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Old 02-06-2013, 04:27 PM   #1
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Gus Johnson will be doing the World Cup when FOX gets broadcasting rights in 2018

http://deadspin.com/5981822/is-ameri...ccer-announcer

Is America Ready For Gus Johnson, Soccer Announcer?
Barry Petchesky

Last spring, Gus Johnson showed up in the unlikeliest of places. Less than a year removed from parting ways with CBS and joining Fox, Johnson was decidedly out of his comfort zone. A familiar voice over college hoops, and with Fox the NFL and college football, here was Johnson, on the radio, calling games for MLS's San Jose Earthquakes.

Johnson teased it as the start, perhaps, of something bigger, tweeting, "I'm about to try something new, something that could change the direction of my career." The six-year plan is about as big as it gets—Johnson is being groomed by Fox to be the voice of its soccer coverage, including the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

SI's Richard Deitsch has the story, and more stunning than the thought of excitable Gus "I Get Buckets" Johnson calling the lowest-scoring sport on earth, is just how long-term Fox's plan is. They hired Johnson in May of 2011, won the TV rights to the Russia and Qatar Worlds Cups in Oct. 11, and by April had begun grooming Johnson for a sporting event that won't take place until he turns 50.
"This is not something that is temporary," [Fox Sports president Eric] Shanks said. "This is something we are going to work at. It isn't an Olympic assignment where he does the luge for two weeks and then we don't hear from that announcer for the next four years. This is something we are serious about and something we will continue to work at. Based on the radio games and the practice games Gus has done, I think this is going to work."
It's an imposing challenge, which would require a complete professional reinvention for a man who not only had no background in the sport, but the barest familiarity with the hundreds of teams and thousands of players that make up the soccer landscape. Johnson started small, with the smallest of audiences—a dozen or so road Earthquakes games on the radio. He did practice games from the Fox studios, with no one but his bosses listening. He jetted off to Europe for a three-week soccer tour, his personal spotter in tow. All of it is building to Johnson's national debut, calling Manchester United's and Real Madrid's Champions League match next week.
But the question isn't whether Johnson can learn the game—he's a pro, and Fox is giving him the time and support. It's whether Johnson's unique style is at all suited for the unique flow of soccer. Here's Gus calling a pair of goals:

His stutter-step oral explosion works on scoring plays, because they're the product of countless minutes' and passes' worth of lead-up. You don't need Gus Johnson's orgasmic inflections to convey excitement. But Johnson's excitement no longer seems genuine, as Will Leitch explained in his seminal takedown:
He has gotten more and more screamy, a celebrity gimmick artist, and less of a person who, you know, tells you what's going on in the game. He loses track of what's going on, he misses obvious points, and he's rather obviously just waiting for the next moment to scream, the next moment to take his moment in the spotlight.
I don't believe Johnson is distractingly bad, but there's something to be said for the fact that he brings nothing to a game. Think of all your favorite Gus Johnson moments: they're buzzer beaters, long touchdowns, incredible plays all. Johnson became famous for losing his cool when the moment called for it—but those are just moments. He's the ideal announcer for the morning after on Youtube, but not someone you want to spend three hours with.

This became increasingly apparent as Fox put Johnson, locked in to the Big Ten Network for hoops, almost exclusively on football. Without someone scoring every few seconds, it became an exercise in watching Johnson bide his time. You almost felt bad for the guy—he's not happy unless he's exploding. And now he's calling soccer.

It could absolutely work. Johnson's role as a soccer novice puts him firmly with the majority of Americans watching the World Cup, so there's the hope that he'll be a relatable entry point to a largely unknown scene. His excitement could act in his favor, too: look at Doc Emrick, in a similarly low-scoring sport, whose yelps and tics are perfectly meshed with the momentum of the game. In Emrick's capable hands, a scoring chance is every bit as thrilling as a goal. You can't get into soccer if you don't comprehend the tidal surges in play, and Johnson's volume, rising and falling with the flow, could help the casual fan pick up a crucial moment as it's developing.

I'm not sure the big objection to Johnson will be from the hardcore fans worried about the mainstreaming of soccer broadcasting, as Spencer Hall seems to expect. It'll be whether the world's biggest sporting event is big enough to overcome a celebrity announcer—will viewers ever be able to stop thinking Hey, it's Gus Johnson calling soccer? 2018 is a long way away. If Fox keeps burying him on late-night Pac-12 games, maybe by then Johnson will have dropped his baggage.




