A mix of the soothing Scottish accents in Bravehart, a strong vocabulary, and a wanton lust for soccer, and you’ve got Derek Rae, our new favorite announcer. (We must commend ESPN’s entire Euro 2008 soccer crew – the studio hosts have been on point and Andy Gray and Tommy Smyth consistently ooze passion. It is much-needed announcing relief after the disastrous showing by Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson at the NBA Finals.) This feeling will probably subside once Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery start calling college hoops again in November, but Rae has had such a strong run this month, we often find ourselves rewinding goals just to hear his call. A sampling of lines we liked from Rae from Saturday’s scintillating Russia 3, Netherlands 1 quarterfinal result:

“He packs a feral wallop”
“Delicious stuff it was”
“A kaleidoscope of shifting emotion”
“They were decided underdogs against the Clockwork Orange and they made a mockery of that underdog status.”
“From Brilliant Orange to absent orange”

And there’s this sweet clip from a legendary Manchester/Liverpool match in 2005. Definitely wait for the PK.

(Germany/Turkey post coming at 2:45 in time for the match.)