Interesting piece today from goal.com writer Seth Verteiney as to why we will not hear the voices of Dave O'Brien, J.P. Dellacamera, and other American do play-by-play for the upcoming World Cup. Although I agree Verteiney that Marcelo Balboa was not the answer - he was really awful in the last World Cup - I have to say John Harkes for my money does not do it for me either. Harkes apparently will be a color commentator, but I am not a fan of his work.
If I had to pick one former American player to do that piece of work, it would be Eric Wynalda. Not to toot my own horn, but Wynalda was the first person to agree with me in the last World Cup that the U.S. should not be playing Pablo Mastroeni and Claudio Reyna at the same time, and also that Reyna - while quite possibly the greatest American player of all-time - was over the hill and not getting the job done in 2006. However, Fox Sports World scooped up Wynalda and you can see him on various programs there like Fox Football Phone-In, under-rated show by the way, and also now with some of their Champions League action.
Beverly's Derek Rae will call games, but I have not seen anything that says Tommy Smith will be anywhere. I assume he will probably be a half-time analyst, which really does not use his talents to the maximum capacity. I want to hear "bulging the old onion bag" it's a classic.
And again Gol TV's Ray Hudson is not in the mix. I only hope once in my lifetime ESPN or whoever has the U.S. rights to the World Cup hires that guy to be their primary man. He's the best, there's simply no debate.
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