Jon Champion and Taylor Twellman did Portland vs. Sporting KC for ESPN. In fact, Champion will do the US Open Cup semifinal between Chicago and New England tonight, and will also call Portland vs. Seattle on August 21st.

Humphrey in the studio for the Super Cup with Steve McManaman and Michael Owen.
It seems Ian Darke is on commentary, presumably with Owen Hargreaves.

I don't like that score DOG on BT.

Presumably it's the same as they'll be using on the Champions League.

That's all correct, by the way (not marking your homework, there, just confirming it for everyone else). The scoreline is a bit blocky, but I dunno if they'll use it for the Champions League, the Super Cup usually has its own distinct branding. Might be more likely to use it on the Europa League, which has its own scoreline burned into the world feed, whereas on the Champions League the broadcasters can use their own.

I remember when the Super Cup was on the Beeb, they used the official Nissan-branded title sequence.

The Super Cup graphics (the ones from UEFA) are in the Champions League style, which is what makes me think this score will be used for the CL.

As you say, the Europa League score will be UEFA's, ridiculously low down the screen.

Surprised it was Darke i must admit, so with that should be Fletcher for BT's opener this Saturday.

Looking ahead to the weekend, it will be interesting to see the first MOTD Commentary assignments. Simon Brothertan is of course out in Rio doing the Cycling (as are R5L's John Murray, Connor McNamara and Alistair Bruce-Ball covering different sports) whilst Alan Green and John Motson tend to take time off at the start of the season. With a number of interesting matches this weekend, it will be interesting to see if we perhaps see the likes of Martin Fisher/John Roder/Alistair Mann getting slightly bigger games than usual.

Do we know if Steve Bower is to return or is he working NBC in some capacity PL or Olympics related?

Is Paul Dempsey at the Olympics?
Sounds like him at the moment on the Australia v Zimbabwe ladies match on BBC Olympics 6

I'm pretty certain it was him that I heard commentating on some of the football the other night.

He's working on Olympics off-tube commentaries and hosting PL studio coverage for this weekend and next weekend while Rebecca Lowe is out in Brazil.

He is, he has even been co-commentator on some games. Really.

Gary Neville gave an interview in The Times today where he said he'd chosen to focus on his business interests rather than coaching for the 'next four to five years' and would be 'doing some television' alongside that.

Klaxon channel fans will be glad to see that Soccer Saturday will make its annual appearance on Saturday.

Charles Sale stated Neville is contracted to make a minimum appearances of Sky per season.

If it's going to be very close to 40 then we're looking at a reduction overall. Igloo Man's excellent statistics reveal he did 36 co-commentaries in his last full season at Sky (14-15). He also did approx 18 MNFs and Chelsea v Arsenal in the studio so approx 55 appearances in the Premier League overall. Of course Sky had Champions League back then too which would have added approx 12 more games to his workload.

If Neville's appearances are exclusively in the Premier League this season, rather than the League Cup or internationals, then as Sky have 35 Premier League rounds to cover we could be looking at him predominantly co-commentating on a game from each round which would leave approx a minimum of 5 MNF appearances.

Sale also says Neville has received a pay rise for his exclusive contract but Henry is still the highest paid Sky pundit which seems a bit bizarre considering others are better, appear more and don't work for the BBC at major tournaments!!

For the record Sale is saying Neville is "understood" to be earning £1.5m per year for a minimum of 40 PL appearances plus other duties - compared to £1.2m per year when he worked for Sky before.

However I don't think we can take that figure with any certainty - and I don't mean that as a specific criticism of Sale - no earnings figure reported in the media for anybody can be taken at face value - unless extracted directly from a publicly available official document such as accounts filed at Companies House.

I recall previous reports that Sky were supposedly paying Henry £4m per year - I highly doubt that that figure is accurate and I notice Sale doesn't mention it in this article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/art...a-England.html

Minimum of 40 Appearances. So presumably he can be used more than that and there's an agreed set fee for any additional appearances.

Can't really believe that this guy is getting the amount of attention that he is.

Yes he is a decent pundit but the way some talk about him its as if he is the best ever and Sky just cant do without him!

In a way he has landed well on his feet considering his disappointment in Spain.

Sky seemed very bitter towards the UEFA Super Cup last night.

It seemed Julian Walters only told us how it was going as he felt the viewers wanted to now, nothing came up on vidiprinter.

Going back to last Saturdays Soccer Saturday, well done to Alan McNailly for doing the show during which seems to be a hard time with his father recently dying.

Really felt for him when he got all teary

Why on earth would they be bitter, it's only a glorified friendly.

To be fair he probably is, or at least he's up there with Andy Gray as being. Obviously with Gray no longer working in England, I think it's fair to say he is the best around at this moment in time by some distance.

Sky Sport are still showing uefa qualifiers

I think Sky/itv will combine to try to get live rights for the champions league and the europa league

A live champions league game on itv

a live europa league game on itv4 and the latter stages games involving Englsih sides on itv

All the other games live on sky sport

of course both finals on sky/itv

I have to say the Champions league live was better on sky sport

What's all that got to do with the Super Cup being a glorified friendly?

Just please don't say it a dozen times a day like you do with all your other points


It's classic ftakeith behaviour - quote a post and go completely off topic.

Even the off topic is very random and unrelated to anything.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

4 live Sky PL matches this weekend, 4 different main commentators used. Gary Neville also on this weekend.