April 22, 2022 • 53 mins
Swapping stories with an iconic commentator on the art of play-by-play. What fuels his lifelong passion for soccer, his unlikely career path, and his most amazing calls.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Behind his passion, there is tireless preparation. Andreas Kentor has
spent a lifetime practicing and perfecting the art of play
by play in soccer. His instincts and feel for the
game create the famous flow to describe action with the
perfect words, all leading up to the one word shouted
(00:22):
loud and long that has made Andre's a legend in
two languages. Go the imitation is flattery, but I'm not
even gonna try. Andres is the lead match caller at
Telemundo and cable network UNI Verso. After starting at Union,
he also works for NBC and on the radio network
(00:42):
that he owns, Football de Primeira. I've been a huge
soccer fan since the eighties, so this was a real
treat to hear a great storyteller talk about his early years,
his path to stardom, his favorite calls, and swap some
ideas about what makes play by play special. Here's the
great Andre's cantor and what's behind is often imitated, never matched.
(01:07):
Calls undress cancer, You're a legend. You should be resting
your voice, but instead you're talking to us, and I'm
grateful for that. Looking forward to this. Thank you, Chris
It's a pleasure to be on your podcast. Who You
Got You Got Me? My voice is very strong debate,
so we can go out of it perfect perfect. I'll
(01:27):
try to match your strength of voice. We could go
a lot of places, and we will in this conversation.
But I want to begin on a cold night in
the capital of South Africa, in Pretoria in two thousand
and ten. What is going to be a near disastrous
evening for US soccer. All they need is a victory
over Algeria to go through. If they don't get the victory,
they are eliminated in the group stage. You're calling the
(01:48):
game on radio, which requires an intensity that's unlike television
or anything else. Probably and Landed Dottaman scores in the
dying minutes, and it's a goal that every single US
Soccer fan will from member forever and for you, it
ranks right up there as well, doesn't it. This is
the intensity of the entire game leading up to Donovan's goal.
(02:09):
Most definitely it is one of my top three goals
of of my broadcasting career. It was a long night.
We got there very very early, when there was still
sunlight in the state in the city. Uh, he got
very very cold as the game progressed, and I had
(02:30):
as my color commentators on one side former US Soccer
international and on the other side Bot I mean Lutinovich,
his coach in the World Cup. So this was an
all American if you will, broadcast, And obviously we did
not anticipate that this could happen, that I could go
(02:52):
to the very last minute. I, as you clearly said,
I go at a different pace when I broadcast, do
and do play by play on radio than I do
want TV because I have to be that much more
descriptive of the action to my audience. And I put
a little bit more energy into it, and I was
(03:15):
really gassed out. I had no energy left in the
tank when that counterattack after the Algeria corner kick came,
which happened to be very close for them to score
and and win the game. And as the play progresses,
I'm just giving it all out because I knew that
(03:36):
was the last player of the game. Lucky here, cowful
(04:27):
pul the I can from you, they go to what
I can sell yourself. Can I keep it? I don't know.
It's one of the things that you know very well broadcasters,
(04:50):
unless you have catchphrases or or certain things that you
can have prepared before your broadcast. This is all spontaneous
and Landon scored the goal, and it was just not
only was it a phenomenal goal itself, but what it meant,
like you said, for your soccer to go through to
(05:13):
the next round. So I gave it my best and
my all, and incredibly enough, um, you know, this was
on radio and it's still recognized as one of the
best cause of my thirty plus year career. And you
almost passed out effort. You say after about the third
time that you did the extended gold call, there was
(05:35):
no more air in the UM. I really have that
memory of It doesn't happen very often because obviously you're
in control of of your emotion, or you try to
be in control of your emotions when you mix emotions
and and soccer player. I played my gave the way
(05:57):
I feel for the game and the way I feel
for the t as I quote unquote root for even
though I'm not supposed to root for anybody, I will.
I always say that I would be a hypocrite if
I don't want the US. If I say that I
don't want the US to do well and Ardina to
the World of the World Cups. So it meant so much.
(06:19):
I have the memory of just like, oh, you know,
I was like, I don't know if I was gone
for two seconds or not, in between breaths um, but
it was definitely it was the most. It was the
goal that exhausted me the most in my career, for sure.
(06:41):
I was sitting with Alexei laalas are our mutual colleague.
You're with him at NBC. We were prepared to deliver
a very grim post match report. It would have been
disasters for the US not to go through to the
knockout round. It was going to happen. We were preparing
the last rites for the team, probably the coach and
(07:02):
that group of players together and then everything changes in
a few seconds and alexeis in tears. As a former
US captain, he gets very emotionally involved. I love that
about him. I was choked up. It was all we
could do to deliver the postgame report to a very
excited group of American soccer fans who felt like they
had escaped death literally, and it was that was that grim,
(07:26):
and then it was that euphoric, and I know you
felt that way afterwards to it as cold as is,
as exhausted as you are. That's why we do what
we do, is to be able to capture that kind
of a moment exactly. I mean, those are the the
one moment in sports history that all of us, starting
with the players, athletes, coaches, et cetera, will remember. And
(07:48):
I always say, Chris, that we are blessed or in
my case, scient blessed to be part of history. I
have the best seat in the house, um, and all
I have to sit there and translate my emotions into
my audience. And obviously I had a thirty minute bostgame
show on radio after the match, and when I saw
(08:10):
that the players were out, um, towards that far corner
opposite my booth, singing and celebrating with the American fans
UH with you know, after all, you know, we were
in South Africa. It is the other, you know, side
of the world. It was very far away from home,
(08:32):
and they were I don't know, help me if you can,
but I believe they were at least five thousand US
American fans with flags with you know, everyone wearing the
UH national team jersey be underneath their their within their clothing,
some of them on top of them. Um, and I
(08:52):
choked up. I really choked up. And I don't know
if I helped uh my cry or they cried a
little bit. I definitely if I listened back to the
post game, I am sure I choked up several times
during that period because that was one of the most
emotional moments of of you know, US soccer history. Goals
(09:17):
in soccer can happen lots of different ways. That can
happen suddenly where you can't see it coming. They can
happen up a set piece, that can happen in open
play the way this goal that we're talking about happened,
where Tim Howard makes a beautiful outlet and you sit there,
you said, the best seat in the house, very high
vantage point. We're able to see the flow of the
spacing in a way differently than TV cameras can see it.
(09:39):
So it's our responsibility to help convey what we see
that maybe the TV audience isn't yet aware of. Your
call was beautiful leading up, of course to the the
famous goal call. Was the rhythm of it. You anticipated
what would happen. I compare a play like that to
a kickoff return in American football, where the ball settles
in and you, from a high vantage point, can see
(09:59):
the block, can see the space, You're aware of their
returner's speed and what could happen. And that's so much
fun to be able to anticipate something then comes to happen.
You did that beautifully, because that's part of it, especially
in radio where people are not seeing what's going on,
and the art of it to build the excitement so
that the goal call has even more impact at the end.
(10:21):
You've had years of experience doing that, but still when
it's executed like that, it's it's the thing of beauty. Yeah,
it's the perfect combination. First of all, Uh, it's it
makes a whole lot of difference being on site than
calling the games off. Two Usually during the year, let's
say I go an average of two hundred games. Uh,
(10:45):
probably on a r done from the TV studios, so
all I get is whatever everyone else gets at home,
and have another advantage point like I did in this
particular play. Um, I just don't want to about what
I did. I hate talking in the first person, but
I do. I am amazed that I have the clarity
(11:08):
of mind to choose my words and build up to
the play because, as I said, I was totally exhausted. Um,
I wanted the play to finish in the US goal.
And it's it's very hard also to pick the right
words because if you go one world too long, the
(11:29):
play will beat you. So if I'm saying something else
and the ball gets crossed while I'm in the middle
of a sentence, uh, I as a broadcaster, I'm in big,
big trouble. So you have to choose your words, your
pace at the right time, not to you know, stumble
on on your play by player on yourself. So I
(11:51):
was very lucky that I had the clarity of mind. Um.
And I'm gonna tell you something that happened at a
lot right after that World Cup. Um. You know, besides
all the accolades I had in my career, which I
am blessed and grateful for, the most gratifying thing happened
(12:15):
after coming back from South Africa, people telling me I
stopped the car to listen to that goal. I listened.
I mean that goal you made us cry. Um. When
I came back from that World Up, when the customs
agent told me, I listened to your broadcast on radio,
(12:35):
when we all know that World Cups are made for
TV events, even though not everyone can watch. But as
soon as I set footback in our country in Miami
and the customers agent said, I listened to your call
and radio that was the Landon Donovan was awesome, I said, WHOA,
I think it probably was a good call. That's an understatement.
(13:01):
How does it make you feel undressed when people say,
years later, we listen back and something you've said on
television or radio gives me chills, still makes me emotional
that that particular goal is one that US soccer fans
will return to when they don't feel so good about
the state of the national team, when they need a
pep talk, they'll they'll look back at goals like that
(13:23):
and and the short list of others, and they still
get the same emotional reactions, because, of course, what happened
the play is the main thing, but the soundtrack that
you're laying on top of it is also a big
part of the emotions that they feel, and emotions that
last forever. You've You've been told that I'm sure about
all kinds of goals from all kinds of national teams
(13:43):
and leagues you covered. Does that ever get old? Or
is it Is it still a thrill to hear that. No,
it's it's a thrill because it may it makes you
feel good about the job that you're doing, that you're
conveying while you're trying that it legitimizes what I tried
to convey on my broadcast, either on radio or on television.
