I am an Englishman living in Australia. That has many advantages to it, the main one being the fact that I found a lovely young lady, and another is that I live in Australia and not in England, what with all the stuff and economic crisis that is happening there.
I have my choice of about 20 beautiful beaches all within a 30 minute driving distance, I can go and have an ice cold beer under the shade of the Opera House looking across the shimmering water at the Harbour Bridge, I can have some incredible Chinese or Japanese food, what I can’t do though is enjoy the coverage of the Champions League.
You do not know how good you have it in England with ITV and Sky. Their commentators (David Pleat excluded) really know what they are talking about. They have played the game to a high level or have watched and studied enough football to be in a position to commentate on games at such a high level. I have to endure ESPN’s coverage. Listening to some American that does not know the difference between a right back and goalkeeper, a striker and a midfielder and please don’t get me started on positions that are a little bit technical such as ‘playing in the hole’ (which they think is someone messing around in a little hole on the pitch somewhere I’m sure) or sweeper (they look for someone with a brush for this one).
Before I left for work this morning I watched the first half of AC Milan or Meeeeelan as it is to the Yanks play Arsenal. According to the American commentator Theirry Henry is an attacking midfielder. He was crying out for Henry to come on to add and ‘attacking mentality to the midfield as he likes to get forward.’ My god!!! The guy is a striker, if my team, Crystal Palace, had a striker that didn’t like to get forward then I would be severely questioning why on earth he is in the team! How this guy has got a job as a commentator on what is supposed to be the beautiful game is beyond me. He gets to watch all these top matches and get paid to do so, not a bad gig he has got himself. The final straw was when he said a shot, where the only person in trouble of not saving anything was the person half way up the second tier with a newly bought pie, was ‘a great effort, a touch to high but look at the power he generated.’
Americans take their sport very seriously and are normally pretty good at it. The commentators really love their sport action and add to the action on the field/court/rink . If you have ever watched NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL you can hear how excited the commentators get when a touchdown is scored, or someone hits a slam dunk or a home run. This is what they are good at, going completely over the top, so-much-so that it is enjoyable because you know how much they are enjoying it. They reel off stats about a players, dads-grandads-uncles-mate that played for the same team back in 1768 and held some type of record, that is how much they like their sport. Now stick to that sport and let me watch the Champions league without some bell-end trying to make me believe what they are talking about, you don’t fool me. Where is Big Ron when you need him??? That is the thought for today, tune in tomorrow for something new. Laters
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