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Old 02-06-2013, 05:12 PM   #2
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who's Gus Johnson? Is he related to Avery Johnson?
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Old 02-06-2013, 05:42 PM   #3
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He's the guy who did all the crazy calls when he was with CBS for the NCAA Men's basketball tournament.
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Old 02-06-2013, 06:32 PM   #4
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oh yeah, didnt he announce in the NFL too? I thought i remember him in Madden.
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Old 02-06-2013, 06:42 PM   #5
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WALCOTT! DOWN THE SIDELINE! CAN THEY CATCH HIM?! WALCOTT! WOWW...ohhh he's put it in the stands
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Old 02-06-2013, 06:51 PM   #6
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This is great news.
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Old 02-06-2013, 06:57 PM   #7
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DOWN THE SIDELINE!
I've been imagining him yelling that since I read the article.
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Old 02-06-2013, 07:48 PM   #8
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I don't like his work in college football.
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Old 02-06-2013, 07:49 PM   #9
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As long as it isn't Joe Buck, I'll be happy.
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Old 02-07-2013, 05:55 AM   #10
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He talks way too much. Sounds like he's doing radio. CHILL OUT.

STOKELEY!
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Old 02-07-2013, 12:04 PM   #11
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Hes terrible on boxing commentary.
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Old 02-24-2013, 09:39 AM   #12
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He's calling the Man City/Chelsea game on Fox Soccer right now. It's weird to hear an American voice calling Premier League games just cause I'm so used to hearing British accents but I suppose he's doing alright.
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Old 04-05-2013, 05:50 PM   #13
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Gus Johnson Will Be The Voice Of Soccer, Even If He Has To Ruin The Champions League To Get There


Goal-line technology? FIFA corruption? Landon Donovan’s magical mystery tour? America's biggest soccer controversy is, unexpectedly, Gus Johnson. Upon the announcement that Fox would use Screamin’ Gus as its lead announcer for the 2018 World Cup, public reaction sorted itself into two extremist camps. Depending on who’s shouting, this is either a brilliant idea or the network’s greatest mistake since the Glow Puck.

The knee-jerk reaction from the anti-Gus drones was as predictable as it was parochial. No one mans the barricades like the American soccer fan when he feels his niche is being threatened. An ardent fan of any sport becomes fascinated with its minutiae and subtleties, but the American initiate acts like the intricacies of that sport are special and unknowable—the average football- or baseball-watching simpleton could never fully appreciate the delicacy of a perfectly weighted through pass or the tactics that inform a good counterattack. But here’s what comes with soccer: gooners chanting anti-Semitic slurs, supporters taunting African players with monkey sounds, and 45-year-old men wearing full kits to the grocery store. Europhilia won’t save you from idiots.

So feel free to dismiss anyone who dismisses Gus Johnson because he’s from Detroit instead of Liverpool, but there are valid concerns about his chops. Johnson, by his own admission, is still learning the game. So it’s worrying that with just a handful of MLS radio broadcasts under his belt, Fox threw him right into the fire of the Champions League.

With the caveat that his body of work is small, Johnson’s deficiencies have already come to the fore on the big stage. During the first leg of Bayern Munich and Arsenal’s Champions League tie, only Johnson’s second televised match, he screwed up a call just outside the box in the 15th minute. He identified a hard foul by Thomas Vermaelen—one that earned the Belgian a yellow card—as a “nice slide.” Johnson, aware that he had missed something, noticeably stumbled his way through the next 15 seconds of commentary. It was only when the ref pulled out a yellow card and Bayern began to set up a free kick that the incident was made completely clear to the viewer.

In the 73rd minute, Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud hit a volley point-blank into Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer’s hip. Johnson praised Neuer’s reflex action as a terrific save, which it wasn’t. His broadcasting partner Ray Clemence would sheepishly point out that Neuer barely had time to react to the shot, and if Giroud had put the ball a foot or two either way, he would have scored.

Five minutes later, Bayern scored on a fast-developing sequence that tried Johnson’s ability to improvise. Arjen Robben drew in an Arsenal defender and then laid the ball off to Phillip Lahm, who slid it across the six-yard box for a lunging Mario Mandžukić. The ball popped up in the air off Mandžukić’s boot and into the back of the net. Johnson didn’t quite know what to do with this series, in part because he had trouble identifying the players, but the incident illuminated one of his biggest problems: He doesn’t yet know how to structure his calls for climatic moments. Johnson snarled when Lahm played in his cross, then fell silent on the actual goal. His lack of attunement to the rhythms of the game was laid bare. We got a clumsy call because of it.