(14:07):
That first of all, I you know, my goal is
to have the people that watch or that listened to
my broadcast being entertained, informed, and also I want them
on the edge of their seats from minute one to
minute ninety. And that is a testament that you know,
(14:29):
when people recognize so many years removed from from that day,
the emotions of that go call. This happened a few
weeks ago. I found out that I was London's Donovan's
birthday because I go and you know, I wake up
in the morning and my Twitter feed is full of
(14:51):
which people wishing London Happy birthday, replaying my go call.
Somebody had the very good idea mounting my audio play
by play because I was calling from my radio company
from with video. They matched it exactly, so they had
(15:11):
you know, the on on my feet all all the
goal the gold goals from all the angles with my
play by play on it, so it's it's it's definitely
very nice when when people recognize that, you know, I
made them feel something other than just you know, telling
them something they did not know technically. I've heard you
(15:34):
talk about another goal involving the US national player on
the women's side, Carly Lloyd against Japan um a very
memorable game for US soccer fans because it was a
tense build up to the game and then the US
just dominated from the start. But to complete Carly Lloyd's
hat trick, I think it was only the sixteenth minute
of the game. It was already for nothing. But her
third goal was an unbelievable strike from the stripe of
(15:58):
midfield over the head of the happen He's keeper who
stumbles back where gets her fingertips on the ball. It
carromes off the goal post and goes in. I've watched
that that replay many many times. Your call, there's a goal.
No one could expect your analysts in the middle of
doing something because Japan has the ball in the US
and all of a sudden you need to take it
(16:18):
back because she's launched from midfield in a very unlikely goal.
And that was a memorable moment too, even though it
wasn't a maybe tension in the game because the score
was already three nail. Just the feet of a goal
from from midfield in a World Cup final, yeah Nilson,
(17:19):
so thick telling live he got three little take and kings.
I'll tell you to three different stories about that goal,
because there's a story behind every important goal, I guess
and people just you know, stay are watching at home
(17:40):
and think, Okay, this guy is just yelling, go well,
I'm gonna tell you a couple of stories. One, you
just said it the advantage point that you have been
on the pitch. If I would have been on the
calling the game off. Two, my color commentator would have
gone on to say and finish whatever he was saying,
because I could have not anticipated that Carly was going
(18:04):
to hit the ball from midfield because I saw the
goalkeeper way off her line. So as soon as Carly
got the ball and did this and for your for
this podcast audience and raising my head up to the air,
she's uh. In one second, she had the three six
view of where she was, where the ball was, where
(18:28):
the Japanese goalkeeper was, and where the goal was and
she hit it, So if I would have been in
the studio, there's not a chance that I would have
called the goal the way I called it. That is
one part of the story. The second part of the
story is UH. The night before I was in Santiago,
(18:48):
Chile calling for my radio company the final of the
World Cup that went into extra time and penalties. I
had two and a half hours to get from the
stadium to the airport to catch a flight UH from
Santiago to Dallas and then onwards to Vancouver. When the
(19:11):
game went into extra time, I said, what is it
am I going to do here? I mean, I gotta
be in Vancouver the next morning. UM. I called the
you know the obviously the extra time, I called the penalties.
As soon as Alexey Sanchez hit the last penalty for Chile,
I took off my headsets rushed to the airport. I
(19:31):
was lucky. I was sad that Argentina had lost, UM
and I was happy that Chile had won because everyone
stayed inside the stadium and there was no traffic to
get out. If Chila would have lost, no one would
have stayed for the ceremony and I would have been
stuck and I would have been fired from Telemundo as
(19:53):
easy as that. So anyways, I get to Vancouver, uh,
pretty much with you know the sleep that you can
catch on an airplane. I get inside the stadium and
the first person I see is ground wall. We all
know when it is. What are you doing here? I
saw you yesterday in Chile. Yeah, that was yesterday. So anyways,
(20:16):
just to go back to the goal itself, as soon
as I saw Carly the I mean get the ball.
I knew she had a chance because I I was.
I was obviously very aware of where the Japanese goalkeeper was.
And I uh, I always say, regardless, I was, you know,
(20:38):
probably the game clincher sixteen minutes into the final. Regardless
of that. Scoring first of all, scoring a hat trick
in the World Cup final and scoring a goal from
midfield has to be one of the greatest goals in
soccer history, regardless of gender period. I have no doubts
in my mind. Uh, that was m extra they go
(21:01):
by Carly, an extravy game by Cardi having scored three.
So that's the story of that goal. Well, you you
summed up the challenge and the thrill of doing this
you have to describe what you see in the moment
using the words perfectly, but then you have to frame
it right away, and you did, I think, say, one
of the greatest goals you've ever seen. You had the
(21:23):
perspective in the moment, which is part of the job
to frame it instantly, and since it's not just the
long goal. I think it was thirty eight seconds or
something like that that you said goal after that one,
and it was justified. But then to come back and
frame it perfectly afterwards. I've taken a lot from watching
people like yourself and the legends of calling soccer and
trying to use some of those techniques in calling American football,
(21:47):
where it's easy to shout touchdown, but then you have
to hopefully come up with the line right after that
that frames what that six points means. Does it clinch
the game, does it announce that they're not dead, that
they're coming back. You hopefully have something come to mind
too punctuate after the goal, and you did that in
(22:08):
that case beautifully. I want to get to some other
calls eventually another games, but let's go way back to
the beginning. You grew up in Argentina, obviously, soccer is
a religion. I know you. You played soccer as a
kid everywhere you could, every possible location, every free minute.
You weren't going to be the next Maradona, but you
had clearly a passion for the game as a kid,
(22:28):
and pretty early on figured out that doing something with
my life that's associated with football would be would be fantastic. Yeah.
As I grew up in Argentina, every kid played football soccer.
Even though there were other sports around there weren't as
popular as they are now, so everyone played um soccer
(22:52):
in the streets in our social gloves. There was no
FIFA games there or no electronic games. I mean, I
will tell you how old I am by saying that
we were all amazed when somebody got the remember the
attari tennis thing that bumped around That was like yeah, yeah,
that was a crazy way back in my days. Anyway, So, uh,
(23:15):
you know, when I moved to the US, I played
in high school. Um, then I went to USC and
played their USC wasn't wasn't affiliated to the n C
Double A in their soccer program back in my days,
so it was all club games. And I always lie
and say that my career ended there because MLS didn't exist,
(23:38):
so I had nowhere to go, which is not true
because I wouldn't have made it anyways. But I always
knew that I wanted to be around the game for sure,
and I'm doing the next best thing to playing, which
is broadcasting the games that I love so much. So
growing up in Argentina, there's a legendary Argentine broadcaster Jose
Maria Munios, who broadcast the World Cups. He was the
(24:01):
voice on top of Maradona's goals in Mexico that the
hand of God and then the brilliant go after that
where he weaved through the entire England team scored it.
And so you get to listen to a legend and
people think you invented the long goal extended call that
that that's You're very quick to point out that you
may have popularized it or perfected it, but you didn't
(24:21):
invent it. That that was the style of the broadcasters
in Latin America. Now throughout Latin America, not only the
audience has to understand that, what's the radio figure? He
was larger than life. UH. He had the very first
Pan regional UH soccer show that was heard throughout Latin America,
(24:46):
from Colombia all the way down too to Argentina, and
he pretty much was the only UH play by play
announcer all the time. There were others before him. And
now you know, if you go on the weekend in
Argentina or you know you do tune in, there are
(25:07):
ten radio stations broadcasting the same game. Before it was
only him, so we all listened to him, or him
and a couple of oars. But we he had of
the share of the audience, so we all grew up
listening to him, whether we liked him or not. So
obviously it was an era where people would go to
(25:28):
the stadium with the old transistor radio blue to their ears,
before headphones and before everything else. So we went to
the stadiums listening to his play by play, and obviously
there was no delay on radio, so you know, it
was very, very instructive in the way that you watched
the game as a fan, but you were also listening
(25:51):
to his commentary, commentators, his commentary, his play by play.
So that is how I grew up watching and listening
to soccer. So you come to the United States, you
take in English classes. I read in Argentina, but that
doesn't necessarily prepare you for having to speak colloquial English
(26:11):
in America. And you said, like a lot of immigrant kids,
your teenagers are tough, yere to to to relocate to
another country. I moved around to different schools during that time.
I know how tough that was. And that was within
the United States, changing cultures and languages. You've said it
wasn't easy for you making that transition to America. It
was extremely hard. Um not. As a matter of fact,
(26:35):
I got my break working for Univision in February of
and I was having one of those crisis of wanting
to go back home because I I mean, even though
I was older than I was when I when I
got here. Um it was ten years later. After I
(26:58):
got here. Um, I was still missing Argentina and wanted
to be involved in soccer and found that, you know,
I had to go back to Argentina to do so.
