I've discovered since my return to the U.S. that one of the best things about being out of the country for World Cup is that you don't have to endure the American announcers employed by ESPN who, despite their best efforts, come off as idiots. (Actually, that's more true of the lead duo, Dave O'Brien and Marcelo Balboa, than it is of JP Dellacamera and John Harkes. But I digress...)

I don't want to get into just why ESPN's coverage is so bad; that topic is being covered on blogs all over the place and even at Salon.com. I will instead offer a moment of brilliance from Univision's announcers today, just after Jens Lehmann stopped his second PK and sent Germany through to the semifinals:

¡El alemán! ¡Lehmann! ¡El alemán! ¡Lehmann!

In Spanish, "el alemán" is "the German" and the last two syllables of "alemán" are pronounced the same as "Lehmann," but with the accent on different syllables, so the whole thing was quite poetic. He continued on that theme by shouting, "Yes! Jens! Yes! Jens!"

Inspired.