If you watch an old pro like Martin Tyler, he’s able to work on the fly in a manner that comes with thousands of matches’ worth of experience. Take, for example, his call of this Thierry Henry goal. Tyler provides some rudimentary analysis: Leeds’s back line is playing high, which should allow Arsenal to run free with the right pass. Serendipitously, Robert Pirès lays the ball into space, and Henry is off toward the goal. “Like this. Like this. Electrifying. Electrifying!” He doesn’t even need to name the goalscorer. Everything great about Tyler is on display in this clip: He can talk about the game on a basic level—not unlike the way Al Michaels is adept at delineating the essential details of football—and he can also quickly transition from explication to excitement when the action calls from it. He understands what he needs to give the viewer during a match’s doldrums, its climaxes, and most crucially, the transitional moments between the two.

This Ian Darke call of Abby Wambach’s equalizer against Brazil in the World Cup is also terrific. Darke’s bit is to mirror the anxiety of the viewer. (It’s not homerism, exactly, but he never forgets that he’s calling a U.S. game for an American audience.) You hear the urgency in his voice when he says, “Lloyd’s got to get this pass off,” and he clues you in to what’s going on off-screen when he tells you everyone’s bombing forward. Then the cross comes in, Wambach snaps her neck, and Darke goes crazy. It’s a crescendo of emotion: tension, then free, thundering release. This is what Gus Johnson could be, at his best.

Even if you’re not Tyler or Darke, it’s hard to botch a goal call, just as it’s hard to spoil a buzzer-beater in basketball. Yet somehow, Johnson’s lunatic energy didn’t unleash itself during the Manchester United-Real Madrid match, when Luka Modrić pinged the ball off the inside of David De Gea’s post to reset the tie. The Mandžukić goal was a mess, but Modrić’s strike was beautiful—exactly the sort of moment over which one would expect Johnson to resplendently lose his shit. But there was no panache in his call. The second sentence out of his mouth was something about Modrić being a “former Spurs star,” which is true but misses the point. He was reading off a one-sheet as volcanoes erupted all around him.



At first, you wondered if he didn’t realize how impressive the goal was, and was hesitant to explode in characteristic fashion. But this gun-shyness might also stem from Johnson’s habit of getting things wrong. He messed up the Giroud call, after all, and during the Man United-Real tie he rhetorically asked his partner, Warren Barton, shortly after Nemanja Vidić headed the ball off the post, that Vidić “[had] to score there, right?” Barton equivocated, not wanting to make Johnson look stupid, but essentially said what any educated soccer fan would have seen: Vidić uncorked a furious header with a bunch of traffic in front of him and nearly scored. He got a little unlucky and hit the post.
(Johnson also announced a goal that wasn’t, following the post-header scrum, despite an offside call and the ball never actually crossing the goal line.)

Johnson called Real Madrid manager José Mourinho “Ho-say” as opposed to the correct “Jo-say” during the first half (someone must have told him the right pronunciation during the break), and he has a habit of using terminology as a crutch. He loves to mention “the overlap” whenever a fullback receives the ball in the final third, even if it’s not technically on an overlap, and he uses the phrase “in the area” nearly every time an attacker breaches the penalty box. He struggles to keep up when the ball is passed in quick succession. He occasionally identifies players by the wrong nationality: Eden Hazard is a Belgian, not a Frenchman; Ryan Giggs is Welsh, not English. And for whatever reason, he half-detonates on dubious strikes from 30 yards out, even if they appear to have little chance of hitting their target. He is so concerned with getting names right that he misses the flow; alternately, he focuses so much on nailing a goal call that the buildup loses him.

For long stretches, you can’t hear Johnson at all. When a game is relatively quiet and the ball is being passed around the center of the pitch, good announcers step in with a general thought about how the match has played out or a brief comment about a particular player’s performance. This gives the viewer some perspective and cues the color commentator to join in. Johnson has a habit of swallowing his tongue, which forces his partner to meekly take the reins and provide unprompted analysis. The fact that Fox has shuffled Johnson’s analysts for every match hasn’t helped him find his footing.

Johnson mentioned on the Men in Blazers podcast in February that one of the things he has noticed about veteran soccer announcers is that they are willing to step aside and allow the viewer to listen in on the crowd chants and the shouts of the players. It’s encouraging that he understands the game can be capable of telling its own story, but he too often leaves the viewer wanting for information or context. We’re a long way from Johnson feeling comfortable enough to give us an insight as basic as one team playing with a high back line. This criticism is the polar opposite of the one floated when his gig was announced. It was natural to expect Johnson would screech all over the place in a sport that requires a steady hand, but no one predicted he would be boring.

