MLS Game 2: It’s Not Always Perfect

I’m not going to lie: I walked away from Wednesday night’s Apple TV broadcast pretty frustrated with myself. Our game—No. 1 (Nashville) vs. No. 2 (New England) in the Eastern Conference—had three goals, and I felt like I messed up two of them.

Not great, Bob!

I got caught storytelling on Nashville’s first goal and took too long to switch to calling the scoring chance. Then on the third goal, I initially identified Hany Mukhtar as the goalscorer, when I KNOW that I should wait until I’m certain before I say a name. I quickly corrected to Bryan Acosta, but it ruins the call.

Many other parts of the broadcast were good. A colleague praised our scene set, which opens the broadcast. I thought we covered a lot of topics relevant to each team. We got to tell some great stories (including the one that bled into the opening goal). I felt there were some good transitions from our promotional reads back to game coverage. We did an on-camera report after the game down on the natural grass surface. Plenty of things to be proud of and to build on.

For all of that, I was definitely holding onto the game’s big moments—which I feel I didn’t match—as I drove home. But as I tell my kids, we’re not perfect, mistakes will always happen, and what’s important is how you respond to them. So I’m ready to have a great call on Saturday, nail the big moments, and call these games at the top of my skillset.

The best part of my night? As I walked with my partner, Jalil Anibaba, and our Spanish play-by-play announcer, Moisés Linares, to the production truck, a young fan called out to me, “I like the suit you’re wearing! You look nice.”

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.

.@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.

Looking back on Seattle broadcast: Memorable for me, less so for the Sounders

All smiles before the game began, of course.

I had the chance to step in as a replacement play-by-play broadcaster on the Seattle Sounders' May 11 broadcast, but I'm not sure I'm going to be asked back any time soon.

Seattle came in on a five-game winning streak but suffered a 5-0 loss, its worst in six years of MLS regular-season play. We all know broadcasters have nothing to do with results, but it sure didn't look good for me. I have several college friends who live in Seattle and were excited to watch the game, but as you can see, their excitement quickly turned to frustration:

.@jtyardley WHAT DID YOU DO WITH OUR @SoundersFC ?!?! #justkidding #onlysortof
— Aubrey Bergauer (@aubreyyy) May 11, 2014

The Sounders' production team, from the excellent behind-the-scenes staff led by Brian O'Connell to vibrant pre-game hosts Jackie Montgomery and Taylor Graham and my unfortunately under-the-weather partner Kasey Keller, was extremely welcoming and great to work with. And of course the man for whom I filled in, Ross Fletcher, provided an excellent scouting report on the show format and some storylines when we talked during the week.

Interviewing Lamar Neagle from afar.

The Sounders communication staff and team personnel were also helpful - I talked briefly with defender Chad Marshall on Saturday, then had pre-game production meetings with head coach Sigi Schmid and defender Brad Evans on Sunday, finally interviewing Lamar Neagle for the pre-game show. Full credit to Sigi Schmid for enduring a halftime interview with his team down 4-0 and his voice starting to go.

My favorite two hours.

As for the broadcast itself, I definitely wish I could have another crack at the pre-game show. As always with a new show, there's a level of comfort that would be there the second time around but isn't present right away. It wasn't bad, but just something I know I could have done better. I felt very good about the in-game play-by-play, but of course it didn't create many happy memories for Sounders fans.

We were fortunate enough to be a little bit prescient in highlighting Revolution wing Diego Fagundez. He's one of the players I most enjoy watching in MLS but had been scoreless in 2014. During the week, I looked up the numbers and found that his nine starts without scoring a goal was the longest such streak of his young career, a stat I had not seen anywhere else. He also had a great track record against Seattle. Unfortunately for the Sounders, the trend that continued was him killing Seattle, as he scored twice in the first half. Not good on the field, but you always feel good when something the entire production team chose to highlight ahead of time ends up being relevant to the game itself.

Here's a look at highlights from the game via our broadcast (the league highlights used the home team broadcast in this case):

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the Sounders won their next game and tied the next; as of May 27, they remain on a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2) when I am NOT calling their games. I would love to work with these guys again, but I can't say the odds are looking very good.

Clint Dempsey faces old club for first time, I get to call it! Sounders-Revs on Sunday

MLSsoccer.com

In May 2004, Clint Dempsey was a rookie midfielder for the New England Revolution who had broken into the starting lineup and scored a goal, pretty impressive feats for a first-year professional, but hardly something that screamed ‘international-caliber player.’

Ten years later, Dempsey returns to Gillette Stadium to play against the Revolution for the first time, and his game has done plenty of screaming in the intervening decade.

