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Get your pitch fix with SI.com's writers in the World Cup Blog, a daily journal of World Cup commentary, on-site reporting and reader-driven discussions.6/15/2006 07:43:00 PM Thoughts on Dave O'Brien?
Posted by Mark Mravic
Having been in Germany for five days now, I've discovered a strange phenomenon: The closer you get to this World Cup, the harder it is to follow. I've spent much of my time traveling -- flight from New York to Paris, train to Cologne, train to Gelsenkirchen and back for the U.S.-Czech match, train to Frankfurt and back for the Korea-Togo affair -- and so I've missed several games entirely and caught only bits and pieces of others on television.
Internet access is catch-as-catch-can in hotel lobbies and cybercafes. The papers, of course, are wall to wall with World Cup coverage, but my one year of college German isn't enough for me to follow the nuances of analysis or pick up on the points of debate swirling around various national team camps. (Though I did figure out the headline in a Stuttgart paper before Brazil's opener: "National Crisis: Is Ronaldo Too Fat?") So it's a bit like being in a media vacuum, except you can hear the vacuum running full blast.
Being in Germany means I've also missed out on ABC and ESPN's coverage stateside, particularly the stylings of new lead soccer commentator Dave O'Brien. When O'Brien, a baseball announcer by trade, was given the World Cup job, a flurry of indignation rose through soccer circles. Fans questioned whether he had sufficient knowledge of the U.S. team or background in the sport to handle the job. The early signs weren't good.
On broadcasts of pre-World Cup friendlies, O'Brien's unfamiliarity showed. He got U.S. players' names wrong. He referred to nonexistent teams "Wolverhampton Wolves" (it's Wolverhampton Wanderers, or Wolves) and "Glasgow United" (Rangers? Celtic?). He implied that the World Cup had a consolation round. O'Brien improved some over the course of the World Cup buildup but was still frustrating to listen to at times.
I did see that he lashed back at his critics in a USA Today interview, thumbing his nose at the "soccer clique" that, in his mind, doesn't represent his audience or the future of the sport. If you ask me, alienating the core fan base in a quixotic pursuit of the "general audience" is a dangerous road to travel. But I'm not calling the shots over at Disney.
And as I said, I haven't been seeing the coverage. Maybe O'Brien has risen to the challenge. Maybe his dulcet "professional announcer" voice and generalist's approach is attractive to the casual viewer. So my question is, what do you think of ABC and ESPN's World Cup efforts, and particularly of O'Brien's performance?
Fire away.
45 Comments:
Nice article. The key point which I wholeheartedly agree with is to NOT alienate the core fan base to pursue a general audience. O'brien seems to be incorrect in his thinking that the general fanbase is to be catered to first. The National Hockey League has tried this with poor results. By the way, O'brien seems like a nice guy but is a poor announcer for the true soccer fan.Its very obvious he doesn't know much about the sport. Then again Marcelo Balboa played in the World Cup and he barely seems to know what he is talking about.ABC and ESPN are often times grating to watch, I don't speak a lick of Spanish but I've watched pretty much every game on Spanish television and it's been great. I've even got the volume waaaay up just to hear those crazy fans. I just can't deal with the fact that the coverage on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC is like watching golf. It's almost as bad as AL Trautwig (sp?) on OLN for the Tour.O' Brien has tried to assimilate himself to the world's game(extensive research, travel to watch games in England, etc.) but it is a tough listen to put it mildly. Its akin to a John Champion or Rob Hawthorne from England being selected to call world baseball classic games with only months of preparation (a mission impossible to say the least). He just hasn't been exposed to enough soccer to understand nuances of the game. Not to mention his over reliance on factoids clutters the telecast instead of showing his knowledge. I'm sure this feedback has made it his way as it seems like he is trying to adjust some. He does have a solid voice though. It just would be nice if all he did was made sure he got the names right and got excited on the goals. Don't get me started on 'Celo (master of the obvious)....
The HD has been excellent though...keeps me from watching Univision...In a way, O'Brien's comments pretty well sum up the American soccer experience: forget everyone else, we're doing it our way, and you can just live with it.
