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.

Calling three college baseball games this week on ESPN3!

Jack Kaiser Stadium at St. John's earlier this year.

College baseball is one of my (many) sports passions. It's what got me started in broadcasting as a college freshman in 2002, and after living and dying with the fortunes of the Rice baseball team for four years, the sport at this level is fairly well ingrained as something I care about.

In the Northeast, however, it is nowhere near as big a deal as what I experienced in Texas, nor as what they have in California and the Southeast. Probably because it still feels cold outside, and it's April 25!

But I am psyched to be calling college baseball again tonight, Tuesday, and Wednesday, as I cover the storied St. John's program for ESPN3. Not only will these be my first baseball broadcasts since last year's WAC Tournament, but they will be my first baseball games on a full television production. I've called more baseball games than any other sport (literally hundreds), but I haven't called them for TV until now. To prepare, I've been following college baseball all year and even went to see No. 2-ranked Louisiana-Lafayette play when I was in Dallas last weekend.

Tonight I'll have St. John's against Georgetown in a Big East game. (Click here to watch.) It's pretty clear which team is favored. St. John's is 21-4 in its last 25 games, has the best home record (16-1) in the country, and is expected to at least qualify for the Big East Tournament (four of the seven teams make it). Georgetown, on the other hand, hasn't had a winning season since 1986 and is 1-8 in conference play. But the Hoyas have really improved as a program over the last 15 years and had a 25-18 record at one point last year before faltering down the stretch and finishing sub-.500.

The best part about the game, from my perspective, is that it's a Friday-night series opener. There's something special about Fridays in college baseball, when both teams pit their No. 1 starters against each other and try to set the tone for the series.

You would expect St. John's to have the edge in that department, with the experienced James Lomangino (4-4, 3.99 ERA, 1.38 WHIP) on the mound. I saw him two weeks ago against Butler when he tied a career high with 10 strikeouts, and he was very good. On the other side, Georgetown will start Matt Smith (3-5, 3.90 ERA, 1.49 WHIP), whose numbers are similar, although Lomangino is much more of a strikeout pitcher. So there may not be much of a gap between the starters.

The difference is likely to be in the bullpens, where St. John's is deep and very good and Georgetown is erratic, to say the least. We'll see if that scouting report is accurate or not, but I'm excited to see what happens tonight!

I'll also be calling two mid-week games next week, both of which will likely have a different feel in terms of intensity. St. John's will be looking to get work for its pitching staff against Princeton, playing its final game of the year, and Iona, which is struggling this season. At this point in the year, weekend series are priority No. 1, since St. John's path to the NCAA Tournament pretty much has to go through the Big East Tournament.

What would a fixed U.S. Open Cup bracket look like? Check it out

The 101st edition of the U.S. Open Cup -- a single-elimination tournament open to all soccer teams in the United States -- was announced on Thursday by U.S. Soccer.

The tournament will feature 80 teams, the most in recent history, and be played over eight rounds, with Major League Soccer teams competing in rounds 4-8.

The pairings, however, are only announced two rounds ahead of time, so there's none of the fun speculation and bracket madness we enjoy with other tournaments. Imagine if U.S. Soccer released a bracket in April with all 80 teams. Imagine the pick'ems, the office pools, the bracket challenges!

There are a lot of factors to deal with, most notably long travel for under-funded teams and avoiding head-to-head games between teams and affiliate clubs. I put together a sample bracket, keeping things as even as possible between the bracket and simulating as best as I could a model that prioritizes reasonable travel for MOST matchups.

Here's what I came up with, via two extremely ugly screen captures:

Let me know what you think in the comments below! Would you like to see U.S. Soccer try this model in the future?

Day 2 broadcast comes through with smiles, jubilation in dramatic finish

After a brutally cold first day and a 0-0 game (albeit an entertaining one), we got great weather on Tuesday and a remarkable game to broadcast. Here's my Day 2 recap for MLSsoccer.com.

Real Salt Lake and Stoke City had been two of the more impressive teams on the opening day of the tournament, and they were pitted against each other on Tuesday. Stoke, however, only had 13 players (which meant only one field-player substitute) due to a red-card suspension. Real Salt Lake, meanwhile, had vocal support in the crowd from a Layton, Utah-based youth club that has produced several players on the RSL Academy roster.