MLSsoccer.com

That long-haired rookie is now the captain of the U.S. national team and the most prolific American scorer in the history of the English Premier League. He has been the best player on the field – by a country mile, several times – through the first two months of this MLS season, and he is probably the most entertaining player the league has seen in years, providing a mix of jaw-dropping skill (did you see his behind-the-leg spin pass against Colorado?) and brash attitude (how about his forearm to the head of Philadelphia’s Aaron Wheeler?).

All of that will be on display on Sunday when Dempsey’s Seattle Sounders take on New England, and I will be fortunate enough to call the game for Sounders TV, airing on Q13 FOX in the Seattle area, as a fill-in for play-by-play announcer Ross Fletcher, who will remain with his wife as the birth of their first child approaches. Congratulations to Ross and his family, and thank you to the Sounders for bringing me in! I’m really looking forward to the game.

Besides the sheer fun of watching Dempsey play and the emotions his return will bring, both on the field and in the stands, there are a lot of other storylines headed into this game. Here are a few we’ll be watching closely on Sunday:

1. Men on Fire – The Sounders have won five straight games, coming from behind in four of the five and getting late game-winners in three. Add in Seattle’s miracle finish in its 4-4 tie with Portland on April 5, and they have used late goals to pull out a result in five of their last six. 
2. The Fort – New England has not allowed a goal at Gillette Stadium this year, and goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth has only had to make three saves to record his three home shutouts. Despite allowing four goals in their opening (away) game, the Revolution rank fourth in MLS in goals-against-average (1.11), but they’ll be facing a Seattle offense that scores a league-best 2.20 goals per game. 
3. This is the last game before the United States’ pre-World Cup camp begins, which means Dempsey and Brad Evans (and maybe even DeAndre Yedlin, at least for a little bit?) could miss the next two months of action, so Seattle needs to take advantage of its games with Dempsey and Evans on the field. New England’s only World Cup player is Honduran forward Jerry Bengtson, who has struggled to translate his international goalscoring to MLS and is unlikely to start.

I’m excited just to watch this game, let alone call it alongside a former U.S. national team hero in his own right, Kasey Keller, so it should be a fun weekend in New England!

For Sounders fans who don't know me, I'll sound a little different than what you're used to because I'll be speaking American, but rest assured I have an appreciation for Seattle soccer. Long before the Sounders invented MLS, here I am (on the right) with a couple of college friends at a USL game at Qwest Field back in 2005. Some kind souls in the ECS sold me a scarf for my collection, and I haven't forgotten it!

Oh, and the Sounders won that game.

The whole picture: Goals scored not only indicator of late-game success

Late heroics helped San Jose to the 2012 Supporters' Shield, but
two late goals were not enough in their playoff defeat.

I have the privilege of filling in on the Comcast SportsNet New England broadcast of Saturday's New England Revolution vs. Houston Dynamo game, so I've been preparing as much as possible. That involves watching both teams - recent games and past highlights - and studying the numbers.

One number that jumped out as a positive for both teams was their performances in the last 15 minutes of games; both New England and Houston have scored 13 goals this year from minutes 76-90. The league's stats and standings release, which comes out after every gameday, includes two separate tables detailing goals scored and allowed, by each team, broken down by 15-minute intervals. What is not directly released (and often not publicized), however, is teams' goal differential during different segments of the game. That, to me, is the more important statistic. After all, what good is scoring a bunch of late goals if you're allowing even more?

Team	Last 15 mins			Overall
	GF	GA	GD	GD
Portland	14	4	+10	+14
Houston	13	5	+8	+1
Real Salt Lake	19	12	+7	+14
Kansas City	10	5	+5	+15
Seattle	7	2	+5	+10
New England	13	9	+4	+8
Philadelphia	11	7	+4	-2
San Jose	10	6	+4	-10
New York	16	14	+2	+11
Colorado	7	5	+2	+6
Vancouver	10	9	+1	+4
FC Dallas	14	14	E	-2
Chicago	9	10	-1	-7
Montreal	9	15	-6	+4
LA Galaxy	12	18	-6	+10
Columbus	6	13	-7	-3
Toronto FC	6	14	-8	-19
D.C. United	3	11	-8	-29
Chivas USA	6	22	-16	-25

So I set out to see how Houston and New England ranked within MLS as late-game success stories, and the numbers I found across the league surprised me in a few ways. Check out the table at right, which lists teams' goals for and goals against in the final 15 minutes, as well as how that goal differential compares to their overall goal differential.

