Friendly match: Canada vs Mexico - Tuesday, September 10th - 8:30pm Eastern / 5:30pm Pacific - Arlington, Texas

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, Gian-Luca said:

I was more concerned about the revisionist history aspect, whether intended or not, effectively wiping out the huge contributions made by so many Italian-Canadians in the late 20th century to the program (not that they have completely ceased since then, even if it is largely limited to the coaching staff these days - although maybe people think Mauro Biello is actually of Pakistani descent or something). It's a shame that there are not better quality highlights from the 1986 qualifying run that are readily available because I think Canada's draw against Costa Rica in San Jose is an often overlooked match in importance, and I recall from watching it back in September 1985 and remembering very few scoring chances we created while Tino Lettieri made some important saves to preserve a crucial point and return the favour after they drew us in Toronto (a match that I was at). But even this highlights package omits any footage from that game:

Although it's not always obvious when someone has Italian heritage - ironically this is something I discovered last night after posting the previous post, I started watching the Hope Solo documentary on Netflix as I had heard good things about it, in particular that she shits all over the USSF as well on the heads of many of her former teammates. Until I started watching this, I had no idea that her father was Italian - I had just assumed he was a massive Star Wars fan, although I suppose he could be both. But I hadn't been that surprised to discover someone had Italian heritage since learning that Brooke Shields is the granddaughter of an Italian aristocrat.

And shame on me for not even mentioning Eddy Berdusco, scorer of what used to be the most famous goal in Canadian history.

At the France match there was a guy wearing an old Peschosolido shirt, told me they were actually cousins.

People in Vancouver, as well, have no idea our local legacy of Italian stock has made such a definitive contribution to club and country. 

Including the current president of CONCACAF. A couple years ago a fan who used to be on the board, Calabrian stock in Vancouver, would tell me about running into Victor's dad in East Vancouver, stopping to say hi when he was working in the garden, getting the inside scoop. 

I find it a bit criminal that none of these people can get a sniff as media pundits in Canada (Petrillo aside), but any halfwit with a British accent gets hired to say "he's done very well to clear that" in a flash. 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

5 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

...our local legacy of Italian stock has made such a definitive contribution... 

...I find it a bit criminal that none of these people can get a sniff as media pundits in Canada (Petrillo aside), but any halfwit with a British accent...

Edited Sunday at 02:12 PM by Olympique_de_Marseille

[BearcatSA]

1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

People in Vancouver, as well, have no idea our local legacy of Italian stock has made such a definitive contribution to club and country. 

Agreed, though the one legacy name that creates controversy for some on here is Lenarduzzi.

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

At the France match there was a guy wearing an old Peschosolido shirt, told me they were actually cousins.

People in Vancouver, as well, have no idea our local legacy of Italian stock has made such a definitive contribution to club and country. 

Including the current president of CONCACAF. A couple years ago a fan who used to be on the board, Calabrian stock in Vancouver, would tell me about running into Victor's dad in East Vancouver, stopping to say hi when he was working in the garden, getting the inside scoop. 

I find it a bit criminal that none of these people can get a sniff as media pundits in Canada (Petrillo aside), but any halfwit with a British accent gets hired to say "he's done very well to clear that" in a flash. 

Great point.

The only people I had to talk football with for years were Calabrians, some of whom played roles with Canada Soccer. 

 

...until your silly biases rear their ugly heads, again, at the end.  

Edited Sunday at 04:12 PM by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[SthMelbRed]

13 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

Great point.

The only people I had to talk football with for years were Calabrians, some of whom played roles with Canada Soccer. 

 

...until your silly biases rear their ugly heads, again, at the end.  

Anybody from Vancouver or Burnaby knows that the only way that any of us really ever got to watch European club football in the late-80s and '90s, other than clips from Soccer Saturday, with the late, great Graham Leggett, was to pop into North America Sports at Boundary and Hastings to browse the stock of shirts, admire the wall of boots that you'd never be able to buy, and chill with the Italian owner, staff, and others while his satellite feed of Serie A matches played on the big screen.

[SthMelbRed]

13 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

Agreed, though the one legacy name that creates controversy for some on here is Lenarduzzi.

The Lennarduzzi's are still synonymous with the heyday of soccer support on the west coast, being the faces of the Whitecap's NASL glory days. 

