MLS Playoff Chase: 3 Points Any Way You Can

I read as much MLS coverage as I can, especially big-picture items about potential structural changes. Multiple articles this week about the next iteration of the MLS Cup Playoffs started from the premise that there is not enough urgency or jeopardy in the regular season, since 20 out of 30 teams make the playoffs.

As Paul Tenorio wrote,

If you go to an MLS regular season game today and your team loses, it doesn’t feel like it matters. Will this [playoff format] really change that? Will it feel in the moment like a game of consequence?

I understand and largely agree with the larger point. I actually hate that so many teams make the playoffs. It's not a reward for elite performance if two-thirds of the teams qualify. I would prefer four or six teams from each conference make it. But I really disagree with the notion that there's no pressure on regular season games. It is not the same pressure as exists in promotion/relegation situations, but it is pressure nonetheless. I found my game this weekend to be a prime example.

It paralleled one of the most memorable calls in my career 15 years earlier, when my Dynamo team was getting such poor results on the road that home games felt like our only chance for a win. Most people at the time didn't understand why I was so exuberant as to yell, "WOOHOO!" following a stoppage-time goal in a late-August regular season game. But I knew *at the time* (to Paul's point) that the difference between a 7-point week and a 5-point week was significant. I was right: That 2-point standings bump wound up giving us home-field advantage in our conference semifinal playoff series.

Similarly, Charlotte FC has only one road win this year. They are hoping for a top-four finish and home-field advantage in the conference quarterfinals. In a three-game week against three teams below them in the standings (Columbus, Toronto, D.C. United), their 3-3 tie on Wednesday night in Toronto was similar to my 2011 Houston team's midweek draw at New England, a team we unequivocally should have beaten. In both cases, the midweek result upped the pressure on Saturday's game, because taking only 5 points from three favorable matchups was just unacceptable.

It's not "your contract will be canceled because the club will drop to a lower division" pressure, I'll grant you. But it is pressure, knowing you only have five home games left in which you're confident of taking the full three points.

D.C. United, Charlotte's opponent, had its own kind of pressure, sitting precariously in the final playoff spot (the club has not qualified since 2019), but struggling to convince anybody, even themselves, that they will stay there.

The game itself, which I called alongside Manchester United legend Phil Neville, certainly had pressure. It may have been stultifying pressure, in fact, in the first half. But it led to high drama in the second, and it felt like we largely got the calls right. Have a listen!

MLS Is Back: Catching Up

What a summer! MLS has returned to play after the World Cup, and I have returned to calling games ... but clearly have been derelict in my blogging.

I'll share the highlights from my recent games, but quickly: There are many changes occurring throughout sports broadcasting at the moment. One of these has seen my role at ESPN drastically reduced. Having called multiple college soccer games every year since 2014, I was told I would be hired on a free-lance basis (if at all) this fall, rather than on a set contract, which had been the setup since the ACC Network launched in 2019.

This was not welcome, by any means. It feels very strange not to be prepping 50+ college soccer rosters and trying to track lineups as the season gets underway. But we are used to going where the work is, and I am excited about the broadcasts I do have and will have this fall.

Since MLS returned to action, I have called three games in three cities with three partners, and each has offered its own unique high points. Lata drama and controversy in D.C. while working with a football legend, Phil Neville. My first trip to wonderful soccer-specific stadia in St. Louis and Montreal. A wonderful chance to see family and bring them out to a game, albeit a wet one! A reunion game with my man Jalil Anibaba. A first chance to work with a player I covered for years, Lloyd Sam, who I somehow convinced that I thought he was left-footed!

Here are the on-field highlights:

D.C. United 2, Toronto FC 1

St. Louis City 1, Real Salt Lake 1

CF Montreal 1, D.C. United 1

More trips and more games to come! I'm excited to see what the fall brings.

MLS Game 4: Out of Words

Tonight's game between D.C. United and CF Montreal was a wonderful, wild 4-4 thriller! I am out of words to describe it. My syntax wasn't perfect on every call, but hopefully my excitement helped share just how engrossing and fascinating and exhilarating this game was!

Enjoy:

MLS Game 3: Bouncing Right Back

I'm fond of saying, on air, that teams and individuals love to have a quick turnaround after a frustrating performance so that they can try to quickly right the wrongs of that disappointment.

That storyline was at play in my work last week, as I was able to move on from some Wednesday frustration to enjoy an exciting game on Saturday, one I feel had some really good calls of exciting moments.

