Eight
Member
soon headed to the espn + (+) (+) = more money for the mouse platform
2023-2024 European Football Thread
- Thread starter Portland Frog
- Start date
soon headed to the espn + (+) (+) = more money for the mouse platform
Purp
Active Member
I share your worry that a lot of EPL content will get pushed to Peacock. Darn that noise. I also share your opinion that NBC coverage of the EPL has been first rate. Perhaps the best thing they've done is keep Alexi Lalas off of my TV. My worry is that Fox will pick up the next TV rights deal if NBC tries to move too much to Peacock and then I'll have to stop watching the EPL altogether b/c I can't stomach commentary from the red headed boob.
Moose Stuff
Active Member
Good god I can't stand Alexi Lalas.
Chongo94
Active Member
Typical ugh.
Purp
Active Member
He's incorrigible. Irredeemably hostile to all my senses. I used to think Max Bretos was as bad as it could get for soccer coverage in America the way he tried to pronounce every foreign player's name as if he (Max) was a fluent speaker of each of their languages, but then Lalas turned the troll dial up to 11 and Bretos essentially disappeared. The best (worst) was when he pronounced German names with a Spanish accent. Thanks for falling on the sword LAFC.
Moose Stuff
Active Member
I almost threw my remote through the TV after the Wales game when the US ran out 6-7 of the most exciting young players to ever wear the uniform together for the first time and his postgame comment was basically "meh". Go scheiss yourself Alexi. Give me Taylor Twellman and Stu Holden every day over that asshat.
Bizarro Frog
Active Member
Does anyone remember the EPL review show that aired on Sunday or Mondays after all the matches were complete in the early 2000's? It was all highlights with no studio and they used the clips from the actual broadcast so your heard the different announcer teams. Each recap lasted a couple of minutes and I think the whole show as only an hour. It was greatness.
Purp
Active Member
Yeah. There's a similar one on ESPN+ for Serie A matches and I think another for Bundesliga. I don't watch them often, but occasionally check in on the Serie A ones for a few highlights of Weston and Juve if I wasn't able to follow closely enough over the weekend.
Purp
Active Member
I actually like Stu Holden a lot. I'm ambivalent about Twellman. Both have their quirks, but Stu bothers me less. That said, Twellman doesn't bother me that much at all other than he seems to try too hard to sound impressive. I really have a wide acceptance of sports announcers, by and large. Most of the announcers people often complain about don't bother me as much. Beth Mowins, for example, is far from great, but not as bad as most let on. Rod Gilmore can go sit on a wet bag of pop rocks, though. He's got the same issues as Lex.
I think one of the things that's always bothered me about Lalas is that he always seems to try to be positioning himself as the next Nats skipper. He acts like he's superior to everyone and all I ever see from him in his analysis is a guy whose tactical soccer acumen is only slightly greater than the average America football fan. I was no fan of Boob Bradley, but Lex being critical of his decisions was like watching the worst student in the school call the worst teacher in the school stupid.
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Purp
Active Member
Moose Stuff
Active Member
On Beth Mowins..... it isn't what she says or that she isn't knowledgeable.... I just can't stand her voice.
Moose Stuff
Active Member
I will scheissing kill somebody if he ever starts another meaningful game for us unless like 9 other dudes are hurt.
Chongo94
Active Member
This is ridiculous. It appears that Sargent has exactly the same skill set as Altidore (Which doesn’t make me extremely excited to be honest) and arguably may be even better at hold up play than Altidore. I see no reason to continue to play this guy when he only seems to show up when we play Honduras or Surinam or someone like that.
We’ve seen what he can “contribute” and “produce” for what seems like 15 years now. Give the younger and arguably more talented with much less of an attitude guy a chance.
Chongo94
Active Member
Will never understand why ESPN think they need to get a woman with a rather deep or manly voice to call games. A regular voice would be just fine.
Moose Stuff
Active Member
I think Sargent is better than Jozy ever was, and Sargent isn't even our best option either IMO. Also worth noting that none of our European guys are in this camp so no Sargent, no Soto, no Giaocchini, no Weah, no Hoppe..... I'm just gonna keep telling myself there's no way we keep him around over all those guys when it comes down to it. God I hope I'm right.
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Purp
Active Member
I agree on Sargent. I think Jozy's only role should be as a sub in some of the less meaningful competitions this year. Sargent is better than Jozy at Jozy's game and can go a full 90 multiple games in a row without an injury. Plus, he's more active defending higher and is much better playing physically in spite of Jozy's superior looking physique. I really think Sargent might be the right guy to start with the midfield he'd have behind him.
That said, if Weah continues his recent run of form I'd probably go with him first. I just love how Sargent seems to always win long, 50/50 goal kicks and punts to establish possession high with lots of space behind the back line for runners.
Purp
Active Member
I didn't finish developing this thought well last night. I would probably go with Weah first because he's scoring goals and we want a striker who can score regular goals. Take Gio for example. He looks awesome, but how much of that is because he's playing with one of the most dangerous strikers in the world right now? If he running off of and serving balls into an average finisher would he be as impactful?
That said, Sargent might generate more scoring chances by virtue of the quality of his hold-up play. I just see Sargent beating center backs for long 50/50 balls quite often and laying off simple balls for Gio, Pulisic, Musah, Dest, etc. to run onto in open space behind the back line could be absolutely lethal.
My whole point, which I think was evident, is that I think Sargent may well be an effective striker for the USMNT even if he isn't scoring goals at a high rate. He does many other things well that we need and could really benefit the midfield talent behind him.
dawg
Active Member
Moose Stuff
Active Member
Purp
Active Member
Neat moment, but fairly unimpressive. Hope that moment (I sound like Stu Holden saying moment so much) leads to some confidence that leads to even more impressive production in the future.
