For English speakers, at least, the sound of a Brit calling action on the pitch seems to have a lovely and felicitous connection to the rhythm of the game itself.

See. There you go.

You listen to a soccer match called by one of Her Majesty's subjects and you start using descriptions like "lovely and felicitous."

An American ear never tired of hearing Henry Longhurst speak during a golf tournament, even after hearing him for years. That accent just fits the game. Being English did everything but hurt Nick Faldo's chances of being hired as CBS-TV's lead golf analyst.

So it was Wednesday morning when you listened to Ian Darke handle play-by-play of the U.S. vs. Algeria World Cup game in Pretoria, South Africa, which was carried in the States on ESPN.

The nimble music of Darke's voice, along with the easy authority on what he was seeing, stood in stark contrast to his analyst partner, American John Harkes, who was burdened, as many of us outside a Tennessee Williams play are, with a clunky American voice.

During this match Harkes also was burdened with an armful of clunky clichés, which never helps.

During the opening, Darke told viewers: "Among the crowd here on this nervy day for American soccer is former President Bill Clinton. This is it. The crunch. The USA. They have to perform today."

Nervy, indeed.

When a defender was called for a foul trying to take the ball away from his opponent, Darke described it as a challenge "a little too masculine for the referee's liking."

Masculine, indeed.

At one point Jozy Altidore of the U.S. tried to carry the ball between two Algerian defenders.

"It was a little naïve, really, trying to go through," Darke said about Altidore's choice.

Naïve. Hear, hear.

Darke talked about how Clint Dempsey's goal in the first half, disallowed because the referee ruled Dempsey offside, would be scrutinized if the U.S. failed to score and advance to the round of 16.

"Imagine the inquest there will be about that massive decision to deny Clint Dempsey," Dempsey said. "It looked level and onside when he put the ball in the net in the first half. As every second goes by that is looking more and more like an outrage, really, for the USA."

The words "inquest" and "massive" fit perfectly.

Darke described one bad pass as "slovenly." He said the match had "mountainous drama." When Dempsey missed a shot in the second half, Darke called it "absolute agony for the USA."

Darke offered up a British version of Dick Enberg's "Oh, my!"

"Oh, my goodness me!" Darke said after Altidore sent the ball sailing over the crossbar at point-blank range.

Harkes, meanwhile, was telling viewers it was "a do or die situation," that the U.S. had "their destiny in their hands" (which outside of the goalie's is the last place you want to find a soccer ball), that "the drama is unfolding as we speak" and that "cooler heads will prevail."

Harkes was better describing a U.S. shot that should have gone in as "a golden chance that will go missing."

To his credit, Harkes was able to keep up with Darke's rock 'n' roll allusions.

In the first half, Algeria nearly scored early with a ball that caromed off the crossbar. The U.S. created plenty of scoring opportunities, but couldn't find the net.

"There was a Rolling Stones record once called '19th Nervous Breakdown,' " Darke said. "I think that's just about the way of it here as far as the U.S. is concerned. And it's only going to get worse."

Said Harkes: "There is also a song called 'Shattered.' That's something the fans don't want to feel right now as they go in at halftime."

As impressive as Harkes' improvisational take was, it remained a prisoner of a clunky and lumbering U.S. accent, while Darke was skipping around smartly with that sound of his.

However, there wasn't any British reserve in Darke's description of Landon Donovan's stoppage-time stunner in the 91st minute. In fact, Darke did a bit of flag-waving on behalf of the U.S. which, well, is a bit unseemly.

Since a few words of Darke's goal call were hard to discern even on repeated replays, an ESPN spokesman provided what he considered the accurate version for the record:

"And Donovan has scored! Oh, can you believe this? Go, go USA! Certainly through! Oh, it's incredible! You could not write a script like this!"

Then Darke and Harkes were silent for 27 seconds as the viewer got pictures of the U.S. players celebrating in a pile, pictures of both teams' goalies and a crowd shot. Harkes then started to speak when the replay came up, but Darke took over the description.

At one point in that description Darke referred to the goal as "breathtakingly exciting."