A little while ago, we told you Gus Johnson was spreading his announcing wings and calling select soccer games for the San Jose Earthquakes. To many (yours truly included), the idea of Gus Johnson calling soccer games was something previously relegated to only the imagination. You might as well have dreamt of Bill Raftery calling the 16th hole at Augusta with Verne Lundquist (BUBBA! ONIONS!!) or Ian Darke calling the NFL. Now, courtesy of Tim Burke at Deadspin, we have real live audio and video to make this a reality.
And wouldn’t you know, the Law of Gus is transferrable from the gridiron and the hardwood to the pitch. Naturally, the San Jose Earthquakes defeated the Philadelphia Union this weekend 2-1 with all three goals scored beyond the 75th minute. After a goal each way, Stephen Lenhart and his legendary mop of blonde hair headed in the game winner in the 93rd minute for his second of the night. Here’s all three goal calls from Gus…
You can definitely see Gus Johnson has potential calling the beautiful game. His excited way of announcing the big moments is a perfect match for a sport where floods of emotions pour out when a goal is scored. The first call is somewhat clunky, but the equalizer and winning goal calls are vintage Gus and sound good. There’s something right in hearing that classic “FIIIIIRRREEED” for a shot from the top of the box. A lot of the vocabulary is there in the play by play to tell you Gus is in touch with the sport – “one-nil,” “left/right footed cross,” and “far post” to name a few examples.
He isn’t going to be calling the FA Cup Final next weekend or anything like that soon, but I’ve seen enough to leave me wanting to see where this road of Gus Johnson announcing the beautiful game leads.
(via Deadspin)
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