I was hoping to do some flashbacks this year to look back 10 years to
2010, when I was in my second year as the radio play-by-play
broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo. Now with sports shut down and so
much of life seemingly on hold, it seems like the right time to aim for a
series of retrospectives, looking back at some memorable or quirky
moments from my career in sports.
May 22, 2010
Danny Cruz always stands out for one thing: energy.
I'm just going to leave this here and let you enjoy Danny's first foray into the starting lineup.
A former hockey player who always brought that mentality to the soccer field, Danny is one of my favorite people to cover and work with, from his draft day in 2009 as a 19-year-old to his appearance on MTV's Made in 2011 (more on that here) to his years with the Philadelphia Union to the present day as an assistant coach with Louisville City. A relentlessly positive guy with an amazing attitude.
Having come to the sport a little later than most, Danny was never the most technical player at the professional level. But his speed, athleticism, and work ethic earned him a Generation adidas contract out of UNLV and led to him starting a good run of matches in both 2010 and 2011, including the Dynamo's run to the 2011 MLS Cup final.
We in the Dynamo communications office got some laughs over the years from times the wrong Danny Cruz would be listed on our team page on various sites. There was the time Soccerway listed him as Daniel Cruzeiro, a Brazilian goalkeeper, and, of course, the time the Dynamo invited a Colombian named Daniel Cruz for a trial.
I'm not going to lie: I was kind of glad that one didn't pan out. Although the two later shared the field for five minutes in a Houston-Dallas MLS game, to me there's only one Danny Cruz.
11 May 2020
Flashback 2014: Revs roll 5-0, Seattle blames me
I was hoping to do some flashbacks this year to look back 10 years to
2010, when I was in my second year as the radio play-by-play
broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo. Now with sports shut down and so
much of life seemingly on hold, it seems like the right time to aim for a
series of retrospectives, looking back at some memorable or quirky
moments from my career in sports.
May 11, 2014
I had to laugh when I saw the MLS Extratime "Greatest Team of All Time" bracket including each MLS team's best squad of all time and noted that the Seattle Sounders representatives are the 2014 squad. It was a fantastic team, of course, Supporters' Shield and Open Cup champions and only eliminated in the MLS postseason via an away-goals rule that I despise. Obafemi Martins, Clint Dempsey, Chad Marshall, Ozzie Alonso, Stefan Frei, DeAndre Yedlin, Brad Evans. Great team.
But when I got a chance to call a Sounders game that year, they laid an egg. An unprecedented, unmitigated disaster of a game.
This package, while long, is a pretty good look back at a day Revs fans will want to remember a lot more than Sounders supporters. Head to the 10-minute mark for me trying to keep things light despite an unprecedented 4-0 halftime deficit for my home-team-for-a-day.
Everybody's backup
For me, this was a one-off, a fill-in, one of the ways I managed to stay involved in MLS broadcasting while living in four cities in less than three years. A local announcer has a family commitment, gets sick, gets bumped up to a national game. Who are you going to call who can jump right in and know both teams? I was proud to be that guy.
This was a special opportunity, with Sounders announcer Ross Fletcher's wife preparing to give birth, to step onto one of the most-watched broadcasts in the league. I loved working with the Sounders' ultra-professional broadcast team, including Jackie Montgomery, Taylor Graham, and Kasey Keller. My first and only show with them had some shaky new-guy moments, things that would be ironed out if you worked two games in a row together. I even gritted my teeth and said "FC" after "Sounders" where called for. Here are some of my thoughts from the time on how things went.
Don't Shoot the Messenger
Clint Dempsey was coming back to his former home in New England, the game had teams who finished the year as two of the top five teams in MLS, not that we knew that at the time. It was supposed to be a good one. Instead, New England hit Seattle early and often, via the counter-attack, and rolled to the win.
No matter, how good or bad I was on the air, nobody in Seattle was going to get past the scoreline. At halftime, with the score already 4-0, I said, "Don't shoot the messenger, this isn't my fault!" which at least got a laugh out of Kasey! While I felt good about the broadcast and our call, I did leave the stadium that day figuring I probably wouldn't get asked back.
One of the most notable features in the game, which saw New England exploit Seattle on the counter-attack, was Revolution winger Diego Fagundez just owning Sounders right back DeAndre Yedlin. I had watched Yedlin and met his grandparents, who raised him, during his first professional preseason with Seattle, so I felt well aware of his potential. I felt he was an outsider for the 2014 World Cup squad before this game, and I certainly felt so after his tepid performance.
But he wasn't himself in this game, and hindsight confirmed our suspicions that he was basically out there trying to avoid injury and keep his focus on the World Cup camp. Which is understandable, given how significant the World Cup is in any player's career and proved to be for Yedlin. Three months later he signed for Tottenham, and he has since played almost 100 games in the English Premier League. So he probably got the math right in taking this one easy, but it was still a strange sight to see.
Remaining Revs
From this game, it's kind of amazing to think the Revs still have Fagundez and Scott Caldwell (both Homegrown Players), Andrew Farrell, and Teal Bunbury. They later got a year and a half of the Jermaine Jones experience, they relied on Lee Nguyen for years, but they are now a completely different group under Bruce Arena. Now with a new training facility and more resources being invested, they're one of the teams I was really curious to see in 2020, so hopefully we get that chance as the year unfolds, albeit under unique circumstances.
May 11, 2014
I had to laugh when I saw the MLS Extratime "Greatest Team of All Time" bracket including each MLS team's best squad of all time and noted that the Seattle Sounders representatives are the 2014 squad. It was a fantastic team, of course, Supporters' Shield and Open Cup champions and only eliminated in the MLS postseason via an away-goals rule that I despise. Obafemi Martins, Clint Dempsey, Chad Marshall, Ozzie Alonso, Stefan Frei, DeAndre Yedlin, Brad Evans. Great team.
But when I got a chance to call a Sounders game that year, they laid an egg. An unprecedented, unmitigated disaster of a game.