But when my family moved here, as you said, I
thought I did speak to English. The English that was
taught in my school in Argentina was British English. So
(27:23):
I referred to you know, everyone wearing trousers and not
pants and and you name it. But really I didn't
speak a word. I mean, it was I thought I knew.
I mean, I had very good grades in my English classes,
but could not speak a word. So it took me
a while. Um, obviously to this day, even though I
(27:46):
was sixteen and to seventeen when I moved, even to
this day, I had a heavy accent. My brother, which
is four years younger than I am uh and obviously
moved with us. I mean, you couldn't for one second
that he's not an American. He speaks with no answer
at all. So it was very, very tough, very tough
because it was a different language, it was a different
(28:09):
cultural together. And obviously I was a big, big soccer
fan already and there was no Soger in this country
at the time, so it was tremendously hard being a
teenager in those days in my new home. It's impressive
to get into USC. You wanted to be a print journalist.
You're learning to write in your second language. And then
(28:31):
just out of USC you mentioned the precursor to university
on the Spanish International Network. You get an audition that
you've never called soccer matches, but that's the assignment. You
go in there and and tell that story, because I
don't know of anyone else that goes in for a
broadcast audition completely inexperienced, and they tell them, guess what,
(28:52):
it's more than an audition. This is going to actually
be on television your very first time. I mean, that's
that's pretty scary. And yet somehow pulled the undressing got
the job. Well. I was while I was in school
at USC, I was already working as a correspondent for
a big publishing company in Argentina that published five different magazines,
one of which was like Sports Illustrated, So I covered
(29:15):
lots of boxing, a few uh friendly matches that were played.
Actually there weren't a few. There were quite many back
in the day in Los Angeles, so I coincided with
lots of uh you know, Hispanic press. One day, I
get a call and they tell me they want to
audition me for a job at a univision And all
(29:38):
they tell me is bring two coats, two shirts, and
two ties and see you at the studios. Okay, fine.
So I get there and I asked the guy who
eventually ended up being my boss, so what's the audition about? Says, Oh,
we're going to record two games one of them were
(29:59):
there Sunday. The other one will air the next the
following Sunday. And I want you to call a commentary
the first match. Okay, that shouldn't be that much of
a problem. I was amazed by. I was looking around
and said it still. You know how big it was
the camera to light me. I had never been inside
the TVs two in my life. I do call commentary.
(30:21):
We break for lunch. Um in the middle of lunch,
he tells me, you know, I can tell you know
a lot about soccer, but and you know, I filled
up the rest of the sentence after the comma. I
imagine it wasn't but you know you're not good enough.
But the but comma was do you think you can
(30:42):
do play by play on the next game that we're
going to record, because we're really looking for a play
play announcement. I was twenty three at the time. I mean, sure,
I had nothing to lose, and I said, why not?
I had? Uh. This goes back to my formative years
(31:02):
of going to the stadium with the transistor radio blue
to my heir So every single match that I watched
in person, I listened to to play by play on radio.
The matches, I not seeing person. I listened to play
by Black, so I said, sure, why not? I did it?
I guess, uh, very who. I'm extremely always grateful, and
(31:26):
I name in In in every single interview. Hired me
within a week full time, and I guess the rest
is history. From the story that you're sitting there and
all the games you've listened to over the years, the
rhythms that accumulate in your mind, they become part of
your blood. When called on unexpectedly, they have to do it,
(31:46):
it all comes back. And that's that's a very cool thing.
I've heard you tell the story that the boss, although
he was impressed, maybe after lunch, she was a little
tired and one of the gold calls you gave. Actually,
actually that's up he was. He wasn't dozing off, but
you know, he just I guess what's listening. Let me
(32:08):
put it more elegantly, he was with its eyes closed,
listening to my rhythm and my play by play, which
I hadn't always I didn't have a voice then, I
mean broadcasting voice. I don't know what. I cannot remember
what he liked about that play by play, because obviously
it was the very first time I did play by play,
(32:29):
but when the goal was scored, he kind of like
paid attention, and I guess he liked it. I don't
know how in the world you do this, but I
think beginning in nineteen nine, and certainly when the World
Cup is in America, calling every single World Cup match,
(32:51):
the the mental, physical and vocal stamina that it takes
to do that, to bring energy to each game because
fans of those countries, that's an enormous thing for them.
So you cannot treat it like it's one of fifty
two games. You have to bring it every time. It's
to two games a day in the group stage, and
then over a three week period of time. It's exhausting.
(33:14):
How in the hell did you do that? Honestly, I
do not know. I mean, reflecting back and looking back,
it's like something, uh, I am not sure I could
do today. I'm going to try to do something similar
now in Qatar because the geography allows it for me
to call maybe two or even three games in one day.
(33:37):
But way back in the day, it's um I had
no choice. Really, Univision only had one play by play
announcer and they count on me to call every single game.
We broadcasted in I was the happiest man on earth.
But like you said, you have to add that that
(33:57):
way back in the day we had no internet, so
my preparation for the game it took so much longer,
so much time. Um, it would have been a piece
of cake today, you know, just going on the web
and searching life stories about the players pronunciations. Now you
know to find the right pronunciation of the player or
(34:18):
you have to do is just you do it and
you'll find either the player player say his name out
right or or you know some app that gives you
the right pronunciation. Back in the day, I had to
call the embassies and say, you know, hey, how do
you pronounce you know this these names from your Saudi
A area team. Um, you you called every embassy then
(34:42):
asked someone or the other end of the phone line
to pronounce the roster for you. Yes, for before I
did I call the book there. I mean, not every
single embassy, the ones that I had no idea how
to pronounce it. To try to get the right pronunciation,
because as you said, every game was very important, whether
they be from any Latin American countries, which was pretty
(35:06):
much our audience. But then you know, our audience grew
to be uh, non Spanish speakers that enjoy the way
we were calling the games. So I had I called
all the embassies in l A or in Washington where
then they helped me out. Then if I ended up
pronouncing it correctly, it's very hard when you have Greece
(35:28):
playing Bulgaria and you're doing play by play in Spanish.
You know, it's most likely I probably missed a couple
of pronunciations. But yeah, that was the research that I
had done, uh, you know, with clips from newspapers. I
went to all the news stands in l A that
had that had the newspapers for newspapers, I mean, um,
(35:53):
and that's the way you know, I did research. So
on top of that, I had to go every single
game and prepare every single I mean preparing one game
is time consuming enough. I had to prepare two or
three games beforehand for my day's work. Um. And on
top of that, you know, the uh, the emotions are
(36:13):
going into the games, and the exhaustion, you know, just
the mental and physical total it takes on you. It's
it was I don't know if I could have done
it at this age, So I probably let's attribute it
to age and the strength of my vocal course way
back in the day too, to having both off the tasks. Yeah,
(36:35):
you have to train like an athlete. You have to
warm up and cool down like an athlete, because it's
a very physical experience on the voice, not to mention, um,
you know, the mind and body to get that done. That,
that's that's just remarkable. I can't believe you're actually gonna
You're gonna go to it's a guitar in the next
World Cup and try to do something like that in
those desert conditions, you know, where it's going to be
(36:56):
cool at night. Good luck with that. I'll be listening.
I wish you were. I uh, we're gonna shoot for
at least two games that day. Now, you know, whenever
the drug comes out, we will see and we will
figure something. You talked about certain games standing out. I'm
thinking of a World Cup game in a in a
(37:18):
fairly recent World Cup in two thousand and eighteen. Your
home country of Argentina is struggling a bit um. You know,
Maradona's in the building keeping an eye. Everybody's criticizing the
team you're playing, Nigeria. It's one one. I believe Archittina
needs to win that game to go through, right it's
it's uh and and Marcos Rojo scores a goal late
(37:40):
in the game, which is I was exciting when that
happens because you suspect that is the golden score of
the game has been decided on that play, and that's
a very memorable reaction. I could hear. I could hear
the emotion after the after the long goal call. It
looked like you were struggling to keep it together there
on race. And I don't blame you for that. No,
(38:00):
it was the Landon Donovan go eight years after UH
with a caveat. This was even much more embarrassing, biggause
it's Argentina, two time world champion being knocked out in
the group stages with one player called Leo Messi wearing
the captain captain's arm band. Uh. That would have been
(38:24):
the biggest embarrassment, not that it wasn't getting knocked off
by France in the next round, but at least we
made it through the group face and we were minutes
away from the biggest embarrassment in modern Argentine and history.
So yeah, I was. It was feeling very much like
(38:47):
Landon's goal, but like a little bit more because it
had more of a of a personal even though I'm,
you know, a dual citizen um Argentina. For me in Saugers,
I mean Boga Juniors, and when whenever Argentina and Boka
Junior plays, I have a lot of emotion within me
(39:13):
and I was like, I can't believe this is happening.
And then I have to think about my audience and
what do they care? Are just watching the game. I
have to be as professional as I could be, and
when Rojo scored, I'm gonna tell you right, I didn't
know who the head scored. I had to wait the
(39:34):
god called was go, Go, Go go, because the the
TV cameras were on the players celebration and the replay
didn't come up on the screen. So I was just
waiting for the real just stalling until you see a
replay to see that it was. I'm not going to lie.
