Tag: nbcsportsoccer

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Surely, it’s much different supporting a European team from across the pond. Never have I been asked why I don’t support my local team instead of supporting Manchester City.

Coming from the United States, we have Major League Soccer. I cringe at the word soccer, but of course, football is known as American football here. I feel like football is done wrong here and is too Americanized. The format of the MLS, in my opinion, is wrong compared to European leagues, hence why I called it Americanized. It has two different conferences in the top flight with separate divisions in each conference and there are playoffs to determine the winner of the league. There are also lower flights of football in the US, but there is no relegation of MLS teams to the lower flights or promotion of lower league teams to the MLS. Also, how come the MLS season does not lineup with Europe’s? I just do not find it as exciting or as high-level as the European Leagues. If it were like Europe, I feel like the USMNT would be on a higher level. That is just my opinion though. You do not have to agree with me whatsoever.

Anyhow, as I am going to be sharing a journey about a football supporter in England, I thought I would share what it is like watching the European Leagues in the States.

Depending on what team you like and where you live, you may have to get up really to watch your favorite team. The English Premier League usually starts their coverage early in the morning on Saturdays, usually around 6:30 am Eastern Time and the first game being at 7:30. For someone living on the West Coast, that is a very early wakeup call to watch their team. People do wake up that early, but they probably need a lot of coffee!

When I am home from school on breaks, we do not just watch City. We watch any and every Premier League match on. The Premier League is so fun to watch, because you can have a team like West Ham beat Manchester United and everyone’s minds would be blown. It’s competitive between all teams.

A weekend of Premier League football in my house looks like this: my dad would wake up early and make a big pot of coffee. He then would be on NBC or NBC Sports, depending on the channel the first game was on, and watch the pre-game coverage and eventually what we call the “early game”. If City were playing, I would willingly be up and ready to go, while my mum would most likely be watching the first half in their bedroom. If City were to play in the next game (usually 10:00/9:00c) on Saturdays, I would wake up a little later. The same applies if City were playing on the 12:30/11:30c game. It is a lot of fun, despite that sometimes I get really nervous or upset watching City (that is normally rare, but losses do happen). Since there are a lot of games at 10:00 am on Saturday mornings, my dad always likes to put a game on the tv, then one on his iPad, another on his computer, etc. We like to see what is going on, but if City is on, they are the focus.

It is surprising how wonderful the coverage of the Premier League is in the United States and how it seems to be better than the coverage in the UK at times. I get baffled at times, because I’ll see City fans on Twitter asking if anyone has a stream for the game when I can easily just watch on the NBC Sports Channel or use the NBC Sports Gold stream online. I have also seen complaints about the commentary in the UK. I would like to brag and say that the US has an amazing studio team and commentary for Premier League football.

For those not from the United States, NBC Sports’ studio team for football consists of leader Rebecca Lowe, Robbie Mustoe, Robbie Earle, and Kyle Martino (the lone American in the crew). They do an incredible job of covering the Premier League and put a lot of passion into what they do. They take a really good look into each of the games and have thoughtful discussions on the performances of the teams and players and what each team may or may not do in the future. You can that they love what they do. One thing that I also see complaints about is bias in the UK. There never seems to be any bias towards any team when the studio team is discussing. For example, it is known to some that Rebecca Lowe is a huge Crystal Palace supporter, but you would never know by the way she talks in the studio. It is all professional and all based on how she sees what is going on with each of the teams. The same applies for the other three studio members.

What also is a plus is the commentary during the games. Everyone who watches the Premier League knows who the Big Six are. One Big Six game each on Saturdays and Sundays always gets commentated by Arlo White who is usually joined by Lee Dixon and Graeme Le Saux. They do a fantastic job at covering big games such as the North London Derby, the Manchester Derby, the Merseyside Derby, Manchester United vs. Liverpool, and any of the big games you can imagine. One of my favorite commentary moments was Arlo White’s call on Kevin De Bruyne’s outside of the box screamer at Stamford Bridge during the 17/18 season. The goal still gives me the good kind of chills, but the way White called that goal. I can still imagine him saying, “Left-footed…… WHAT A STRIKE! KEVIN DE BRUYNE, ONCE AGAIN!” Like the studio team, you can really hear the passion he has for the game in his commentary, and Dixon and Le Saux add to it with their analysis. It truly makes the games even better to watch when you have commentary that good. The truth is, they are all just football fans like the rest of us.

