Sunday, July 26, 2009

English Soccer Commentary

English soccer commentary really pisses me off. I just watched the finals of the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central, and Carribbean Association Football) Gold Cup, between the United States and Mexico, and the only channel I get that covered the game was Univision... a Spanish channel. All English speaking soccer commentators should be forced to take lessons from the Univision guys, they were incredible.

I'll admit, my Spanish speaking skills are a bit rusty, I haven't studied it for a few years now, but I can still understand bits and pieces of conversation, I could pick out some of the commentary. But the most important thing was the emotion these guys showed... English commentary is just not anywhere close to as exciting as Spanish commentary.

I know, most Americans really don't care about soccer, or understand the finer points. Having played soccer growing up, I really do enjoy watching it, it is a great sport. If our commentators had the same exuberance as the Spanish speaking ones, I really think it could do wonders for soccer in the United States. There is just something about hearing GOOOOOOOOOLLLL shouted endlessly after every goal that makes the game immensely better.

And it is not just the Spanish ones who show such emotion. There is great commentary in Dutch, Chinese, Arabic, and god knows how many other languages... for some reason the people speaking English are just not as excitable.

Is English just a boring language in general? Or are our soccer commentators simply boring people. I really don't know, but something should be done. Because next time I have a choice of whether to watch a soccer game in English or Spanish... toss me the remote, I am flipping to Univision.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this. I was thinking the exact same thing. British commentators are particularly boring.

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  2. I truly get stressed out when I watch soccer in English.. it's like nothing happens in the game...

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