This package, while long, is a pretty good look back at a day Revs fans will want to remember a lot more than Sounders supporters. Head to the 10-minute mark for me trying to keep things light despite an unprecedented 4-0 halftime deficit for my home-team-for-a-day.
Everybody's backup
For me, this was a one-off, a fill-in, one of the ways I managed to stay involved in MLS broadcasting while living in four cities in less than three years. A local announcer has a family commitment, gets sick, gets bumped up to a national game. Who are you going to call who can jump right in and know both teams? I was proud to be that guy.
Don't Shoot the Messenger
Clint Dempsey was coming back to his former home in New England, the game had teams who finished the year as two of the top five teams in MLS, not that we knew that at the time. It was supposed to be a good one. Instead, New England hit Seattle early and often, via the counter-attack, and rolled to the win.
No matter, how good or bad I was on the air, nobody in Seattle was going to get past the scoreline. At halftime, with the score already 4-0, I said, "Don't shoot the messenger, this isn't my fault!" which at least got a laugh out of Kasey! While I felt good about the broadcast and our call, I did leave the stadium that day figuring I probably wouldn't get asked back.
.@jtyardley WHAT DID YOU DO WITH OUR @SoundersFC ?!?! #justkidding #onlysortof
— Aubrey Bergauer (@aubreyyy) May 11, 2014
Yedlin's Day "Off" One of the most notable features in the game, which saw New England exploit Seattle on the counter-attack, was Revolution winger Diego Fagundez just owning Sounders right back DeAndre Yedlin. I had watched Yedlin and met his grandparents, who raised him, during his first professional preseason with Seattle, so I felt well aware of his potential. I felt he was an outsider for the 2014 World Cup squad before this game, and I certainly felt so after his tepid performance.
But he wasn't himself in this game, and hindsight confirmed our suspicions that he was basically out there trying to avoid injury and keep his focus on the World Cup camp. Which is understandable, given how significant the World Cup is in any player's career and proved to be for Yedlin. Three months later he signed for Tottenham, and he has since played almost 100 games in the English Premier League. So he probably got the math right in taking this one easy, but it was still a strange sight to see.
Remaining Revs
From this game, it's kind of amazing to think the Revs still have Fagundez and Scott Caldwell (both Homegrown Players), Andrew Farrell, and Teal Bunbury. They later got a year and a half of the Jermaine Jones experience, they relied on Lee Nguyen for years, but they are now a completely different group under Bruce Arena. Now with a new training facility and more resources being invested, they're one of the teams I was really curious to see in 2020, so hopefully we get that chance as the year unfolds, albeit under unique circumstances.
08 May 2020
Flashback 2010: An underrated goal from the assist king himself
I was hoping to do some flashbacks this year to look back 10 years to 2010, when I was in my second year as the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo. Now with sports shut down and so much of life seemingly on hold, it seems like the right time to aim for a series of retrospectives, looking back at some memorable or quirky moments from my career in sports.
May 8, 2010
There won't be too much more 2010 content as part of this flashback series, but it's been 10 years since I called one of my favorite sneaky-good goals, and I never get tired of excuses to watch this thing.
I mean, who scores a goal like this? Who runs onto a through ball, slides, and THEN lobs the keeper with his first touch? I don't recall this getting any momentum for Goal of the Week, and I don't think you'll see it on an MLS retrospective of best lobs, but I just think it was a special play. I know it was against Chivas USA, and I know Zach Thornton in goal was not known for his mobility, but this goal has always stuck out in my memory banks as being unusual and skillful and awesome. So please ignore the decidedly low-quality video footage and enjoy:
As you've figured out by now, It was scored by Brad Davis, one of the great assist men in MLS history, and a guy with whom I had a history. Davis was just 20, when I interned with the MetroStars in 2002, two years older than I, and although he was a hotshot rookie on the club, he was also one of the less intimidating presences for me, a college freshman. I rooted for him from the start, from the MetroStars to the Dallas Burn to the San Jose Earthquakes and then through the move to Houston, and six years later, when our paths crossed again, he was still making my life easier.
I joined the Dynamo in 2008, managing the team web site and working in the communications department, so my job included some media relations duties. Once I began traveling with the team to every game as radio broadcaster in 2009, those duties ramped up and I was often tasked with connecting reporters and players for interviews. It's a relatively simple task, but when your approach to almost any player elicits a groan and a, "What now, Yardley?" it's not always a fun one.
Brad was one of the guys who made it easy. Oh, don't get me wrong: He'd give us crap. Seeing a staffer walking toward him after practice, he'd yell out, "WHAT!?" in mock anger or walk right past with his head turned before doubling back to hear out the request. Outside the locker rooms at Robertson Stadium, if somebody flicked your ear and then scampered through the doors, it was probably Brad.
But he also said, "Yes," and, "Just have them call me," and, "Whatever you need." Words that made my life easier, all the time. An easy choice to go to when a media outlet asked who was available and I didn't want a headache by asking the same guy twice (or three times, etc.) It helped, of course, that Brad was a starter and, eventually, a durable one.
He will always be known, of course, for assists, particularly from his left-footed dead-ball service. But there were other, subtler parts to his game (did you have Brad Davis pegged for the first elastico in MLS Cup history in 2006??), and occasionally he wound up on the scoresheet for some of those as well.
As the guy who dealt with statistics in a league with second assists, I even got to play a part, which brings me to one of my favorite Brad Davis stories.
I was in the coaches' office at Robertson Stadium on a training day, probably bugging Dominic Kinnear for content for the gameday magazine and taking good-natured ribbing from everybody in the room. Talking about some recent game, I mentioned that Brad had multiple assists in the game. Dom said, "Brad, really? He just had the one, from the free kick." And I responded, "Yeah, but he got a second assist on [so-and-so's] goal. I had to call the league to make sure he got credit for it."
"Second assist, c'mon," came the reply. "What are you doing pushing more numbers for Brad, anyway? Did he put you up to it? Who cares? What in the world has he ever done for you?" (Yes, there was an expletive in there. Probably more than one, knowing Dom.)
