OK – this is the last one of these i’m going to do because it takes me ages and I think my point is proven. Either MOTD are significantly better than the LIVE chaps or they are cheating. Since I have been analysing every goal and chance for three weekend (99 incidents Stat Fans!) MOTD have been more accurate in every single game bar one. Co-incidence? Commentators off day? Tricky incidents to commentate on? All taken care of by the large sample I have analysed I would argue.
For these three weekends I have noticed that out friends at MOTD don’t seem to take the piss quite as much as i’d assumed. Watching for years I had always picked up on the mystical calls and thought they were more prevalent that they actually are but they are there and they never happen during live commentary. A quick two examples from the Chelsea Southampton game that made my blood boil. Jay Rodriguez scores after 14 seconds and Martin Tyler for Sky talks about the shocking back-pass and the goal scorer and the recent form of Chelsea. There is a lot to take in when you are commentating live. Jonathan Pierce however screams “14 seconds’ as the ball crosses the line. Something that doesn’t even occur to Tyler as there is so much going on, he just comments that’s it’s a fast goal. Pierce then goes through the quickest goals of the season so far. Stats he has memorised? He wrote them down on the off chance a goal was scored in record-breaking time? And then later on John Terry scores from the second phase (fancy phrase alert) after a corner. The penalty area is packed with players. John Terry isn’t particularly notable – this isn’t David Luiz after all – and the ball is whipped in fast. Martin Tyler doesn’t even speak as he is trying to make sense of what’s going on. Pierce shouts “Terry was there!” as it crosses the line. That was a hell of a call. Maybe they just are that good.
So in future just keep an ear out for the MOTD boys Magic moments. My experiment is over but the conspiracy continues…
Weekend of 1st December
Cardiff v Arsenal
MOTD Jonathan Pierce. Sentanta David Mcintyre.
CHANCE – 10 mins – JP – “Cross goes in early!” DM – “Not a bad delivery!”
GOAL – 29 mins – JP – “A great attendance and a great goal!” DM – “A good ball in from Ozil!”
CHANCE – 51 mins – JP – “Under pressure from Campbell!” DM – “Might make it from Campbell!”
GOAL – 86 mins – JP – “Great finish. Flamini finishes it!” DM – “Round the back of turner and rifled in!”
GOAL – 92 mins – JP – “Walcott to Ramsey!” DM – “Walcott. Lays it back!
MAGIC RATING (out of 5))
JP 3 v DM 1
Newcastle v West Brom
MOTD Steve Bower SKY Rob Hawthorne
CHANCE – 19 mins – SB – “Free header for Remy!” RH “Free header for Remy”
GOAL – 36 mins – SB – “And in!” RH – “Put in a dangerous area and it’s in!”
GOAL – 53 mins – SB – “Might fall to Long! Brunt!” RH – “Towards Long, Brunt!”
GOAL – 57 mins – SB – “Remy into Sissoko!” RH – “Remy, Sissoko!”
CHANCE – 92 mins – SB – “Up go the heads!” RH – “(silence)”
MAGIC RATING (out of 6)
SB 4 v RH 3
Spurs v Man Utd
BT Sport Ian Darke. MOTD – Steve Wilson
GOAL – 18 mins – ID – “It is Walker!” SW – “Walker for Spurs!”
GOAL – 32 mins – ID – “Rooney!” SW – “Rooney! 1-1”
GOAL – 54 mins – ID – “It’s Sandro!” SW – “Here’s Sandro hoping they can win!”
MAGIC RATING (Out of 3)
ID 3 v SW 3
Chelsea v Southampton
SKY – Martin Tyler MOTD – Johnathan Pierce
GOAL – 1 mins -JP – “And chelsea lead after 14 seconds” MT – “Jay rodriguez with the opening goal!”
CHANCE – 41 mins – JP “Oscar!” MT ” Oscar!”
CHANCE – 44 mins – JP “Torres!” MT – “Mata for Torres!”