They didn't all make the highlights, actually. This compilation leaves out one of the best plays of the game, a defensive intervention by Griffin Dorsey, but it still provides a good sample of our broadcast.

This game was also rare for me because of how much Spanish it involved. Both coaching staffs speak primarily Spanish, while my partner (MetroStars legend and former New York Cosmos coach Giovanni Savarese), my producer, and both of the Spanish-language announcers were all fully bilingual. This left me embarrassed at speaking only one language and relying on automatic transcription and Google Translate after the coach calls. It wasn't a problem, just something I hadn't experienced in a while, since my days in Houston when the Dynamo competed internationally.

It's an area of growth for me: I hope to be able to understand so much more and to be able to communicate in Spanish beyond "lo siento por mi español."

I've got one more MLS game before the World Cup, in D.C. on Saturday, and I can't wait to see what happens in that one. 

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.”

Back in MLS With a Bang!

My voice is more than a little froggy this morning after calling a wild 3-2 win for D.C. United over Orlando City in a Major League Soccer game Saturday night.

We don't have time or space to go through all my emotions leading up to the show, my first on the primary English TV feed of an MLS game since an ESPN game I called in 2021. Suffice it to say, I've been looking forward to it! The event itself certainly delivered more than I could have asked for.

Five goals, multiple lead changes, and a 90th-minute game-winner from the home team in front of their supporters? Yeah, that's how you draw it up. What's more, the decisive goalscorer, Kye Rowles, was the D.C. United representative we talked to on Friday to prepare for the match. I did not expect that he would be the hero less than 36 hours later!

Here are the highlights of a game I thoroughly enjoyed calling with my partner, 12-year MLS veteran Jalil Anibaba, who I only met on Thursday but already consider a friend. We had a blast!

For my first broadcast on Apple TV and my first full broadcast in almost six months, I felt very good about our show. Getting fooled by the 80th-minute chance and calling goal on a shot that didn't go in will not make my personal highlight reel, but it happens to the best of us.

It was also a treat before the game to say hello to a broadcasting legend, Dave Johnson, for whom the broadcast booth at Audi Field is named. He is battling multiple sclerosis and doing so with remarkably good humor, maintaining a busy schedule of Wizards and United broadcasts, working with Bruce Murry on the latter.

Dave is a true class act for whom I have so much respect. He showed that American broadcasters can put their own stamp on soccer. Ever the insider, he had confirmed both lineups and bench rosters way before us TV folks, helpfully sharing that information to help us prepare.

I have a few weeks for my voice to recover before I call three more MLS games in May, and then everyone's focus will flip to the World Cup.

But for now, I'm very happy to have gotten my feet wet. As I texted a friend this morning, "God was it fun!"

“You were ON today”: Closing out soccer season with a bang

Obviously, I've been derelict in posting, to say the least. But I want to celebrate the culmination of my college soccer season today.

My spouse often asks how my broadcast went, and after one of many "OK" responses, or perhaps it was an "it could have been better" night, she said, "You never say 'Good' or 'great' when I ask."

I had to admit it was true. I'm hard on myself and tend to focus more on the things I think I should have done better than the things that went right.

But today, my last game of the season, the Ivy League men's championship game, called in person on the Princeton campus, felt right. It was an exciting game, with an early goal, a dramatic penalty kick save, and a late goal. It looked great, on a crisp, sunny afternoon with just enough fall foliage still lingering. And in addition to my knowledge of the teams, player identification, storyline development, interviews, chemistry with my partner, and on-camera hit, all of which felt good today, I also felt like I nailed the big moments.

I haven't listened back to any of it, to be honest, but all of the big spots felt good as they happened. My partner liked the goal calls, and I spoke long enough to punctuate it but quickly enough to lay out and let the pictures and sounds of player and fan reactions carry the mail.

A colleague texted me later, "You were on today!" and it took me a second to figure out what he meant. But I'll gladly take it. What a fun morning and afternoon, a great way to close my portion of the college soccer schedule!

Bonus baseball! Stepping onto LLWS regionals on short notice

Calling Little League's Intermediate 50/70 World Series (for 13-year-olds) is one of the annual highlights of my broadcast schedule. It's so much fun and I look forward to it (and prepare for it) for months in advance.