I just kind of shrugged and said, "Hey, it's my job," which of course Dom knew perfectly well. He always made sure we remembered that the players came first and was quick to put me in my place if my actions didn't reflect that. ... But he didn't want Brad or anybody else to worry about statistics or get a big head, either. Maybe the greatest Dynamo compliment you could give was if a player was, "honest" in his work ethic.
Fortunately for me, Brad popped his head into the coaches' office a few minutes later, and I asked him about doing an interview that I needed to get crossed off my list. He quickly said, "Yeah, sure, have him give me a call," and moved on with his day. I turned to Dom and the room and said, "You asked what has he ever done for me? That, right there. Huge help."
So maybe I have a soft spot for Brad Davis, but despite his MVP nominations and his spot on the 2014 World Cup roster and his No. 3 ranking in MLS history in assists, I still felt he was underrated at times. As a technical player, as a versatile player, as a well-rounded player. Everybody focused on the dead-ball delivery, and it was incredible. But he was much more than that, and he even changed his eating and work habits mid-career to become fitter and perform at a higher level.
This goal was far from his stereotypical skillset. If you watch the play again, he and another orange jersey make the same run, chasing a well-weighted Brian Mullan ball behind the back line, and Davis actually had to out-run (or at least not lose too much ground to) Dominic Oduro, of all people, just to get to the ball first. Fortunately, Mr. Freaky Fast himself backed off and let Brad take a run at the thing.
Then the early slide is, to me, the most underrated part of the play. It seems to accelerate Davis and allow him to beat the center back (Dario Delgado, in his only year in MLS; I had to look him up) to the ball, while also leaving Thornton in no-man's land. It was timed perfectly, allowing for the scooped finish as the ball was already bouncing up.
You just don't see this play often, and it's one I always felt got lost in the shuffle but deserves a little limelight.
May 8, 2010
There won't be too much more 2010 content as part of this flashback series, but it's been 10 years since I called one of my favorite sneaky-good goals, and I never get tired of excuses to watch this thing.I mean, who scores a goal like this? Who runs onto a through ball, slides, and THEN lobs the keeper with his first touch? I don't recall this getting any momentum for Goal of the Week, and I don't think you'll see it on an MLS retrospective of best lobs, but I just think it was a special play. I know it was against Chivas USA, and I know Zach Thornton in goal was not known for his mobility, but this goal has always stuck out in my memory banks as being unusual and skillful and awesome. So please ignore the decidedly low-quality video footage and enjoy:
I joined the Dynamo in 2008, managing the team web site and working in the communications department, so my job included some media relations duties. Once I began traveling with the team to every game as radio broadcaster in 2009, those duties ramped up and I was often tasked with connecting reporters and players for interviews. It's a relatively simple task, but when your approach to almost any player elicits a groan and a, "What now, Yardley?" it's not always a fun one.
Brad was one of the guys who made it easy. Oh, don't get me wrong: He'd give us crap. Seeing a staffer walking toward him after practice, he'd yell out, "WHAT!?" in mock anger or walk right past with his head turned before doubling back to hear out the request. Outside the locker rooms at Robertson Stadium, if somebody flicked your ear and then scampered through the doors, it was probably Brad.
But he also said, "Yes," and, "Just have them call me," and, "Whatever you need." Words that made my life easier, all the time. An easy choice to go to when a media outlet asked who was available and I didn't want a headache by asking the same guy twice (or three times, etc.) It helped, of course, that Brad was a starter and, eventually, a durable one.
He will always be known, of course, for assists, particularly from his left-footed dead-ball service. But there were other, subtler parts to his game (did you have Brad Davis pegged for the first elastico in MLS Cup history in 2006??), and occasionally he wound up on the scoresheet for some of those as well.
As the guy who dealt with statistics in a league with second assists, I even got to play a part, which brings me to one of my favorite Brad Davis stories.
I was in the coaches' office at Robertson Stadium on a training day, probably bugging Dominic Kinnear for content for the gameday magazine and taking good-natured ribbing from everybody in the room. Talking about some recent game, I mentioned that Brad had multiple assists in the game. Dom said, "Brad, really? He just had the one, from the free kick." And I responded, "Yeah, but he got a second assist on [so-and-so's] goal. I had to call the league to make sure he got credit for it."
"Second assist, c'mon," came the reply. "What are you doing pushing more numbers for Brad, anyway? Did he put you up to it? Who cares? What in the world has he ever done for you?" (Yes, there was an expletive in there. Probably more than one, knowing Dom.)
I just kind of shrugged and said, "Hey, it's my job," which of course Dom knew perfectly well. He always made sure we remembered that the players came first and was quick to put me in my place if my actions didn't reflect that. ... But he didn't want Brad or anybody else to worry about statistics or get a big head, either. Maybe the greatest Dynamo compliment you could give was if a player was, "honest" in his work ethic.
Fortunately for me, Brad popped his head into the coaches' office a few minutes later, and I asked him about doing an interview that I needed to get crossed off my list. He quickly said, "Yeah, sure, have him give me a call," and moved on with his day. I turned to Dom and the room and said, "You asked what has he ever done for me? That, right there. Huge help."
So maybe I have a soft spot for Brad Davis, but despite his MVP nominations and his spot on the 2014 World Cup roster and his No. 3 ranking in MLS history in assists, I still felt he was underrated at times. As a technical player, as a versatile player, as a well-rounded player. Everybody focused on the dead-ball delivery, and it was incredible. But he was much more than that, and he even changed his eating and work habits mid-career to become fitter and perform at a higher level.
This goal was far from his stereotypical skillset. If you watch the play again, he and another orange jersey make the same run, chasing a well-weighted Brian Mullan ball behind the back line, and Davis actually had to out-run (or at least not lose too much ground to) Dominic Oduro, of all people, just to get to the ball first. Fortunately, Mr. Freaky Fast himself backed off and let Brad take a run at the thing.