GOAL – 54 mins – JP – “And forced in!” MT – “Oh – and Ba – it ends up in the back of the net”
GOAL – 61 mins – JP – “Terry was there!” MT – “(silence)”
CHANCE – 71 mins JP – looking for Ba!” MT “And Ba has got in behind!”
GOAL – 89 mins – JP – “Looking for Demba Ba!” MT “And in goes Ba!”
MAGIC RATING (Out of 8)
JP 6 v MT 5
Hull v Liverpool
MOTD – Steve Bower SKY – Alan Parry
CHANCE – 15 mins – SB – “Useful header” AP – (silence)
GOAL – 20 mins – SB – “That’s Livermore!” AP – “That shot deflected and in”
GOAL – 27 mins – SB – “This one is Gerrards!” AP – “Here’s Gerrard!”
GOAL – 72 mins – SB – “It’s come back out to Myler!” AP – “Cleared as far as Myler!”
GOAL – 87 mins – SB – “Then deflected and in!” AP – “It’s been deflected in!”
MAGIC RATING (Out of 5)
SB 3 v AP 2
OVERALL MAGIC (out of 27)
MOTD 19 v LIVE 14
FINAL OVERALL MAGIC (out of 99)
MOTD 78 v LIVE 62
CheekyOneTwo 
More Match of the Day
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Commentary, Conspiracy, MOTD on November 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »
After last time out having three goals in three games this weekend was a relative festival of goals! And a really good chance to see if the Match of the Day commentators are significantly better than their colleagues at BT Sport and Sky. Not just the goals but some interesting incidents that were tough to call on first viewing. Unless you’d already seen it a couple of times and are faking it. But I’m getting ahead of myself! Here are the stats for the weekend of 23rd and 24th Nov. Btw – from now on I shall refer to BT Sport and Sky as LIVE in the tables below for convenience.
Everton v Liverpool
MOTD – Steve Wilson BT sport – Darren Fletcher
GOAL – 4 mins – SW – “Suarez! Coutinho!” DF – “Chance for Suarez. And forced in there!”
GOAL – 7 mins – SW – “A chance at the backpost and it’s in!” – DF – “And its not cleared!”
GOAL – 19 mins – SW – “Luis Suarez!” DF – “It is Suarez!”
INCIDENT – 43 mins – SW – “Gerrard has gone in with his elbow raised!” DF – “Thats gonna be a free kick”
GOAL – 72 mins – SW – “It’s Lukaku. It’s 2-2!” DF – “It’s gonna fall for Lukaku!”
GOAL – 82 mins – SW – “Lukaku scores!” DF – “Lukaku!”
GOAL – 89 mins – SW – “And in from Sturridge!” DF – “Sturridge!”
Genius Score (out of 8) SW 7 v DF 5
Arsenal v Southampton
MOTD – John Motson – BT Sport David Mcintyre
CHANCE – 17 mins – JM – “There is Ramsey!” DM – “It’s a flick”
GOAL – 22 mins – JM – “And Giroud’s gonna score!” DM – “It’s gonna cost them!”
INCIDENT – 85 mins – JM – “And Mertersacker thought he was impeded, Penalty!” DM – “Mertesacker was being pulled back. Penalty kick!”
Genius Score (out of 3) JM 3 v DM 1
West Ham v Chelsea
MOTD – Jonathon Pierce. Sky Alan Parry
GOAL – 34 mins – JP – “Oscar lets go and scores!” AP – “Oscar … went for the corner and found it”
CHANCE – 52 mins – JP – “It was Cahill’s header!” AP – “Cahill’ header!”
CHANCE – 56 mins – JP – “Oscar!” – AP – “(silence)”
CHANCE – 64 mins – JP – “And stabbed wide!” AP – “And it shoulda been a goal”
GOAL – 81 mins – JP – “Hazard! Lampard!” AP – “Hazard! Lampard!”
