I was watching ESPNews the other day when an NFL segment came on and I thought "what the fuck is Andy Gray doing providing expertise on the NFL? And where the fuck did his British accent go?" (I swear a lot to myself). But alas, it wasn't Gray, it was Floyd Reese, his long lost [...] Click to continue reading...

Morning all. Just a few hours till match day 3 of the Champions League. Just a couple of things to run through this morning before the match.

First of all we do have some bad news regarding Kolo Toure, who will be out until November. He injured his shoulder against Everton and had to come off, and now he's going to miss at least two weeks. Click to continue reading...

American football has its John Madden, but among the media soccer doesn't have a recognized authority figure on soccer? Or do we? Vote now who you believe is the number one authority on soccer worldwide. <a href="http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1022314/" >Who's the number one authority in the world on soccer? Click to continue reading...

The fiasco that passed off as a "goal" at Vicarage Road when Reading visited Watford once again raised the question of video technology. Hell! – I am still recovering from the second "goal" in the 1984 FA cup final! Steve Sherwood clearly had the ball in both hands before that cheating Andy Gray headed it [. Click to continue reading...

Edwin Van der Sar was substituted with half an hour played against Chelsea today, following a tough challenge with Florent Malouda. Whilst Andy Gray was hoping for a penalty, it was clear our keeper got something on the ball. He tried to stay on the pitch, but it was only minutes later that he made way [. Click to continue reading...

L'équipe has the probable first 11 for France's opening world cup qualifier on Saturday :

Mandanda
Sagna, Mexès, Gallas, Evra
Govou, L. Diarra, Toulalan, Nasri
Benzema, Henry

In North America, Setanta will be showing both of France's upcoming world cup qualifiers on same-day tape delay:

Setanta broadcast at 4:00 p. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City are swapping Thaksin Shinawatra for Gary Glitter!
Harry Redknapp is Sir Les Patterson!!

Andy Gray: "This is an infamous league for late goals".
Martin Tyler: "Well, a famous league...".

The illusory, invalid and infamous gambling league is up and running. Click to continue reading...

Inspired by comments on the ‘Ramos Revolution' blog, I decided it was fitting to have a blog on those big mouths, who don't actually manage or play and don't live or die by what results happen on the pitch. Click to continue reading...

Sky Sports pundit Andy Gray has never been one to hide his feelings and opinions on the game of football. So his recent thoughts on Tottenham's summer spending are sure to make the North London faithful feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager! He ... Click to continue reading...

"Top class" growls Andy Gray in conclusion to the outrageously hyperreal Sky pre-season advertisement to promote their football output for next season.
Not content with the fake of Page 3 girls (sic) playing fakely on fake instruments to a fake backdrop of football matches totally tarnished by the gambling industry, Gray suitably defines Sky's product across their various media. Click to continue reading...

So yeah, we're headed to the airport in a couple hours. I figured I'd try to scramble some stuff into a mess post since it'll be a while 'til I arrive.

I think it's over 24 hours from departure to arrival with all the transfers and layovers. Bah.

Anyways, I've embeded a couple soccer featurettes from ESPN and sandwiched some links in between. Click to continue reading...

Some news to read as you require all airline passengers to wear stun bracelets: Some soccer lovin' and hatin' (Soccer365) I'll bet the men who play in the Olympics don't have to do this (Xinhuanet) Andy Gray as God. (If you watched Euros on ESPN, you have to read this. I'm sorry, but it's not optional. Click to continue reading...

You probably imagine the voice of God as an awesome, floor-shaking baritone, resonant with majesty and wisdom, like ten million History Channel narrators speaking at once. I'm not so sure. It's easy enough while watching, say, a tree tossing in the wind, or the space shuttle taking off, to think that God is deeply in [. Click to continue reading...

My co-blogger Chris hates (detests, despises, loathes, wants to take out in a dark alley) Sky Sports and (recently) ESPN commentator Andy Gray. The final straw came in the Spain-Italy game on ESPN, when Gray wished Spanish player Cesc Fabregas "good luck" before his penalty. (Chris's comments: "Did he really just say [. Click to continue reading...

I'm not one to leap to the defense of ESPN on too many occasions, but Jack Bell's excoriation of the network, occasioned by its use of British announcers during its Euro '08 telecasts, seems a little off-base too me, if I may use a baseball metaphor. This position strikes me as a logical outgrowth of Bell's larger objections to Anglophilia in the American game—the veneration of British coaches, teams and playing styles at the expense of other (specifically, Latin) influences. Click to continue reading...

In front of over 35,000 fans at RFK Stadium an ABC national broadcast audience, Luciano Emilio and DC United crushed the LA Galaxy 4-1. The scoreline was if anything flattering to the Galaxy who benefited from the individual brilliance of the sometimes maligned Steve Cronin to keep United from pilling in goals. Click to continue reading...

It's pretty sad when two soccer columnists who represent what is supposedly one of the nation's top newspapers are so incompetent and out-of-touch with reality. Last November, I called New York Times soccer columnist Jack Bell a wanker for writing an idiotic article criticizing Fox Soccer Channel for broadcasting the Premier League, the world's most popular [. Click to continue reading...

Goals aplenty are expected Sunday when the Galaxy plays D.C. United on the road in a rare nationally televised MLS game on ABC that precedes the Euro 2008 final.

The official Galaxy blog has a video preview.

Speaking of Euro 2008, sports media columnist Tom Hoffarth had more today on the broadcast snafu that frankly ruined the first semifinal Wednesday between Germany and Turkey.

Click to continue reading...

