Monday, May 26, 2008

Guests at Training

While in England, the MNT Blog is diligently working on its British restraint. It is going well, thank you. However, any soccer fan would forgive the Blog for the geek out moment it experienced this morning when both John Motson and Martin Tyler turned up at training.

If you've watched any soccer in the past quarter century, odds are you've heard the voices of these two commentators. And if you're trolling around youtube looking at soccer highlights, their calls are all over some of the most memorable instances in the sport. Indeed, their voices have become nearly as iconic as the images and events themselves.

Like this one (Tyler):


And this one (Motson).


And this one (Tyler).


That search took about five minutes.

Like any good pros, Mr. Motson and Mr. Tyler were at training putting in some research ahead of Wednesday's game, and the Blog was eager to help identify players. The commentators even braved the bitter cold and rain weather that in any other situation would have made training miserable for us onlookers. Their visit made for a great conversation and some good anecdotes too:

Martin Tyler said that he remembers Steve Cherundolo's strike against Germany in 2006 as one of the most bizarre goals he's ever seen. If you can recall, Cherundolo hoofed a ball forward towards Eddie Johnson up front for the U.S. German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn came out, collided with Eddie Johnson and ball bounced away into the net with Chernudolo getting credit for the goal. Mr. Tyler said that he and his commentary team had no idea that the ref was giving a goal, or that the ball had even gone in. When the confusion subsided and the ref finally did give a goal, they had no idea who even scored it. The solution? A quick visit to ussoccer.com by the Sky Sports producer. Big props to Matchtracker!

We also spoke about David Beckham's goal this past weekend. If you remember, he scored a similar goal (albeit with a goalie in the net) and Mr. Motson commented that the goalie on that day, Neil Sullivan, was part of Doncaster Rovers successful Championship promotion bid yesterday. Here's Beckham's goal from 1996 (guess who was calling it):

11 comments:

shannon said...

i love martin tyler, but how did you not put up the clip of stevie g vs. olympiakos

now thats class commentary by both parites

shannon said...

or how about vs. west ham

1513BB92024 said...

post a link here!

shannon said...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kXjIebUQHHI

and

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aWlsWbPhS3M

thanks!

Anonymous said...

Off topic, please update the status of Michael Orozco, has he arrived oris he not coming in.

Ryan said...

Hey guys, any link to the 'Dolo goal? Can't seem to find it

Geoff said...

This one takes the cake: http://youtube.com/watch?v=R2qzuJ1pgOM

Geoff said...

Or these: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DopSqSe26wU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZXMeoX8GNcw

YankatOxford said...

A great article in the Telegraph on John Motson:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/05/17/sfnjim117.xml

The legendary call in 2001 against Greece from Motson:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bz5A8oGlgDQ

More classic Motson in the famous away victory to Germany:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kH1eLptnIhI



One note, John Motson does not refer to the goalkeeper, as 'the goalie.'

Hugo F. Scheckter said...

Can you post where you guys will be training? I really want to turn up and watch, and I cannot find the info anywhere!

shannon said...

sorry usamanutd13, the only goals that matter are liverpool goals,well and of course usa goals ;)