I was stole. I looked at at my color commentator,
(39:55):
who happened to be a former Argentina national team captain,
and and asking him in that very Italian Argentine gesture
with my hands, who was it? And he pointed to
a wrong player. Uh nobody knew because you know he came.
It was across from almost the right corner kick flag,
(40:18):
two way to the far post. Rojo was playing left
fallback and I don't know where in the head how
he appeared inside the box and just hit it. Uh So,
until I saw who it was, I didn't say the
name of the player. Not not that a matter that
I'm not not for Argentines. Anyways, you know we scored
(40:42):
whoever score was good enough, but I stole until I
saw it's uh that the replay of him scoring the goal,
because actually I was this was, I believe say Petersburg.
This was I was very very high up talking about
the best seat in the house that necessarily was not
the best scene in the house. I was pretty in
one of the few last rows of the stadium, so
(41:05):
my vantage point, even though, was panoramic. When the ball
was crossed with twenty two players inside the box or
twenty humblers inside the box, and with the emotion going, yeah,
I have no regrets from saying I stole him till
I saw who the heck it was. That We've all
done that, We've all done that. Yeah, you talked about
(41:25):
the emotion and the passion of soccer and Argentina. I've
been in Buenos Areas for the super classical the Boca
Juniors and their art ravels river plate at the bomban
Ea insanity. Advised not to go there but to see,
you know, the fans climbing this twenty ft chain link
fence with the famous flares in their hands, burning it.
(41:47):
There's really nothing like that. English soccer fans say, wait
a minute, we are just as passionate as any Latin
American soccer fans. They might say the same thing in
Italy or Germany. What differentiates the Latin football fan from
English speaking or European soccer fans or Americans. Um, I
(42:08):
think we take it to the next level. I think
it's part of the culture of phenomenon where when you
have a super classical Boca River, Uh, there's nobody talks
about anything else that is happening around them other than
that game. Uh, it's insane. It's just like you know,
(42:30):
we have so we we live so passionately about soccer
and obviously the rivalries not of Bocca River, but all
the other teams that had rivalry rivalries within themselves that
I don't know what it is, and unfortunately it has
gotten out of hand lately with violence. Now away fans
can't attend the games and big games like which is
(42:54):
it's kind of sad, it's it's twofold one. It's it's
better for the home team because they get to so
more tickets to their fans, but then you know, the
ambiance is not is not the same. Um So, I
don't know what it is. It's just I think it's
just a cultural phenomenon. It is a shame that that's
part of soccer. Lord though, and raises the loyal visiting
(43:15):
supporters following their team into enemy territory and setting up
the little camp in the corner of the stadium, whether
that's in England or or South America or anywhere, and
in Mexico it's become a problem. Is obviously there's been
violence in recent games. They're in a big way. That's
that's marred things and um, I hope that doesn't continue,
because there's something is lost when you don't have that
(43:37):
that two fans in the stadium totally agree, totally agree.
But you know, we we make soccer our religion, and
unfortunately not only in Argentina, but Mexico and many other
parts of the world. The most unruly fans are fans
of the teams, but they, unfortunately they are duct conducting
(44:01):
other businesses inside the stadium. They are you know, they're
they're they're control freaks of many other aspects of everything
that is going on in the stance, which not necessarily
is good. Many people listening are fans of the Premier League.
You've called I believe is it it's nine or ten
seasons of the Premier League now on telemundosy you're calling
(44:22):
them from the great venues in in the sport in England,
Old Trafford and um Stanford Bridge. I'm a Chelsea support
Etty had Wimbley from long distance. I would imagine most
of the time for the predominant UH pattern has been
over those ten years calling them from a long distance away.
What is it about the Premier League that that, in
your views, sets it apart or you have that you
(44:44):
also developed a passion for that? Um No, I think
it's one of the most watchable leagues in the world.
They have done everything so good to engage the audience.
First of all, UH, there are good teams, there are
maybe occre teams and they're bad teams, but all of
(45:05):
them play with the pace and an intensity from minute
one to minute nine really really awesome. So maybe you
don't have the tacticle wizardry of Pepuariola on Watford, but
you know, it's NonStop action when Watford plays, you sit
(45:25):
on the TV and there's no time wasting. There's respect
for the referee. The pitches are in mcgillet conditions, which
obviously makes it better for for the good players and
and even the bad players. So I think the Premier
League UH has an a terrific job first of all,
of making the players understand that there is a worldwide
(45:50):
product that there is a respect for the referees. This
is isn't seen any other league in the world. Um,
even though they might not like a call. You don't
have a player or five players surrounding the referee wasting
the restart of the game for five minutes. You don't
have players faking injuries, you don't have players trying to
(46:15):
lure the referee to calling things that did not happen.
So you have NonStop action for a minute one until
the end of the until the final whistle, and that
is that makes her a very good TV product. And
then on top of that, you know the best players
in the world or most of the best players in
the world playing in the top teams. That's the perfect combination.
(46:40):
I mean, Liverpool is a joy to watch, Cities a
joy to watch, Chelsea is a joy to watch. Uh,
you know from time to time, Manchester United, Tottenham, Uh,
they're very good, very solid. So I think the Premier
League has to be commended. And obviously what the world
based in the TV right fees talks for itself, it's
(47:03):
probably the best sellable product for a worldwide television audience,
regardless whether you're a fan of a team or not.
If you put two games at the same time, you
don't even know which are the teams, just put you know,
white jerseys and black jerseys on both games and put
(47:24):
people in front of the TV. You will get glued
on the Premier League action against any other league. Your son, Nico,
second generation soccer commentator about English and Spanish. I think
he's still with University on which is the competition of Telemune.
He's done, he's uh, he's with CBS, He's with Paramount Plus.
(47:45):
So he left University and he's he's doing English on
on CBS. Okay, Yes, he hosts um every Champions League fixture.
He has the Golasso Show on Paramount Plus uh from London,
so he gets to flight to London every time there's
a competition. And he's one of the main hosts. He
(48:08):
started being the host by himself and now they have
like three or four other people are with him. So
he's very happy at a partiment, having having gone through
school at the Univision, which he was very grateful. So
you listen to his broadcasts, you listen as an experienced
(48:29):
legend in the business, you listen as a father, and
how are those how are those critiques and so they
are they brutally honest? Are they delivered lovingly? What's the style?
Both both? I can't hide the fact that I mean,
if he says something that I think it's out of qua.
I mean, we live in a in a world today
(48:51):
where you have to be extremely careful on anything that
you say. You're right on social media at center and
he's on a national TV platform. He has his own voice.
Obviously I will not tell him. I will never tell
him what to say. Uh. He's a very well prepared
young man, I mean young man being twenty eighth. You know,
(49:13):
he even though he's twenty eight, he's still my you know,
my son to me. So I you know, sometimes he
asks or my opinion and I will give it to him.
And some other times when I think he could have
done better, I tell him so. And actually works both
(49:36):
ways around both ways, uh, because sometimes he would tell me,
why did you say that? I said, you're right, you know,
I don't know why I say. Well that that shows
he's feeling more confident if he's going to dare to
critique what what you're doing. You know, you sit and
reflect the support that you have been around your whole life.
You have a dream job. You have had an enormous
(49:59):
influence on the sport, both for English speaking in Spanish
speaking people, of course, in the growth of the game.
Here your your adopted country. You're in the Hall of fame.
You've been in movies and the Simpsons and Letterman and
commercials and it's about much more than than one word
said in an extended way. But but that has been
(50:22):
a part of it. And are you do you do
you accept that you enjoy that Now that we've we've
reached a kind of a wise old age that you're
about much more than one word, but that one word
has been important with the way you say it. Well,
I'm going to throw a comparison, which everyone will know
it is Al Michael's just do you believe in miracles? Now,
(50:44):
he's one of the most prepared broadcasters or any sport
that he does in this business. We all looked up
to him for so many years. I still enjoy listening
to him and too good to all the good American broadcasters. Yes,
I have gained fame, fame by my go goals, but
(51:07):
I do appreciate the fact, like I said, you know
about the customs agent that said I listened to your goal,
And I appreciate when um, people say that, you know
I I know a lot about the game. I'm not
your regular typical play by play announcer that just calls
some players names. I have my own opinion of how
(51:31):
the game is being played, and lots of people in
my audience recognize that. Um. So yes, I you know,
I get it. I became famous and and all of
these things happened because of the notoriety that my work
received because of my go call. But beyond that, God call.
(51:55):
There's also um an understanding from the audience and from
the soccer world that I'm not just you know, a
guy with the gaming, that there's a guy behind the
microphone that knows the game. That's a mic drop, that
that's a that's a beautiful way to end. I am
(52:16):
just so grateful to Andrea's for sharing his time and
his great stories. We recorded this just before the US
men's national team officially qualified for the World Cup this
winner in Qatar. But I'll tell you Andres has an
optimistic outlook for the young American team. He thinks he
will handle World Cup pressure just fine after navigating the
tough qualifying in the Conka Calf Federation, and he's very
(52:39):
positive on the future of the U S program when
we co host the World Cup with Mexico and Canada.
Cannot wait for that. As always, thankful to my co
executive producer Jennifer Dempster and to Jason Whitehelt for his
ederny skills, and to you for listening and offering feedback.
