Just a heads up with live links to come a little later. I've decided to house the podcast in "real-time" over at Ourmedia/the Internet Archive. The downside to this is that you'll have to stream the episode as I don't believe you can jump around in it.
However, and not to be overly confusing, episodes will later get archived over to Podomatic where you *should* be able to surf the episode for parts pertinent to your interests.
Anyway, so there you have it, 2 locations and styles for whatever best suits your interests. I'll have the links to each as soon as they become available.
Update: Episode 2 is live and you can listen to it here. I'll have the Podomatic link as soon as it is uploaded over there as well.
In soccer,
BF
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Absurdities, playoffs and bears, oh my!
First and foremost, apologies to anyone who has not been able to check out the podcast. I had been led to believe the link was live prior to yesterday but that had not been the case. Needless to say, I'm going to try to work around this kind of delay/lag or just find a faster way to get things posted.
At any rate, let's have a quick look around: the MLS playoff race is nearly done with the post-season just around the corner. At this moment, FCD, the Gals, TFC, and the Quakes are out. Ives has a great bit about this on his blog. I won't get too deep in repeating his points but I'd say pay special attention to what he had to say about TFC and the Quakes looking ahead to next year. I'll expound a little on this and the futures of the other teams who are soon to be knocked out of the race as well in the next show.
On the national team front, I'm keeping a close watch on any info that comes out about yet another potential MFL "defection" to MLS. I am also looking for info on the Cuban players who left their team in D.C. I'll have a look at how some guys are doing abroad and maybe talk a bit about guys on the fringe that should take action to get more PT either at their clubs or with El Bobbo's squad.
Now for West Ham, a crashing defeat at Hull on the weekend? Not so much. They're playing out of their minds right now. Still, not a good time to be coming up on a game against the Arse. Meanwhile, in Europe, there's another rumor flying about that Becks is off to Milan to play for AC. If this happens and I'm Phil Anschutz, Berlusconi is going to caugh up quite a bit of money to cover the wages doled out to the England midfielder.
At any rate, this is just a small look at some of the things I'm going to talk about in the next episode alongside some content on the USL and WPS. I promise!
Radio edit: From Goff's blog - "Oft-injured Ben Olsen looked good on the sideline as an assistant coach. Hmmm....." speaking on United's game against Cruz Azul this week. This is something I've been quietly contemplating for some time but now that Goff's put it out there I'll feel a little less "aluminum foil hat" about talking it up on the show.
in soccer,
Bill
At any rate, let's have a quick look around: the MLS playoff race is nearly done with the post-season just around the corner. At this moment, FCD, the Gals, TFC, and the Quakes are out. Ives has a great bit about this on his blog. I won't get too deep in repeating his points but I'd say pay special attention to what he had to say about TFC and the Quakes looking ahead to next year. I'll expound a little on this and the futures of the other teams who are soon to be knocked out of the race as well in the next show.
On the national team front, I'm keeping a close watch on any info that comes out about yet another potential MFL "defection" to MLS. I am also looking for info on the Cuban players who left their team in D.C. I'll have a look at how some guys are doing abroad and maybe talk a bit about guys on the fringe that should take action to get more PT either at their clubs or with El Bobbo's squad.
Now for West Ham, a crashing defeat at Hull on the weekend? Not so much. They're playing out of their minds right now. Still, not a good time to be coming up on a game against the Arse. Meanwhile, in Europe, there's another rumor flying about that Becks is off to Milan to play for AC. If this happens and I'm Phil Anschutz, Berlusconi is going to caugh up quite a bit of money to cover the wages doled out to the England midfielder.
At any rate, this is just a small look at some of the things I'm going to talk about in the next episode alongside some content on the USL and WPS. I promise!
Radio edit: From Goff's blog - "Oft-injured Ben Olsen looked good on the sideline as an assistant coach. Hmmm....." speaking on United's game against Cruz Azul this week. This is something I've been quietly contemplating for some time but now that Goff's put it out there I'll feel a little less "aluminum foil hat" about talking it up on the show.
in soccer,
Bill
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
expansion bids announced
and the bids are in from... Atlanta, Miami, Montreal, Ottawa, Portland, St. Louis, and Vancouver.