Stoke scored early, but Real Salt Lake controlled much of the first half. RSL head coach Martín Vásquez told his players at halftime that they were affording Stoke too much space, and RSL came out possessed in the second half. They tied the score and dominated the entire half, but when Stoke scored following a free kick in the final minute of regulation, it looked like curtains.

There were several minutes of stoppage time, however, and Salt Lake scored a dramatic tying goal with what turned out to be the last kick of regulation in the third minute of stoppage time! The goal really saved their chances of winning the tournament; otherwise Stoke City would have controlled its own path to the final.

Instead, Real Salt Lake won the shootout to earn an extra point in the standings and provide a memorable ending to our broadcast! After we had tearful injuries on Monday's show, I hoped we would get some jubilation on our next broadcast, and we certainly did.

Here's the full archive of the game -- the frantic finish starts around the 1:24:55 mark:

Shivering, sniffling through opening-night broadcast at the MLS U-17 championship

Our setup on Monday night

You would think Dallas in late April would be pretty warm, but the weather on Monday at the 2014 Generation adidas Cup was anything but welcoming. With temperatures in the 40s and dropping into the 30s at night (which, of course, included our live broadcast under a full moon), and a strong wind whipping across the exposed complex all day long, everybody on hand was talking about how cold it was.

The broadcast must go on, of course, so at 8 p.m. CT I stepped onto a small podium near the bench of the San Jose Earthquakes U-17 team and called their game against the Chivas Guadalajara U17s. Coaches and kids from both teams were staying at our hotel, so that made it easier than normal to prepare for the game, but there were still a few challenges. For example, Chivas wears thin, navy blue numbers (often in the triple digits) on a background of red and white stripes, which is virtually impossible to see more than 40 yards away. We also did not have replay capabilities on Monday, although we hope to show replays later in the tournament.

The game itself, despite being the only 0-0 tie of the day in the tournament's championship division (my full Day 1 recap is available here), was pretty compelling. Less than three minutes in, we had the heartbreaking site of a San Jose player in tears after suffering an injury and being helped off the field by his teammates. Whatever the injury, you could see the anguish on the kid's face. Luckily, when I checked at halftime, the injury turned out not to be the complete ruptured Achilles the player had feared it to be.

After San Jose dominated the game in terms of scoring chances but was consistently denied by the Chivas goalkeeper, the Mexican club won in a very well-executed shootout, as the teams combined to score on nine of their 10 penalty kicks. One Chivas player had been injured late in the game, after the club had run out of substitutions. So he remained with his team in the center circle for the shootout, then was carried off in tears by a teammate.

While you obviously hope both kids are OK and get to play again in the tournament, it's not every day you call a game book-ended with that kind of emotion. Hopefully we get more elation than anything else throughout the remaining games!

Here's the full archive of the game:

Set to broadcast six U-17 soccer games at Generation adidas Cup

Quick post - just arrived in the Dallas-Fort Worth MetroPlex on Sunday for a week of broadcasting soccer games for MLSsoccer.com. I'll be calling six games in the Generation adidas Cup, which is the U-17 championship of Major League Soccer. Nine teams qualified for the final around, joined by three international clubs.

Here's a brief preview article I put together for MLSsoccer.com.

The weather conditions are cold and windy, at least for April in Texas, and since we're not working in a stadium with infrastructure but on equipment we set up, there may be some exciting stories ahead!

Talking in the Rain: Calling 2014's USL PRO vs. MLS Reserve League opener

One week after hosting a pregame show for the New York Red Bulls first team, I got to call play-by-play for the Red Bulls Reserves on Sunday, as they played the Dayton Dutch Lions in a crossover game that counted in the standings both for Dayton in USL PRO (the third division of American soccer) and in the MLS Reserve League (now in its final season as teams integrate with USL PRO, either via affiliation or by fielding their own minor-league team).

This particular reserve game took place at 25,000-seat Red Bull Arena, kicking off one hour after the Red Bulls' regular game against Chivas USA. By the time it kicked off, in the rain, there were not a whole lot of people in the building, and I was working the game solo. So it presented some challenges.

