Thanks to the folks at ESPN, I was able to talk with Ian Darke about his call of Landon Donovan’s amazing goal. For a transcription of this conversation, please visit The Sporting Blog. In addition to the call, we talk about John Harkes’ reaction in the booth, the importance for American soccer and a bit about the situations in England, Italy and France.

Thanks to the folks at ESPN, I was able to talk with Ian Darke about his call of Landon Donovan’s amazing goal. For a transcription of this conversation, please visit . In addition to the call, we talk about John Harkes’ reaction in the booth, the importance for American soccer and a bit about the situations in England, Italy and France.

And since Darke is now officially part of the fabric of American sports with this call, would he ever want to branch out and do some college football?

Again, go to TSB to read, or listen above. Thanks and Go Go USA!
And since Darke is now officially part of the fabric of American sports with this call, would he ever want to branch out and do some college football?

Again, go to TSB to read, or listen above. Thanks and Go Go USA!

We talk about the USMNT win, the tennis marathon — and how ESPN handled the event — and the NBA draft, including the Washington Post story on John Wall. But really, this is about soccer. I don’t usually do this, but here’s my post from The Sporting Blog. I’d like to have it here as [...]

Rather than listen to us talk about Landon Donovan’s goal in stoppage time to get the United States into the second round of the World Cup, we thought we could do that tomorrow. Today, listen to the incredible call by ESPN’s Ian Darke. Darke had a wonderful play-by-play call and, with John Harkes too choked [...]

It’s a soccerific show. We talk about the USMNT match against Algeria, discuss if Mexico should play for the tie against Uruguay just to advance — and be forced to play Argentina – or if they should play to win, even if trying to win may open themselves up for a loss. We also talk [...]

We talk about three things today. First, a rundown of the U.S. Open, focusing a lot on NBC’s coverage but a good amount on the actual tournament itself. Second we talk about the World Cup. I’ll admit I had hoped to talk more about England and France than we did. I’m still really worked up [...]

Three amazing items to discuss today. First, the game seven tonight. Then, Nick and I give a detailed breakdown of the US Open with a good combination of stats and conjecture to help you pick a winner. Note, we both think Phil might just win this one. Then, Jon Tannenwald of The Goalkeeper joins the [...]

Last week, we talked with Brian Cook of MGoBlog about the panel at Blogs with Balls that focused on ethics. Go back and listen to that show, but the long and short of it was the issue that, well, some blogs don’t have any ethics and it dumbs down the entire industry for the readers and hurts the rest of us who do have ethics. (There’s a lot more to it, but that’s the gist, and most of that centers around the tete-a-tete with Spencer Hall of SB Nation and Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead.

Alana Nguyen from YardBarker was on that panel, and took a lot of heat — including from me and Cook — about her comment asking, ostensibly, why a blog has to have ethics if they don’t want to. Specifically, Alana commented on Josh Zerkle’s decision not to run a story because he didn’t want to run it without checking the facts first, to which Alana asked why it’s not okay to write the rumor, simply explaining it’s a rumor and not verifying the validity. That, rightly, got people pretty upset, and spawned a lot of discussion, including much of what Cook and I discussed.

Today, Alana joins the show to give her side of the story. Keep in mind that ethics, especially when it comes to sports blogs, is a really gray area. Spencer’s ethical issue with The Big Lead was the fact that they ran information that was made up and didn’t bother to check out a source or independently confirm a story they received in an email. Other people sent me that what Spencer did in duping TBL — albeit on April Fool’s Day — was unethical in its own right. So, as you can see, there are different kinds of ethics.

Click the headline to continue reading and listen to the show…

We start with, well, vuvuzelas. I didn’t want to. Nick just surprised me with it. I honestly don’t have a problem with them. It’s fun to make fun of them, but at some point they just become part of the background. Now if I was there I’m sure I’d hate it. On TV it’s not as off-putting as some.

We talk about the savior of the Big 12, for now. It’s more wondering what the fallout will be. There still has to be fallout, right? Oh, and there was an EARTHQUAKE during a baseball game? This, clearly, far less devastating than in the past.

WORLD CUP:

I was on a conference call with ESPN’s John Skipper yesterday and asked him what the network’s plan is for discussing non-soccer stories with regard to each country in the World Cup. For example, North Korea plays today, so is there any thought of a feature on their political unrest? Perhaps something about the Greek financial crisis (perhaps how that pertains to the soccer team). We’ve been told that ESPN has a lot of stories planned for South Africa, but what about the rest of the world, as, let’s face it, the World Cup is a political event as much as a sporting event.

Skipper’s reply is inside the show, and is very well reasoned and smart. If there’s a story that breaks during the World Cup, they’ll cover it. They will extensively cover South Africa, but unless it pertains to the team on the field, they will probably steer clear of the story.

Having said that, play-by-play man Ian Darke has made several references to the economic status of the countries for matches he is calling, most notably the comment about Paraguay’s poverty rate and the civil and political unrest in Ivory Coast. So there is, somewhere, a balance.

Click the headline to continue reading and listen to the show…

Nick and I talk about the USMNT match with England. We also discuss the ratings for the match and the job that ESPN/ABC has done. In a word, fantastic. More on that at The Sporting Blog. We throw some baseball in at the end, but this is a back and forth soccer show. Be warned.

World Cup day! Let’s not waste time reading. CLICK THIS LINK to Sarah Sprague (TheStarterWife) and her amazing World Cup food breakdown. Every country in the tournament, represented by food. And you can vote. We go through some of the highlights. I think I’m going burger. Nick and I also talk about the excitement of [...]