Marcelo Balboa Should Be Sacked

^ Ur a moron. Balboa is a retard, he's constantly trying to give suggestions and criticizing the play on the field, never giving credit when it's due and never really talking about the players beyond the superstars. He's cadence and voice are incredibly annoying as well, especially when he starts listing **** like ya gotta x, ya gotta y, ya gotta stfu dick. Rob Stone, JP Dellacamera and John Harkes are probably the best three that we have. It wouldn't surprise me if in the future ESPN hired one fo the FSC guys like Bobby McMahon to do analysis or play-by-play like they did with Alan Hopkins. I like everything about him except his voice, annoying as hell when he does a game.

I've been impressed with Dave O'Brien, he's improved so much. That's surprising considering he's been learning about the game from Marcelo "I'll tell you what" Balboa. Great voice.

One complaint about both of them though:

Guys, we know the German center backs are tall. We get it. You don't have to convince us every five minutes. We're not blind, we can see that. Mertesacker is 6'5" and Huth is 6'3". You've only mentioned that 30 times already. You could wake me up in the middle of the night and I'd be able to recite the height of the entire German squad from memory. We get it. They're tall.

yea O'Brien really has been learning a lot recently, I'm starting to tolerate him

Wynalda pissed me off today during Ukraine-Switzerland. He kept going on about how both teams dont send people up and really don't have initiative and don't want to play. That was OK until it got to 91st minute of regular time and he was like "SWISS SHOULD GO UP NOW!!!!!"

I really wanted to kill him. I really want to see his sorry a$$ play 120 minutes of football, have the 1/4 finals ahead of him and have half his team go upfield to try to "score".

Tommy Smyth is so much better. SO much. I used to hate him, but now I learned how to appreciate him.

I laughed at how balboa I think it was, maybe not but who cares, referred to crouch as a tall and STRONG target man, are you kidding me? haha.

Balboa also just focuses on the defenders and he always says when there is a controversial foul, "As a defender like myself I would definately be furious with that foul" Well of course you would, you will never be happy with the ref calling a foul around your 18 yard box.

Great thread. Excellent. Balboa is so incompotent it hurts. He fixates on one thing he sees, or thinks he sees early, and then drills it over and over. "Again, they need to adjust that offsides trap" even when it has nothing to do with the play. OBrien is ok for a guy that knows very little about the game. And those superfluous graphics ESPN feels the need to saturate the screen with ALWAYS seem to be on when the player with the ball will be behind them

I like Univision. Eventhough I only understand a bit of it, I love hearing "el imperator" or "Simao (pause) Saaabrrrooossa" rather than some hacked and mispronounced attemt at their names. Hearing an earful of "GOLASO" or "PENAL" gets old fast, but I love the enthusiasm.

My only gripe with Smyth is that he routinely makes awful calls, even with replay. "Thats not a dive" (wrong) or "He dove! No contact at all" (wrong again). Aside from that he gives good banter and knows the game.

Foudy and Wynalda I like very much. They know teams, players, and dont say unecesscary crap just to get attention or be outspoken. Tell Lalas and " 'Celo" to fight for their job in a caged deathmatch and then shoot the winner

Limberopoulos21 said:

Tommy Smyth is a genius. The net looks like an onion bag... therefore its appropritate to call it one. Well tommy smyth looks like a (explisive deleted), so I guess its appopriate to call him one.

Marcelo Balboa is ok, gives ok analsyis, but sometimes he just speaks for the sake of speaking which annoys me. I prefer watching it on univision and galavision, the commentators are awesome, PENAL PENAL PENAL PENAL PENAL PENAL PENALTY!!!!! Nothing like repeating something over and over again, gives you the confidence in knowing galavision and univision care about the mildly retarded so much that they paid them to do commentary during the world cup... must be their last wish from the last wish foundation. My last wish would be to kick connie chung in the balls... and tell maury that she's the father and then dance around him like I won the lottery just like all the contenstants on his show.

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hahaha worthy

i must be in the minority as i don't enjoy listening to tommy smyth. but he does know the game.

and yea, espn's graphics that take up the entire bottom left quarter is annoying.

someone earlier nailed it with lalas and wynalda...they're usually spot on with u.s. soccer, but they're always making mistakes and incorrect facts with international teams/players. and has wynalda always been such a dick?

Wynalda's just evil; from his arrogant tone to the spite in his eyes. I think he thinks somebody owes him something. I think he needs a hug.

Wow Balboa just criticized Ronaldihnho. What a buffoon. He also said the Brazilians arne't playing as a team, is he serious? They are passing it all over the field, with a 3-0 lead and keeping possesion saying they are selfish. Well "Celo" if you were up 3-0, you'd want to score a goal when the game is practically over too, ya gotta know, ya just gotta do it I think ya gotta. WOW. "Not impressed at all by Brazil." This guy gets worse and worse. I wish Dave O'Brien wasn't such a tool to put "Celo" in his place. Atleast Wynalda put some sense into him.

My favorite was Arena's interview with ESPN; (I'm paraphrasing here I don't remember the exact words)

anouncer: "What do you think is the reason for the US not advancing?"

