ESPN Can’t Please Everybody. Who Knew?
Yesterday, I tuned into the Liverpool-Real Madrid match (which Liverpool dominated 4-0), and almost immediately I was filled with relief. Tommy Smythe, the quirky Irish gent who so frequently calls ESPN’s soccer broadcasts, was nowhere to be found. In his stead was Robbie Mustoe, a former English Premier League player.
The broadcast, to my ear, was a thousand times better. For one, Mustoe seemed actually able to see the screen from which he was calling the game; Smythe all too frequently misses two or three replays before giving his call, which is by then pointless, because the broadcast has moved on. There are a variety of other differences: Mustoe is clear and articulate where Smythe is bumbling. Mustoe talks about strategy, about pace, about the way the game is won; Smythe seems more caught up in personalities and specific plays than he does the overall flow of the game. Anyway, even in a general sense, Mustoe was just so much better than Smythe. At least I thought so.
It turns out others disagree, including EPL Talk’s The Gaffer, a soccer blogger I almost always universally agree with:
Mustoe has to be criticized for doing a poor job as a co-commentator. Too passive. On the first two goals, there was little to no tactical analysis of whether the goal was offside and whether Torres pulled Pepe down (he didn’t, in my opinion). And even on the second goal, there was little to no analysis of whether it should have been a handball or not. We need more of an opinionated co-commentator who is willing to call it as he sees it, instead of slipping into the background. If ever there were opportunities for a co-commentator to grab the game by its balls and for Mustoe to establish himself as a quality commentator, this was it. He failed.
Love him or hate him, Smyth would have forcefully shared his opinion on these first two goals.
I agree that Mustoe sort of ignored the first goal’s possible foul, but he did discuss the handball on the second goal, and though his opinion wasn’t forceful, it was there all the same. So … meh. (That’s right, Hodgman. I said it.)
Anyway, without harping on the details of the game, which few people probably care about, my point is this: Apparently, ESPN can’t please everybody. Who knew? That sounds sarcastic, but it’s something I probably don’t realize enough. The people making these broadcasting decisions have their own subjective opinion, just like I do, and while those opinions occasionally line up, much more often, they diverge. And because the sports blogosphere can be an echo chamber, I fail to consider that. This seems simple. It is simple. But I forget it too frequently.
So here’s to the people behind poor broadcast decisions. You guys once hired Marcelo Balboa, and for that I will never forgive you. But I will try to understand you. Isn’t that what love is all about?
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Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
The Gaffer
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Anyway, thanks for responding. Cheers.
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And yeah, the O'Brien/Balboa pairing during the World Cup still gives me nightmares. I seriously considered switching to Univision just to avoid them. It's one thing to talk in cliches, but quite another to mispronounce player names, mix up teams, and generally demonstrate zero understanding of the game.
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