But I can admit the lights shine brightest on ESPN's coverage of the 12-year-old Little League World Series, with regional games featured on linear television. Williamsport is the event so many of us grew up watching (I can still vividly remember some of the broadcast opening from when I was 9), and, of course, it's the one I aspired (in vain, as I knew it would be) to play in.

So when I had the chance to call two games in 12-year-old regionals, filling in for a fellow announcer experiencing technical difficulties connecting with our Whitestown, Indiana site (pictured), it was a no-brainer! I was already in Little League mode, paying attention to the regionals anyway, and still had pages left in my custom scorebook built to support Continuous Batting Order, in which every player (up to 14) is in the batting order the entire game.

So on August 6, I called the Great Lakes Region elimination game between Jasper, Indiana and Bowling Green East, Kentucky:

The following day, I called the Midwest Region winners' bracket final between Webb City, Missouri and Sioux Falls, South Dakota:

They were both tight, well-played games that seemed to fly by (less than 1 hour, 45 minutes for each) compared to the games in Livermore, which are an inning longer and inevitably slow down due to the addition of leads, pickoffs, and true stolen bases.

As I do at the 13-year-old level, I took pride in calling the teams by their league names, not just by the states involved. There's state pride involved, absolutely, and some teams even choose to order new uniforms that feature their state name. But most wear their original uniforms bearing their league name, and when you've beaten teams from all over your state to win the prize of representing that state, the town and the league deserve some specific love. Some towns have more than one league, too, as my hometown did when I played. After all, California didn't win back-to-back Little League world championships in 1992 and 1993; Long Beach, California did! 

The games were close and interesting and fun to call, and both were such an adrenaline rush, too: I was trying my best to get up to speed on these teams in short order, working with a new partner in Chris Burke and new production crews, and scrambling to get everything done. For the second game, I even had enough time to set up and appear on camera for our open!

It was incredible fun, an important contribution to our team's coverage, and a taste of something I can hope to work on again in the future!

Eastbank, World Series Champions!

My non-stop week calling games from the Little League Intermediate 50/70 Baseball World Series came to a thrilling conclusion late Sunday night, as the Eastbank Little League from Kenner, Louisiana (right next to Louis Armstrong Airport) edged defending champion West Seoul, Korea with a run in the top of the seventh inning to take the world championship.

Champions of the Little League World Series (12-year-olds) back in 2019, Eastbank becomes the first  individual league ever to win both the 12- and 13-year-old world championships (although Seoul in 2014 and West Seoul in 2015 presumably had some significant overlap).

Both teams were so sound and had such good pitching that we never expected a wild, 8-7 game, but that's exactly what we got. This video doesn't include our opening tease, which I was quite proud of, but here's about 25 minutes of 13-year-old Little League fun:

Linear College Baseball Debut!

I'm not going to lie: I was as excited to do this game as any I've called in the last year and a half. I emailed maybe 100 people who have been instrumental in my baseball broadcasting career to let them know that I was *finally* going to call a college baseball game on linear TV.

That it wound up being a game with no implications in the standings or for either team's postseason chances didn't change that at all. That it wound up being ended early due to the 10-run rule didn't phase me at all. This was high-level college baseball, and my partner and I told the stories and put a good call on it! And I even got to use the home run call suggested by my children while we were riding the New York City subway.

Mission accomplished, as far as I was concerned, and cross your fingers with me that there is more to come. In the mean time, check out the highlights from Clemson vs Boston College:

#Clemson completed the sweep with another 10-run performance. It was the first three-game weekend series in which the Tigers scored double-digit runs in all three games since 2001 & the first time in an ACC series since 1995.

🎥 Clemson vs. Boston College Highlights ➡️ 5/18/24 pic.twitter.com/QYTWbp0Bft

— Clemson Baseball (@ClemsonBaseball) May 18, 2024

Back to College Baseball! Seton Hall-UConn highlights

I'm thrilled to have college baseball back on my schedule 2024. I started my broadcasting career as a college freshman back in 2002, with college baseball the central focus for all four years at Rice University. It is one of the sports I follow closely purely out of passion and interest, even if I'm not working in it ... but I much prefer to be working!

I was fortunate this year to schedule my first televised college baseball game for the ESPN family of networks at the end of this regular season, and I picked up a Big East game in early May as part of my preparation. Conference leader UConn, looking for a fourth straight regular season title, and host Seton Hall, trying to move up the standings, both needed to win this series in a big way, and after UConn rallied to win Friday's opener, I called a tense pitchers' duel with a dramatic finish on Saturday afternoon in Jersey.