But I had researched Dayton as thoroughly as possible, talking to a Columbus Crew coach who gave insight on the seven players his club had loaned to Dayton and to the head coaches of both Dayton and the Red Bulls Reserves before the game. So I knew the players and personnel and had a great time calling the game:

Looking back, I'm frustrated at myself for losing focus on the plays in the second half that led to New York's goals (particularly the set pieces) and will be alert to that moving forward. But it's always good to be in a play-by-play setting, and hopefully there is more to come!

Dayton Dutch Lions (0-1) vs. New York Red Bulls Reserves (1-1)
March 30, 2014 -- Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ
USL PRO / MLS Reserve League

Scoring Summary:
NY -- Michael Bustamante 1 (Connor Lade 1, Eric Stevenson 1) 51
NY -- Eric Stevenson 1 (Marius Obekop 2, Arun Basuljevic 1) 61
NY -- Matt Miazga 1 (Eric Stevenson 2) 66

Dayton Dutch Lions -- Matt Williams, Taylor Bowlin (Ross Friedman 70), Brock Granger, Kevan George, Shane Smith, Shintaro Harada, Sebastien Thurière (Fifi Baiden 64), Eddie Hertsenberg (Aaron Schoenfeld 53), Cameron Vickers (Joe Broekhuizen 70), Ryan Finley (Matt Walker 64), Eli Garner.
Substitutes Not Used: Brad Stuver, Eric Kissinger.

New York Red Bulls Reserves -- Ryan Meara, Chris Duvall, Matt Miazga, Kevin Politz (Brandon Tetro 76), Ambroise Oyongo, Connor Lade, Eric Stevenson, Michael Bustamante, Arun Basuljevic (Malcolm Dixon 86), Chris Lema, Marius Obekop.
Substitutes Not Used: Santiago Castaño.

Misconduct Summary:
DAY -- Shintaro Harada (caution) 47
DAY -- Fifi Baiden (caution) 74
DAY -- Aaron Schoenfeld (caution) 88

Referee: Robert Sibiga
Referee's Assistants: T.J. Zablocki; Zeno Cho
Fourth Official: Ashraf Kamel

Weather: Rain-and-46 degrees
All statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial

Making my MSG debut and trying to stay warm at the same time

I was nervous before working on the MSG Network for the first time. But that wasn’t the reason I felt like I was shaking shortly before we went on air with Red Bulls GameNight on Sunday afternoon.

No, any trembles were due to the extreme cold, as the game was played just outside of Chicago on a day with windchill temperatures in the low 20s. The cold was also responsible for my eyes watering, my nose running, and a general loss of feeling in my ears and hands. And that was all in the first segment!

But in all seriousness, I really enjoyed my first time hosting the pre-game show for MSG’s coverage of the Red Bulls. I worked with a great crew that consistently puts together one of the best broadcasts in MLS, and I got to share the airwaves with two legends of American soccer broadcasting in play-by-play announcer JP Dellacamera (like me, a fill-in for the game; not like me, a veteran of the show) and color analyst Shep Messing (who welcomed me by calling me “rookie” the entire weekend.) My first game as an intern in professional sports, back in 2002, saw me work as a spotter for that duo on an MSG broadcast of a MetroStars game at Giants Stadium, so I really felt fortunate to work with them as a colleague 12 years later.

I really was nervous during the week leading up to the game. Working on a broadcast for the first time is a real challenge, no matter how good all the components are, because you don’t have a sense of each other’s rhythm and exactly how things operate. On a first show working together, you spend a lot of energy concentrating and thinking about the logistics of the broadcast (i.e. what’s coming next, how long your countdown is until the next commercial, which elements are sponsored), rather than focusing on some higher-level concerns.

So I spent the week not only researching the Red Bulls and their opponent, the Chicago Fire, but watching tapes of prior editions of Red Bulls GameNight with the regular host, Tina Cervasio, and studying the rundown to plan how I would transition from point to point. I also worried extensively about the weather, which called for a really cold day but, thankfully, no precipitation. When I woke up early on Sunday morning and saw snow on the ground, it did nothing to calm those nerves!

