Speaker 1: Dear let you know USA listener. Before we start, you
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Speaker 1: dear listener, the Men's World Cup is underway. Don't know
Speaker 1: if you noticed. Futuro Studios has actually released a new
Speaker 1: podcast about soccer culture in the United States and it's
Speaker 1: Underdog Roots. Oh my god, I love it so so
Speaker 1: much because I don't know anything about football, but I
Speaker 1: love it Underdog Story. The podcast is called American Football
Speaker 1: and it's a show that goes beyond the sport to
Speaker 1: the people and the stories that make it great. It's
Speaker 1: hosted by our very own Fernanda Echavari. In one of
Speaker 1: their recent episodes, Fernanda sat down with sports announcer Andres Cantor.
Speaker 1: He is the voice of soccer for so many in
Speaker 1: the United States and beyond. He talks about the art
Speaker 1: of calling a game, what his viral moment from the
Speaker 1: last World Cup shows about men getting emotional about soccer,
Speaker 1: and he reveals his pregame routine on mena press play
Speaker 1: so you can listen.
Speaker 2: Andres Cantor has been a sports announcer for almost forty years.
Speaker 2: He's received eight Emmy Awards for his broadcasting and a
Speaker 2: place in the National Soccer Hall of Fame. You know
Speaker 2: his voice that he has watched an announced countless games,
Speaker 2: but there's one moment at the end of the last
Speaker 2: World Cup in Qatar that is seered into his memory.
Speaker 3: Benol Football.
Speaker 4: The final was a roller coaster of emotions in itself.
Speaker 4: It took us from Argentina's domination against the defending world
Speaker 4: champion to France tying the match.
Speaker 2: Review Francia, Argentina goes up three to two, then France
Speaker 2: ties again. It's three to three, taking the game all
Speaker 2: the way to penalty kicks.
Speaker 3: By the peak.
Speaker 4: When when the peak age started, I was ready to
Speaker 4: like pass out. What happened in Qatar with Argentina and
Speaker 4: Messi winning the World Cup is one of my favorite moments.
Speaker 2: If you weren't watching this in real time, maybe you've
Speaker 2: seen the clip on social media andres Cantor wearing a
Speaker 2: perfectly pressed baby blue button up shirt, clinging to his
Speaker 2: headset microphone, screaming with joy, his tears barely visible behind
Speaker 2: his round framed glasses as he hugs his fellow announcer.
Speaker 2: I think this video is such a beautiful thing to watch.
Speaker 3: The moment was my true self.
Speaker 2: Are you a crier? Are you an emotional guy?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I could say I'm emotional. I'm not hardle as a
Speaker 4: rog when it comes to shelling tears. So if I
Speaker 4: have to shadow one, I will.
Speaker 2: What do you think about Soccer makes men who may
Speaker 2: otherwise be very like Rah kiss each other and hug
Speaker 2: each other and celebrate and like cry.
Speaker 3: I got it the Magic of Soccer.
Speaker 2: From Futuro Studios. I'm Fernande Chavarri and this is American Football,
Speaker 2: a show about soccer culture in the US and it's
Speaker 2: underdog roots. I've gotten to do a lot of wonderful
Speaker 2: interviews for this podcast, and I've enjoyed every single one
Speaker 2: of them. But when the video calls started with Argentinian
Speaker 2: announcer Andres Cantor, I kind of had a moment of like, wait,
Speaker 2: what I know that voice. That's the voice that calls
Speaker 2: the games. His voice means soccer to me. We spoke
Speaker 2: a few weeks before the World Cup started, and right
Speaker 2: away when he introduced him, his chill vive put me
Speaker 2: at ease. I think most of our audience knows who
Speaker 2: you are, but if you don't mind introducing yourself, who
Speaker 2: you are and what you're known for.
Speaker 4: Sure, I'm known for being a good guy, a good
Speaker 4: dub oh, I love that, and yelling goal.