We'll leave you with one grace encore to get you
(53:02):
fired up. S
Behind his passion, there is tireless preparation. Andreas Kentor has
spent a lifetime practicing and perfecting the art of play
by play in soccer. His instincts and feel for the
game create the famous flow to describe action with the
perfect words, all leading up to the one word shouted
(00:22):
loud and long that has made Andre's a legend in
two languages. Go the imitation is flattery, but I'm not
even gonna try. Andres is the lead match caller at
Telemundo and cable network UNI Verso. After starting at Union,
he also works for NBC and on the radio network
(00:42):
that he owns, Football de Primeira. I've been a huge
soccer fan since the eighties, so this was a real
treat to hear a great storyteller talk about his early years,
his path to stardom, his favorite calls, and swap some
ideas about what makes play by play special. Here's the
great Andre's cantor and what's behind is often imitated, never matched.
(01:07):
Calls undress cancer, You're a legend. You should be resting
your voice, but instead you're talking to us, and I'm
grateful for that. Looking forward to this. Thank you, Chris
It's a pleasure to be on your podcast. Who You
Got You Got Me? My voice is very strong debate,
so we can go out of it perfect perfect. I'll
(01:27):
try to match your strength of voice. We could go
a lot of places, and we will in this conversation.
But I want to begin on a cold night in
the capital of South Africa, in Pretoria in two thousand
and ten. What is going to be a near disastrous
evening for US soccer. All they need is a victory
over Algeria to go through. If they don't get the victory,
they are eliminated in the group stage. You're calling the
(01:48):
game on radio, which requires an intensity that's unlike television
or anything else. Probably and Landed Dottaman scores in the
dying minutes, and it's a goal that every single US
Soccer fan will from member forever and for you, it
ranks right up there as well, doesn't it. This is
the intensity of the entire game leading up to Donovan's goal.
(02:09):
Most definitely it is one of my top three goals
of of my broadcasting career. It was a long night.
We got there very very early, when there was still
sunlight in the state in the city. Uh, he got
very very cold as the game progressed, and I had
(02:30):
as my color commentators on one side former US Soccer
international and on the other side Bot I mean Lutinovich,
his coach in the World Cup. So this was an
all American if you will, broadcast, And obviously we did
not anticipate that this could happen, that I could go
(02:52):
to the very last minute. I, as you clearly said,
I go at a different pace when I broadcast, do
and do play by play on radio than I do
want TV because I have to be that much more
descriptive of the action to my audience. And I put
a little bit more energy into it, and I was
(03:15):
really gassed out. I had no energy left in the
tank when that counterattack after the Algeria corner kick came,
which happened to be very close for them to score
and and win the game. And as the play progresses,
I'm just giving it all out because I knew that
(03:36):
was the last player of the game. Lucky here, cowful
(04:27):
pul the I can from you, they go to what
I can sell yourself. Can I keep it? I don't know.
It's one of the things that you know very well broadcasters,
(04:50):
unless you have catchphrases or or certain things that you
can have prepared before your broadcast. This is all spontaneous
and Landon scored the goal, and it was just not
only was it a phenomenal goal itself, but what it meant,
like you said, for your soccer to go through to
(05:13):
the next round. So I gave it my best and
my all, and incredibly enough, um, you know, this was
on radio and it's still recognized as one of the
best cause of my thirty plus year career. And you
almost passed out effort. You say after about the third
time that you did the extended gold call, there was
(05:35):
no more air in the UM. I really have that
memory of It doesn't happen very often because obviously you're
in control of of your emotion, or you try to
be in control of your emotions when you mix emotions
and and soccer player. I played my gave the way
(05:57):
I feel for the game and the way I feel
for the t as I quote unquote root for even
though I'm not supposed to root for anybody, I will.
I always say that I would be a hypocrite if
I don't want the US. If I say that I
don't want the US to do well and Ardina to
the World of the World Cups. So it meant so much.
(06:19):
I have the memory of just like, oh, you know,
I was like, I don't know if I was gone
for two seconds or not, in between breaths um, but
it was definitely it was the most. It was the
goal that exhausted me the most in my career, for sure.
(06:41):
I was sitting with Alexei laalas are our mutual colleague.
You're with him at NBC. We were prepared to deliver
a very grim post match report. It would have been
disasters for the US not to go through to the
knockout round. It was going to happen. We were preparing
the last rites for the team, probably the coach and
(07:02):
that group of players together and then everything changes in
a few seconds and alexeis in tears. As a former
US captain, he gets very emotionally involved. I love that
about him. I was choked up. It was all we
could do to deliver the postgame report to a very
excited group of American soccer fans who felt like they
had escaped death literally, and it was that was that grim,
(07:26):
and then it was that euphoric, and I know you
felt that way afterwards to it as cold as is,
as exhausted as you are. That's why we do what
we do, is to be able to capture that kind
of a moment exactly. I mean, those are the the
one moment in sports history that all of us, starting
with the players, athletes, coaches, et cetera, will remember. And
(07:48):
I always say, Chris, that we are blessed or in
my case, scient blessed to be part of history. I
have the best seat in the house, um, and all
I have to sit there and translate my emotions into
my audience. And obviously I had a thirty minute bostgame
show on radio after the match, and when I saw
(08:10):
that the players were out, um, towards that far corner
opposite my booth, singing and celebrating with the American fans
UH with you know, after all, you know, we were
in South Africa. It is the other, you know, side
of the world. It was very far away from home,
(08:32):
and they were I don't know, help me if you can,
but I believe they were at least five thousand US
American fans with flags with you know, everyone wearing the
UH national team jersey be underneath their their within their clothing,
some of them on top of them. Um, and I
(08:52):
choked up. I really choked up. And I don't know
if I helped uh my cry or they cried a
little bit. I definitely if I listened back to the
post game, I am sure I choked up several times
during that period because that was one of the most
emotional moments of of you know, US soccer history. Goals
(09:17):
in soccer can happen lots of different ways. That can
happen suddenly where you can't see it coming. They can
happen up a set piece, that can happen in open
play the way this goal that we're talking about happened,
where Tim Howard makes a beautiful outlet and you sit there,
you said, the best seat in the house, very high
vantage point. We're able to see the flow of the
spacing in a way differently than TV cameras can see it.
(09:39):
So it's our responsibility to help convey what we see
that maybe the TV audience isn't yet aware of. Your
call was beautiful leading up, of course to the the
famous goal call. Was the rhythm of it. You anticipated
what would happen. I compare a play like that to
a kickoff return in American football, where the ball settles
in and you, from a high vantage point, can see
(09:59):
the block, can see the space, You're aware of their
returner's speed and what could happen. And that's so much
fun to be able to anticipate something then comes to happen.
You did that beautifully, because that's part of it, especially
in radio where people are not seeing what's going on,
and the art of it to build the excitement so
that the goal call has even more impact at the end.
(10:21):
You've had years of experience doing that, but still when
it's executed like that, it's it's the thing of beauty. Yeah,
it's the perfect combination. First of all, Uh, it's it
makes a whole lot of difference being on site than
calling the games off. Two Usually during the year, let's
say I go an average of two hundred games. Uh,
(10:45):
probably on a r done from the TV studios, so
all I get is whatever everyone else gets at home,
and have another advantage point like I did in this
particular play. Um, I just don't want to about what
I did. I hate talking in the first person, but
I do. I am amazed that I have the clarity
(11:08):
of mind to choose my words and build up to
the play because, as I said, I was totally exhausted. Um,
I wanted the play to finish in the US goal.
And it's it's very hard also to pick the right
words because if you go one world too long, the
(11:29):
play will beat you. So if I'm saying something else
and the ball gets crossed while I'm in the middle
of a sentence, uh, I as a broadcaster, I'm in big,
big trouble. So you have to choose your words, your
pace at the right time, not to you know, stumble
on on your play by player on yourself. So I
(11:51):
was very lucky that I had the clarity of mind. Um.
And I'm gonna tell you something that happened at a
lot right after that World Cup. Um. You know, besides
all the accolades I had in my career, which I
am blessed and grateful for, the most gratifying thing happened
(12:15):
after coming back from South Africa, people telling me I
stopped the car to listen to that goal. I listened.
I mean that goal you made us cry. Um. When
I came back from that World Up, when the customs
agent told me, I listened to your broadcast on radio,
(12:35):
when we all know that World Cups are made for
TV events, even though not everyone can watch. But as
soon as I set footback in our country in Miami
and the customers agent said, I listened to your call
and radio that was the Landon Donovan was awesome, I said, WHOA,
I think it probably was a good call. That's an understatement.
(13:01):
How does it make you feel undressed when people say,
years later, we listen back and something you've said on
television or radio gives me chills, still makes me emotional
that that particular goal is one that US soccer fans
will return to when they don't feel so good about
the state of the national team, when they need a
pep talk, they'll they'll look back at goals like that
(13:23):
and and the short list of others, and they still
get the same emotional reactions, because, of course, what happened
the play is the main thing, but the soundtrack that
you're laying on top of it is also a big
part of the emotions that they feel, and emotions that
last forever. You've You've been told that I'm sure about
all kinds of goals from all kinds of national teams
(13:43):
and leagues you covered. Does that ever get old? Or
is it Is it still a thrill to hear that. No,
it's it's a thrill because it may it makes you
feel good about the job that you're doing, that you're
conveying while you're trying that it legitimizes what I tried
to convey on my broadcast, either on radio or on television.