ESPN and ABC's dreams have come true. Sunday's Euro 2008 final between Germany and Spain is a far better proposition for the Disney owned TV networks than Turkey against Russia would have been. With plenty of German Americans living in the United States as well as a massive hispanic population, TV ratings should be high. Click to continue reading...

Hopefully you saw that one. The Turkey goal that tied the score at 2-2 in the 86th minute was improbable, the Philip Lahm winner in the 90th minute was much less probable.

Turkey is fantastic. That winner was fantastic.

We've talked about Andy Gray recently: he really rose to the occasion, and used his strong accent to humorous effect. Click to continue reading...

Today's Semifinal Match

-Wed Jun 25
Germany v Turkey - 1:30pm central time on ESPN
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The News

James Lawton of the Independent on Ze Germans. Always the Germans. Click to continue reading...

Turkey, already a long shot to beat Germany in today's first Euro 2008 semifinal, (live 11:30 a.m. on ESPN) has several starters missing through injury or suspension and the Germans are in a confident mood. Derek Rae and Andy Gray will call the game, while the second semifinal between Spain and an entertaining Russian side follows at the same time Thursday.

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I was absolutely disgusted by Luca Toni when Italy played Spain on Sunday, 22 June, 08, for the Euro 2008 Semi final spot. Here is a guy who is 6'5", can turn a football on a dime, yet whenever a Spanish defender so much as breathed on him, he would collapse like a house of tinker toys.

Andy Gray had a great quote on one of Toni's more egregious bits of theatrical crap when he said in that wonderful Glasgow phonology, "sure the defender grazed him there, but he's gone down like he's been hit by a sniper. Click to continue reading...

There wasn't very much to choose between Spain and Italy, and it finished 0-0 after 120 minutes. Spain didn't play as well as they can. Of the three subs that Aragones brought on, Cesc, of course, was brilliant, but the other two guys? I would have left on Torres and Iniesta.

Spain keeper Iker Casillas did really well to stop Italy twice in the final shootout, and Cesc kept his nerve and sent Buffon the wrong way to put away the spot kick that sealed it. Click to continue reading...

Talk about marquee match-ups. Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Michael Ballack. Pepe and Ricardo Carvalho vs. Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski. Portugal vs. Germany.

The Euro 2008 quarterfinals kick off today with one of the best match-ups of the round. Will a rested Portugal squad that looked extremely good in its first two matches be too much for a German squad that has yet to resemble the tournament favorites they were supposed to be when the Euros began?

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The group stage of Euro 2008 is now complete, and we were lucky to witness 12 days of compelling action all afternoon long. There were great comebacks. There were upsets. Some of the favorites held serve and did what they were expected to do.

Croatia's Slaven Bilić, who I've been high on for a while, thrust himself to the forefront of the managerial world with the way he led his team to three wins in three games. Click to continue reading...

Its a pretty empty studio at halftime for the last round of matches. Rece Davis with Julie Foudy. Its a relief not to hear or look at that gnome Tommy Smyth who pound for pound is the most obnoxious and annoying sports pundit. His buffoonish attempts at humour are usually swatted away by Derek Rae with , "I won't go there.

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Modern day football coverage is such that the commentators don't even need to be in the stadiums anymore. ESPN's Euro 2008 commentators are all huddled in Bristol, Connecticut. Most TWI commentators, meanwhile, broadcast Premier League games out of their studios in west London. With the world being a much smaller place today plus with the global [. Click to continue reading...

Soccer fans in the United States watching the Turkey against Czech Republic game were in for a double treat on Sunday. There was the incredible comeback from Turkey who found themselves two nil down but came back to win the match 3-2, which knocked the Czechs out of the tournament. But there was also the [. Click to continue reading...

Andy Gray said "This is the best I have seen seen Turkey play." Me thinks he held back a bit. It would not have been awry if he had said that this was the best any team could have played. In the second half the sea of red breached the white shores time and time again. The 25,000 Turkish fans raining down Turkiye Turkiye provided a lifeline to their players, and not even Jaroslav Plaisil's goal could snuff out what now looks like destiny.

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Player of the Day: Was going to give it to Wesley Sneijder when I went to the official Euro site to check who was MOTM. It was Sneijder, but I think something they wrote was more apt: "It was difficult for the UEFA Technical Team to pick a winner of the award". So the "player" becomes "players" to the Oranje.

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Adrian Healy -- "It's a Dutch Oven, and the French are toast." Arjen Robben deserves his own post, even if his bones are 50 percent glass. What a strike son. (All that was missing was for Andy Gray to tell him to 'take a bow.' Wait a tic, he did just that for Wesley Sneijder's strike in extra time -- which might have been better. Click to continue reading...

It's only a matter of time before Andy Gray and Tommy Smyth throw down during ESPN 's coverage of Euro 2008. During each day, the two of them throw zingers at each other and it has become one of the best things about watching the their coverage of the tournament.

If a fight would happen here is a tale of the tape:

Accomplishments in soccer:
Gray (right): Won PFA Player of the Year and PFA Young Player of the Year with Aston Villa for the 1976/1977 season. Click to continue reading...

Following in the hallowed footsteps of Andy Gray, who turned down the Everton job, Alan Shearer declared on the BBC yesterday that he wasn't interested in the Blackburn manager's job after some gentle probing by Gary Lineker. Shearer said: "The situation is that I was very flattered to get a call off of Blackburn's [. Click to continue reading...

"I enjoyed watching this . . . not just because Italy lost . . ." Andy Gray on ESPN Click to continue reading...