NBC Sports also brings some humor to the Premier League. Normally after a weekday match and the post-match analysis, NBC Sports airs a show called The Men In Blazers show hosted by Roger Bennett and Roger Davies. The truth is, you don’t even need to watch football to find it funny. They call themselves and their show crap, but the truth is, the “proud purveyors of all things suboptimal” are far from crap. Rog and Davo, as they are known as, bring the light-hearted and fun out of the Premier League. Think of their show as a funny highlights show. They talk about each of the games, but they make humorous commentary on the goals, celebrations by the managers, and something like a squirrel or a supporter running onto the pitch. They take pride in being bald and even called City’s win of the Premier League “Pep’s Bald Revolution” because he is the first bald manager to win the Premier League. Not only that, they have a catch phrase “balds win!” coined on their show after the first Manchester Derby of the 2017/18 season when David Silva, who had a shaved head at the time, scored the first goal. They give nicknames to players and managers, such as the Teutonic Carebear to Jurgen Klopp, and just make the league even more fun. At the end of their show, they always predict the big game of the next weekend of Premier League football by biting into pies. The pies always tell them what to think the scores are going to be.

While the Men in Blazers are humorous, they also have their serious side. Their show always consists of a special guest, someone famous, to come and talk about their love of football and favorite team with Rog. Some of the guests that have been featured have been comedian John Oliver, hockey player Alex Ovechkin, and television host James Corden. However, some of these special guests have had their own episodes dedicated to them or have been featured the whole episodes. Arlo White, Rebecca Lowe, and even Wayne Rooney have been full episode guests. Rog and Davo also have their own podcast that is aired on a regular basis. Rog also hosts some episodes of Inside the Mind, a show on NBC Sports that features an interview with either a Premier League player or manager. Arlo White has also hosted episodes of Inside the Mind.

Overall, there cannot be enough words to describe how wonderful NBC Sports covers football. In the future, I would love to see them cover the Champions League and hopefully the World Cup one day. There simply is not a network that does it better.

However, I would also like to pay homage to BEINSports’ coverage of La Liga football. In my family’s house, we love Saturday and Sunday afternoons of La Liga football after the Premier League has finished for the day. Of course, it’s amazing to watch the talents on FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, but what makes it even better is the commentary team of Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen. If a person could define the passion for football, it would be Ray Hudson. Some people get annoyed by his commentary, but my parents and I absolutely love listening to him and Schoen together. No one could love the game more than Hudson. He is most known for his love of the great Lionel Messi and his very colorful commentary, but he loves players such as Keylor Navas and Marcelo. There’s nothing like watching a game and hearing phrases such as “cleaner than Neutrogena, the man from Argentina!” El Clasico day during the Cristiano-Lionel era was always the most exciting. You knew it was going to be an incredible day of Ray comments when the match was between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Personally, I prefer Real Madrid over Barcelona (I respect both clubs, rivalry set aside), but one of my favorite Ray El Clasico moments was when Messi scored the winner in stoppage time at El Santiago Bernebeu. It was that a goal that exemplifies Ray Hudson at his best with his quote “Messi! You could drop a tarantula into his shorts and he’d still be cool!” We love a weekend of La Liga football in the house, because we love watching the magic of Barca and Real , but we love the laughs Ray gives us. In fact, the Men In Blazers “knighted” Ray at their convention a few years back. He is loved by the football community, but how could he not be? He loves football more than anyone else in the world.

Besides the wonderful coverage of league football we have in the states, we have our supporter clubs and gathering as well. However, that is something I have not much experience with yet. What I want to experience with watching City is going to an American pub dedicated to football. In Chicago, we have a place called AJ Hudson’s. It is a football pub for Manchester City, Liverpool, and if I am right Tottenham fans. My parents went there to watch what I thought was a disaster of a first leg in the 2018 Champions League Quarterfinals against Liverpool last year, but they absolutely loved it. The City fans were outnumbered by Liverpool fans, but my parents had a great time with both sides and got me a City banner out of it. It is somewhere I would love to go one day. Meeting other City and football fans from my home area would be a lot of fun for when I am home for breaks during the season. I could talk football for hours with people, sometimes I get a little heated but its all a part of the the fun. Sure it won’t be the same as in England, but it is still a lot of fun just to meet people and talk with them about a sport we all share a passion for.

The experience is never the same as anywhere in England, but I say we make it pretty good here.