Let’s hand out some awards shall we? I’ll evaluate the hosts, play-by-play, analysts and reporters on both TV and radio. For the best, they’ll go in the Finals, those just below go in the semi-finals and those not up to par will be given Group Stage or ESPN Fail.
Hosts
TV
Finals
Bob Ley, Mike Tirico and Chris Fowler – OK, I’m putting all of ESPN hosts in the Finals category. The network brought out the heavy hitters for the 2010 World Cup and each of them worked out well. All showed knowledge of the sport and brought out the best in their analysts. I would have liked to have seen Bob Ley as the overall host of the event with Tirico as Venue Host and Fowler as World Cup Primetime host, but ESPN had other ideas. No matter, each of the hosts did well and I was impressed with all of them. I’m can see all of them returning for World Cup 2014 in Brazil.
Radio
Finals
None
Semifinals
Kevin Winter – From the quarterfinals stage through the semifinals, Kevin did a decent job as host. He also has a tendency totalksofastthatheneedstotakeabreath. But I liked him. I don’t know why ESPN didn’t use Mark Kestecher, but ESPN Radio had its own ideas. Kevin is more of an update host rather than carry a thirty minute pregame show, but in his first opportunity to be a studio host of a major event, Winter didn’t do badly.
Group Stage
Amy Lawrence – She really needs to take a breath. I’ve heard Amy from her days in Providence on the old 790 The Score and she’s not bad. However, I noticed that she takes breaths every two words. It’s annoying. And while Amy isn’t a bad host as she fills in from time to time on ESPN Radio, her speech pattern was very annoying during the World Cup pregame.
Play-by-Play
TV
Finals
Ian Darke – Tremendous job on play-by-play. Works for Sky Sports’ coverage of the English Premier League, he was absolutely wonderful on the calls throughout the tournament. His call of the Landon Donovan winning goal for the USA over Algeria will live forever among soccer fans. And his great call of the Ghana-Uruguay quarterfinal match especially in the last moments was fantastic. I wish he was tapped over Martin Tyler for the Championship Game, but ESPN gave Darke the 3rd Place Match and he did it well. I do hope we hear Ian in four years in Brazil.
Semifinals
Martin Tyler – I would have put Martin higher had he not been so monotone throughout the tournament. As I said earlier in the World Cup, Tyler hardly raises his voice level. He rarely gets excited. There were times when I fell asleep when Tyler was calling games. His voice is too soothing. He’ll be back as ESPN’s main voice for the World Cup in 2014. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks so don’t expect him to raise his excitement level. He calls a good game, but I think he’s a notch lower than Ian Darke.
Derek Rae – I got killed in my first review when I said I enjoyed Derek. Go ahead and kill me again. I think Derek does a good job. He’s one of ESPN’s voices for the English Premier League in the UK and that’s good enough for me. Very worthy of the assignment and did a very good job during the tournament.
Group Stage
Adrian Healey – Very competent and did a decent job. I’m not a huge fan of Adrian’s, but I thought he did o.k. during the World Cup.
Radio
Finals
JP Dellacamera – ESPN continues to abuse JP. He’s America’s soccer voice and does a bang-up job. He called the Women’s World Cup Finals and also Olympic soccer for NBC. However, ESPN allows him to call USA preliminary matches, but never the big World Cup games. He was behind Jack Edwards in 2002 and Dave O’Brien in 2006. He got to call the Final this year, but on ESPN Radio. JP is too classy to complain, but I’ll complain for him. Bring back JP for the 2014 World Cup. Give him a Quarterfinal game to call and if you’re going to keep him on radio for Brazil, then have him do the Semis and Final. He’s been quite good on radio with Tommy Smyth.
Semifinals
None
Group Stage
Ross Dyer – Did o.k. on play-by-play. He and Shep Messing formed a rather pedestrian team. Nothing about them really stood out, but Ross did decently on the radio.
ESPN Fail
Glen Davis – Awful. Couldn’t keep track of the ball. Didn’t tell us where it was. Couldn’t keep track of time. Often failed to note how much stoppage time was added. Confused whether he was calling on the radio or TV, even saying, “You’re watching the World Cup on ESPN Radio.” What? Bring in another guy for the radio in 2014.
Studio Analysts
Finals
Steve McManaman – I liked his work and he meshed well with Alexi Lalas during World Cup Primetime. A guy who has previous studio and game experience on ITV and Setanta Sports in the UK and ESPN Star Sports in Singapore, Steve gave us the nuts and bolts of the game and also gave good insight into the England squad. Very good stuff. I was impressed with him. I hope he’s back in 2014.
