I have a confession to make, I desperately miss Tommy Smyth at this 2010 World Cup - you know him as the brilliant little Irish-man who made the phrase "bulges the old onion bag" famous when he was one of ESPN's top commentators for the Champions League when ESPN still owned the Champions League broadcast rights (Fox Sports World now owns those rights in the States). Smyth has been stuck in obscurity as ESPN's top radio commentator for the U.S. games partnered alongside J.P. Dellacamera - one of the only real legitimate American soccer play-by-play guys going. Really a gig that wastes both these two soccer lifers abilities and talents, and as Rich said really doesn't make much sense.
I'm not saying I think would be better than Martin Tyler or Ian Drake - you know the two play-by-play Brits that sound eerily similar - because they are terrific, really the best ESPN could have gotten.
But where Smyth would have been dynamite is in the studio gig because he is great at breaking down film clips in short segments - like Ron Jaworski does for ESPN's NFL coverage - and then providing interesting insight often with a funny delivery.
He would have been much better than the cast of characters ESPN has run out so far from Ruud Gullit (OK so far) to Roberto Martinez to Jurgen Klinsmann to Steve McManaman and Alexi Lalas. Yes all those guys have World Cup cache because they were all recent stars, but those guys are always necessarily the best to listen to.
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