Then the early slide is, to me, the most underrated part of the play. It seems to accelerate Davis and allow him to beat the center back (Dario Delgado, in his only year in MLS; I had to look him up) to the ball, while also leaving Thornton in no-man's land. It was timed perfectly, allowing for the scooped finish as the ball was already bouncing up.
You just don't see this play often, and it's one I always felt got lost in the shuffle but deserves a little limelight.
17 April 2020
Flashback 2015: Launching a network with Red Bulls past, present, future
I was hoping to do some flashbacks this year to look back 10 years to
2010, when I was in my second year as the radio play-by-play
broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo. Now with sports shut down and so
much of life seemingly on hold, it seems like the right time to aim for a
series of retrospectives, looking back at some memorable or quirky
moments from my career in sports.
April 17, 2015
This flashback also hits a round number, as it was five years ago to the day that I called the first English-language radio broadcast as part of the newly created New York Red Bulls Radio Network, one which is still going strong today!
While I wasn't working full-time for the club as I did in Houston, this was a chance to call MLS games regularly in my home market (I'm from New Jersey, and my wife and I settled in New York in the fall of 2013), and it was so exciting to be part of the inaugural season. I had television commitments that wouldn't let me take on the full schedule, but I was thrilled to take a good slate of games and share play-by-play duties with Ed Cohen and Matt Harmon that year.
Matt, of course, has taken on the regular role ever since, while Steve Jolley - who I remembered from my 2002 internship with the MetroStars, has continued as analyst. It's a great feeling to see those guys at a game or tune in if I'm in a rental car on an MLS game night and still feel connected to the broadcast based on that first season and the odd fill-in over the years.
Quick Start
But for me, Red Bulls Radio all started with a mid-March phone call to first discuss the possibility, and less than a month later, we were on the air with Game No. 1! Here's how the highlights sounded (if you really want, the full game archive is still available!):
Pretty cool, right? Five years doesn't seem THAT long, and yet a ton has changed since then. This was the fifth game of the Ali Curtis / Jesse Marsch takeover that stunned MLS and Red Bulls fans. While we certainly knew how they were going to play - you hear Steve saying, "The Red Bulls want to pressure high, hard, and often," and I'm already saying, "From a turnover, the Red Bulls do it again." - nobody at this point in time thought New York would go on to win the Supporters' Shield.
Future Captains Everywhere
It's also funny to see different Red Bulls eras colliding. You have Dane Richards, star of the 2008 playoff run, playing with Matt Miazga, with seeming ever-presents like Luis Robles and Bradley Wright-Phillips, and then you get the MLS debut for Sean Davis at the end. That was special for me to see, as someone who has spent so much time tracking Homegrown Players. I had called the Red Bulls U-23s' NPSL championship win the previous summer, so I knew of Davis and knew then that he would be turning pro after his senior campaign at Duke. I can remember Ali Curtis saying Davis could one day be "the face of the franchise," and Wright-Phillips sharing similar thoughts, and now, five years later, he is the Red Bulls captain.
I wasn't rusty, persay, because I had called the Red Bulls twice already for MSG that spring. But I don't think I had done soccer on the radio in two years, not regularly since 2011, so there were a few moments where the game moved fast for me. On the first goal, I gave Sacha Kljestan credit for forcing the turnover when it was clearly Felipe (as Steve pointed out in his analysis), which is embarrassing. They don't exactly look alike or anything!
Some Wondo Love
If you were watching, you saw all-time MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski on the Earthquakes bench to start the game, and he did play in the second half, but my favorite Wondo fact of the game didn't have to do with Chris. Steve Wondolowski, who played with Chris in Houston when I was there, went with my audio for at least some of the game and gave me, a life-long Oakland A's fan (long story for another time), quite a post-game compliment!
How Far Kljestan's Come
Lastly, I thought it was appropriate, somehow, that there were a couple faces in these highlights who also showed up in the Houston-Chivas USA game I had called five years prior. Firstly, Dominic Kinnear had moved back home to coach the Earthquakes, and I remember catching up with him before the game.
But one of the centerpieces in this performance, Kljestan, had a cameo in the 2010 game as the player Lovel Palmer turned past before scoring from distance. Consider Kljestan's five years in between: getting married, moving to Europe and playing 180 games for Anderlecht, including Champions League contests, falling out of favor with the US national team, and then transferring back to MLS with the Red Bulls. He hadn't lived as many places as I had in those five years (4), but he had been busy!
Kljestan has had an eventful five years since, as well, winning the Supporters' Shield, reaching the rare 20-assst milestone, captaining the Red Bulls, being traded to Orlando, and now winding up with the LA Galaxy. Still getting used to that!
But it just goes to show, a lot can happen in five years, and I'm very glad I was able to inaugurate the Red Bulls' English-language radio presence back in 2015.
April 17, 2015
This flashback also hits a round number, as it was five years ago to the day that I called the first English-language radio broadcast as part of the newly created New York Red Bulls Radio Network, one which is still going strong today!
While I wasn't working full-time for the club as I did in Houston, this was a chance to call MLS games regularly in my home market (I'm from New Jersey, and my wife and I settled in New York in the fall of 2013), and it was so exciting to be part of the inaugural season. I had television commitments that wouldn't let me take on the full schedule, but I was thrilled to take a good slate of games and share play-by-play duties with Ed Cohen and Matt Harmon that year.
Getting ready for @NewYorkRedBulls vs @SJEarthquakes via radio at Red Bull Arena! http://t.co/uQoj5U6n6x pic.twitter.com/Ube847L0du— Jonathan Yardley (@jtyardley) April 17, 2015
Matt, of course, has taken on the regular role ever since, while Steve Jolley - who I remembered from my 2002 internship with the MetroStars, has continued as analyst. It's a great feeling to see those guys at a game or tune in if I'm in a rental car on an MLS game night and still feel connected to the broadcast based on that first season and the odd fill-in over the years.