CHANCE – 95 mins – JP – “O’ Brien!” AP – “It was a decent effort”
Genius score (out of 7) JP 6 v AP 4
Manchester City v Spurs
MOTD Guy Mowbray. SKY – Rob Hawthorne
GOAL – 1 min – GM – “Navas has a go, Navas scores, 15 seconds.” RH – “And it has cost them. What a follow up! Within 15 seconds”
INCIDENT – 10 min – GM – “Nasri down, ball was won by Sandro”. RH – “It’s a lunge but a ball winning one by SAndro”
GOAL – 34 mins – GM – “Aguero! Negrado! It’s an owl goal!”. RH – “Aguero! Negrado! And finally it’s gone in between a combination of the defenders”
GOAL – 41 mins – GM – “Kabul missed it. Aguero scores!” RH – “It’s for … Aguero. It’s 3!”
GOAL – 50 mins – GM – “Aguero with his second” RH – “Looking for Aguero. Unselfishly!”
GOAL – 55 mins – GM – “Negrado. Could be 5 – is 5″ – RH ” Negrado here is onside and turns brilliantly. And scores as well!”
CHANCE – 81 mins – GM “Fernadinhio. Has miskicked” RH – “Negrado with the cross and Fernadinho misses his kick”
GOAL – 92 mins – GM – “Navas. To make it six!” RH – “The man who started it all off. Finishes it off!”
Genius score (out of 11) GM 11 v RH 10
Cardiff v man Utd
MOTD – Simon Brotherton. SKY – Martin Tyler
CHANCE – 7 mins – SB – “Much with the header!” – MT – (Silence)
GOAL -15 mins – SB “Its Rooney on the spin!” MT – “Rooneys in!”
CHANCE – 19 mins SB -“Whipped to far post area!” MT – “and it’s a good save”
GOAL – 33 mins – SB – “Towards Campbell and Campbell finishes it!” MT – “It’s a lovely move by Cardiff!”
GOAL – 45 mns – SB – “Rooney’s delivery! and Manchester united back in front” MT – “And its … er … headed in!”
CHANCE – 51 mins – SB – “In towards Fellani!” MT – “And a brilliant save by Marshall”
CHANCE – 52 mins – SB – “In towards Smalling!” MT – “That’s Smalling!”
GOAL – 90 mins – SB – “The delivery, it’s in!” MT “Cardiff city looking for dramas again – here, they’ve got it!”
Genius score (out of 8) SB 5 v MT 2
So overall weekly genius score (out of 37)
MOTD 32 v LIVE 22
The running score now is
MOTD 39/50 – 78% LIVE – 26/50 – 52%
That is a fantastic rate of accuracy for MOTD. And we had some really tough calls today. What really struck me was how often the LIVE commentators don’t speak when a goal happens. They tend to wait and see who scored and what happened before commentating. Especially Martin Tyler who, in two games, has only correctly identified the goalscorer or player who’s chance it was on 2 of 11 occasions. I’m starting to think he’s not really that good. The co-commentator makes no difference here as he was always commentating during goal mouth incidents but would say random things as the ball sailed in like “And Cardiff have done it!” rather than pluck a name out of the air when he isn’t sure. Compare that with Guy Mowbray who has had a similar 11 goals and incidents to commentate on and has a 100% record of naming the person correctly. This may all be a co-incidence so I put together a chart of the ten commentators who do the work for LIVE and MOTD and gave them a percentage mark over these four ‘match-days’ in the premier league. I then put them into a little league of their own.You’ll never guess what I found. Here is the commentators league table of accuracy.
LIVE – Martin Tyler 2/11 – 18%
LIVE – David Mcintyre 1/3 – 33%
LIVE – Alan Parry 5/11 – 45%
LIVE – Darren Fletcher 5/8 – 63%
LIVE – Rob Hawthorne 13/17 – 76%
MOTD – Steve Wilson 9/14 – 64%
MOTD – Simon Brotherton 8/12 – 67%
MOTD – Jonathon Pierce 8/10 – 80%
MOTD – Guy Mowbray – 11/11 – 100%
MOTD – John Motson 3/3 – 100%
So it’s looking like the MOTD boys are averaging near 80% and the LIVE guys nearly half that. Rob Hawthorn is the only exception to the rule but he may have been getting easy games. I will keep this up for a little longer in case this is a blip rather than the rule.
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