It’s the biggest sporting event in the world. It happens every 4 years. It can make or break entire coutries’ days, months, even years. It’s the World Cup.

After not qualifying 4 years ago, Iran is in. The first match is in 12 hours against Mexico. It’ll be broadcast in HDTV on ABC, and I have abunch of friends and a beautiful 65″ TV to watch it with. Couldn’t be more excited.

Today I watched a couple of matches, and, oh my god, this is just plain horrible. It’s amazing how bad the US announcers are. Uche said it, but I didn’t realize the extent of the problem until I watched a couple of matches.

I don’t even know where to start. First off, it’s not golf. You’re allowed to get excited. Watch a broadcaster from any other country for god’s sakes and take a few hints. Turn on the Spanish speaking channel for one second to get a sense of the appropriate phrasing and tone.
Second, just because the team playing is not the US it doesn’t mean the players are robots with no history. All we get in the olympics is personal stories and history. Here, it’s a roster call “X passes to Y. Y passes to Z”. Tell me something about the player, at least what country and club he plays in, how long he’s been on the international roster, something. You really get the sense the commentators know less about the players than you do.

But more than that, these guys are just killing the game. If you can’t get excited about what’s going on on the pitch, please, find a job other than announcer. The viewers are very excited, probably losing their voices and their hair yelling. Don’t meander on with your downer voice….

Anyway, anybody know a good way to get alternative audio for the games? Are there any radio stations or audio net casts that can be plugged in instead of this nonesense?