Speaker 2: During his now almost forty year career sportscasting, he has
Speaker 2: cemented himself as the voice of soccer, first calling games
Speaker 2: for NBCON as far back as nineteen eighty seven and
Speaker 2: then moving over to Telemundo in two thousand. I mean
Speaker 2: his goal call has literally sold as a ringtone on
Speaker 2: Telemundo's website. His charismatic and energetic game narrations have helped
Speaker 2: popularize the sport in the United States, even for those
Speaker 2: who don't speak Spanish, especially in nineteen ninety four when
Speaker 2: he was an announcer doing the first World Cup hosted
Speaker 2: in the US. David Letterman even brought him on the
Speaker 2: Late Show at the time.
Speaker 5: Here now to call a goal from a World Cup
Speaker 5: game played yesterday, Please welcome visions Andrea's cantor Andreas.
Speaker 2: Two decades later, in twenty fourteen, he guest starred in
Speaker 2: one of the most American shows of all times.
Speaker 3: And Contor, you know that is incorrect usage. I have
Speaker 3: no control. This job has taken. It's all.
Speaker 4: I always say that. Sometimes I end up my broadcasts
Speaker 4: feeling as tired as the players have run fifteen miles.
Speaker 3: On a match.
Speaker 2: Listening to Cantor during a game, it's like watching a
Speaker 2: virtuoso jazz artist freestyle NonStop for ninety minutes or more.
Speaker 2: And much like a musician, Cantor needs to protect his
Speaker 2: instrument when you are calling these games back to back
Speaker 2: to back. How do you sort of reset or recharge
Speaker 2: your voice.
Speaker 4: I'm supposed to do all the things singers do, which
Speaker 4: is rest the mind, rest the soul, rest my body,
Speaker 4: which you try to get us many hours of sleep.
Speaker 4: The recommendation is before and after.
Speaker 2: Silence, so okay, no talking before or after sportscasting, which
Speaker 2: actually can be kind of hard, especially after.
Speaker 4: The game, because obviously somebody will go for an interview.
Speaker 4: We have a post production meeting, and then you go
Speaker 4: out and keep on talking, and you go out to
Speaker 4: dinner and the surrogance, Oh, I listen to your goal,
Speaker 4: but you said there was a penalty. It was a penalty,
Speaker 4: and so I can't be rude and say I can't
Speaker 4: speak well.
Speaker 2: He makes all of this look so effortless. It takes
Speaker 2: a ton of preparation and pure talent, especially because.
Speaker 4: I hate scripted material. I add, some producers fight me
Speaker 4: because I do not like using teleprompter.
Speaker 2: What do you do? What does it look like?
Speaker 3: So you're going to reveal trade secrets? Please?
Speaker 2: I just have so many questions about your process.
Speaker 4: It is easier around the World Cups than it is
Speaker 4: on a regular weekend where you know, let's say I'm
Speaker 4: calling the Premier League for Telemundo. Right before, I would
Speaker 4: tell you I would go watch tape. Now, with all
Speaker 4: the resources that we have at our disposal, it's much
Speaker 4: much easier now, I tell you, I'll go on YouTube
Speaker 4: and find the game of Burnley, the last weekend's game,
Speaker 4: and I study how they play. I study the characteristics
Speaker 4: of the players. If Smith has long hair, if Johnson
Speaker 4: uses like a ritband that I got to identify him
Speaker 4: by not even looking at his shirt number. So there
Speaker 4: are little tricks that I use to try to identify
Speaker 4: the players. Come the World Cup, it's pretty much the
Speaker 4: same process. I will give you one of the games
Speaker 4: that I have Germany against Kurasau. Germany, I could probably
Speaker 4: go like this, close my eyes and I will have
Speaker 4: a sense of who has the ball. Kurasau I haven't
Speaker 4: seen yet. I'm in the process of compiling all their information.
Speaker 4: They're playing the World Cup for the first time in history.
Speaker 4: Is the smallest country to participate in a World Cup.
Speaker 2: He's a bit old school about how he likes his research.