[gigi riva]

On 9/14/2024 at 10:31 PM, Fullback said:

Anthony reminds me of your typical Italian-Canadian you’d find in the south end. According to them Canadians are always the problem at TFC and Oso is the poster boy for that.

Edit: Shouldn’t have made it specifically about Italians, moreso meant Eurocentric football fans

in all The TFC games I have been to I have noticed they tend to give the Canadian players a lot of criticsism not just Oso

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

16 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

...until your silly biases rear their ugly heads, again, at the end.  

You would almost get the impression that there isn't an Italian-oriented channel on basic cable that shows Serie A games. Alf de Blassis was also doing CanPL games for Onesoccer at one point.

[narduch]

2 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

You would almost get the impression that there isn't an Italian-oriented channel on basic cable that shows Serie A games. Alf de Blassis was also doing CanPL games for Onesoccer at one point.

Alf De Blasis actually proves @Unnamed Trialist point

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

^^^finding it increasingly difficult to even follow the point this guy is trying to make. Alf de Blassis was doing play-by-play regularly on Onesoccer at one point but apparently in some form of Orwellian doublethink that proves the point that Italian-Canadians don't get a sniff at that sort of thing in a Canadian soccer context. I have no idea why Nigel Reed always seems to ultimately wind up being the default setting for that sort of thing but others were definitely given a shot at it too.

TLN had a show called Italian Soccer Fanatics about 20 years back. Four young Italian-Canadian media pundits readily acessible on basic cable. Alf de Blassis was already too old and too much of a stuffed shirt to fit their irreverent format. Gina Bucci (second from left) was on CBC telecasts of TFC games in 2007 doing field level interviews off the back of that.

The main TFC sports beat journalist over the years has been John Molinaro. He often gets onto mainstream cable coverage when major tournaments are on. The idea that soccer coverage in Canada has no Italian-Canadian input is off base.

[narduch]

33 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

^^^finding it increasingly difficult to even follow the point this guy is trying to make. Alf de Blassis was doing play-by-play regularly on Onesoccer at one point but apparently in some form of Orwellian doublethink that proves the point that Italian-Canadians don't get a sniff at that sort of thing in a Canadian soccer context. I have no idea why Nigel Reed always seems to ultimately wind up being the default setting for that sort of thing but others were definitely given a shot at it too.

TLN had a show called Italian Soccer Fanatics about 20 years back. Four young Italian-Canadian media pundits readily acessible on basic cable. Alf de Blassis was already too old and too much of a stuffed shirt to fit their irreverent format. Gina Bucci (second from left) was on CBC telecasts of TFC games in 2007 doing field level interviews off the back of that.

The main TFC sports beat journalist over the years has been John Molinaro. He often gets onto mainstream cable coverage when major tournaments are on. The idea that soccer coverage in Canada has no Italian-Canadian input is off base.

The point is he isn't currently working anywhere in Canada for any mainstream soccer broadcaster while probably being more qualified than some of the other announcers.

Didn't think I needed to hold your hand on that one.

 

Edited Monday at 12:21 PM by narduch

[Unnamed Trialist]

6 hours ago, SthMelbRed said:

The Lennarduzzi's are still synonymous with the heyday of soccer support on the west coast, being the faces of the Whitecap's NASL glory days. 

It's good you mention the whole family. When my kid did Whitecaps summer camps in various places around Vancouver in the pre MLS days, very often Sammy was around. This about 15 years ago, a bit more.

And Sam Lenarduzzi is a lovely guy, at least from my contact with him, generous, kind, very humble. Credit to the family.

I realize Bobby got a bit big-headed, and really moving into MLS was over his head, but he was still a club and country hero, a deserving leader on the great Caps teams of the 70s in NASL and, frankly, a damn good player. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

23 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

Great point.

The only people I had to talk football with for years were Calabrians, some of whom played roles with Canada Soccer. 

 

...until your silly biases rear their ugly heads, again, at the end.  

Any dumbshit with an English accent can work games in North America, you even hear them on MLS Pro broadcasts, they take advantage of the fact there is inferiority complex in Canada and the States, and then it is all fluff and banalities 90% of the time. That's right. One of ten have merit, the rest either have the drive and ambition to postulate themselves and will do the broadcasts on the cheap, or win the job based on having lost their virginity on some annex pitch at Solihull or Stevenage--or a combination thereof. 