(14:07):
That first of all, I you know, my goal is
to have the people that watch or that listened to
my broadcast being entertained, informed, and also I want them
on the edge of their seats from minute one to
minute ninety. And that is a testament that you know,
(14:29):
when people recognize so many years removed from from that day,
the emotions of that go call. This happened a few
weeks ago. I found out that I was London's Donovan's
birthday because I go and you know, I wake up
in the morning and my Twitter feed is full of
(14:51):
which people wishing London Happy birthday, replaying my go call.
Somebody had the very good idea mounting my audio play
by play because I was calling from my radio company
from with video. They matched it exactly, so they had
(15:11):
you know, the on on my feet all all the
goal the gold goals from all the angles with my
play by play on it, so it's it's it's definitely
very nice when when people recognize that, you know, I
made them feel something other than just you know, telling
them something they did not know technically. I've heard you
(15:34):
talk about another goal involving the US national player on
the women's side, Carly Lloyd against Japan um a very
memorable game for US soccer fans because it was a
tense build up to the game and then the US
just dominated from the start. But to complete Carly Lloyd's
hat trick, I think it was only the sixteenth minute
of the game. It was already for nothing. But her
third goal was an unbelievable strike from the stripe of
(15:58):
midfield over the head of the happen He's keeper who
stumbles back where gets her fingertips on the ball. It
carromes off the goal post and goes in. I've watched
that that replay many many times. Your call, there's a goal.
No one could expect your analysts in the middle of
doing something because Japan has the ball in the US
and all of a sudden you need to take it
(16:18):
back because she's launched from midfield in a very unlikely goal.
And that was a memorable moment too, even though it
wasn't a maybe tension in the game because the score
was already three nail. Just the feet of a goal
from from midfield in a World Cup final, yeah Nilson,
(17:19):
so thick telling live he got three little take and kings.
I'll tell you to three different stories about that goal,
because there's a story behind every important goal, I guess
and people just you know, stay are watching at home
(17:40):
and think, Okay, this guy is just yelling, go well,
I'm gonna tell you a couple of stories. One, you
just said it the advantage point that you have been
on the pitch. If I would have been on the
calling the game off. Two, my color commentator would have
gone on to say and finish whatever he was saying,
because I could have not anticipated that Carly was going
(18:04):
to hit the ball from midfield because I saw the
goalkeeper way off her line. So as soon as Carly
got the ball and did this and for your for
this podcast audience and raising my head up to the air,
she's uh. In one second, she had the three six
view of where she was, where the ball was, where
(18:28):
the Japanese goalkeeper was, and where the goal was and
she hit it, So if I would have been in
the studio, there's not a chance that I would have
called the goal the way I called it. That is
one part of the story. The second part of the
story is UH. The night before I was in Santiago,
(18:48):
Chile calling for my radio company the final of the
World Cup that went into extra time and penalties. I
had two and a half hours to get from the
stadium to the airport to catch a flight UH from
Santiago to Dallas and then onwards to Vancouver. When the
(19:11):
game went into extra time, I said, what is it
am I going to do here? I mean, I gotta
be in Vancouver the next morning. UM. I called the
you know the obviously the extra time, I called the penalties.
As soon as Alexey Sanchez hit the last penalty for Chile,
I took off my headsets rushed to the airport. I
(19:31):
was lucky. I was sad that Argentina had lost, UM
and I was happy that Chile had won because everyone
stayed inside the stadium and there was no traffic to
get out. If Chila would have lost, no one would
have stayed for the ceremony and I would have been
stuck and I would have been fired from Telemundo as
(19:53):
easy as that. So anyways, I get to Vancouver, uh,
pretty much with you know the sleep that you can
catch on an airplane. I get inside the stadium and
the first person I see is ground wall. We all
know when it is. What are you doing here? I
saw you yesterday in Chile. Yeah, that was yesterday. So anyways,
(20:16):
just to go back to the goal itself, as soon
as I saw Carly the I mean get the ball.
I knew she had a chance because I I was.
I was obviously very aware of where the Japanese goalkeeper was.
And I uh, I always say, regardless, I was, you know,
(20:38):
probably the game clincher sixteen minutes into the final. Regardless
of that. Scoring first of all, scoring a hat trick
in the World Cup final and scoring a goal from
midfield has to be one of the greatest goals in
soccer history, regardless of gender period. I have no doubts
in my mind. Uh, that was m extra they go
(21:01):
by Carly, an extravy game by Cardi having scored three.
So that's the story of that goal. Well, you you
summed up the challenge and the thrill of doing this
you have to describe what you see in the moment
using the words perfectly, but then you have to frame
it right away, and you did, I think, say, one
of the greatest goals you've ever seen. You had the
(21:23):
perspective in the moment, which is part of the job
to frame it instantly, and since it's not just the
long goal. I think it was thirty eight seconds or
something like that that you said goal after that one,
and it was justified. But then to come back and
frame it perfectly afterwards. I've taken a lot from watching
people like yourself and the legends of calling soccer and
trying to use some of those techniques in calling American football,
(21:47):
where it's easy to shout touchdown, but then you have
to hopefully come up with the line right after that
that frames what that six points means. Does it clinch
the game, does it announce that they're not dead, that
they're coming back. You hopefully have something come to mind
too punctuate after the goal, and you did that in
(22:08):
that case beautifully. I want to get to some other
calls eventually another games, but let's go way back to
the beginning. You grew up in Argentina, obviously, soccer is
a religion. I know you. You played soccer as a
kid everywhere you could, every possible location, every free minute.
You weren't going to be the next Maradona, but you
had clearly a passion for the game as a kid,
(22:28):
and pretty early on figured out that doing something with
my life that's associated with football would be would be fantastic. Yeah.
As I grew up in Argentina, every kid played football soccer.
Even though there were other sports around there weren't as
popular as they are now, so everyone played um soccer
(22:52):
in the streets in our social gloves. There was no
FIFA games there or no electronic games. I mean, I
will tell you how old I am by saying that
we were all amazed when somebody got the remember the
attari tennis thing that bumped around That was like yeah, yeah,
that was a crazy way back in my days. Anyway, So, uh,
(23:15):
you know, when I moved to the US, I played
in high school. Um, then I went to USC and
played their USC wasn't wasn't affiliated to the n C
Double A in their soccer program back in my days,
so it was all club games. And I always lie
and say that my career ended there because MLS didn't exist,
(23:38):
so I had nowhere to go, which is not true
because I wouldn't have made it anyways. But I always
knew that I wanted to be around the game for sure,
and I'm doing the next best thing to playing, which
is broadcasting the games that I love so much. So
growing up in Argentina, there's a legendary Argentine broadcaster Jose
Maria Munios, who broadcast the World Cups. He was the
(24:01):
voice on top of Maradona's goals in Mexico that the
hand of God and then the brilliant go after that
where he weaved through the entire England team scored it.
And so you get to listen to a legend and
people think you invented the long goal extended call that
that that's You're very quick to point out that you
may have popularized it or perfected it, but you didn't
(24:21):
invent it. That that was the style of the broadcasters
in Latin America. Now throughout Latin America, not only the
audience has to understand that, what's the radio figure? He
was larger than life. UH. He had the very first
Pan regional UH soccer show that was heard throughout Latin America,
(24:46):
from Colombia all the way down too to Argentina, and
he pretty much was the only UH play by play
announcer all the time. There were others before him. And
now you know, if you go on the weekend in
Argentina or you know you do tune in, there are
(25:07):
ten radio stations broadcasting the same game. Before it was
only him, so we all listened to him, or him
and a couple of oars. But we he had of
the share of the audience, so we all grew up
listening to him, whether we liked him or not. So
obviously it was an era where people would go to
(25:28):
the stadium with the old transistor radio blue to their ears,
before headphones and before everything else. So we went to
the stadiums listening to his play by play, and obviously
there was no delay on radio, so you know, it
was very, very instructive in the way that you watched
the game as a fan, but you were also listening
(25:51):
to his commentary, commentators, his commentary, his play by play.
So that is how I grew up watching and listening
to soccer. So you come to the United States, you
take in English classes. I read in Argentina, but that
doesn't necessarily prepare you for having to speak colloquial English
(26:11):
in America. And you said, like a lot of immigrant kids,
your teenagers are tough, yere to to to relocate to
another country. I moved around to different schools during that time.
I know how tough that was. And that was within
the United States, changing cultures and languages. You've said it
wasn't easy for you making that transition to America. It
was extremely hard. Um not. As a matter of fact,
(26:35):
I got my break working for Univision in February of
and I was having one of those crisis of wanting
to go back home because I I mean, even though
I was older than I was when I when I
got here. Um it was ten years later. After I
(26:58):
got here. Um, I was still missing Argentina and wanted
to be involved in soccer and found that, you know,
I had to go back to Argentina to do so.
But when my family moved here, as you said, I
thought I did speak to English. The English that was
taught in my school in Argentina was British English. So
(27:23):
I referred to you know, everyone wearing trousers and not
pants and and you name it. But really I didn't
speak a word. I mean, it was I thought I knew.