Quick Start
But for me, Red Bulls Radio all started with a mid-March phone call to first discuss the possibility, and less than a month later, we were on the air with Game No. 1! Here's how the highlights sounded (if you really want, the full game archive is still available!):
Pretty cool, right? Five years doesn't seem THAT long, and yet a ton has changed since then. This was the fifth game of the Ali Curtis / Jesse Marsch takeover that stunned MLS and Red Bulls fans. While we certainly knew how they were going to play - you hear Steve saying, "The Red Bulls want to pressure high, hard, and often," and I'm already saying, "From a turnover, the Red Bulls do it again." - nobody at this point in time thought New York would go on to win the Supporters' Shield.
Future Captains Everywhere
It's also funny to see different Red Bulls eras colliding. You have Dane Richards, star of the 2008 playoff run, playing with Matt Miazga, with seeming ever-presents like Luis Robles and Bradley Wright-Phillips, and then you get the MLS debut for Sean Davis at the end. That was special for me to see, as someone who has spent so much time tracking Homegrown Players. I had called the Red Bulls U-23s' NPSL championship win the previous summer, so I knew of Davis and knew then that he would be turning pro after his senior campaign at Duke. I can remember Ali Curtis saying Davis could one day be "the face of the franchise," and Wright-Phillips sharing similar thoughts, and now, five years later, he is the Red Bulls captain.
I wasn't rusty, persay, because I had called the Red Bulls twice already for MSG that spring. But I don't think I had done soccer on the radio in two years, not regularly since 2011, so there were a few moments where the game moved fast for me. On the first goal, I gave Sacha Kljestan credit for forcing the turnover when it was clearly Felipe (as Steve pointed out in his analysis), which is embarrassing. They don't exactly look alike or anything!
Some Wondo Love
If you were watching, you saw all-time MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski on the Earthquakes bench to start the game, and he did play in the second half, but my favorite Wondo fact of the game didn't have to do with Chris. Steve Wondolowski, who played with Chris in Houston when I was there, went with my audio for at least some of the game and gave me, a life-long Oakland A's fan (long story for another time), quite a post-game compliment!
@jtyardley Great call tonight! Can't wait to hear you calling our A's games when Korach retires.— Stephen Wondolowski (@sjwondolowski) April 18, 2015
How Far Kljestan's Come
Lastly, I thought it was appropriate, somehow, that there were a couple faces in these highlights who also showed up in the Houston-Chivas USA game I had called five years prior. Firstly, Dominic Kinnear had moved back home to coach the Earthquakes, and I remember catching up with him before the game.
But one of the centerpieces in this performance, Kljestan, had a cameo in the 2010 game as the player Lovel Palmer turned past before scoring from distance. Consider Kljestan's five years in between: getting married, moving to Europe and playing 180 games for Anderlecht, including Champions League contests, falling out of favor with the US national team, and then transferring back to MLS with the Red Bulls. He hadn't lived as many places as I had in those five years (4), but he had been busy!
Last MLS goal for @SachaKljestan? April 24, 2010 for Chivas USA against ... wait for it ... San Jose. 4 years, 51 weeks ago.— Jonathan Yardley (@jtyardley) April 18, 2015
Kljestan has had an eventful five years since, as well, winning the Supporters' Shield, reaching the rare 20-assst milestone, captaining the Red Bulls, being traded to Orlando, and now winding up with the LA Galaxy. Still getting used to that!
But it just goes to show, a lot can happen in five years, and I'm very glad I was able to inaugurate the Red Bulls' English-language radio presence back in 2015.
Flashback 2010: Palmer's ridiculous rip and Cameron's "unique" celebration
I was hoping to do some flashbacks this year to look back 10 years to 2010, when I was in my second year as the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Houston Dynamo. Now with sports shut down and so much of life seemingly on hold, it seems like the right time to aim for a series of retrospectives, looking back at some memorable or quirky moments from my career in sports.
April 17, 2010
2010 was, in many ways, a lost season for the Houston Dynamo. The club missed the playoffs for the only time in its first eight years of existence (2006-13), and it led to a lot of pressure, angst, and, ultimately, changes to both the team on the field and the organization behind it.
But that doesn't mean it was all bad. There were some incredibly cool and fun moments to that season, even if they did wind up overshadowed by the frustration of it all.
So I thought I would start this series of flashbacks with one of my favorite goal calls from early in my radio days, one that survived on my demo reel for several years, even after I had transitioned to mostly TV work. Houston brought in a Jamaican midfielder during preseason named Lovel Palmer, he scored a great long-range goal in preseason, and the Dynamo pulled the trigger on a transfer, paying his club Harbour View an (of course undisclosed fee) to sign Palmer.
Lovel Palmer! That's how you do it!
His first Houston start came 10 years ago today – April 17, 2010 – in the fourth game of the season, and when he pulled the trigger from about 35 yards away in the first half, firing a shot past Zach Thornton to make it a 2-0 game, I exploded:
So I went back to watch and enjoy the highlights:
and I found a lot more than just Lovel's outstanding finish.
Geoff Cameron, Easter Bunny?
Geoff Cameron scored the opening goal on a feed from roommate and constant odd-couple-partner Corey Ashe, then launched into a …bunny-hop celebration? What the heck was that? Was it an Easter thing? No, this was almost 2 weeks after Easter.
I really couldn't remember, so I had to Google it, and it started to come back to me. Geoff, a Best XI selection as a center back in 2009 but returning to the Houston midfield in 2010, had done a commercial for Volkswagen involving various elaborate goal celebrations, and his was: the bunny hop. Somehow he decided to bust it out in a game (he had also used it in the 2009 Dynamo Charities Cup), and I seem to remember all of us busting out laughing at the same time.
(As an aside, look at how wide-eyed Geoff is for this commercial shoot! I don't think he's acting when he's looking around on that pedestal all uncomfortable. And who came up with this campaign, anyway? Disaster or genius?)
Dom Oduro's "shoes are hot!"
Cameron did keep the shoes on for this celebration, which cannot be said for the day's third goalscorer, Dominic Oduro. After tapping a Brad Davis feed into an empty net from about 4 yards away, Oduro "play[ed] hot-potato with his cleat," a celebration I certainly had never seen before. When asked about it later, Oduro was quoted as saying, "My shoes are hot. It's going to be hot from now on. It's a goal, and the shoes are hot."