But that’s where Johnson is at in his nascent soccer career: He’s doing his best not to step all over a sport he doesn’t fully understand. This is admirable and entirely fixable, if he commits himself to learning the game and its players over the next half-decade. (More troubling is his not doing enough homework to have pronunciations and nationalities down pat.) There’s no obvious reason he can’t become the voice of American soccer Fox wants him to be by 2018, even if he’s currently miles behind the all-British crews of Martin Tyler, Ian Darke, Adrian Healey, and Derek Rae that ESPN utilized to much acclaim during the 2010 World Cup.

America’s most esteemed announcers—Al Michaels, Brent Musburger, Vin Scully—call multiple sports or have switched gigs at various points in their careers. No one asks the question, when baseball enthusiast Joe Buck calls football games, whether or not football is “in his blood.” He succeeds or fails based on his knowledge of the game and his ability to put words together. But Fox didn’t groom Joe Buck for the Super Bowl by having him call only conference championship games.

Johnson's biggest issue is that he's hindering enjoyment of some fantastic games. The Champions League isn’t bigger than the World Cup in terms of audience and spectacle, but the level of play is unparalleled. The arrogance of Fox isn’t in trying to develop Gus Johnson into a soccer commentator, but in letting him take his lumps while calling the network’s biggest matches. His on-the-job training will apparently take place during the most-watched and most-scrutinized matches on the calendar. For this, you can only blame Johnson’s bosses. He’s doing the best he can, early in a five-year quest to adopt a new sport. But letting him make his mistakes on the grandest of stages sets him up for insecurity, not improvement.
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Old 04-05-2013, 06:11 PM   #14
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he's still probably better than anything involving Jon Champion, David Pleat or Andy Townsend and they've commentated on Champions League galore
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Old 04-05-2013, 06:12 PM   #15
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bit rough with the Mourinho pronunciation stuff and the in the area bit as well
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Old 05-11-2013, 09:41 PM   #16
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Holy shit was he ever hard to listen to today in the FA Cup finals.
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Old 05-12-2013, 05:04 PM   #17
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http://deadspin.com/ben-watsons-adde...an-t-502000897
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Old 05-25-2013, 04:41 PM   #18
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Old 09-15-2014, 10:51 AM   #19
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Old 09-15-2014, 02:41 PM   #20
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He didn't really understand soccer and he got a lot of names wrong, but I wanted to see him keep going. It's a shame I think. Now they're just going to bring in some British tossers to call the World Cup I guess. Listening to British guys call soccer is honestly really fucking boring in my humble opinion. There are a couple good American soccer announcers, like the guys who are/were on Gol TV if that is still around. Gay ass American "football fans" who hold up scarves at games love British guys though.
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Old 09-15-2014, 05:51 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RoXer View Post



Gus Johnson Is Out As Fox Sports' Soccer Guy

Barry Petchesky








Nineteen months after the announcement that Gus Johnson would become Fox Sports' voice of soccer and of the 2018 World Cup, and 29 months after his immersive training began, the grand experiment is over. Both Johnson and Fox Sports tell SI's Richard Deitsch that Johnson has stepped down from the role.
"I think that it was a mutual decision, but maybe I was the guy who came to it first," Johnson said.

Officially, Johnson is only giving up the No. 1 role, and both sides are making reassuring noises about the possibility of him still working the sport at some point. That's just politeness. He doesn't want to do this anymore.

Johnson cites his impending wedding as a reason he's cutting back from a demanding schedule, and the fact that he couldn't come home to see his dying mother one last time because he was working a Champions League game. And maybe that's all true. But the criticism of Johnson as a soccer announcer was loud when he got started, and never really quieted down.

Fox Sports president Eric Shanks acknowledges the Johnson hate among American soccer viewers.
Asked by SI if the external criticism of Johnson's soccer work impacted his decision, Shanks said no, but added, "I am not going to lie and say we were unaware of it. We make decisions based on how we feel, and in this case, in consultation with Gus."

It was an experiment, and it didn't work, and Fox has pulled the plug with plenty of time to find something better. That's nothing for anyone to be ashamed of, but Johnson was most definitely below-average as a soccer announcer. He is unprepared in the best of times—getting names and details wrong, clearly reading off fact sheets in lieu of understanding what he's watching—but he was always able to cover for that when calling a sport like basketball where he had a solid grounding. Johnson never quite got the rhythms of soccer down, and in front of a knowledgeable and passionate viewership, he simply couldn't fake it.
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