Which is a great attitude when you're on top of the world, but not so great when you get killed 3-0 and realize MLS isn't quite the training ground for tomorrow's World Cup dreams and maybe, just maybe, the outside world needs to be looked at. I'm in complete favour of MLS, but the top players really need to look to get European experience and fast. Speaking of, maybe ESPN can just broadcast GOLLLLLLLLLL from one of the South American stations instead of O'Brien.O'Brien is dreadful. His only merit is that his commentary has forced droves of American soccer fans to learn other languages, by tuning into Univision or international broadcasts.I don't know who O'Brien is but I have to completely agree with Mr. Anonymous in that Marcelo Balboa talks like he played tennis all his life. John McEnroe could talk soccer better than him. Please get him off TV and never let him near a pitch again!!!!I've been pleasantly surprised by O'Brien. He doesn't overreact to every play like the guy who's working with Shep Messing. he's pitiful. Glenn Davis I think. the best team is far and away JP Dellacamera and John Harkes. I don't know why they don't have Harkes on the top team instead of 'Celo. I'm actually impressed that they don't have more "educational" info, like explaining yellow cards and red cards or injury time. If we have to deal with that stupid ball on Fox baseball broadcasts explaining to me what a slider is, I would expect more of the same for a sport the vast majority of us don't follow. I also think having to use an international feed hurts them. There are plenty of times they are discussing a specific story or player and we get no footage correlating to the topic. All in all, decent. Go Spurs!O' Brien isn't too bad, he's kind of like elevator muzak... pretty easy to tune out. Sepp Messing is the one that needs to be taken off the air. It's almost like he's trying to emulate Dick Vitale.... horrific.O'Brien's does a good job mention interesting facts about players and teams . . . but that is all he does. Yes I'm interested in hearing that Peter Crouch is very very tall and went to some party at Beckingham Palace, but I'd be more interested in hearing why all the service he gets seems to come from the middle third and not on the deep wing.O'Brien seems to have gotten better with soccer. But his politics during the Iran-Mexico game were disturbing, to say the least. "Did the Iranian team get a chill up their spine in Nuremburg..." etc.
Still, I don't think he has the pacing of soccer right, and that gives far too much room for 'Celo to speak far too quickly. In the qualifiers, when 'Celo was with JP Dellacamera, he seemed like a perfect analyst.
Now? I agree with the statement that JP and John Harkes are the best duo, and I think most of that has to do with Dellacamera, who has the right knowledge, right pacing, and right voice.
Adrian whatsit is also good too, and Tommy Smyth actually hasn't annoyed me except with the pathetic "onion bag" bit.I'm American and haven't even given O'Brien a chance. Maybe that's not fair, but American announcers in the past have been terrible. The guys on Univision are knowledgeable. Of course, it helps to know Spanish...Hey, I like Al Trautwig...I usually get in late to work every morning during July because I stay at home watching the Tour de France. Al and Bob are amazing..they can make cycling interesting. As for Univision, they have the best coverage. They don't cut to commercials as much either. Plus the women on the sports shows are hot....an added bonus, plus I get to practice my Spanish.The commentary hasn't been electrifying, and its really frustrating to watch and listen. Marcelo is horrible, and the rest are all pretty boring. I say we just get Tommy Smyth and a bunch of other British guys to come over and do it for them.O'Brien is actually one of the less annoying ABC/ESPN announcers, but that's really not saying much. Personally, I put a lot of the blame the producers and directors -- it's obviously a high priority in their minds to not have dead air at any moment in a game, and so the announcers, almost all of whom don't have the background knowledge to fill 90 minutes with interesting and insightful stuff, end up repeating the same four or six talking points over and over again. (There's a civil war in Cote D'Ivoire. The Mexican keeper's father recently passed away. The president of Iran is a loon. Etc.)
The producers should be forced to watch hours of British soccer broadcasts until they notice the difference: their broadcasters are much more focused on describing the game as it's happening and aren't afraid to respond to a ten second lull in the action on the pitch by actually keeping their mouths shut. Part of that, granted, is a difference in cultural expectations of what an announcer's job really is, but those cultural differences arose in large part because soccer IS a different sport than the traditional American sports.
I sort of understand O'Brien's frustration with the criticism -- American soccer fans can be extraordinarily cranky, snobby and insular at times. But I've got two friends -- women who don't follow sports much and are watching soccer for more or less the first time -- who are watching the games and have made the same sorts of complaints.
It's funny that someone else complained that watching the ABC/ESPN coverage is like watching golf, because to my mind, a broadcast like a golf match is just what the doctor ordered. Golf announcers are willing to sit back and watch a shot develop and not fill every second of dead air with talk of what Phil Mickelson had for breakfast that morning. Somebody call Mike Tirico!O'Brien- you've got to be kidding... He has little knowledge of the game and less feel. The language of a soccer game ought be a wholly engaged rendering by those who have always loved the sport, not those who have been delegated its curation in the nadir of a marginal broadcasting career. O'Brien's never played soccer; he doesn't get soccer; you can hear it.