So our communications office definitely had a "shoes are hot!" saying whenever Oduro's name came up from then on. Of course, he proceeded to score 1 goal in his next 17 games …
A Moonlight Graham moment
This highlight reel closes with the debut of 18-year-old Francisco Navas Cobo, the Dynamo's second Homegrown Player and first to appear in a game. This was a big deal for the club at the time, trying to prove to anyone and everyone that the Houston academy could and would provide opportunities no other local club could.
Of course, if you've read this far, you probably know that the Houston academy is considered one of the least successful in MLS, and Navas Cobo never made another MLS appearance, one more cautionary tale of American soccer: We're all looking for the next big thing, but the success rate is low.
End of an era
My lasting memory of this game is just bliss: a 3-0 win for the team that employed me, some great goals and entertaining celebrations to call, and a couple of debuts to boot. But in some ways, it was the last hurrah for the great Houston(/San Jose) dynasty. The Earthquakes were MLS Cup champions in 2001 and 2003, Supporters' Shield winners in 2005, then moved to Houston and won MLS Cup titles in 2006 and 2007, won the West regular season title in 2008, and tied for the West regular season title in 2009. This was a juggernaut, pushed off course by postseason misfortunes in 2008 and 2009, but still feared around the league.
The roster on April 17 had six players who had been in San Jose, with two other starters injured. Yet one week later, on a rainy night in Chicago, Cameron ruptured his PCL, and the jig was up. Having already lost Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden in the offseason, Houston never recovered in 2010. The club finally had to go younger, and so Brian Mullan was traded closer to home during 2010, and Pat Onstad, Richard Mulrooney, Ryan Cochrane, and Craig Waibel all moved on after that season, with Eddie Robinson limping through one more campaign in 2011.
The runs to MLS Cup finals in 2011 and 2012 and the Eastern Conference final in 2013 looked very different, with only a few names (Kinnear, Ching, Davis, Clark) who had celebrated titles in San Jose colors. So, in many ways, April 17, 2010 was one final day of belief in the promise of that era. And boy, were we pumped!
April 17, 2010
2010 was, in many ways, a lost season for the Houston Dynamo. The club missed the playoffs for the only time in its first eight years of existence (2006-13), and it led to a lot of pressure, angst, and, ultimately, changes to both the team on the field and the organization behind it.
But that doesn't mean it was all bad. There were some incredibly cool and fun moments to that season, even if they did wind up overshadowed by the frustration of it all.
Lovel Palmer! That's how you do it!
His first Houston start came 10 years ago today – April 17, 2010 – in the fourth game of the season, and when he pulled the trigger from about 35 yards away in the first half, firing a shot past Zach Thornton to make it a 2-0 game, I exploded:
"Into the middle to Palmer, with a man on him. Nice turn to get around Kljestan. Palmer, gonna shoot … fires! Finds the net! What a goal! Lovel Palmer! That's how you do it! His first start, his first Dynamo goal, and boy is he pumped!"It's one I could watch all day, because of the goal itself and because of what I knew it meant to Lovel, an emotional player who became a fan favorite with every club he represented in his career. (As an aside, I ultimately learned to pronounce his name as LUH-VELL, with an accent on both syllables, rather than the luh-VELL I used here.)
So I went back to watch and enjoy the highlights:
and I found a lot more than just Lovel's outstanding finish.
Geoff Cameron, Easter Bunny?
Geoff Cameron scored the opening goal on a feed from roommate and constant odd-couple-partner Corey Ashe, then launched into a …bunny-hop celebration? What the heck was that? Was it an Easter thing? No, this was almost 2 weeks after Easter.
I really couldn't remember, so I had to Google it, and it started to come back to me. Geoff, a Best XI selection as a center back in 2009 but returning to the Houston midfield in 2010, had done a commercial for Volkswagen involving various elaborate goal celebrations, and his was: the bunny hop. Somehow he decided to bust it out in a game (he had also used it in the 2009 Dynamo Charities Cup), and I seem to remember all of us busting out laughing at the same time.
(As an aside, look at how wide-eyed Geoff is for this commercial shoot! I don't think he's acting when he's looking around on that pedestal all uncomfortable. And who came up with this campaign, anyway? Disaster or genius?)
Dom Oduro's "shoes are hot!"
Cameron did keep the shoes on for this celebration, which cannot be said for the day's third goalscorer, Dominic Oduro. After tapping a Brad Davis feed into an empty net from about 4 yards away, Oduro "play[ed] hot-potato with his cleat," a celebration I certainly had never seen before. When asked about it later, Oduro was quoted as saying, "My shoes are hot. It's going to be hot from now on. It's a goal, and the shoes are hot."
So our communications office definitely had a "shoes are hot!" saying whenever Oduro's name came up from then on. Of course, he proceeded to score 1 goal in his next 17 games …
A Moonlight Graham moment
This highlight reel closes with the debut of 18-year-old Francisco Navas Cobo, the Dynamo's second Homegrown Player and first to appear in a game. This was a big deal for the club at the time, trying to prove to anyone and everyone that the Houston academy could and would provide opportunities no other local club could.
Of course, if you've read this far, you probably know that the Houston academy is considered one of the least successful in MLS, and Navas Cobo never made another MLS appearance, one more cautionary tale of American soccer: We're all looking for the next big thing, but the success rate is low.
End of an era
My lasting memory of this game is just bliss: a 3-0 win for the team that employed me, some great goals and entertaining celebrations to call, and a couple of debuts to boot. But in some ways, it was the last hurrah for the great Houston(/San Jose) dynasty. The Earthquakes were MLS Cup champions in 2001 and 2003, Supporters' Shield winners in 2005, then moved to Houston and won MLS Cup titles in 2006 and 2007, won the West regular season title in 2008, and tied for the West regular season title in 2009. This was a juggernaut, pushed off course by postseason misfortunes in 2008 and 2009, but still feared around the league.