I mean, I had very good grades in my English classes,
but could not speak a word. So it took me
a while. Um, obviously to this day, even though I
(27:46):
was sixteen and to seventeen when I moved, even to
this day, I had a heavy accent. My brother, which
is four years younger than I am uh and obviously
moved with us. I mean, you couldn't for one second
that he's not an American. He speaks with no answer
at all. So it was very, very tough, very tough
because it was a different language, it was a different
(28:09):
cultural together. And obviously I was a big, big soccer
fan already and there was no Soger in this country
at the time, so it was tremendously hard being a
teenager in those days in my new home. It's impressive
to get into USC. You wanted to be a print journalist.
You're learning to write in your second language. And then
(28:31):
just out of USC you mentioned the precursor to university
on the Spanish International Network. You get an audition that
you've never called soccer matches, but that's the assignment. You
go in there and and tell that story, because I
don't know of anyone else that goes in for a
broadcast audition completely inexperienced, and they tell them, guess what,
(28:52):
it's more than an audition. This is going to actually
be on television your very first time. I mean, that's
that's pretty scary. And yet somehow pulled the undressing got
the job. Well. I was while I was in school
at USC, I was already working as a correspondent for
a big publishing company in Argentina that published five different magazines,
one of which was like Sports Illustrated, So I covered
(29:15):
lots of boxing, a few uh friendly matches that were played.
Actually there weren't a few. There were quite many back
in the day in Los Angeles, so I coincided with
lots of uh you know, Hispanic press. One day, I
get a call and they tell me they want to
audition me for a job at a univision And all
(29:38):
they tell me is bring two coats, two shirts, and
two ties and see you at the studios. Okay, fine.
So I get there and I asked the guy who
eventually ended up being my boss, so what's the audition about? Says, Oh,
we're going to record two games one of them were
(29:59):
there Sunday. The other one will air the next the
following Sunday. And I want you to call a commentary
the first match. Okay, that shouldn't be that much of
a problem. I was amazed by. I was looking around
and said it still. You know how big it was
the camera to light me. I had never been inside
the TVs two in my life. I do call commentary.
(30:21):
We break for lunch. Um in the middle of lunch,
he tells me, you know, I can tell you know
a lot about soccer, but and you know, I filled
up the rest of the sentence after the comma. I
imagine it wasn't but you know you're not good enough.
But the but comma was do you think you can
(30:42):
do play by play on the next game that we're
going to record, because we're really looking for a play
play announcement. I was twenty three at the time. I mean, sure,
I had nothing to lose, and I said, why not?
I had? Uh. This goes back to my formative years
(31:02):
of going to the stadium with the transistor radio blue
to my heir So every single match that I watched
in person, I listened to to play by play on radio.
The matches, I not seeing person. I listened to play
by Black, so I said, sure, why not? I did it?
I guess, uh, very who. I'm extremely always grateful, and
(31:26):
I name in In in every single interview. Hired me
within a week full time, and I guess the rest
is history. From the story that you're sitting there and
all the games you've listened to over the years, the
rhythms that accumulate in your mind, they become part of
your blood. When called on unexpectedly, they have to do it,
(31:46):
it all comes back. And that's that's a very cool thing.
I've heard you tell the story that the boss, although
he was impressed, maybe after lunch, she was a little
tired and one of the gold calls you gave. Actually,
actually that's up he was. He wasn't dozing off, but
you know, he just I guess what's listening. Let me
(32:08):
put it more elegantly, he was with its eyes closed,
listening to my rhythm and my play by play, which
I hadn't always I didn't have a voice then, I
mean broadcasting voice. I don't know what. I cannot remember
what he liked about that play by play, because obviously
it was the very first time I did play by play,
(32:29):
but when the goal was scored, he kind of like
paid attention, and I guess he liked it. I don't
know how in the world you do this, but I
think beginning in nineteen nine, and certainly when the World
Cup is in America, calling every single World Cup match,
(32:51):
the the mental, physical and vocal stamina that it takes
to do that, to bring energy to each game because
fans of those countries, that's an enormous thing for them.
So you cannot treat it like it's one of fifty
two games. You have to bring it every time. It's
to two games a day in the group stage, and
then over a three week period of time. It's exhausting.
(33:14):
How in the hell did you do that? Honestly, I
do not know. I mean, reflecting back and looking back,
it's like something, uh, I am not sure I could
do today. I'm going to try to do something similar
now in Qatar because the geography allows it for me
to call maybe two or even three games in one day.
(33:37):
But way back in the day, it's um I had
no choice. Really, Univision only had one play by play
announcer and they count on me to call every single game.
We broadcasted in I was the happiest man on earth.
But like you said, you have to add that that
(33:57):
way back in the day we had no internet, so
my preparation for the game it took so much longer,
so much time. Um, it would have been a piece
of cake today, you know, just going on the web
and searching life stories about the players pronunciations. Now you
know to find the right pronunciation of the player or
(34:18):
you have to do is just you do it and
you'll find either the player player say his name out
right or or you know some app that gives you
the right pronunciation. Back in the day, I had to
call the embassies and say, you know, hey, how do
you pronounce you know this these names from your Saudi
A area team. Um, you you called every embassy then
(34:42):
asked someone or the other end of the phone line
to pronounce the roster for you. Yes, for before I
did I call the book there. I mean, not every
single embassy, the ones that I had no idea how
to pronounce it. To try to get the right pronunciation,
because as you said, every game was very important, whether
they be from any Latin American countries, which was pretty
(35:06):
much our audience. But then you know, our audience grew
to be uh, non Spanish speakers that enjoy the way
we were calling the games. So I had I called
all the embassies in l A or in Washington where
then they helped me out. Then if I ended up
pronouncing it correctly, it's very hard when you have Greece
(35:28):
playing Bulgaria and you're doing play by play in Spanish.
You know, it's most likely I probably missed a couple
of pronunciations. But yeah, that was the research that I
had done, uh, you know, with clips from newspapers. I
went to all the news stands in l A that
had that had the newspapers for newspapers, I mean, um,
(35:53):
and that's the way you know, I did research. So
on top of that, I had to go every single
game and prepare every single I mean preparing one game
is time consuming enough. I had to prepare two or
three games beforehand for my day's work. Um. And on
top of that, you know, the uh, the emotions are
(36:13):
going into the games, and the exhaustion, you know, just
the mental and physical total it takes on you. It's
it was I don't know if I could have done
it at this age, So I probably let's attribute it
to age and the strength of my vocal course way
back in the day too, to having both off the tasks. Yeah,
(36:35):
you have to train like an athlete. You have to
warm up and cool down like an athlete, because it's
a very physical experience on the voice, not to mention, um,
you know, the mind and body to get that done. That,
that's that's just remarkable. I can't believe you're actually gonna
You're gonna go to it's a guitar in the next
World Cup and try to do something like that in
those desert conditions, you know, where it's going to be
(36:56):
cool at night. Good luck with that. I'll be listening.
I wish you were. I uh, we're gonna shoot for
at least two games that day. Now, you know, whenever
the drug comes out, we will see and we will
figure something. You talked about certain games standing out. I'm
thinking of a World Cup game in a in a
(37:18):
fairly recent World Cup in two thousand and eighteen. Your
home country of Argentina is struggling a bit um. You know,
Maradona's in the building keeping an eye. Everybody's criticizing the
team you're playing, Nigeria. It's one one. I believe Archittina
needs to win that game to go through, right it's
it's uh and and Marcos Rojo scores a goal late
(37:40):
in the game, which is I was exciting when that
happens because you suspect that is the golden score of
the game has been decided on that play, and that's
a very memorable reaction. I could hear. I could hear
the emotion after the after the long goal call. It
looked like you were struggling to keep it together there
on race. And I don't blame you for that. No,
(38:00):
it was the Landon Donovan go eight years after UH
with a caveat. This was even much more embarrassing, biggause
it's Argentina, two time world champion being knocked out in
the group stages with one player called Leo Messi wearing
the captain captain's arm band. Uh. That would have been
(38:24):
the biggest embarrassment, not that it wasn't getting knocked off
by France in the next round, but at least we
made it through the group face and we were minutes
away from the biggest embarrassment in modern Argentine and history.
So yeah, I was. It was feeling very much like
(38:47):
Landon's goal, but like a little bit more because it
had more of a of a personal even though I'm,
you know, a dual citizen um Argentina. For me in Saugers,
I mean Boga Juniors, and when whenever Argentina and Boka
Junior plays, I have a lot of emotion within me
(39:13):
and I was like, I can't believe this is happening.
And then I have to think about my audience and
what do they care? Are just watching the game. I
have to be as professional as I could be, and
when Rojo scored, I'm gonna tell you right, I didn't
know who the head scored. I had to wait the
(39:34):
god called was go, Go, Go go, because the the
TV cameras were on the players celebration and the replay
didn't come up on the screen. So I was just
waiting for the real just stalling until you see a
replay to see that it was. I'm not going to lie.
I was stole. I looked at at my color commentator,
(39:55):
who happened to be a former Argentina national team captain,
and and asking him in that very Italian Argentine gesture
with my hands, who was it? And he pointed to
a wrong player. Uh nobody knew because you know he came.