++
Also, goings on in the lives of players are not match commentary fodder.O'brien is unbearable. Like all American play-by-play men, he's forgotten what that title means. They consistently ignore the action on the field in favor of irrelevant blather. This isn't baseball or football, with tons of stoppages of play to fill. So shut your pie-hole and just call the damn play!I'm quite pleased that a traditional American announcer is giving the World Cup a go. I tend to agree with some others that there is too much spaced being filled in with commentary, but I also believe that is a side-effect of the influence of baseball on American announcing.
While he's no John Motson (nor should that expectation be placed upon him) I've found the O'Brien/Balboa combination to be very non-offensive. They generally don't make that many blithely incorrect calls (the same, certainly, cannot be said of Tommy Smyth, who has at least one major misunderstanding of the game flow every game that he color commentates for).
Overall, nice job. You have to let some American announcers figure out the game. Anything that makes the coverage feel more American (even if that includes some baseball style silence filling) is a good thing in my eyes.I am a diehard soccer fan and an American. I think its important to remember the American fans mindset, after all, that is whom the ESPN broadcasts are aimed at. Americans like personalities. They get more into TO's off field issues than his onfield heroics. They spend countless hours focusing on the individuals versus the team. Not saying its right, but its a fact.
With that said, I think its unfortunate that ESPN cannot bring their total technological package to the broadcasts. There should be much more on field microphones and cameras, more graphics, and better camera angles. I want soccer to be huge in America, but we need to focus on what is attractive to the American fan. It is a beautiful game, and there are beautiful stories that go along with each game. There needs to be a way to focus on both or else soccer will always be followed solely by the types of people that visit boards like this one.o'brien doesnt have the feel for soccer announcing. he would probly be a good color commentator if he knew the game. if he shuttup and stuck to the play by play he'd b great..... shep/glenn annoy me with all the analogiesWhat I do not understand is why it is necessary for a baseball announcer to be hired to commentate on a soccer game. Is there really that much skill in commentating on a game that an expert commentator is preferable to an expert on the sport? That said I do feel bad for the guy. He obviously loves sports in general and he is enthusiastic, but that alone does not make someone an expert on soccer. Also, I would disagree with the tactic of catering to a larger fanbase, namely baseball. I doubt that his comments are so inspiring to make someone follow him to another sport. Overall it does not impact the game for me, except to take my eyes off for an occasional eye-roll.I wish they'd have put Ray Hudson in for O'Brien. Ray Hudson is enthusiastic and passionate. An exciting game deserves an exciting voice.I think the backlash against O'Brien is a little unfair. ABC/ESPN have to straddle a fine line between a dumbed-down broadcast for newcomers to the sport, and something informative for hardcore fans, most of whom get their soccer info from the Internet, anyway. While the nuances may be missing, O'Brien has made the effort to get up to speed. More frustrating is the fairly hasty way that ABC/ESPN prepared for the cup; they should have used the entire year getting Dave O'Brien familiar with the game and honing his soccer skills.The only American futbol announcer I care to listen to is JP Dellacamera. All others should be required to spend a year's broadcasting internship for the EPL. The Brits have such a way of calling a match that adds to the intrigue on the pitch, and many times it's done with only one broadcaster- totally foreign to America. The American announcers have me reaching for the mute button.O'Brien sounds like what he is-- a baseball announcer calling a soccer game. He doesn't seem to team well with Balboa. For the England-Paraguay game it seemed as though they had different agendas. I think he would do better to speak less, but to be fair, if he did Balboa would step right in with some long-winded discourse.
I'm hoping my biggest fear isn't realized on Saturday though... Saturday, ABC, prime-time for sports, US-Italy... there can only be one man for that job-- Brent Musburger. That's right, the man who can't master any major american sport will be branching out... We can expect the terms "home run", "touchdown", and "World Series of Soccer", or similar to be used often.UGH!!! Did you know that some clown on Paraguay called Beckham a coward? How many times did O'Brien mention that, 10? Or that Gary Neville was the best man at Beckham's wedding?? WHO CARES!!