The roster on April 17 had six players who had been in San Jose, with two other starters injured. Yet one week later, on a rainy night in Chicago, Cameron ruptured his PCL, and the jig was up. Having already lost Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden in the offseason, Houston never recovered in 2010. The club finally had to go younger, and so Brian Mullan was traded closer to home during 2010, and Pat Onstad, Richard Mulrooney, Ryan Cochrane, and Craig Waibel all moved on after that season, with Eddie Robinson limping through one more campaign in 2011.
The runs to MLS Cup finals in 2011 and 2012 and the Eastern Conference final in 2013 looked very different, with only a few names (Kinnear, Ching, Davis, Clark) who had celebrated titles in San Jose colors. So, in many ways, April 17, 2010 was one final day of belief in the promise of that era. And boy, were we pumped!
11 November 2019
USA-Costa Rica highlights
I had the privilege of calling the US women's national team's final game of 2019 on Sunday, a 6-0 cruise against Costa Rica that was most notable as the second game for new US head coach Vlatko Andonovski as he prepares the US for Olympic qualifying that starts in late January.
It was some adjustment to go from college soccer venues that mostly have fewer than 4,000 seats to calling a game in an 80,000-seat football stadium. Let's just say binoculars came in handy! But a true joy to cover this team for my only ESPN2 game of the fall and to work with Julie Foudy again. Here are the highlights:
It was some adjustment to go from college soccer venues that mostly have fewer than 4,000 seats to calling a game in an 80,000-seat football stadium. Let's just say binoculars came in handy! But a true joy to cover this team for my only ESPN2 game of the fall and to work with Julie Foudy again. Here are the highlights:
08 November 2019
"Brian Ching got it!" - Flashing back to 2009
Hard to believe this was 10 years ago. Although it's safe to say a LOT has changed! A special moment to call near the end of my first season as Houston Dynamo radio broadcaster (I don't sound quite ready for it, do I?), even if partner James Clarkson got a little more involved with the call than is typically kosher.
This was overtime in the 2009 MLS Cup Playoffs after Houston and Seattle had played back-to-back scoreless ties. President George H.W. Bush and 27,000+ on hand in an electric atmosphere at the since demolished Robertson Stadium.
One hell of a moment, though, and a privilege to call it:
This was overtime in the 2009 MLS Cup Playoffs after Houston and Seattle had played back-to-back scoreless ties. President George H.W. Bush and 27,000+ on hand in an electric atmosphere at the since demolished Robertson Stadium.
One hell of a moment, though, and a privilege to call it:
09 October 2019
West Virginia-Texas highlights
Enjoyed this one! Watched unapologetically from the air conditioning as West Virginia beat Texas in overtime on a wild play that went from a Texas corner kick at one end to a West Virginia game-winner at the other.
My first game working with Morgan Conklin, and we had a blast. Great to get back to Texas, even for less than 24 hours!
My first game working with Morgan Conklin, and we had a blast. Great to get back to Texas, even for less than 24 hours!
Closing out the weekend in Austin with @TexasSoccer hosting @wvuwomenssoccer.— Morgan Conklin (@_MConklin) October 6, 2019
Join @jtyardley & me on @LonghornNetwork now!! pic.twitter.com/DRgOtNG4ru
16 September 2019
Bleary eyes, getting JIP'd, and the power of one name
I'm still recovering a bit from my first Thursday-Sunday combination of the college soccer season, but I was fortunate to have some great moments to call.
To start things off, some early morning wake-up calls to get to and from Tallahassee left me a little sluggish, but I managed to squeeze in a short nap (a rarity for me) and get primed for our Thursday night Top-25 matchup between No. 6 Florida State, the defending national champs, and No. 24 Colorado.
Our network for this game, ACC Network, however, was primed for a different reason: the release of the men's college basketball schedule! The ACC is a basketball conference, as you may know, and the schedule reveal is a big deal, set to follow our 7pm game on a 9pm broadcast of All ACC. A college basketball fan and announcer, I was looking forward to it also, and I was quite happy to promote the show during our broadcast.
Then came the JIP.
JIP stands for joined in progress, and "getting JIP'd," in television parlance, means not coming on the air until the previous event concludes.
This was a major JIP. Soccer games typically last two hours. But college soccer games have overtime in the regular season, and this particular college soccer game had an injury, a sequence that led to an assistant coach being ejected, three penalty kicks, two video reviews (for no reason we could comprehend), and a team getting lost between the locker room and the field (seriously, it happened).
So even our regulation 90-minute game took us past 9pm, something partner Angela Hucles and I didn't realize up in the booth (see how happy we are!?). But we knew the score was 2-2 and we were headed to overtime, which meant some basketball fans were going to be screaming bloody murder.
Then I looked at the time during the commercial break before overtime and realized it was already 9:10 or 9:15, and we hadn't even started OT. We now had a sizable viewing audience that did notcare know much about the first part of the game and, in many cases, was not enthusiastic about familiar with college soccer.
So I approached overtime with as much big-picture information as I could, reminding people that Florida State is the defending national champion, Colorado was unbeaten, FSU had dominated the game but only scored via penalty kick, Deyna Castellanos is an international star of sorts, and highlighted the key players on each team. It seemed to work:
But the big reason we left feeling good about ourselves is that we got an overtime game-winner! Everybody likes a walk-off, and Florida State delivered late in the first overtime to give us a dramatic ending and allow the majority of our audience by that point to get their hoops fix. Pretty cool moment to call:
To complete a sports trifecta, I scooped up an ACC baseball in the parking lot, presumably from a practice home run blast, so hopefully this means a return to Tallahassee for college baseball in the spring!
My Sunday game, with NC State hosting Furman, was nowhere near as dramatic, but we did get some impressive moments from Wolfpack star Tziarra King, who has the perfect Twitter handle for a one-name soccer star (@Tziarra) and is one of the country's most exciting players. Always happy to call a hat trick, always happy to call a run like this:
Let's root for more heroics, more dramatics, and no more JIPs as the season continues!