It was across from almost the right corner kick flag,
(40:18):
two way to the far post. Rojo was playing left
fallback and I don't know where in the head how
he appeared inside the box and just hit it. Uh So,
until I saw who it was, I didn't say the
name of the player. Not not that a matter that
I'm not not for Argentines. Anyways, you know we scored
(40:42):
whoever score was good enough, but I stole until I
saw it's uh that the replay of him scoring the goal,
because actually I was this was, I believe say Petersburg.
This was I was very very high up talking about
the best seat in the house that necessarily was not
the best scene in the house. I was pretty in
one of the few last rows of the stadium, so
(41:05):
my vantage point, even though, was panoramic. When the ball
was crossed with twenty two players inside the box or
twenty humblers inside the box, and with the emotion going, yeah,
I have no regrets from saying I stole him till
I saw who the heck it was. That We've all
done that, We've all done that. Yeah, you talked about
(41:25):
the emotion and the passion of soccer and Argentina. I've
been in Buenos Areas for the super classical the Boca
Juniors and their art ravels river plate at the bomban
Ea insanity. Advised not to go there but to see,
you know, the fans climbing this twenty ft chain link
fence with the famous flares in their hands, burning it.
(41:47):
There's really nothing like that. English soccer fans say, wait
a minute, we are just as passionate as any Latin
American soccer fans. They might say the same thing in
Italy or Germany. What differentiates the Latin football fan from
English speaking or European soccer fans or Americans. Um, I
(42:08):
think we take it to the next level. I think
it's part of the culture of phenomenon where when you
have a super classical Boca River, Uh, there's nobody talks
about anything else that is happening around them other than
that game. Uh, it's insane. It's just like you know,
(42:30):
we have so we we live so passionately about soccer
and obviously the rivalries not of Bocca River, but all
the other teams that had rivalry rivalries within themselves that
I don't know what it is, and unfortunately it has
gotten out of hand lately with violence. Now away fans
can't attend the games and big games like which is
(42:54):
it's kind of sad, it's it's twofold one. It's it's
better for the home team because they get to so
more tickets to their fans, but then you know, the
ambiance is not is not the same. Um So, I
don't know what it is. It's just I think it's
just a cultural phenomenon. It is a shame that that's
part of soccer. Lord though, and raises the loyal visiting
(43:15):
supporters following their team into enemy territory and setting up
the little camp in the corner of the stadium, whether
that's in England or or South America or anywhere, and
in Mexico it's become a problem. Is obviously there's been
violence in recent games. They're in a big way. That's
that's marred things and um, I hope that doesn't continue,
because there's something is lost when you don't have that
(43:37):
that two fans in the stadium totally agree, totally agree.
But you know, we we make soccer our religion, and
unfortunately not only in Argentina, but Mexico and many other
parts of the world. The most unruly fans are fans
of the teams, but they, unfortunately they are duct conducting
(44:01):
other businesses inside the stadium. They are you know, they're
they're they're control freaks of many other aspects of everything
that is going on in the stance, which not necessarily
is good. Many people listening are fans of the Premier League.
You've called I believe is it it's nine or ten
seasons of the Premier League now on telemundosy you're calling
(44:22):
them from the great venues in in the sport in England,
Old Trafford and um Stanford Bridge. I'm a Chelsea support
Etty had Wimbley from long distance. I would imagine most
of the time for the predominant UH pattern has been
over those ten years calling them from a long distance away.
What is it about the Premier League that that, in
your views, sets it apart or you have that you
(44:44):
also developed a passion for that? Um No, I think
it's one of the most watchable leagues in the world.
They have done everything so good to engage the audience.
First of all, UH, there are good teams, there are
maybe occre teams and they're bad teams, but all of
(45:05):
them play with the pace and an intensity from minute
one to minute nine really really awesome. So maybe you
don't have the tacticle wizardry of Pepuariola on Watford, but
you know, it's NonStop action when Watford plays, you sit
(45:25):
on the TV and there's no time wasting. There's respect
for the referee. The pitches are in mcgillet conditions, which
obviously makes it better for for the good players and
and even the bad players. So I think the Premier
League UH has an a terrific job first of all,
of making the players understand that there is a worldwide
(45:50):
product that there is a respect for the referees. This
is isn't seen any other league in the world. Um,
even though they might not like a call. You don't
have a player or five players surrounding the referee wasting
the restart of the game for five minutes. You don't
have players faking injuries, you don't have players trying to
(46:15):
lure the referee to calling things that did not happen.
So you have NonStop action for a minute one until
the end of the until the final whistle, and that
is that makes her a very good TV product. And
then on top of that, you know the best players
in the world or most of the best players in
the world playing in the top teams. That's the perfect combination.
(46:40):
I mean, Liverpool is a joy to watch, Cities a
joy to watch, Chelsea is a joy to watch. Uh,
you know from time to time, Manchester United, Tottenham, Uh,
they're very good, very solid. So I think the Premier
League has to be commended. And obviously what the world
based in the TV right fees talks for itself, it's
(47:03):
probably the best sellable product for a worldwide television audience,
regardless whether you're a fan of a team or not.
If you put two games at the same time, you
don't even know which are the teams, just put you know,
white jerseys and black jerseys on both games and put
(47:24):
people in front of the TV. You will get glued
on the Premier League action against any other league. Your son, Nico,
second generation soccer commentator about English and Spanish. I think
he's still with University on which is the competition of Telemune.
He's done, he's uh, he's with CBS, He's with Paramount Plus.
(47:45):
So he left University and he's he's doing English on
on CBS. Okay, Yes, he hosts um every Champions League fixture.
He has the Golasso Show on Paramount Plus uh from London,
so he gets to flight to London every time there's
a competition. And he's one of the main hosts. He
(48:08):
started being the host by himself and now they have
like three or four other people are with him. So
he's very happy at a partiment, having having gone through
school at the Univision, which he was very grateful. So
you listen to his broadcasts, you listen as an experienced
(48:29):
legend in the business, you listen as a father, and
how are those how are those critiques and so they
are they brutally honest? Are they delivered lovingly? What's the style?
Both both? I can't hide the fact that I mean,
if he says something that I think it's out of qua.
I mean, we live in a in a world today
(48:51):
where you have to be extremely careful on anything that
you say. You're right on social media at center and
he's on a national TV platform. He has his own voice.
Obviously I will not tell him. I will never tell
him what to say. Uh. He's a very well prepared
young man, I mean young man being twenty eighth. You know,
(49:13):
he even though he's twenty eight, he's still my you know,
my son to me. So I you know, sometimes he
asks or my opinion and I will give it to him.
And some other times when I think he could have
done better, I tell him so. And actually works both
(49:36):
ways around both ways, uh, because sometimes he would tell me,
why did you say that? I said, you're right, you know,
I don't know why I say. Well that that shows
he's feeling more confident if he's going to dare to
critique what what you're doing. You know, you sit and
reflect the support that you have been around your whole life.
You have a dream job. You have had an enormous
(49:59):
influence on the sport, both for English speaking in Spanish
speaking people, of course, in the growth of the game.
Here your your adopted country. You're in the Hall of fame.
You've been in movies and the Simpsons and Letterman and
commercials and it's about much more than than one word
said in an extended way. But but that has been
(50:22):
a part of it. And are you do you do
you accept that you enjoy that Now that we've we've
reached a kind of a wise old age that you're
about much more than one word, but that one word
has been important with the way you say it. Well,
I'm going to throw a comparison, which everyone will know
it is Al Michael's just do you believe in miracles? Now,
(50:44):
he's one of the most prepared broadcasters or any sport
that he does in this business. We all looked up
to him for so many years. I still enjoy listening
to him and too good to all the good American broadcasters. Yes,
I have gained fame, fame by my go goals, but
(51:07):
I do appreciate the fact, like I said, you know
about the customs agent that said I listened to your goal,
And I appreciate when um, people say that, you know
I I know a lot about the game. I'm not
your regular typical play by play announcer that just calls
some players names. I have my own opinion of how
(51:31):
the game is being played, and lots of people in
my audience recognize that. Um. So yes, I you know,
I get it. I became famous and and all of
these things happened because of the notoriety that my work
received because of my go call. But beyond that, God call.
(51:55):
There's also um an understanding from the audience and from
the soccer world that I'm not just you know, a
guy with the gaming, that there's a guy behind the
microphone that knows the game. That's a mic drop, that
that's a that's a beautiful way to end. I am
(52:16):
just so grateful to Andrea's for sharing his time and
his great stories. We recorded this just before the US
men's national team officially qualified for the World Cup this
winner in Qatar. But I'll tell you Andres has an
optimistic outlook for the young American team. He thinks he
will handle World Cup pressure just fine after navigating the
tough qualifying in the Conka Calf Federation, and he's very
(52:39):
positive on the future of the U S program when
we co host the World Cup with Mexico and Canada.
Cannot wait for that. As always, thankful to my co
executive producer Jennifer Dempster and to Jason Whitehelt for his
ederny skills, and to you for listening and offering feedback.
We'll leave you with one grace encore to get you
(53:02):
fired up. S
Host
Chris Fowler
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