2018 World Cup running thread

The World Cup proves what a sham Fox is. FoxNews is the epicenter of US rightwing politics. A virtual propaganda machine for the near Facist trump administration and their panaphobic supporters. Yet Fox sports, owned ultimately by the same group, is the rights holder to broadcast the least American sporting activity, World Cup Soccer.
The answer to all your questions is Money

 

Naaah, that isn't a political post at all.

 

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I appreciate Fox not doing like ESPN and playing into the rampant inferiority complex of US soccer that treats anyone with a vaguely European accent as some sort of divinely-inspired prophet sent to enlighten the unwashed American masses. Coming from a country considered to have a "proper footy culture" doesn't mean you know shit about the game or can effectively communicate what you do know. If you're an American network broadcasting to American fans, then be unapologetically American, feature American voices (preferably not just Anglos), and don't try to cloak yourself in some thin veneer of European-ness to avoid annoying people who go on social media and unironically post "it's not SAWKER, it's FOOTBALL!!!!!!!".

On the other hand, "this is a four-week fist fight for the championship of the planet"? Fox can, and should, do better than that.
Fox replaces ESPN's cult of British accents with maximum volume at World Cup

 

I watched a lot of Fox Champions League this year. The American voices in the studio bit just doesn't cut it. Don't really need sound for soccer. Won't use it.

 

That's got to be in the top 5 in rip jobs I've read.

 

Thinking Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany, Belgium and Portugal. Which one of them wasn't in your 5?

 

As long as the host team doesn't win, I'm OK with it.

 

Fox has not impressed me so far with their UCL coverage, but only because ESPN and NBCSN have done amazing soccer work this decade. Holden seems like a good guy, but he’s too needy as an analyst. And Meola is awful when I’ve heard him do media.

 

Disagree. They went on an impressive run and still didn't make it because the Federation didn't pull the plug in time.

 

Getting only 1 point the Labor Day weekend with Costa Rica at home and Honduras away is unacceptable. And the team was flat and not ready to play against T and T. That’s on the coach, even with the hole Jurgen left them in.

 

You mean 2006, I presume. 2002 was the Jack-and-Ty wombo-combo. O'Brien was a baseball guy thrown into an unfamiliar situation, and he's said as much. He was neither great nor disastrous. I would like to think that in the time since we have developed/discovered enough domestic talent that such putting square pegs into round holes is no longer necessary.

I'm not saying people should like American announcers just because they're American. Stone and Lalas' antics aren't for everyone, for example. My beef is with those who make the argument from "authenticity" and claim that being American disqualifies someone from entry into the pundit class. It's lazy, wrong-headed, and perpetuates the notion that soccer cannot be American.