Here are the big plays in the game, courtesy of the teams' respective Twitter accounts!

Danny stays hot 🔥#HALLin 🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/KP8XFFZNnV

— Seton Hall University Baseball (@SHUBaseball) May 4, 2024

Back-to-back doubles from Bry and Maddix has tied it up! pic.twitter.com/HNJkqcWyR9

— UConn Baseball (@UConnBSB) May 4, 2024

Paul and Maddix help Garrett toss a 1-2-3 fourth with this gem! pic.twitter.com/9Er3pwg0hw

— UConn Baseball (@UConnBSB) May 4, 2024

2nd and 3rd one out... and Garrett gets out of trouble with a punch out and fly out! pic.twitter.com/BY2trCzaWy

— UConn Baseball (@UConnBSB) May 4, 2024

What a play by Bry!! pic.twitter.com/S0FNAC0LHm

— UConn Baseball (@UConnBSB) May 4, 2024

BIANCO WINS IT FOR THE PIRATES IN THE NINTH!!!#HALLin 🔵⚪️ | #NeverLoseYourHustle pic.twitter.com/6aG2eZzpM2

— Seton Hall University Baseball (@SHUBaseball) May 4, 2024

That's Andrew Bianco, a defensive replacement, with the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 9th to give Seton Hall a MUCH-needed 2-1 win. UConn, however, rebounded in the nightcap of a doubleheader to take the series and hold a 1-game lead atop the conference with two weekends remaining in the regular season. Seton Hall is 4 games out of the final Big East tournament spot with only 6 games left.

My next action is on Saturday, May 18, calling top-5 club Clemson against Boston College in their regular season finale on ACC Network.

Linear basketball - in person! - for the first time

Besides working the Women's Euros, a real positive of this year for me, professionally, has been the opportunity to call games on linear TV (aka you can just flip on the TV and find the channel, not deal with a streaming app) in sports other than soccer.

I'll always be a soccer person and proud of it. But I'm a baseball person and a football person and a hockey person and a basketball person, too! I have ties to each of these that go beyond broadcasting ambition, and each one challenges me and captivates me and piques my interest in a different way. I'm very proud to cover all of those sports, and softball and volleyball as well, when given the opportunity, but it often feels like some other sports write me off for bigger games because I am "a soccer guy."

So the chance to call the 13-year-old Little League World Series this summer, including the world championship game on ESPN2, was a thrill and an important professional step.

Similarly, the chance to call the Georgia-Bucknell men's basketball game for the SEC Network on November 18, in person no less, was a real highlight of the year. I have done lots of college basketball for ESPN and the Big East, and I have done lots of NBA work in virtual reality, but I'd only called one previous basketball game on linear TV, and that was a pandemic-enforced home broadcast. Not quite the same energy!

So I tried to soak up the atmosphere at venerable Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Georgia, and enjoy every minute of the game, one that wound up finishing a close call. Partner Mark Wise and I had a fun post-game interview as well, with Georgia's Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who at some point said he "wants to be a TV personality," and he confirmed that he's coming for our jobs as soon as his playing days are finished.

Here's a look at some of the highlights:

The best news is there's at least one more linear basketball game still to come (December 17, LSU-Winthrop men's), even if that one will be called from home. So stay tuned.

Women's Euro Game 4 highlights

My scheduled slate of games at the Women's Euros concluded Friday with one of the first actual upsets in the tournament, as Austria took out Norway 1-0 to advance to the quarterfinals. With two of the top 10 attacking players in the world, according to many (Ada Hegerberg and Caroline Graham Hansen), Norway were the popular pick to finish second in the group. ESPN's Soccer Power Index gave them more than a 60-percent chance of winning the game outright, which was what they needed to advance.

But after losing 8-0 to England on Monday in just a jaw-dropping display of attacking firepower against a porous defense, Norway was under incredible pressure. They never got anything going and were being outshot 13-2 at one point before getting a couple of late chances.

Having closely watched Austria's Cinderella run to the semifinals in 2017, I was not surprised by the outcome: I told Danielle Slaton, my partner, I expected a tie that would have been enough for Austria to advance. So it was nice to be right, for once, and to call another big moment in the progression of Austria women's football! Check out the highlights:

Women's Euro Game 3 highlights

Thursday's ESPN2 game had Iceland and Italy playing what was essentially a must-win in Group D. There were a lot of things to focus on, starting with Italy's response to its 5-1 loss to France in the tournament opener: five lineup changes, including star forwards Cristiana Girelli and Barbara Bonansea starting the game on the bench. The changes didn't really work, as Iceland - always a challenge for broadcasters with its succession of -dóttir last names - scored first and created enough chances to get a second goal.

