Clearly, I've been entirely lacking on the blogging front since, y'know, October.
But the MLS season returned for me tonight, and with it, I have easily embeddable highlights that won't disappear (I think) any time soon.
I have the chance to call the first three games of the regular season for the New York Red Bulls on the MSG Networks. It's a thrill any time I get the chance to work on these shows, because they were some of the first broadcasts I watched regularly as a high-school kid getting into soccer in North Jersey. Under Mike Petke and now Jesse Marsch over the last five years, the club has been easy to like and exciting to watch.
Saturday was no exception, and the storyline made it even better. The Red Bulls were resting nine of their 11 starters for a Tuesday game in the CONCACAF Champions League, the regional championship tournament (which just happens to take place at the beginning of the MLS season). So New York played a team full of young players, many of whom I've studied and seen before because I'm obsessive about tracking young American players. So there were some cool moments to call on a cold but really fun Opening Night.
Yes, that's a 17-year-old scoring less than 20 minutes into his first MLS game. Not bad, Ben Mines. Not bad at all.
Here's our MSG post-game recap, even if you can't see me at the anchor desk alongside US soccer legend Shep Messing.