So, no real surprises besides no Aquilini involvement at this time with the Vancouver bid. Apologies to the folks in St. Louis for not discussing them in the podcast. There's not really much to note here except for maybe a bit of dissection on Abbott's body language and some of the things he both did and did not say but I'll leave that to the Big Soccer types for now.
I'll just say he did look quite animated when they discussed the ticket sales in Seattle and any potential corollary for Portland. I'm still not sold on Atlanta, either but more on that later. There you have it folks.
So, no real surprises besides no Aquilini involvement at this time with the Vancouver bid. Apologies to the folks in St. Louis for not discussing them in the podcast. There's not really much to note here except for maybe a bit of dissection on Abbott's body language and some of the things he both did and did not say but I'll leave that to the Big Soccer types for now.
I'll just say he did look quite animated when they discussed the ticket sales in Seattle and any potential corollary for Portland. I'm still not sold on Atlanta, either but more on that later. There you have it folks.
Great? news
Hi everybody, great news. I finally got the podcast recorded and am uploading it right now. It was all done in one, unedited take. I figured I would give you the rawest version possible and we can only go onwards and upwards from here. Be sure to let me know about technical issues, content issues, whatever. If all you're going to say is "you're an idiot, you suck" been there, done that don't waste either of our time. Now, if you have a reason why behind it, then fire away. Here's the cheat sheet for the show since it turned into a mammoth hour:
minute 1:00-15:00 US National Team
15:00-28:00 MLS Playoffs and such
29:00-40:00 potential affect on USL by MLS expansion
40:00-50:00 USL1 Final commentary
50:00-end West Ham/Euro commentary PLUS scores from Euro Qualifiers during the last 3ish minutes, so beware if you've taped any of the Euro games from today.
One correction to make from the cast - Francesco Aquilini is, of course, the owner of the NHL's Canucks.
In the next couple of hours I'll be posting the info from the MLS Announcement on expansion applicants which comes out at 5ET. After that I will try to post some pertinent links from the show.
And finally, the link to the show. It should be active shortly. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
In soccer,
Bill
minute 1:00-15:00 US National Team
15:00-28:00 MLS Playoffs and such
29:00-40:00 potential affect on USL by MLS expansion
40:00-50:00 USL1 Final commentary
50:00-end West Ham/Euro commentary PLUS scores from Euro Qualifiers during the last 3ish minutes, so beware if you've taped any of the Euro games from today.
One correction to make from the cast - Francesco Aquilini is, of course, the owner of the NHL's Canucks.
In the next couple of hours I'll be posting the info from the MLS Announcement on expansion applicants which comes out at 5ET. After that I will try to post some pertinent links from the show.
And finally, the link to the show. It should be active shortly. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
In soccer,
Bill
Good grief....
Okay, I'm going to spare EVERYONE the lengthy laundry list of real life reason why there has been no blog or podcast out of me as promised. Suffice to say the overwhelming majority of it is highly personal. For those who are friends of the blog/myself you guys can fire away. You know where to reach me.
Onwards and upwards. Tonight I will be doing some audio testing and getting things online to see if I can "demo" my set-up. In the meantime, here's a taster of what I'm going to talk about:
Torres for the USA! How about this kid? Yeah, it was mop up duty but I was really thoroughly impressed and i seems like others were as well. Hopefully he starts tomorrow/tonight against T & T. I'm also hoping to see some sort of Szetela, Torres, Adu combination from the get go but that's probably too much for El Bobbo. We shall see.
MLS Expansion. I have to be honest, I've been keeping tabs on this much more closely than the playoffs, although, I will admit to rooting for an RSL-Crew final. I'd settle for Chivas against the Crew as well for the sake of having a home team in it. Otherwise, Chicago would be intriguing for the McBride, Blanco, Hamlett storylines. I just really don't want to see NE-Houston again and if one of them has to be there, how about it be the Revs FINALLY getting over the hump? That would be nice... to put it mildly.