I am not going to try to identify all general trends in this data; for one thing, it's too small a sample size. But I see some really interesting notes about different teams:

• Houston, Philadelphia, San Jose, and Dallas are the only teams whose goal differentials in the final 15 minutes are BETTER than their overall GD.
• Incredible efforts by Seattle (2 goals allowed) and Portland (4) in terms of late defense. It's very hard to keep that up over a whole season, and since I think of defense as tending to be more consistent than offense, I think it bodes well for their postseason chances. Obviously, Houston, KC, and Colorado (5) are right behind.
• I would not have guessed that the LA Galaxy would be -6 in the final 15 minutes and have the league's 2nd-worst late defense, better only than Chivas USA. Yet they still have that +10 overall goal differential.
• Seeing Seattle, Real Salt Lake, Portland, and Kansas City all in the top five in late goal differential just seems to make sense, since all four feel like quality MLS Cup contenders.
• The identical -6 late goal differentials of Montreal and LA make me a little less confident on their chances for playoff success.
• Interesting to note the contrast in late-game fortune for strugglers D.C. United and Chivas USA. D.C. is -21 in the first 75' of a game (presumably, the result in D.C. games is usually decided before the last 15'), while Chivas is only -9 in the first 75' and tends to get punished late.

The most interesting question this raises to me is: Are the final 15 minutes a better or worse indicator of how good a team is? In some respects, you should put more stock in performance over the first 75 minutes than the last 15, because it's a larger sample size. But at the same time, the ability to pull out a late result and come through "in the clutch," to use a sports cliche, is one that is highly valued.

In MLS circles, one has to think of last year's San Jose Earthquakes, who scored 20 goals from the 76th minute on en route to the Supporters' Shield title, which was widely considered an over-achievement. They promptly fell in the playoffs, going a damning -3 in the first 75' of games in their two-leg playoff series, while only compensating with 2 goals in the final 15'.

What this means for New England vs. Houston
Is Houston's -7 goal differential in the first 75 minutes of games this year a sign that the Dynamo are just not that good? Perhaps they will regress to the mean, allow some late goals, and fail to reach the postseason. Or is their +8 goal differential in the final 15 minutes an indicator that they save their best for when it counts the most, as seen in their recent playoff runs? Perhaps they will make another deep run. Or can the difference be explained by the suffocating Houston heat, which wears down opponents and allows Houston to pounce late in home games? That actually is not the case, as Houston is +9 at home and -8 on the road, but in the final 15 minutes, the Dynamo are +4 both at home (6-2) and on the road (7-3).

New England, meanwhile, is a more conventional +4 at home (8-4) and even on the road (5-5), but it should be noted that the Revolution began the year allowing six late goals, yet they are now +10 in the final 15 minutes since losing at home to Real Salt Lake on May 8 (both RSL goals came in the final 15). The goal that turned the tide was Juan Agudelo's 84th-minute tally to clinch a 2-0 win at Houston on May 18. The Dynamo returned the favor with a 79th-minute game-winner from Adam Moffat at New England on July 13, though Moffat is no longer with the club. So maybe we're in for yet another late goal on Saturday night!

This list creates more questions than answers, which is part of the fun. But my larger point is that I hope media and fans factor in late goals scored AND allowed when considering a team's late fortunes.

More Tucson videos

A quick hello from Tucson, where I've been staying busy with MLS broadcast meetings (networking, networking, networking), the opening games of the Desert Diamond Cup (frigid night, but entertaining games), and sit-down interviews with players from both Real Salt Lake and the New York Red Bulls (really interesting and enjoyable.)

The interviews - Nat Borchers, Jason Kreis, and Dax McCarty were my favorites - will air later in the year as part of packages on MLSsoccer.com, but highlights from Wednesday's games are available now:

Seattle Sounders 2, New England Revolution 0 - a preseason game with the equivalent of four ejections!
Real Salt Lake 2, New York Red Bulls 2 - RSL scored two goals in the first three minutes, but New York rallied
and as a little bonus, video of me with broadcast partner and MLSsoccer.com editor-in-chief Greg Lalas doing an ice-cold post-game report from Tucson:

Preseason invitees 2013 - Eastern Conference

The MLS preseason is inevitably a blur of players coming and going as teams try to fill out their rosters. Here is an attempt to keep track of who's under contract, who's in camp with whom, and which teams are keeping spots open for the summer.

Information is unofficial, acquired to the best of my ability via team and media reports.

Eastern Conference:

Chicago Fire (17-11-6, 4th East) -- Frank Klopas			Signed: 26 / Open: 4
2013 Newcomers: MF Joel Lindpere (trade, New York), FW Maicon Santos (re-entry, D.C. United), MF Jeff Larentowicz (trade, Colorado), MF Brendan King (1990, Bray Wanderers - Ireland), MF Dilly Duka (trade, Columbus), FW Quincy Amarikwa (trade, Chicago), MF Yazid Atouba (draft, 1993, Cameroon),
Draft: Atouba, LB John Gallagher (1990, Penn State), GK James Belshaw (1990, Duke), DF Caleb Konstanski (1991, Indiana)
Trial: GK Alec Kann (1990, Charleston Battery), FW Colin Rolfe (1990, Houston), DF Pascal Chimbonda (1979, Guadeloupe), DF Leo Lelis (Fluminense, Brazil)
Other: GK Jay Nolly (1982, Vancouver) - rights acquired, unsigned