Speaker 4: I still like to write my notes and have them
Speaker 4: on paper, even though I could have him electronically on
Speaker 4: a tablet. I take my sharpiece. I use different colors
Speaker 4: for the team lineup that I have in front of me.
Speaker 4: I use a yellow highlighter to mark whenever the player
Speaker 4: is given a yellow card. I take my old fashioned chronometer. Really,
Speaker 4: I know, it's kind of my lucky. Char might still
Speaker 4: have my old chrona with me.
Speaker 2: He drinks a ton of water. But food that's a
Speaker 2: whole other story.
Speaker 4: I usually don't eat my cut of It's probably like
Speaker 4: four or five hours before a match. I will not
Speaker 4: have even a bite. I'll wait until everything is done
Speaker 4: to me.
Speaker 2: And no matter how many decades he's been calling.
Speaker 4: Games, there's always that sense of a potential embarrassment on
Speaker 4: national television. It doesn't really matter whether you're a rookie
Speaker 4: or a forty year pro. Anything can happen on live TV.
Speaker 4: Anything that you say, anything that you miss say, anything
Speaker 4: that you miss pronounce, anything that you miss in interpret,
Speaker 4: any players you identified wrongly. When you're surrounded by sixty
Speaker 4: thousand yelling fans, producer talking to me in my ear,
Speaker 4: the emotions of the game, and the fast pace of
Speaker 4: the sport itself, you really have to work your mind
Speaker 4: to make sure that everything comes out the way you
Speaker 4: want it to be. So it's taxing on the mind.
Speaker 2: So now we know how a real pro does this,
Speaker 2: but how exactly did he get into this in the
Speaker 2: first place.
Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, I did not want to
Speaker 3: become an announcer.
Speaker 2: That's coming up after the break.
Speaker 5: Hey, I'm Isa medinak Median and host of I'm Right
Speaker 5: Your Wrong Podcast, a comedy podcast about the everyday debates
Speaker 5: we've all had at brunch. Every week, I welcome on
Speaker 5: a special guest the likes of Leo Gonzalez, Morgan, Jay Teffi,
Speaker 5: Possoa and Moore to talk about what they think is
Speaker 5: right or wrong, but mostly we banter chiese moosiamos and
Speaker 5: keep you company. Check out new episodes of I'm Right
Speaker 5: Your Wrong podcast every Wednesday anywhere you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: It's American football. I'm Fernande Charvari. Growing up in Argentina
Speaker 2: in the nineteen sixties, Andres Cantor couldn't escape soccer.
Speaker 4: The first gift that every gift got was a soccer bowl,
Speaker 4: so that was probably my first memory gigging a ball
Speaker 4: when I was probably four years old, five years old.
Speaker 4: In Argentina, there's social clubs where you go every weekend
Speaker 4: and spend time, and all I was played football.
Speaker 2: Did you ever think about playing professionally?
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 4: I tried out in Argentina when I was twelve thirteen.
Speaker 4: I last I think it was no more than ten minutes,
Speaker 4: and they took me off. But there were so many
Speaker 4: kids trying out at the youth level, and I obviously
Speaker 4: had the dream yes of playing professional, but I wasn't
Speaker 4: good enough to make it to the pros.
Speaker 2: And when he wasn't playing soccer, he was listening to
Speaker 2: matches on the radio. To one guy in particular, his
Speaker 2: version of Andres Cantor.
Speaker 4: There was one gentleman, the best broadcaster at the time,
Speaker 4: that had ninety percent share of the audience. Everyone listened
Speaker 4: to him, called Jose Maria Munos. So I guess I
Speaker 4: got his rhythms in my years, you know, for life,
Speaker 4: because we all listened to him and his broadcast and
Speaker 4: his way of calling games.
Speaker 2: What did he sound like?
Speaker 4: He was always very, very energetic during his play by play.
Speaker 2: And his broadcast, And while Cantor would listen to Munos
Speaker 2: on the radio, he would sit down and write.