USL schtuff - particularly the attempted "defections" of the ATL, Montreal, Vancouver, Miami, Ottawa, Portland... oh hell, pretty much everyone besides the Islanders, Battery and Railhawks. Okay, Rochester, too, but you get my point. Hopefully I can get some comments from people in the know about these situations particularly with the Silverbacks in mind. I know I'd be smashing a few things tonight if I worked in their front office. What I really want to know is, has there been any contact or offer from Blank and co. to work with the 'Backs who have been working so hard on this whole futbol things down South? Of course, I still believe MLS really wants to get St. Louis in and barring that, the Vancouver and Montreal deals look potentially massive. Miami's now got Barca going to bat for them? Yeah, I wonder if this isn't a bit of a, pardon the pun, hail mary from the NFL's Falcons owner? I will say this, the notion of the following expansion sequence would intrigue me:
2011: St Louis, Vancouver
2014-15: Montreal, Portland
2017-18: Atlanta, Miami
There are a whole lot of dilemmas wrapped up in this thing which I plan to spend a lot of time discussing in the podcast, especially how to keep interest stoked for those left out of upcoming rounds and what about NY2, as we know it's another pet project of Garber's, does the USL become a full-on MLS expansion incubator? Moving along...
Over in England, my Hammers have been... tumultuous to say the least, in regards to their front office. This disguises the fact that they have actually been fairly consistent in the season so far. It's beginning to look, however, like new manager Gianfranco Zola will have to make due with budget signings like this week's free transfer signing, former Depor great, Diego Tristan. Many will quickly remind you, though, that "great" is hardly a term that springs to mind from the last couple of seasons for the striker.
Aside from these topics, I'd like to see if I can get some talk in about WPS and maybe some added Euro leagues and WC Qualifying discussion but we'll have to see how the voice holds up and how much time I really want to yak for in the premiere.
At any rate, hopefully many of you will actually be hearing me instead of just reading me soon.
In soccer,
Bill
Onwards and upwards. Tonight I will be doing some audio testing and getting things online to see if I can "demo" my set-up. In the meantime, here's a taster of what I'm going to talk about:
Torres for the USA! How about this kid? Yeah, it was mop up duty but I was really thoroughly impressed and i seems like others were as well. Hopefully he starts tomorrow/tonight against T & T. I'm also hoping to see some sort of Szetela, Torres, Adu combination from the get go but that's probably too much for El Bobbo. We shall see.
MLS Expansion. I have to be honest, I've been keeping tabs on this much more closely than the playoffs, although, I will admit to rooting for an RSL-Crew final. I'd settle for Chivas against the Crew as well for the sake of having a home team in it. Otherwise, Chicago would be intriguing for the McBride, Blanco, Hamlett storylines. I just really don't want to see NE-Houston again and if one of them has to be there, how about it be the Revs FINALLY getting over the hump? That would be nice... to put it mildly.
USL schtuff - particularly the attempted "defections" of the ATL, Montreal, Vancouver, Miami, Ottawa, Portland... oh hell, pretty much everyone besides the Islanders, Battery and Railhawks. Okay, Rochester, too, but you get my point. Hopefully I can get some comments from people in the know about these situations particularly with the Silverbacks in mind. I know I'd be smashing a few things tonight if I worked in their front office. What I really want to know is, has there been any contact or offer from Blank and co. to work with the 'Backs who have been working so hard on this whole futbol things down South? Of course, I still believe MLS really wants to get St. Louis in and barring that, the Vancouver and Montreal deals look potentially massive. Miami's now got Barca going to bat for them? Yeah, I wonder if this isn't a bit of a, pardon the pun, hail mary from the NFL's Falcons owner? I will say this, the notion of the following expansion sequence would intrigue me:
2011: St Louis, Vancouver
2014-15: Montreal, Portland
2017-18: Atlanta, Miami
There are a whole lot of dilemmas wrapped up in this thing which I plan to spend a lot of time discussing in the podcast, especially how to keep interest stoked for those left out of upcoming rounds and what about NY2, as we know it's another pet project of Garber's, does the USL become a full-on MLS expansion incubator? Moving along...
Over in England, my Hammers have been... tumultuous to say the least, in regards to their front office. This disguises the fact that they have actually been fairly consistent in the season so far. It's beginning to look, however, like new manager Gianfranco Zola will have to make due with budget signings like this week's free transfer signing, former Depor great, Diego Tristan. Many will quickly remind you, though, that "great" is hardly a term that springs to mind from the last couple of seasons for the striker.
Aside from these topics, I'd like to see if I can get some talk in about WPS and maybe some added Euro leagues and WC Qualifying discussion but we'll have to see how the voice holds up and how much time I really want to yak for in the premiere.
At any rate, hopefully many of you will actually be hearing me instead of just reading me soon.
In soccer,
Bill
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