From checking Twitter, Stan will also be co-commentating on England v Slovenia (you had my hopes up that Alvin Martin might be doing that game by missing it out from your list, 4-4-2) and he will be at every game England play during the tournament.
When it gets to the knockout stage, I fully expect that Jim Proudfoot and Stan Collymore will be assigned certain games on the basis of England's potential "route to the final" (working on the assumption England make the second round).
I say that as in 2006 Jim Proudfoot and Alvin Martin commentated on the France v Portugal semi-final, even though Germany v Italy was the far more attractive tie of the two. Of course, had England won their quarter-final they would have faced France.
On the off-tube issue, I think Henry Winter raised a very valid point in
the Daily Telegraph a few weeks ago.
Quote:
“Take our leading broadcasters, the BBC and talkSPORT, who are delivering live commentaries on each of the 64 games at this summer's showdown in South Africa. Will Brazil's national radio clear the schedules for Algeria-Slovenia? The BBC will. TalkSPORT will. Maybe it's the rain but we are a nation of anoraks.
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...f-England.html”
Looking at things from that perspective, we are very lucky that in this country we have two national radio stations who are doing their utmost to provide the most complete coverage of the World Cup that they possibly can.
I'd be surprised if the equivalent national radio stations in most other countries will be looking at providing live commentaries on many more games other than those involving their home country and key knockout phase games.
Indeed across the water in the Republic of Ireland, it appears RTE Radio (or any other station there) are not planning on providing any commentaries from the tournament, despite having a presence in South Africa. I could be wrong here but I haven't seen any information to the contrary.
As I understand it, talkSPORT are doing the vast majority of the headline-catching games on-site - certainly the ones they are talking up on-air - and I suspect most of the ones they will be doing off-tube will be less glamorous group matches. It's not ideal but I wouldn't say it sits too uncomfortably with me either. But it is far better than what radio listeners had on offer in the not-so-distant past.
In other discussions on here we've had comparisons of today's radio coverage with that of USA 94. Back then, Five Live only sent a handful of commentators and summarisers to the States and only did commentary, and even reports, on a fraction of the games in that tournament.
It was only as recently as France 98 when BBC Radio started to offer commentary on the majority of matches from a World Cup, with them now competing with the then-new Talk Radio who were providing a similar service.
So does it really matter if talkSPORT will be doing an off-tube commentary on, say, Algeria v USA for a DAB audience? Does it really matter if Five Live aren't able to broadcast commentary on Algeria v USA because they are doing England v Slovenia on analogue and Andy Murray on Sports Extra?
Look at what was on offer in the past and what is on offer in other countries, and I think you'll agree that today's listeners in the UK are a lucky bunch in comparison.