After calling for almost 40 years of football matches in the US, it would be easy to assume that Andres Cantor had not had a bucket list items. His voice is the soundtrack of some of the most memorable moments of the game, including the Spanish language calls such as the national team of Argentina and the national team of American women, just won world cups over the past decade. However, there is something new that he had wanted to do for a while, although he doesn’t have to wait much longer to check that bucket lists – call a game with his son, Nico.
The two will work together on Thursday to broadcast the Concacaf Nation League Semfinical (10.30 pm et, Paramount+), Marking the first time that a father-son Duo will share a television cabin in the history of large US English-language sports broadcasts. It will not be the first time that the pair of collaboration that was honor was reserved for the Spanish-speaking radio broadcast of a friendly between Mexico and Colombia when Nico, currently a broadcaster for CBS Sports Golazo Network, was still in high school and the two had to work out the mechanics of what to call. While Nico improved in his career, his father had the hope for a controversial reunion.
“It is one of my bucket list, to broadcast a game in English and hopefully it won’t be the last,” Andres Cantor told CBS Sports. “I hope this is the first of many in English together or in Spanish, but I hope we have fun and entertain the audience.”
The Elder Cantor is a suitable choice for the Concacaf Nations League match, partly because this week’s action, including fellow-and-half finalists Panama and the National Team of the American men’s and a type of clothing rehearsal, is for the World Cup 2026, that the US, Canada and Mexico will have co-guestheer. Next year’s World Cup is seen by many as a pioneering moment in the history of football in the US, something that Cantor has had a chair in the front row. He called his first game, a meeting between the club America of Mexico and the Roma of Italy, in February 1987 and quickly became fame, even when the sport struggled to do the same. Cantor’s goal -oriented, modeled on the many Latin -American broadcasters who came before him, earned him guest spots on the late show with David Letterman in the nineties, an appearance on The Simpsons and an opportunity to hang around with Snoop Dogg during NBC and Telemundo’s broadcast of the Olympic Games from last summer.
His ability to become relevant – and to stay does not mean that he did not experience that some of the heavy fighting has football in the US.
Cantor has seen football a long way.
“There was a lot of resistance within the regular media about football,” said Cantor. “I think they felt threatened. First of all there was a lot of ignorance about the game. Nobody knew too much about it and then it was a bit of a laugh because it scored low and there was so many things I had to fight against, explaining to people a 2-2 match is a 14-14 match in the NFL.
Cantor sees, like other football broadcasters in the US, as a guardian of the sport for which he first fell in Argentina, the land of his birth. He is perhaps an ideal steward for the world’s most popular game in the US, where he moved as a teenager and is now a double burger. For the most part of his career, he has been an ever-present figure in the American football scene, up to the point that he called every game of the World Cups of 1990, 1994 and 1998 for Univision that he does not intend to reach again in 2026 for the first 48 team, 104 Game edition of the competition. His list of the three most memorable games he has mentioned are a perfect encapsulation of who he is and the transforming feeling that those moments are calling back – the goal of Landon Donovan against Algeria to send the USMNT to the Tour of 16 in the World Cup 2010, the World Cup in the World Cup of 2010.
Cantor’s iconic target call is completely authentic
His fame is largely because of his iconic goal -oriented, the one who calls his son Nico the ‘MoneyMaker’. It is a comment that inspires a smile from the more experienced Cantor, even if he has a point after his father’s voice was heard in Volkswagen and Geico commercials. The elongated, passionate use of the word is as memorable as a stellar goal, although one thing is certain – as an impressive goal, Cantor’s call is not artificial, but rather an example of the skill and stylish precision that only a professional can deliver.
“I know people might expect the goal call, but it has never been a gimmick for me,” said Cantor. “It came of course because of the beauty of the goal itself, from the intensity of the competition.”
Cantor is a really natural, with no real pre-match routine to keep the vocal cords fresh. He tries to give priority to peace and excludes the outside world on Gameday, although he has overcome the wide range of obstacles that can come with any attempt to stay quiet and relaxed for a big broadcast. Take his call from Lloyd’s goal, for example. She had already scored twice in the first five minutes of the final 5-2 victory of the USWNT on Japan, and her teammate Lauren Holiday brought the score 3-0 on the 14th minute. The early eruption of goals, however, was not yet completely past Lloyd saw Japan goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori from her line and ping a shot of the midfield line, completed her hat trick and essentially provided the 16-year waiting time of the USWNT for a third World Cup title with the 16th minute. Cantor mentioned that strike in the reliable enthusiastic way that his trademark has become, even if his journey to the BC site of Vancouver for the World Cup final was far from conventional.
“The night before that match in Vancouver, I called the final of Copa America between Argentina and Chile in Santiago,” he said. “I took a red eyes immediately afterwards. The stadium closed the door behind me. It was an American flight from Santiago to Dallas, chatted a plane from Dallas to Vancouver, went to the hotel, was showered and arrived at the game to call the final with probably an hour and a half and yet I could see what I could see, to make that call.”
The challenge to work in two different languages
His instinctive zeal for the game, Cantor said, offers him the chance to bring the pace of Spanish language commentary to the English-speaking public, a somewhat unusual opportunity in the American broadcasts, but proof of his work. Although the task is the same for him, regardless of language, Cantor noted certain differences between calling a match in Spanish and English.
“I’m going to another rhythm in English,” said Cantor. “It is really difficult because every occasion I can do to play in English, I am asked to be me. The reason they hire me is to be the Andres Cantor who knows everyone in the Spanish Playby-Play, but there is a cadence that is different. … It is going to take a few minutes to find my voice, my rhythm.”
Cantor will have the advantage of having a well -known voice there to offer an assist if necessary.
“It will probably feel a bit different, knowing that I will have the comfort to have Nico next to me,” said Cantor. “I think it will be super fun in that sense. I hope he doesn’t have to save me too often and get me out of trouble, but no, it will be super fun because of course he is not just my son and I am not alone [just] Say this. I take out my father. I respect him so much professionally that it will really be very, very nice to work next to him. “