But the light snow had come in from the lake and did not carry to Bridgeview, where the stadium is, so the day turned out to be clear. As for the cold, I literally wore three pairs of socks and three different shirts under my collared shirt and my overcoat to try and stay warm. I had gloves and a hat, too, but tried not to use them often. The gloves did make an impromptu appearance on my post-game interview with Dax McCarty (at right).

It was an easy group to step in and work with for the game, and I had a great time doing it. With the pre-game show set to start at 1:30 p.m. Central Time, we had an 11 a.m. meeting, and I talked to coaches from both teams around 12:15 p.m. From there, it seemed like almost no time had passed before the truck was counting me down to start the pre-game show, and I really didn’t have time to think about being nervous.

The show went well, and it was great to know that my parents, family, and friends back in New Jersey could watch the game on regular television, rather than trying to wrangle something via the internet. As normal as watching online is nowadays, there was something cool about my parents being able to flip on their TV and see my ugly mug.

We had a few hiccups – the halftime interview was canceled abruptly when we realized the designated camera operator had not made it on the scene; I initially introduced Philadelphia-Columbus highlights as "first-half highlights" before correcting myself; and you can clearly see my earpiece during the post-game interview with New York head coach Mike Petke, a result of switching sides so that Mike would be properly lit. All things we dealt with swiftly and, I felt, competently.

All in all, a really fun trip to Chicago and chance to work a game for a network I’ve watched since I was a kid. Hopefully we get to do it again some day, and hopefully it will be a lot warmer!

Soccer's back already? Escaping New York for MLS preseason in Florida

The snow just keeps coming in New York this winter, only my third in the Northeast in the last 13 years, so I was only too glad (and very lucky) to escape to Florida on Tuesday to cover some Major League Soccer preseason action.

Going from this:

to this:

certainly brightens your day, even if that day starts at 5 a.m. on about three hours' sleep.

At any rate, I'm working with MLSsoccer.com as part of its preseason coverage, and on Wednesday night we'll offer one of the best preseason matchups you could ask for: D.C. United vs. Toronto FC (7 p.m. ET, MLSsoccer.com). It sounds a little strange, given that those teams finished last and second-to-last in the Eastern Conference last year. But these are teams in the midst of big-time makeovers, and being the first to get a look at the new groups is exciting. Even if those groups are still assembling.

We'll also cover the Columbus Crew's first game under new head coach Gregg Berhalter when they take on Swedish champion Malmö at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and I'm excited to get a first look at the new Crew.

Here's a pre-game look from each perspective:
Columbus Crew website
Toronto FC website
D.C. United via Washington Post

The new IMG Stadium seems like a good preseason venue,
even if it does have a track.

The Toronto-D.C. game stands out because there are SO many new faces on each side. Well, not NEW faces, exactly - familiar faces in new places:

D.C. United brought in seven MLS veterans in the offseason and could probably start six of them at some point (three are center backs). The cast of characters has plenty of talent and could instantly put D.C. back in the playoff hunt. Why don't more teams re-build this way? It's expensive, since D.C. acquired several players through the re-entry process, but a double dose of allocation money (for missing the playoffs AND for reaching the CONCACAF Champions League) sure helps. One of those new guys is defender Bobby Boswell, who began his career with D.C. from 2005-07 and who I consider a friend after working together for four years in Houston. It was great to see him on Tuesday and catch up on his busy offseason, including the birth of his second son, Nash, last month.

Another former Houston friend in town is Dwayne De Rosario, who went from D.C. United to one of his old clubs, Toronto FC, in the offseason. Yet De Ro - always entertaining and still as confident as ever - is one of the lower-profile acquisitions by free-spending Toronto FC, which brought in seven new signings of its own, including the high-priced trio of England international Jermain Defoe, U.S. international Michael Bradley, and Brazilian forward Gilberto.

MLSsoccer.com's Samantha Yarock sat down with Toronto FC on Tuesday, and I listened in on some very entertaining interviews. Among the lines of the day were Ryan Nelsen saying "a hardened MLS player is gold dust for me" and De Ro pointing out that one of his fingers is feeling lonely right now (he has four MLS Cup championship rings).

It's all got me ready for my first MLS action of 2014 on Wednesday at the IMG Stadium here in Bradenton!