Arena: "The US national team needs to have its player in a really solid league. The MLS is still young and the talent level isn't there. We can't have our players in the second the third divisions of European leagues and expect to do well"

announcer: "Mr. Arena how could you say something like that when the majority of the analysts agree that this team had the talent and skill necessary to advanve?

Arena: "That's because the majority of your analysts are retired US national team players from 98' who did succeed on the field and don't know what they're talking about."

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Pontiakos said:

My favorite was Arena's interview with ESPN; (I'm paraphrasing here I don't remember the exact words)

anouncer: "What do you think is the reason for the US not advancing?"

Arena: "The US national team needs to have its player in a really solid league. The MLS is still young and the talent level isn't there. We can't have our players in the second the third divisions of European leagues and expect to do well"

announcer: "Mr. Arena how could you say something like that when the majority of the analysts agree that this team had the talent and skill necessary to advanve?

Arena: "That's because the majority of your analysts are retired US national team players from 98' who did succeed on the field and don't know what they're talking about."

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I wish I had seen that interview. Priceless.

Pontiakos said:

Arena: "That's because the majority of your analysts are retired US national team players from 98' who did succeed on the field and don't know what they're talking about."

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ether.

Marcelo Balboa Is A Shame To The Usa

Commentary of the Brazil/Ghana game included the following:

Marcelo Balboa: “Ghana was the better team today” while Brazil was dominating the match up two to nil.

Marcelo Balboa: “It was a good play” speaking about the Ghanaian player who mistakenly shot on his own goal.

Marcelo Balboa: “You have to give a lot of respect to Ghana” after Brazil scored their third goal by beating the offside trap and then embarrassing the keeper by chipping the ball over him, running past him, and tapping the ball in the goal softly.

Marcelo Balboa: “You’ve got to give all the respect in the World to Ghana” and “I am not impressed at all with Brazil” after the game ended with Brazil winning three to nil.

Neither Balboa nor O’Brien mentioned in the second half that Ronaldo earned his place as the World Cup's greatest ever goal scorer, breaking Gerd Mueller's record 14 goals. I felt that Balboa’s commentary was absolutely absurd. I also feel that, while not as disturbing as Marcelo Balboa, most American ESPN commentators are generally inept.

Commentary today from Argentina vs. Germany:

Balboa after Sorin got a yellow: "that's a tough card for them, they will be without their captain if they advance"

that's all good.....Argentina attack and then O'Brien "GOOOOOOOAAL LUIS GONZALES, GONZALES WITH A GREAT HEADER!"

Balboa: "great goal by the captain Ayala"

O'Brien: "my apologies the goal was scored by Ayala"

how do these guys get jobs not to mention commentate the WC

Pontiakos said:

My favorite was Arena's interview with ESPN; (I'm paraphrasing here I don't remember the exact words)

anouncer: "What do you think is the reason for the US not advancing?"

Arena: "The US national team needs to have its player in a really solid league. The MLS is still young and the talent level isn't there. We can't have our players in the second the third divisions of European leagues and expect to do well"

announcer: "Mr. Arena how could you say something like that when the majority of the analysts agree that this team had the talent and skill necessary to advanve?

Arena: "That's because the majority of your analysts are retired US national team players from 98' who did succeed on the field and don't know what they're talking about."

class

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$teauA said:

Commentary today from Argentina vs. Germany:

Balboa after Sorin got a yellow: "that's a tough card for them, they will be without their captain if they advance"

that's all good.....Argentina attack and then O'Brien "GOOOOOOOAAL LUIS GONZALES, GONZALES WITH A GREAT HEADER!"

Balboa: "great goal by the captain Ayala"

O'Brien: "my apologies the goal was scored by Ayala"

how do these guys get jobs not to mention commentate the WC

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Yeah, I also liked his analysis of freekicks when Riquelme was lining one up:

"Riquelme is really good at freekicks. Ya got David Beckham at the peak of that game, and then below him you got Ronaldinho and Riquelme in terms of their ability"

I wonder if he even knows who Juninho is

I mean, there can be no excuses for this. That is only one piece of plain ignorance of the international game, to say nothing of the errors you point out. I think I will definately write ESPN after the world cup and tell them how fans who actually know football feel about Balboa. Christ, Wynalda would be so much better. He's quiet, knowledgeable and reasonable with his analysis

Also another one from Balboa "you know, this game has shown to us that only good teams can have a bad game"

what ?!

Half the time Balboa is so friggin incoherent, he even pauses and thinks to himself "wtf did I just say?".

Carlos Mencia>Balboa


What about JP Dellicamamammamamammammera and John Harkes?

Damien Duff said:

Carlos Mencia>Balboa


What about JP Dellicamamammamamammammera and John Harkes?

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jp doesn't annoy me so much anymore...john harkes is the king of the 4 word run-ons. he never seems to complete sentence. harkes > balboa, barely.

SlayerDeuS said:

"Not impressed at all by Brazil." This guy gets worse and worse.

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Actually he's pretty smart.