Speaker 4: I sat in front of my dad typewriter and wrote
Speaker 4: the game report just for.
Speaker 3: My own sake, for fun, for fun.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have, I guess, acute observation of what I've seen,
Speaker 4: and I started reading the game pretty much better than
Speaker 4: any any kid my age. But I never thought for
Speaker 4: a minute I would end up doing TV and radio,
Speaker 4: which is.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable, crazy, do you think.
Speaker 4: Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did not want
Speaker 4: to become an announcer. I liked writing.
Speaker 2: When he first moved to southern California as a teenager,
Speaker 2: he wasn't exactly thrilled.
Speaker 4: Sacramento, California. It's a very big and vibrant city now,
Speaker 4: but back in the seventies it was very, very different
Speaker 4: than Buenos Aires, and I suffered a lot because I
Speaker 4: was pretty much miserable that first year. I was missing
Speaker 4: absolutely everything that I have in Buenos Aires.
Speaker 2: His parents, who were both doctors, eventually moved the family
Speaker 2: to Los Angeles. So the second move is to la
Speaker 2: bigger city, more soccer, maybe a little.
Speaker 3: Bit more soccer. Yes.
Speaker 4: I started playing in my high school team in my
Speaker 4: senior year San Marino High School. I always bragg We
Speaker 4: reached the final CIF for the first time in history
Speaker 4: when I was there, so I was a fine year.
Speaker 3: I made some new friends.
Speaker 2: In the team, and just like when he was a
Speaker 2: child back in Argentina, writing was a constant. He was
Speaker 2: the editor of sports pages for his high school newspaper.
Speaker 2: He got a journalism degree from USC without taking a
Speaker 2: single broadcast class. Mind blown, and one day he went
Speaker 2: from writing to using his voice.
Speaker 4: Since I was covering as a writer many sporting events
Speaker 4: in Los Angeles, many of the biggest fights of boxing's
Speaker 4: history in Las Vegas, etc. I coincided with a lot
Speaker 4: of American media, and one day in February of nineteen
Speaker 4: eighty seven, I get asked if I could come into
Speaker 4: Univision studios for an addition, because they were looking for
Speaker 4: either a soccer commentator.
Speaker 3: Or a soccer play by player. Now, Sir, I had
Speaker 3: a lucky.
Speaker 4: Break and the probaly within a week, I got a
Speaker 4: call from Corgaveri, whom I pretty much owe my career two,
Speaker 4: and say.
Speaker 2: You're hired, coming up. I wrap up my conversation with
Speaker 2: andres Cantor by talking about some of his all time
Speaker 2: favorite soccer moments and his impressions about the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: six FIFA Men's World Cup. We'll be right back. It's
Speaker 2: American football. I'm Fernande CHAVARRII I couldn't not ask Andres
Speaker 2: Cantor about his favorite soccer moments. First one was in
Speaker 2: the seventies.
Speaker 4: I was again in Argentina and watched Argentina win it
Speaker 4: first woke up in nineteen seventy eight Argentina can Fiond Rondol.
Speaker 2: His second favorite would later be called the goal of
Speaker 2: the Century.
Speaker 4: I was already working for a Graphico magazine of Argentina
Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty six, and so my biggest idol, Diego
Speaker 4: Maradona lifts the Trophy and score the most beautiful goal
Speaker 4: in the history of the World Cup against England.
Speaker 2: They're both Argentina moments, oh yo. And then there's also
Speaker 2: the one that we started the episode with when he
Speaker 2: got super emotional watching Argentina win in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: but taking Argentina out of the equation.
Speaker 4: I remember one of my goals, London Donovan's goal for
Speaker 4: the US against Al Years in South Africa twenty ten,
Speaker 4: last minute extra time. The US was being eliminated of
Speaker 4: group phase, which was a big embarrassment, and he scored
Speaker 4: on a counter attack and I left it all out.
