) that American coverage of footy always has british commentators.
Why is this? Does it not put off American viewers?

You miss a key demographic feature of American soccer fans. For a lot of them a big thing is about being international and not just some American rube focused on American centric things like baseball, american football, and bombing 3rd world countries.

If you read articles for American soccer fans, you will often see some british / non american phrases too and references to just how important it all is in some other country. The point is to keep feeding that part of the audience what they want to hear: you are now on some plane above a narrow american perspective--you have progressed into the global community.

Yeah I think there is an element of that. To Americans who weren't brought up in the game but want to get into it, there's definitely a bit of "learning the language and culture" of the sport, and that can be an appealing aspect by itself.

While ESPN is using British commentators for this WC, we don't always get Brits.  Sometimes we get guys whose native language is Spanish.  They tend to be much more, uhm, enthusiastic than the Brits.

[FunkMonk]

I think Lalas is a good analyst studio guy but I couldn't handle him as a color commentator.

Problem with American soccer commentators is that there are so few professional broadcasters with a generation of experience and knowledge of the game. Everyone has football or basketball or baseball knowledge, virtually none with soccer. Maybe in the next ten or twenty years this will fix itself.

[Josephus]

I thought I had done the same. 

You're still ahead one point. Well done!
Celedhring has so far: 0-0-11. Which must be some kind of record.

If you look at the Picks matrix you can see he hasn't chosen any picks. Luckily, otherwise he would have to be mental.

Huh? I did make picks.

Guess they didn't get saved

You need to press "Send" picks or something like that.

[Zanza]

I think Germany will copy Spain today...