To start things off, some early morning wake-up calls to get to and from Tallahassee left me a little sluggish, but I managed to squeeze in a short nap (a rarity for me) and get primed for our Thursday night Top-25 matchup between No. 6 Florida State, the defending national champs, and No. 24 Colorado.
Then came the JIP.
JIP stands for joined in progress, and "getting JIP'd," in television parlance, means not coming on the air until the previous event concludes.
This was a major JIP. Soccer games typically last two hours. But college soccer games have overtime in the regular season, and this particular college soccer game had an injury, a sequence that led to an assistant coach being ejected, three penalty kicks, two video reviews (for no reason we could comprehend), and a team getting lost between the locker room and the field (seriously, it happened).
Then I looked at the time during the commercial break before overtime and realized it was already 9:10 or 9:15, and we hadn't even started OT. We now had a sizable viewing audience that did not
So I approached overtime with as much big-picture information as I could, reminding people that Florida State is the defending national champion, Colorado was unbeaten, FSU had dominated the game but only scored via penalty kick, Deyna Castellanos is an international star of sorts, and highlighted the key players on each team. It seemed to work:
Snark aside, FSU and Colorado are two Top 25 teams and @jtyardley is doing a very nice job on the play-by-play.— Mike Waters (@MikeWatersSYR) September 13, 2019
But the big reason we left feeling good about ourselves is that we got an overtime game-winner! Everybody likes a walk-off, and Florida State delivered late in the first overtime to give us a dramatic ending and allow the majority of our audience by that point to get their hoops fix. Pretty cool moment to call:
Jenna Nighswonger called GAME.@FSUSoccer gets the W in OT! pic.twitter.com/xagYeaFvuH— ACC Network (@accnetwork) September 13, 2019
To complete a sports trifecta, I scooped up an ACC baseball in the parking lot, presumably from a practice home run blast, so hopefully this means a return to Tallahassee for college baseball in the spring!
My Sunday game, with NC State hosting Furman, was nowhere near as dramatic, but we did get some impressive moments from Wolfpack star Tziarra King, who has the perfect Twitter handle for a one-name soccer star (@Tziarra) and is one of the country's most exciting players. Always happy to call a hat trick, always happy to call a run like this:
.@packwsoccer was down 1-0 early to Furman, but @tziarra and Co. were not having it!— NC State Athletics (@PackAthletics) September 15, 2019
Here's her equalizer in the 17th minute.
📺 ACC Network (https://t.co/b0ACtNFKPH)#GoPack // #NCState pic.twitter.com/gnXAlJbZaM
Let's root for more heroics, more dramatics, and no more JIPs as the season continues!
29 August 2019
New network, new role, new level unlocked!
As avid followers of this blog know ... I've been shirking my blogging duties. There are many reasons for this, but let's get past those and focus on not making it FIVE months without posting.
The news is that my role with ESPN will increase this year, a big professional deal that is more than three years in the making. It's occupied a lot of thought and attention and time, and it's really exciting to finally start. My focus will be on ACC Network soccer, with some professional soccer, college basketball, and miscellaneous odds and ends thrown in.
I'm not sure I'm capable of explaining what it means, after almost eight years of free-lancing, to have guaranteed broadcasting income. It's not a full-time deal at the moment (baby steps!), so there will still be plenty of free-lancing and scheming and job-chasing. But to earn and receive a commitment from ESPN and some people I truly respect and admire really provides encouragement and validation of work I've put in going back a long way, and it's something special.
I'm incredibly fortunate to have the support of family (nuclear and extended), and friends (old and new) in chasing, pursuing, and realizing this and other opportunities, and I really am grateful for it. This is neither the time nor the place to list everybody, but suffice it to say, Thank you.
Moving ahead, the fall schedule still has some moving parts to it, but it is well and truly underway with a two-game ACC Network week with games Sunday and Wednesday this week. Sunday was a special thrill and adrenaline rush, as Lori Lindsey and I called the second ever live event on newly launched ACC Network, and the first produced from a school control room. What's more, it was the first game at Syracuse for former Rice head coach Nicky Thrasher Adams, who I know from my undergraduate days at Rice, when she started her coaching career as an assistant. The emotions and intensity of seeing her new team pull out its first win was a welcome start to the season!
There is much more still to come, and I am hopeful of providing slightly more regular updates as the year goes along. But there's an ESPN paycheck in my bank account this morning, one I didn't have to submit an invoice for, and that's a goal I never felt certain of achieving.
I'm not sure I'm capable of explaining what it means, after almost eight years of free-lancing, to have guaranteed broadcasting income. It's not a full-time deal at the moment (baby steps!), so there will still be plenty of free-lancing and scheming and job-chasing. But to earn and receive a commitment from ESPN and some people I truly respect and admire really provides encouragement and validation of work I've put in going back a long way, and it's something special.
I'm incredibly fortunate to have the support of family (nuclear and extended), and friends (old and new) in chasing, pursuing, and realizing this and other opportunities, and I really am grateful for it. This is neither the time nor the place to list everybody, but suffice it to say, Thank you.
Moving ahead, the fall schedule still has some moving parts to it, but it is well and truly underway with a two-game ACC Network week with games Sunday and Wednesday this week. Sunday was a special thrill and adrenaline rush, as Lori Lindsey and I called the second ever live event on newly launched ACC Network, and the first produced from a school control room. What's more, it was the first game at Syracuse for former Rice head coach Nicky Thrasher Adams, who I know from my undergraduate days at Rice, when she started her coaching career as an assistant. The emotions and intensity of seeing her new team pull out its first win was a welcome start to the season!
Missed last night's game? We got you covered. Visual recap of our 1-0 shutout of Colgate.⬇ 🍊⚽ pic.twitter.com/QN24kJOTTx— Syracuse Women's Soccer (@cusewsoc) August 26, 2019
There is much more still to come, and I am hopeful of providing slightly more regular updates as the year goes along. But there's an ESPN paycheck in my bank account this morning, one I didn't have to submit an invoice for, and that's a goal I never felt certain of achieving.
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