Ruud Gullit – Another import from the UK, Ruud really got homerish when his native Netherlands team started to advance deeper into the World Cup. Before that, he gave us good analysis and showed trends on the field. It was cute when Ruud played up his Dutch roots after the team’s win over Brazil in the quarterfinals, but after that, I thought it would have been a good idea to remove him from Holland’s matches the rest of the way. While he was rejoicing over wins against Brazil and Uruguay, Ruud looked solemn after the loss to Spain. Up until he started wearing his emotions on his sleeve, I thought Gullit was really good. The whole picture of his work outshines the homerism in the late stages of the World Cup.
Semifinals
Alexi Lalas – Early on, I thought Alexi was going to be the star of the analysts, but there were times when he would scoff at certain teams. He kept harping on the Netherlands and while they were his pick to win, he never gave other teams a chance. If the teams weren’t from the USA or the Netherlands, Lalas gave them no shot. And I know that’s the job of an analyst to rate teams’ chances, however, not to the point where you have blinders on. I can’t give him Finals status.
Roberto Martinez – Brought in as the only current manager of a team, Martinez did pretty well in the studio. He had a little trouble with time constraints at first, but did pretty well in discussing players who are on his Wigan Athletic team. I thought he did pretty well.
Incomplete
Shaun Bartlett – Only saw him once and I can’t give him a grade.
Jurgen Klinsmann – I saw him working for the BBC, ESPN and German TV. Yet, I really can’t remember anything he said. For this reason, he gets an incomplete.
Game Analysts
TV
Finals
Efan Ekoku – Got the well deserved Finals assignment with Martin Tyler. Imported from the BBC, Ekoku read trends and picked up on potential penalties. He also was right on the bad call that cost England a goal against Germany. Terrific analyst. Enjoyed his work. Worthy of big game assignments.
Semifinals
John Harkes – I liked his analysis. Was on top of the strange call that cost the US a winning goal over Slovenia. He had very good chemistry with Ian Darke and they went to the 3rd place match on Saturday. Good job. Glad to see him do well on ESPN.
Robbie Mustoe – A fixture on ESPN2’s English Premier League coverage, he did quite well working with either Adrian Healey or Derek Rae.
ESPN Fail
Ally McCoist – You figure out what he was saying. His accent was so thick that I had no idea what he was talking about. We needed closed captioning to read his analysis, but the stenographers had trouble understanding him too. This is an experiment that did not work well.
Radio
Finals
None
Semifinals
Tommy Smyth – Here’s a guy who could have done work on TV either in the studio or for the game, but was put on radio instead. Tommy interrupted JP Dellacamera several times not knowing that he was on radio or not understanding the medium. But there were times when he shined as well. It was nice to hear “the old onion bag”, but I thought Tommy was better served on TV, not radio.
Group Stage
Kyle Martino – Nothing special.
Shep Messing – Pedestrian analyst. Seemed to be in love with his own voice.
Reporters
Finals
Jeremy Schaap – Not everyone loves Jeremy and his voice can be grating at times. But ESPN really benefited by having him embedded with the USA team. Did a good job covering Team USA and doing features when he wasn’t doing games. Set up the scene very well during pregame from the pitch and also did a decent job with postgame interviews.
Semifinals
None
Group Stage
None
ESPN Fail
Sal Masekela – ESPN brought Sal over to South Africa to explore his South African heritage. I get what the network was trying to do, but his features didn’t quite work. What does diving with sharks have to do with the World Cup? I know ESPN was trying to capture the flavor from South Africa, but it didn’t work. Maybe it was Sal. Not sure. He gets a fail.
Overall, in ESPN’s effort in producing a worldwide event came out quite well. If this was a dress rehearsal for the Olympics and if the network uses this same production team headed by Jed Drake, then the event will be in very good hands. If ESPN uses the same over the top approach employed during the first two years of Monday Night Football, the NBA and NASCAR, then the network and the Olympics will be in big trouble. However, for the World Cup, the network’s coverage was understated, at times distinguished and very well done. I came away from the last five weeks quite impressed.
When ESPN does well as in this case, I’m happy to give the network its due. The overall grade for the 2010 World Cup is an A minus. The grade cannot be an A due to the use of Ally McCoist, Sal Masekela and some other decisions, but looking at the big picture, this year’s coverage gives me a good feeling that the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will be in good hands.