They have their little story lines and theyaren't going to let the game get in the way of whatever story line that they've chosen.I just wished they stopped talking about politics to fill in time. NOBODY CARES!!! This is the world cup not world news! I"m going back to watching Univision and the "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL"!! Much more entertainingI am completely unimpressed with Obrien and Balboa. Their style of commentary coupled with Obrien's lack of soccer knowledge, in my opinion, actually detracts from a viewers enjoyment of the match. It is really disappointing to see them not only doing the commentary for US matches but also seemingly every other "big" match (e.g. Germany-Poland, England-Paraguay, etc.). Obrien offers absolutely none of the tidbits regarding the intricacies of the game (and not banal references to non-soccer matter like Beckham's wedding) that make full time soccer play by play announcers like JP and Adrian so much more entertaining. Also, Obrien's inadequacies as a soccer announcer are exascerbated by Balboa's long stretches of silence and smatterings of very basic analysis. Its just a bad pairing and a shame that it will be the most used by ESPN. Bring back Jack Edwards!!Univision Rocks and from a guy who does not understand a single word of spanish.. What were ABC and ESPN Executive thinking when they hired these announcers. Its like watching someone annouce a baseball or basketball game rather than football. No excitment..no feeling and certianly no knowledge..
At these rate no avid soccer fan will watch ABC or ESPN and poor general public would get bored to death and lose out on "THE UNIVERSAL GAME"..o'brien is fairly weak, and it shows but you can make up for mediorce play-by-play when you have a good color guy who can provide good insight, a mix of the expert stuff some of us need and some general stuff for casual fans. harkes and balboa do *not* fit that bill. we are not interested in their anecdotes from early 1990's concacaf qualifiers against honduras. and these guys need to spend a lot less time talking about the meaningless us team - i can't root against them enough, once they're out maybe i can stop hearing about how landon donovan can light up the italians if he's on his game. puh-lease.Marcelo Balboa is a complete idiot and I can't stand him. That he was once the captain of the U.S. team tells you just how bad the team was in the early 90s and just how unbelievable it was that we actually made it to the knockout round of a World Cup during that time. If I hear him say one more time "That's a good professional foul" after a defender tackles an attacking player from behind after giving the ball away, getting a yellow card, I will scream. Perhaps he wouldn't have to praise cheating if he actually commented on what a terrible giveaway it was in the first place.
Now...Dave O'Brien. There is no doubt the man knows how to call a major sporting event, generally speaking. Most of the time it's not an issue of talking too much, I don't think. He doesn't talk any more than the British announcers everyone seems to love so much. He gives proper respect to the magnitude of the event, or tries to the best he can with that braying jackass sitting next to him. The only problem with him was his lack of knowledge, and that obviously can be fixed. He's so much better now than he was that ill-fated friendly in January that I think if you listened to a game of his now and then went back and watched that game, it would be truly shocking. He's still got some issues, but I honestly think if he sticks with it, he'll be pretty good. By far his best performance yet was in the Germany-Poland game a couple days ago. It was obvious that he was truly in awe of the atmosphere and he really let that take over. The game was also enthralling throughout, which helped him as he spent all his time talking about the game and never ventured into the realms of discussion on random topics, which is another problem he is (and most American sportscasters have when the game they're working is boring, really). Now, the next day in the England-Trinidad match, he was pretty terrible, because he got a terrible match where he had to carry it and he couldn't do it. But he's definitely improving and I honestly think that if he sticks with it, he could be pretty good by the time the next World Cup rolls around. That is if ESPN actually bothers to keep him doing the occasional soccer game.Just to echo what a poster above mentioned - the single most annoying thing I find about O'Brien or any of the other announcers is that they talk ALL THE TIME. They never shut up. It actually gets extremely grating over the course of the day. The thing I find amazing/appaling is that for all the non-stop talking, they still miss half of the play-by-play. I wish ABC/ESPN would hire at least one good English announcer and follow his lead on how to call a game. As far as the analysts go, my common complaint, and this holds for English analysts just as much as it goes for Balboa, Harkes, Messing, or Smyth, is that they generally provide all sorts of personal opinions about what is going on and individual player performance but hardly any real analysis. They don't tell me why one side or the other is winning or dominating possession or losing despite dominating possession. I'm not talking about the old NASL style broadcasts that went into excruciating detail about what a throw in is or what is a yellow card. I'm talking about actually discussing tactical play. But, as I stated earlier, I find almost all "analysts" to be this way, not just the ABC/ESPN crews. The fact is, if it wasn't for HD I'd be watching Univision. I only catch about half of the Spanish but, to me, the Univision broadcast is the way the World Cup is "supposed" to sound.Honestly, the spanish commentators interest me more than the english. I cant understand them, but it doesnt really matter. Numerous times have the announcers completely missed the strategy altogther, and have made completely wrong comments about the current state of game. While watching Angola vs Mexico, one of the commentators mentioned how Angola was playing a "possesion that only goes backwards" while they were consistently passing the ball around and keeping it away from Mexico. Comments like that made me upset because it was obvious that Angola's primary objective is not to let Mexico get the ball, so whether their possesion is used to attack or to make Mexican deffenders commit, it doenst matter. If Mexico doesnt have the ball, they cant score.