Speaker 4: Five years later, I was very lucky enough to see
Speaker 4: Carly Lloyd score a hat trick in the FIFA Women's
Speaker 4: World Cup Final in Vancouver, and the third goal was
Speaker 4: from midfield, and I always say that that was probably one,
Speaker 4: regardless of gender, one of the greatest World Cup final
Speaker 4: goals of all times. So the Talle Live Country Quatroso.
Speaker 3: And King Semuta.
Speaker 2: During our hour long conversation, I think I made it
Speaker 2: pretty clear that I love to talk about logistics and process,
Speaker 2: so I was curious about what his day to day
Speaker 2: will look like for this World Cup, because for the
Speaker 2: first time ever in the almost one hundred years of
Speaker 2: World Cups. This time there are three host countries, three
Speaker 2: big countries.
Speaker 4: Qatar was beautiful because I slept in the same hotel room,
Speaker 4: same bed for forty days. Now I get to go
Speaker 4: to eight different cities in all three countries that are
Speaker 4: hosting the World Cup. So I get calling game hop
Speaker 4: on a Blaine repeat. I'll go from LA to Houston
Speaker 4: to Vancouver to Dallas to Kansas, to Miami to Alakata.
Speaker 2: Are you a really good packer?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm used to it.
Speaker 4: I usually take whatever it's necessary, and I've learned that
Speaker 4: if I forget something, there's always somewhere where I can
Speaker 4: buy whatever I forgot.
Speaker 3: If I need to.
Speaker 2: If you've been keeping up with this podcast series, you
Speaker 2: know that this World Cup is widely regarded in the
Speaker 2: US as a consequential one for many, many reasons. Here's
Speaker 2: what soccer starred tap Ramos told me in an earlier
Speaker 2: episode in nineteen ninety four. I feel like it was
Speaker 2: sort of the birth of soccer here. Twenty twenty six
Speaker 2: has to be the World Cup that makes soccer permanent,
Speaker 2: and Cantor agrees.
Speaker 4: Back in nineteen ninety four, I knew that soccer had
Speaker 4: to make it in America. So we depend on the
Speaker 4: World Cup being popular among the general margil for people
Speaker 4: that had never seen a.
Speaker 3: Soccer match in their lives, etc.
Speaker 4: But as much as I said in nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 4: we need to have a good World Cup in all
Speaker 4: sense of the word for the sport to explode definitely
Speaker 4: now in this World Cup will solidify the fandom of
Speaker 4: people that are going to be either new to the
Speaker 4: sport or that already watched the sport, and will solidify
Speaker 4: their loyalties to organ.
Speaker 2: On top of the pressure of this World Cup to
Speaker 2: finally take soccer out of its underdog status in the US,
Speaker 2: It's also happening during a particularly volatile period in geopolitics.
Speaker 2: Whereas the typical attitude of host countries has been one
Speaker 2: of open embrace, the Trump administration stands has been overly hostile,
Speaker 2: throwing four qualified nations on a visa and others on
Speaker 2: a soft blocklist. It caused a kind of dark miasma
Speaker 2: painting for many a tournament they feel should just be
Speaker 2: a positive global celebration. As historian Jonathan Wilson said in
Speaker 2: our first episode, I think this is a World Cup
Speaker 2: that people approach you in trepidation. Even with this backdrop,
Speaker 2: andres Cantor is optimistic about the future of soccer in
Speaker 2: the US.
Speaker 4: Politics aside. It's a different country altogether. It's definitely not
Speaker 4: the same as it was in nineteen ninety four. The
Speaker 4: biggest difference, I would say is sandom. You would pull
Speaker 4: one hundred people in nineteen ninety four about do you
Speaker 4: know what the World Cup is? Probably seventy would say,
Speaker 4: I have no idea, And if you do the same now,
Speaker 4: it's probaty the opposite.
Speaker 3: Thirty would know and seventy would know.
Speaker 4: Way back in nineteen ninety four, nobody could watch more
Speaker 4: than one game per weekend on television, the ones that
Speaker 4: we were calling on Univision.
Speaker 3: So the fandom is that much greater.
