Wynalda outspoken, completely wasted
Christian Franek at FulhamUSA had beers and a conversation with Eric Wynalda before the U.S. destroyed Ecuador. What resulted was one of the most candid and akwardly funny interviews I’ve ever read.
The whole thing is money but Waldo’s quote about broadcasting MLS games is my favorite part:
I worked for Major League Soccer for four ***** years. When I was on the air, I was censored. I was fired five times over things that I said that were considered counterproductive to things the league wanted to do. When I said, “Freddy Adu is playing so bad right now, he may really be 14 years old,” that got me fired. I am allowed now to have a big mouth, because the ESPN guys have paid me a lot of money for four years now. I can’t be censored anymore!
Hat tip to WVHooligan
9 comments
Love him or hate him, I’m glad ESPN has him on their team. He adds some spice to their broadcasting team. When did we decide our sports announcers had to be ultra objective tame robots like, oh, I don’t know, someone who yells GONE! instead of GOAL!
Face it – soccer has its lulls during a match and I’d rather hear Wynalda and yes even Bruce talk about soccer in their trademark way then listen to how little O’Brien knows about soccer.
MLS needs to wake up – they want to attract a younger audience – they need to let their announcers have some fun.
Course as a married guy myself, this was the money quote from Christian: “For three married guys, this was a golden hall pass that equaled any undergrads excitement for their own spring break.”
Soccer Dad… are you serious? i may be interested in READING what Bruce has to say but he just can’t cut it on TV. I didn’t used to like Wynalda but he’s grown on me since he’s a rare bird: knows what he’s talking about, not afraid to say it, has the experience, etc.
Eric Wynalda is the man. I have wanted to say the same thing about Jim Rome. Rome is the as**** that thinks they are very cool to bash soccer and know ‘didly squat’ about the game. He is one of these guys who has never played any sport in his life and has become a sports commentator. Rome should probably burn and burn out of existence ( I mean just professionally).
i may be interested in READING what Bruce has to say but he just can’t cut it on TV.
Totally agree that Bruce isn’t cut out for TV but-and I agree with soccer dad on this-he’s better than Dave O’Brien, who’ll prattle on about the Red Sox and Bruce Springsteen…
Totally agree that Bruce isn’t cut out for TV but-and I agree with soccer dad on this-he’s better than Dave O’Brien
I concur. I know I said once that I didn’t mind when ESPN did the Gooch-as-football-player bit, because it’s a way to keep crossover fans interested; but in this case, I say keep the baseball broadcaster out of there (and with that voice, really, what else could he be?).
If I’m somebody slowly getting interested in soccer (like me, for example), I’d rather hear a polished soccer broadcaster who’s really into the sport than somebody from another sport I like (for example, Kevin Harlan is my favorite sports broadcaster, but unless he has a secret passion for soccer, hearing him call those games won’t help draw me in long-term).
Wynalda makes some very good points and I have a lot of respect for him. I was watching the Roma-Man U game last night and the question that Christian asked (It seems like a lot of U.S. Soccer, MLS is focused towards kids, families and younger adults) and Wynalda’s reply was being reinforced right in front of my very ears.
ESPN targets a completely different audience for Champions league games than they target for USMNT and, to a lesser degree, MLS. From that perspective, Dave O’Brien is perfect for targeting these (USMNT, MLS) audiences (I could “hear” him doing basketball games too, by the way, not just baseball). But you’ll never hear him doing a CL match because that’s not the audience they target. Yes, I know that the CL matches are broadcast worldwide by ESPN, but I still agree that how the USMNT and MLS games are marketed and the audience they target is a completely misguided tactic.
It’s like they took the model that revolved around the US Women’s team broadcasts, and applied it directly to the men’s team broadcasts. I’m getting REALLY tired of watching these games and being spoken to as if I’m a soccer Neophyte.
Eric Wynalda Tells It Like It Is…
Josh over at ThroughBall linked in to a fantastic interview that Christian Franek recently did with Eric Wynalda before the USMNT v. Ecuador match. I know I normally quote a bit here and there, but the entire article is quotable. Go read the entire thi…
Well I’m not saying Bruce is an ideal announcer. But he’s got a hell of a background and if he’s just stop trying to be head cheerleader for Bradley – I think he does a decent job. Plus I’d watch the USMNT take on a high school team with those two announcing because you know eventually, just once, they’re both going to lose their cool and Eric and Bruce will tear into each other. I want to see that action live
[...] Andrea Canales wrote an interesting piece that describes how Christian Franek got the infamous inebriated interview with Eric Wynalda. [...]
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