The Americans have adjusted this somewhat and you get to hear Herc and Alejandro on ESPN, but for them it is also a form of inferiority complex, and they appear alongside Shaka and Craig, I'd say only Herc is any quality and at all intelligible. But keep the foreign accents coming in and keep fawning over what they have to say.

I don't mind having foreigners commenting, am used to hearing Argentines (Valdano) and Serbs (Radomir Antic) in Spain who are very good, but at some point you have to believe in your own and give them a shot. Canadian producers directly discriminate Italian and Latino stock so the stammering half-wits from the Isles who can't work there, look at our media landscape and see it dripping with opportunity for their like.

Edited Monday at 03:57 PM by Unnamed Trialist

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

5 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Any dumbshit with an English accent can work games in North America, you even hear them on MLS Pro broadcasts, they take advantage of the fact there is inferiority complex in Canada and the States, and then it is all fluff and banalities 90% of the time. That's right. One of ten have merit, the rest either have the drive and ambition to postulate themselves and will do the broadcasts on the cheap, or win the job based on having lost their virginity on some annex pitch at Solihull or Stevenage--or a combination thereof. 

The Americans have adjusted this somewhat and you get to hear Herc and Alejandro on ESPN, but for them it is also a form of inferiority complex, and they appear alongside Shaka and Craig, I'd say only Herc is any quality and at all intelligible. But keep the foreign accents coming in and keep fawning over what they have to say.

I don't mind having foreigners commenting, am used to hearing Argentines (Valdano) and Serbs (Radomir Antic) in Spain who are very good, but at some point you have to believe in your own and give them a shot. Canadian producers directly discriminate Italian and Latino stock so the stammering half-wits from the Isles who can't work there, look at our media landscape and see it dripping with opportunity for their like.

Do you think such language makes people think you have more or less football knowledge?

 

 

 

You can preach to a choir on here all you want but your ignorance and repeatedly demonstrated biases in certain aspects of football (like we all have) is clear to those that have a modicum of knowledge in the area.

 

Using silly inflated language does not change that.  Never has. 

 

To be clear my thoughts on the actual subject.

There are good and bad commentators and everything in between that work in the languages I understand.  There is enough football being broadcasted these days that there are some bad ones out there.  In all languages (I understand) and accents. 

"One of ten [with a British accent] have merit."  - is a truly silly or prejudiced or ignorant statement. 

 

Edited Monday at 05:35 PM by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[BearcatSA]

13 hours ago, SthMelbRed said:

Anybody from Vancouver or Burnaby knows that the only way that any of us really ever got to watch European club football in the late-80s and '90s, other than clips from Soccer Saturday, with the late, great Graham Leggett, was to pop into North America Sports at Boundary and Hastings to browse the stock of shirts, admire the wall of boots that you'd never be able to buy, and chill with the Italian owner, staff, and others while his satellite feed of Serie A matches played on the big screen.

Loved going there 🙂  Great vibe in that shop.  BTW, what was name of the other Italian soccer store around Commerical Drive?

That place, plus Tad's Sporting Goods in Marpole.   Wall to wall stuff!  I bought more first real quality tennis racquet there. 

Good memories!

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

1 hour ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

... "One of ten [with a British accent] have merit."  - is a truly silly or prejudiced or ignorant statement. 

I'll go for the second of those three options. Personally don't think Nigel Reed should be the go to guy for soccer commentary on Onesoccer but I strongly suspect that was driven primarily by audience feedback. The decisions on that were being made by a company headquartered in Barcelona so I seriously doubt there was any huge cultural bias against people from around the Mediterranean involved.

[narduch]

Adam Jenkins is One Soccer's #1 announcer. Nigel Reed is their #2 basically. 

Wheeler seems to be used as an announcer only for CanMNT matches.

Matt Cullen seems to be their #3 (and also does matches in French for One Soccer). He is also used by TSN now as a back up for Wileman.

Edited Monday at 07:51 PM by narduch

[gigi riva]

I remember watching Serie A Matches on CHCH TV  in the 80s  on Sunday mornings . with the late Tino Baxa

[Joe MacCarthy]

If I understand the translation correctly, these guys are saying things have reversed from what they were and Canada is better than Mexico.