Speaker 4: I'll quote Billy Joel in Piano Man, hopefully we will
Speaker 4: all forget life for a while during the thirty nine
Speaker 4: days of competition and then hoping that the world's problems
Speaker 4: get fixed.
Speaker 2: At the risk of sounding Pollyanna, this is something that
Speaker 2: I talked about in episode one. The escape that the
Speaker 2: World Cup provides for so many of us, and its
Speaker 2: significance here in the US for immigrants and kits of immigrants. Well,
Speaker 2: my last question is a bit of a personal one.
Speaker 2: Soccer to me, I don't know the stats. I can't
Speaker 2: tell you you know who plays one during the weekend.
Speaker 2: But when the World Cup happens, I go nuts and
Speaker 2: I go hard and I get really into it. And
Speaker 2: my dad was always the connection to soccer for me
Speaker 2: since I was little, And this is the first World
Speaker 2: Cup that I'm going to experience it without him. This
Speaker 2: is the first one since his passing. So there's a
Speaker 2: lot of connection to soccer that is beyond the sport,
Speaker 2: that is about family, that it's about connection. So I'm
Speaker 2: just curious who's the person that sort of does that
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 4: You asked me before if I am emotional, and I
Speaker 4: got emotional to hearing your story, and I know that
Speaker 4: you will when you hear me he got a lot
Speaker 4: of things will go through your mind and they're all
Speaker 4: going to be beautiful memories. I have no doubt where
Speaker 4: that Mexican Jersey proud. Think about your dad and think
Speaker 4: about who you are and what your dad allowed you
Speaker 4: to become. If I may say, you know, my two
Speaker 4: beautiful kids, my wife, and you know when Argentina won
Speaker 4: the World Up in twenty twenty two. Obviously, I got
Speaker 4: a big hug from my son. Actually he was pitch
Speaker 4: sided and I don't know how. He found me at
Speaker 4: the presentation studio and we hugged and cried.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 4: With a video that also went very, very viral. I'm
Speaker 4: going to close by saying that I am the luckiest
Speaker 4: person in the world because I worked doing what I
Speaker 4: love the most. I've been given the best seat in
Speaker 4: the house for the last forty years. They pay me
Speaker 4: for it, and I've been very lucky to be surrounded
Speaker 4: by great professionals and a great family that has allowed
Speaker 4: me to.
Speaker 2: Do what I do.
Speaker 4: So every time, and believe me, this is true, every
Speaker 4: time I walk onto a broadcast booth at the stadium,
Speaker 4: being the first game or the final, I'll just go
Speaker 4: I'll pinch myself, even though it's something that it's part
Speaker 4: of my regular job, but I will still pinch myself
Speaker 4: and say how lucky I am, and I.
Speaker 2: Am thank you so much for sharing that with us.
Speaker 1: That was an episode of American Football, a new podcast
Speaker 1: about US soccer culture from Futuro Studios. Make sure to
Speaker 1: go to the American Football podcast That's Futbol and subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can also find a link in this episode description.
Speaker 2: American Football is produced by Fututo Studios in collaboration with
Speaker 2: Iheart's Michaultura podcast network. I'm your host Fernande Chavarri. This
Speaker 2: episode was produced by Levi Sharp. It was edited by
Speaker 2: our senior editor Rebecca Vara and me. Fact checking by
Speaker 2: Roxanna Guire, mixing by Brandon Krugel at Multitude Productions. Victoria
Speaker 2: Strada is our production manager. Legal review by Jonathan Fisher
Speaker 2: at Fisher Legal Arts, Andres Cavaguero is also part of
Speaker 2: our production team. Our executive producers are Marlon Bishop and
Speaker 2: Maria Garcia at Futuro Studios. Executive producers at iHeart are
Speaker 2: Leo Gomes and Arlene Santana. Futura Media was founded by
Speaker 2: Maria Inojosa. You can listen to more episodes of American
Speaker 2: Football on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 2: get your shows. And if you like it, please give
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