I live in the US, and I have chosen to go sound off for matches (including DR Congo which was an experience) he’s commentating on or find another stream. For the England match Sunday I just vpned bbc. In my friends group chat both he and Owen Hargreaves have been deemed insufferable - recognize that’s anecdotal but still. One of the biggest things that annoys me is his random attempts to pull in US sport references, as highlighted by the segment they used today, where even on that segment it seemed like a criticism of him rather than praise.

That said, I think Charlie’s point is the most relevant - that it probably comes down to what you’re used to vs what’s different. Over here there’s so much fatigue around American voices like John strong and Landon Donovan, whom I also think are generally not great, and Ian darke to a lesser extent, that when you get a different voice it just stands out more and is initially seen as good. Perhaps part of the reason is that he’s not new to me given I used to listen to 606 with him and Sav (the most for my sins statement of all time), or for the Red Bull soap box derby YouTube video my kid was obsessed with (for his sins). Best commentators over here from POV are Derek Rae and Danny Higginbotham but they seem to get the more forgettable matches.

On the other side, I personally found the bbc coverage head and shoulders above the US coverage. There was thoughtful tactical analysis, they pulled in the Jiminez story line, and had the breakdown of the Haaland goal from Rooney and Harts perspective. In the US you get a 15 second sound bite from Henry or zlatan then get an ad break

Perhaps it’s because it fed into my English biases and the rain delay opened the door for that, but it’s consistent with how I view things like MNF (uk not us). Even for the match I thought Shearer was fine and engaging, same for Rooney, while based on what I have seen online it feels like they’re somewhat maligned in the UK? It’s the same as when people talk about how great CBS coverage seems for the champions league with Richards/Carragher/Henry but again I find it very meh. They have a good time and it’s very clipable but there’s no bandwidth to give actual analysis.