They never got it, however, and the second-half insertion of Bonansea ultimately proved enough for Italy to come away with a tie. Given the final matchups in Group D, Italy (playing Belgium) probably comes away with the best odds of advancing behind group winner France, but this certainly has proven to be an unpredictable group!

I felt good about our call. Danielle and I, and Christina when the occasion warranted, knew the teams and the stories and the implications of this game. Our Italian and Icelandic were pretty well honed. So even though both teams walked away disappointed with the result, I think we had a right to walk off satisfied. Time for our biggest game yet in the Group A decider on Friday!

Check out the highlights:

Women's Euro Game 2 highlights

We were fortunate to call a five-goal thriller Wednesday, as the Netherlands - missing four starters, including one of the best players in the world in Vivianne Miedema, jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Portugal. Having rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie their opener, Portugal fought back to tie the game early in the second half, only to see the game decided by a fantastic 20-yard strike from Dutch midfielder Daniëlle van de Donk (who suffered a gruesome ankle injury in late November and raced through rehab to play in the tournament).

This game had some serious pronunciation challenges that I felt we did well with, even if we weren't perfect. There are some Dutch noises I just can't make.

At any rate, these highlights cut off some of my goal calls and omitted a few exciting plays to keep things short and efficient, but I think everybody could tell I was pumped! Here's to more games like that one.

Women's Euro Game 1 highlights

Austria took care of business against Northern Ireland on Monday, pulling out a 2-0 win that, coupled with Norway's collapse against England, means Austria can reach the quarterfinals with a win or a tie in Friday's decisive game against Norway.

Here are the highlights from my ESPN2 call with Danielle Slaton, our first game of the tournament. A good start!

Tremendous goals in Women's FA Cup Final

I was thrilled to be assigned commentary on Sunday's Women's FA Cup Final, the culminating event on the women's club football calendar in England before this summer's Women's Euros. I was even more psyched to call a game that was interesting from start to finish and had some simply fabulous goals.

The game was in London, I was in Connecticut, and partner Julie Foudy was in California - just another day in soccer broadcasting - and we had a blast calling it. I didn't nail every call 100%: I couldn't tell if the first goal was touched on its way in, and I talked into Erin Cuthbert's screamer a bit. But overall, I felt good about our call. I think our excitement for the occasion, the players and teams involved, and ultimately the plays on the field, certainly came through

I call a men's cup final (the DFB-Pokal in Germany) next weekend, which should be really dramatic as well. Then I'm looking forward to finding a rhythm with a regular run of games this summer, although I don't yet know what I'll be scheduled to work. No guarantees I'll get goals as good as these, though!

Red Bulls vs Montréal highlights

Calling a Red Bulls game in person for the first time since March 2020 was a blast on Saturday, made all the better by a thrilling finish in the thick of the MLS playoff race:

Friday Night Hoops: Wake rallies to beat Longwood

I started my college basketball season Friday night with the ACC Network call of Wake Forest vs. Longwood, and here's how it looked and sounded:

Condensed game (8:45)

Highlights (2:45)

Flashback 2010: The "Woo" that came before "Woohoo"

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.
 
July 31, 2010

My most famous call is undoubtedly the "Woohoo" call of Alex Dixon's 2011 game-winning goal for the Dynamo against Real Salt Lake.

But that call was actually a sequel. In 2010, in a game the rest of the world knew as Thierry Henry's first MLS game (that was interrupted by a pitch invader who spectacularly evaded security and then crashed into a wall), the Dynamo played the whole second half with 10 players and came from behind to score in the 90th minute and earn a 2-2 tie.

Excited, exhausted, relieved at the end of a crazy two weeks, I went off, punctuating my call with an ecstatic, "Wooo!"

Slightly more than a year later, I got to call a similar moment with Dixon's goal, but since that one was a win and I was even more excited, my punctuation went even longer and organically turned into my (in)famous, "Woohoo!"

Thierry Henry coming to MLS was a huge deal. Getting to call his debut should have been a hugely anticipated event. But as it happened, it was way down my priority list that week. If you're interested in what exactly led up to that game and that call, read on ...