TV: Lalas nominated for Sports Emmy
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Mar 29, 2018
Alexi Lalas (right) with Rob
Stone.
Lalas joined Fox Sports from ESPN in January 2015. He had been ESPN's lead studio analyst for the network’s coverage of the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups. He will
be part of the studio team in Russia for the 2018 World Cup.
Others nominated included three baseball analysts (Al Leiter, Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci) and
football analyst Michael Strahan. All work for Fox Sports or MLB Network or both.
NBC Sports' Premier League coverage was nominated in the technical team studio category.
Four of the five nominees for outstanding on-air personality in Spanish are known primarily for their soccer work: Andres Cantor and Sammy Sadovnik of Telemundo and Jose
Ramon Fernandez and Jorge Ramos of ESPN Deportes.
Three soccer shows -- Futbol Central (Univision Deportes), Futbol Picante (ESPN Deportes) and La Liga Premier (Telemundo) --
are up for a Sports Emmy for the outstanding studio show in Spanish.
I view Mr Lalas as one of the worst and for what it's worth I watch soccer 24/7....
For many, including his playing peers, Alexi is polarizing. I’m part of the player generation that proceeded his group. He’s a large personality and I believe infuses what’s needed. I damn sure was in agreement with his fear of our men’s team not qualifying. He might not have been a World class central defender, but he had and has mettle. I hope he wins.
While I don’t always agree with what Lalas says, I respect the fact that he can always back up his opinions with solid information. So many guys seem to “blow smoke” and make up stuff as they go along. I’m also extremely pleased that it’s a SOCCER analyst who’s been chosen, against one American football and three baseball analysts. So a soccer personality beat out basketball! I don’t follow baseball, so I’m not familiar with the three baseball guys, but I certainly know Michael Strahan, and I have to say Alexi is in good company! Congratulations to Lalas, American soccer and Fox Sports!
I'm not a fan of any of the soccer commentators here for as far as I'm conerned "soccer commentating" goes we're are still in the stone ages. In other words our soccer commentating is similar on par to the quality of soccer the MLS plays at. There is nothing insightful ever said, other than what we call in Holland" kicking in open doors", situations self-evident my cat can understand. It is so bad that the soccer info they spew is read right of the "teleprompter". There is no real criticism or explain a certain situation that should have been handled different.
We need critical commentating explains how things should have been done, which we currently don't do. We need to educate the coaches and fans to the game, instead of the 'rah, rah" commentating. Remember when we began soccer years ago we invited foreign referees to help out. Well!, it is about time we bring in good foreign commentators. And the discussion about Lalas, is really meaningless, for that is not the problem.
I like the "kicking in open doors" metaphor, Frank. Very appropriate. It seems like a lot of talking heads think its a radio broadcast, not televised. It seems each announcer has trademark trite phrases they use to fill up the air time just so the network thinks they are doing something to earn their paycheck.
As far as commentators go, I can usually make it through the game without turning the sound off with Lalas or Foudy color commenting. They are best in the pre and post match coverage. There are some others that drive me to distraction with their ignorant comments, which is when the sound is turned down or I change to a Spanish language broadcast.
Foudy does a better job than Lalas. I wish she was covering some men's games as well.
Bob, I like commentators who are able to discuss things happening in the game the fan doesn't see or realize and comes away from the game to having learned something new or insightful about the game. That aspect Foudy and her colleagues don't offer. This is why I enjoy Cruyff or a Van Hanegem or some other greats voice their opinions during the game, insights ,what should have happened, what went wrong, bring some anecdotes , all of which I miss, hearing.