Some pieces of football commentary can leave you gnashing your teeth in consternation, especially when the commentary is being given to you by an American who believes that all that listeners in the world are really interested in is simple statistics. Well, Americans may lap up statistics like hamburgers or hot dogs, but the rest of the football world wants to know about the real action taking place on the pitch.
Nobody really cares a hoot about being informed that Miloslav Klose had the honour of scoring first for Germany (the hosts) during their first game in the recent World Cup and that he did so on his birthday. So, alright we can read about that on the Internet or in the morning papers, but when the game is on, why don’t footballs commentators just stick to describing the action taking place during the game.
However, I digress here because it is American football commentators that have this annoying habit of bombarding listeners with statistic after statistic. Others have their own idiosyncrasies. You and I can certainly do without knowing that Miloslav Klose scored twice in separate World Cups and did so without sporting a handlebar moustache. Not that any of it matters since what matters is what is going on in the match. Comprende?
Sometimes, football commentators come up with some laughable gaffes, such as suggesting that Beckham’s first name could be Michael or that Henrik Larsson played wonderfully against Chelsea in a Champions League match.