JP Dellacamera
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John Paul Dellacamera (born in Waltham, Massachusetts), known as JP (no periods), is the voice of Major League Soccer for ABC.
He is also ABC's play-by-play man for their coverage of international soccer, a sport he's been calling for nearly 30 years. His most famous assignment was calling the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup final between the United States, and China, which ended in a 0-0 tie after regulation, with the U.S. women winning in a penalty kick shootout 5-4 ("The shot-save, Scurry!" was one of Dellacamera's most memorable calls from that day's shootout, coming from U.S. goalkeeper Briana Scurry's save on China's third kick of the shootout). Dellacamera was NBC's play-by-play voice for soccer at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he did both the men's and women's tournaments.
He also does play-by-play for Red Bull New York on MSG Network. Other famous soccer assignments include the 1999 UEFA Champions League final and numerous United States World Cup qualifiers, including Paul Caligiuri's famed 1989 "Shot Heard Round the World" goal against Trinidad & Tobago. In the early 2000s, he was the lead play-by-play announcer for the WUSA national broadcasts.
Dellacamera is also an NHL announcer, as he is the play-by-play voice of the Atlanta Thrashers for SportSouth, and served as one of ESPN's many play-by-play commentators at the start of each Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Dellacamera also hosted an ESPNSoccernet show titled PressPass, in which he was the "referee" to analysts Tommy Smyth, Eddie Mighten, and Mike Hill. The show airs only in Sydney, Auckland, Africa, Israel, and the Middle East. However, American viewers can watch the show online on ESPN's website. Dellacamera has been replaced by Derek Rae, and Mighten and Hill have been replaced by Janusz Michallik. Only Smyth remains on the panel.
[edit] Some memorable calls from Dellacamera
- "Drives it, far side. Headed by Wambach, and Wambach has scored! USA leads!"-JP made this call after Abby Wambach scored in overtime against Brazil in the Women's Soccer Gold Medal Game on a header from a corner kick in Athens at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
- "Goal!"-Dellacamera usually makes this call after every goal--including after Brandi Chastain scored the winning goal in the penalty kick shootout in the '99 FIFA Women's World Cup.
- On November 11, 2005, Dellacamera covered a game between the Thrashers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. In that game, young Thrashers star Ilya Kovalchuk scored four straight goals, a career high, in a 5-2 win for Atlanta. These are Dellacamera's calls on those goals:
- "Savard's pass in tight, Hossa, comes out, Kovalchuk scores! That didn't take long." — 18:11 into the first period, to cut Tampa's lead to 2-1
- "Kovalchuk, he and Slava cris-cross...score Kovalchuk!" — 12:33 into the second period, to tie the game at 2-2
- "It's back up to Havlat, wrister, tipped, score! He's got the hat trick!" — 13:59 into the second period, to give Atlanta a 3-2 lead
- "Open at the moment, fakes, Kovalchuk into the circle, save Grahame, and it goes in! He's got four goals! Kovalchuk again!" — 19:41 into the second period, to extend Atlanta's lead to 4-2; Hossa would add one more goal in the third to give Atlanta a 5-2 win
