Sam Matterface

Coming in for a absolute barage of criticism today. Feel a little bit sorry for him must be hard to read it (if he does) obviously passionate and wanting to do a good job.
On the flip side he's actually terrible at his Job so that does kind of negate the sympathy a little bit.

 

He was a knob. He was constantly tempting fate all night.. He did it before the Denmark free-kick and Kane's penalty. He also started his we're in the final eulogy at 27:30 in extra -time and had to be audibly nudged by Lee Dixon. It's a good job I wasn't sat next to him.

 

It was like listening to Alan Partridge. He started off with some god awful flight safety metaphors, and it never really got any better.

 

she's the best analyst of all of them...in my opinion. Marcus should be looking to recruit her as his assistant! seriously.

 

I find both the main commentators - Matterface and Jonathan Pearce and the main co-commentators Jenas and Dixon and Keown to be pretty bad to be honest

Karen Hayes and Ally McCoist are way ahead on co-coms.

studio - Keane and Neville are gold, Wright and Rio are good fun, Micah Richards is brill, Alex Scott is impossible not to love.

Of the foreign pundits Klinsmann always come across well.

 

I've never understood the criticism of 'tempting fate' personally. Something will or won't happen, regardless of whether a commentator has eluded to it before or not.

I got pelters on here many years ago for pointing out our record against a particular team, about 5 minutes before they went and scored they winning goal. They'd have scored it regardless of whether I posted about it or not. I had no contribution in the result whatsoever.

Otherwise though, I did find his commentary last night a bit poor. Although, I can imagine it's a very difficult job to do.

 

I think it's an ITV thing they milk everything they cover. He was over the top in my view. Too many stats and not enough comment on what was actually happening. When Denmark made the triple substitution he didn't have a scooby what was happening.

 

Pearce is not the main commentator on the BBC. It’s Guy Mowbray who is first class.

 

Sam Matterface talked constant ***** all way through, totally inept commentator and a perfect fit for ITV.

 

Lee Dixon has been tripe all tournament anall hed to turn sound off again.

 

He survived getting divorced by Natalie Sawyer, so he will be able to cope with some stick for his commentary.

 

yes he is. Pearce should stick to the robots

 

Ally McCoist been pretty good on the couple of games I have seen him on

 

That's the point though, the comment is redundant and simply serves to antagonise the audience. I don't believe in tempting fate or the commentator's curse, of course it doesn't matter, but there is a profound psychological effect - take the gambler's fallacy. As soon as a commentator says "oh there hasn't been a direct freekick scored this tournament", the assumption is that one is due, despite the previous attempts having no effect on the current chance. A more reasonable assumption would be that the taker isn't very good at direct freekicks having not scored one, and so there should be little need for concern, but the human mind just doesn't work like that. Rather than making the comment about a direct freekick not being scored, the commentator should be highlighting things that a television viewer might not have noticed. Is Pickford too far to one side? Is there a lot of holding going on? Observations that add value, rather than seeking to play on the anxieties of the viewer. That's in addition to the non-stop clichés he uses, or the obviously rehearsed spiels he goes into. He'd clearly prepared his final diatribe well in advance and it was over the top and unnecessary, just unnatural and not in tune with the mood of the country. I think it started with the veneration of "Aguerrroooooo" as some primal, profound moment, rather than the mindless shriek that it was, commentators just don't add value like they used to.

 

Spot on his commentary compounded my misery at England going behind.

 

Just as extra time was starting I'm sure he said "the next thirty minutes could change your life "
Didn't work for me!

 

He's an awful commentator. I had to turn turn the sound off, as his comments were winding me up!
However, he's given me an excuse to post a piccie of his ex!

 

You once had the chance of a picture with her but you went all shy.

 

Apparently, she likes 'small' men, which counts me out!