Chinese sport commentator loses cool
By Yu Nan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-06-27 19:34

"Definitely it was an undisputed penalty," shouted Huang in the last minute of the game.

"Penalty! Penalty! Penalty!" he screamed. "Grosso's done it, Grosso's done it!"

"Great Italian left back! Grosso succeeded in the long history and tradition of Italian soccer! He is not fighting alone at the moment!" he continued.

"Totti! He is about to take the shot! He shoulders the expectations of the whole world!"

"Goooooal! Game over! Italy win! Beat the Australians!" he shouted, his voice now breaking. "They do not fall in front of Hiddink again, who led South Korea to knock out Italy in the 2002 World Cup!"

"Italy the great! Left back the great! Happy birthday to Maldini! Forza Italia! Long live Italy!"

Huang then turned to the Socceroos and yelled,"Go home! Go home! But they don't need to fly back to Australia. It's too far away. Most of them live in Europe anyway. Bye-bye!"

Huang was not repentant for his controversial comments in the satellite linkup with the Beijing live program after match.

"I am a human being, not a machine, and I can't be impartial all the time," he explained while being interviewed by Xinhua News Agency.

"Australia reminded me of a lousy team which eliminated China in the 1981 World Cup qualifiers. Australia is just like New Zealand team that beat us in 1981," he explained.

"It (Australia) is full of neutralized Australians who play and live in Britain. I don't care about the Australian team and don't want to see Australia have good results."

"Australia (which has joined the Asian Football Confederation) will fight for an Asian World Cup berth and it may not be good enough to contend with South Korea and Japan. But it will very likely take advantage of the Chinese team. So I don't like it." Huang told to Xinhua News Agency.

Beijing newsroom host Zhang Bin tried to interrupt Huang to avoid further damage, but Huang kept going on until the linkup was cut.

Zhang then tried to switch the conversation to a lighter subject,praising the hard-fighting Australians and head coach Hiddink for the rest of the program.

It wasn't the first time a Chinese sportscaster got carried away covering the sport. In 2002, it said, CCTV hostess Sheng Bin stunned an audience of millions as she openly wept at Argentina's early exit.

China's soccer media is always as racy as its English and German counterparts; despite the Chinese soccer team is not qualified to compete this time.

Since the nation launched a professional soccer league in 1994, China's media began broadcasting English and Italian soccer tournaments on television.


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