Back to GOL TV for me.The gentleman commenting at 2:35 has it just right, so I won't repeat his points. I just wonder why ESPN/ABC couldn't hire one of the UK's second-tier announcing teams (from Sky Sports, say, or whichever channel is not broadcasting the World Cup games over there). They would be leagues better than the current U.S. crew and must be otherwise at loose ends and up for a lucrative 30-day contract.
As for the following post:
[O'Brien's] only merit is that his commentary has forced droves of American soccer fans to learn other languages, by tuning into Univision or international broadcasts.
What's so meritorious about forcing citizens of an English-speaking nation to learn a foreign language (even assuming that one could "learn" a foreign language in 30 days of soccer-watching)?hey mravic i thought serbia was supposed to make it through the group stageO' Brien does for soccer commentary what the iceberg did for the Titanic. At best it's just plain embarassing, at worst....you get the picture. I suggest a page of 'O'Brien Balls'
e.g. "He shoots for the post" - Oh really!
"And Peragwee move forward" Sounds more like a small falcon to me than a S. Amercian country.From the numbers of people who "claim" that they watch the Univision broadcasts even though they don't speak Spanish, it is apparent that no announcer would be suitable for a percentage of the hardcore fans. To find it more enjoyable to listen to words you don't understand than to listen to professional American announcers is comical and embarassing. I wish soccer fans would relax and realize we are dealing with a second tier sport in America, one which I love, but one that I know will never reach the heights of basketball or football unless American fans can better identify with the players and stories. It doesn't have to be solely about the game!JP Dellacamera should be the number one commenator Obrien has a great voice but little soccer knowledge and is slowly learning the game. In a world cup you need announcers who are experienced and that bring the game to life with their commentary. I would not watch UNIVISION because ESPN and ABC broadcsting in HD while Univision is standard defintion. That's one huge thing that espn/abc has over them. You feel like you are at the game the picture is so colorful and sharp compared to Univision.....JP Dellacamera should be on the # 1 broadcast team. Obrien has a great voice but lacks the knowledge of the game, Seamus Malin was a pretty good color. ESPNHD, ESPN2HD and ABCHD picture is far better than UNIVISION. Watching the world cup in HD is like you are at the game it's so colorful and sharp. Univision cannot match that because they can only broadcast in standard definitionO'Brian, Al Michaels, and all the other American commentators, including the few that actually played the sport professionally, are ruining this World Cup. It is actually painful to listen to.Dave O'Brien is truly horrible on the World Cup broadcasts. This is coming from someone who O'Brien apparently regards as his target audience - I am a casual fan who really only follows soccer closely during the World Cup. I want an announcer who is extremely knowledgeable of the sport and can offer insight on the players and the strategy that each team uses. I don't want someone who knows less about the game and the teams than I do. I don't want an announcer who goes on and on with inane personal tidbits about the players while the game is going on in front of him. Truly talented announcers can educate less knowledgable viewers while at the same time not boring the die-hard fans, and they do not distract from the game. Dave O'Brien is not a talented announcer. Count me as a viewer who has switched to Univision. I can understand some Spanish but even if I couldn't I would still consider Univision preferable to hearing O'Brien blathering on.balboa and o'brien are awful. but i've been playing soccer for almost 20 years so what do i know about the American people?Dear ESPN,
Please give us back J. P. Dellacamera--a real soccer announcer--for the third U. S. game. Please! This is the World Cup for God's sake, not open tryouts!
WillO'Brien & friends must learn the correct pronounciations of non-western players' names!
For instance... Asamoah Gyan of Ghana's last name is pronounced "Jan" .. not " "gee-yan",,,
These announcer types should check the correct pronounciations of names before they go on the air....I agree that JP Dellacamera should be the lead announcer, but lay off OBrien - he's not that bad. Good God - why and where did they dig up Giorgio Channelia - he was horrible!!!!!!! Eric Wynalda is Mr Bitter about everything - who constantly jumps on (and off) the US bandwagon game after game or even day after day. Do they pay him for his negativity. They need to bring back Bob Ley, Seasmus Malen, Jack Edwards and Ty Keough. THey brought good enthusiasm and knowledge to the game. JP is the top for now, but it is not like OBrien is unbearable. Get over it - if you dont like it mute the tv
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