Let's Talk (US) Soccer Content

Hello! It's Tuesday, June 4, and we need your thoughts on carving the landscape of US soccer content, as we turn our focus to Euro 2024 and COPA AMERICA. All that and the usual daily soccer round-ups.

When we started this newsletter, we began with the idea of the daily content being roughly a 50/50 split between European football and American soccer but as you will have noticed there has been a much heavier skew towards Europe. We make no apologies for that but the reasons why that is the case, has given us pause for thought.

Part of the explanation is – there has been an awful lot of news out of Europe. There has been the run-in to the Premier League title, all three of the European club finals, the start of the managerial merry-go-round and the transfer market. Which is great – we are here to curate the best soccer news out there, wherever it is happening.

But one factor that can’t be ignored is that there really isn’t a lot of written coverage of American soccer out there for us to link to.

Frankly, the sport is under-covered. Soccer in America doesn’t get the scale or quality of coverage that it merits and which fans deserve. We all know it.

There are some great established publications, like Soccer America, there are some brilliant writers and reporters at places like The Athletic, MLSSoccer.com, ESPN and Yahoo Sports and some MLS teams get great coverage. But on a team by team basis, day-to-day, there really isn’t a lot of stuff out there. If you are lucky enough to live in, say, Philadelphia or Washington DC, for example, you’ll get top quality coverage of your club (and the sport in general) from Jonathan Tannenwald and Steven Goff. But, sadly, that’s not the case with every market.

Now, we love MLS and American soccer in general. We know there is a passionate fan-base out there for every team and for the game in general. We also know that there are people out there who can (and in some cases already do) write about their team in an interesting and informative manner. Some are writing substacks, some write blogs or websites or do podcasts or You Tube channels, and there are plenty more who would love to do so, on an occasional basis, if there was a platform for them.

In an ideal world, every newspaper sports editor in every soccer market, or every local tv station, would have hired the best people by now, or at the very least given them a chance. That hasn’t happened. And it is a real pity that so much talent is being frustrated.

But we also live in a time when content production and distribution, in all forms, is undergoing massive change. There are incredible opportunities for people to make an impact with their work. Podcasts, videos, newsletters and other forms of content publishing and distribution all offer possible routes.

But not everyone has the capacity, the time and resources needed, to create a start-up platform. They have things to say, things to write about and the ability to do so, but they also have jobs to do, lives to live.

But we think we can help – and maybe in a different way than how some have tried in the past.

We want to start a conversation with creators and potential creators of American soccer content, about how we can help create some kind of platform for their content, a structure which has the potential to generate not only an audience but also, eventually, revenue, for those who produce the material.

And when we say, conversation, we don’t mean, we want to sell you on some offer or deal. We really mean a conversation.

We have our ideas but we also have open-minds and want to listen and discover what the issues are that need addressing and find out how solving them might lead to workable opportunities.

Can we create a way of increasing the volume and quality of American soccer content? Can we do so in a way that might make sense for a diverse range of writers, content creators and people who would like to become such creators?

If you want to be part of that conversation – just drop Paul Woodhouse a line:

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EURO 2024 Round-up

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BELGIUM: The Belgium away kit is an absolute stroke of genius. 

Let us know in the comments which cultural cartoon your country should adopt in a major tournament. And no, Micky Mouse isn’t Scottish… 

ENGLAND: Gareth Southgate enters the ‘plate spinning’ phase of England’s Euro 2024 build-up. (BBC)

Harry Redknapp hasn’t read the memo about England not over-hyping themselves ahead of big tournaments: Nah…. “The best players are in the England team. Don’t fear anyone, let’s show what we can do, let’s go and rip them to pieces with the fantastic attacking ability we have got. I am not going to worry too much about the opposition. As a group no one has better players than us.” (PA)

Switzerland team guide from The Guardian which takes a side-swipe at the Chicago Fire’s Designated Player when lamenting their weakness in attack: In addition Xherdan Shaqiri, the most important Swiss attacking player in recent years, has been playing in the American MLS for the past two years. (As anyone who has seen the Fire of late would add - ‘playing in MLS’ is a generous interpretation of his efforts)

And their Scotland team guide which ends with this gem: What Scots cannot do at football games is drink alcohol; expect them to take full advantage of German leniency in that department.

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COPA AMERICA 2024 Round-up

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Messi has arrived at the Argentina pre-tournament camp - which he won’t have found too tricky to find - it happens to be Inter Miami’s training ground. (ESPN)

There hasn’t been a huge amount of pre-tournament publicity yet - but there is an official website at least.

Fox have released their tv schedule for their combined Euro/Copa ‘Summer of Soccer’ with games running from 9am to midnight. How many times do you think Rob Stone is going to say “Georgia, thats the European nation, not the southern state”?

And are you ready for days like this?

June 22

• Georgia vs Czechia, 9 a.m. (FS1)

• Turkey vs Portugal, 12 p.m. (FOX)

• Belgium vs Romania, 3 p.m. (FOX)

• Ecuador vs. Venezuela, 6 p.m. (FS1)

• Mexico vs. Jamaica, 9 p.m. (FS1)

Soccer, all day, all night? This really should be the theme tune for Fox’s coverage

We hope you have DoorDash on speed dial…

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Your Daily Soccer Round-up….

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Today’s Top Transfers: 

• Juventus are eyeing Douglas Luiz from Aston Villa with US midfielder Weston McKennie going the opposite way (SkySports)

• It’s official - Real Madrid sign Kylian Mbappe (FOX)

• De Bruyne ‘open to everything’. Translation: De Bruyne is off to Saudi Arabia if the price is right (BBC)

• Manchester United target Wolves striker Matheus Cunha in £60million move (Mirror)

Managerial Mayhem:

• Palladino joins Fiorentina as new head coach  (Football Italia)

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In Other Soccer News

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USWMT: Is Alex Morgan struggling to make new USWMT manager, Emma Hayes’, Olympic team roster? (Jonathan Tannenwald, Philadelphia Inquirer)

PREMIER LEAGUE: Man City launch legal action against the Premier League over those 115 charges. Shit, as they say, is about to get real. (Matt Lawton, The Times)

EUROPE: Where in the world are the top European club teams playing this summer? And Wrexham. (ESPN) 

MLS: The latest MLS Power Rankings see Inter Miami maintain top spot with LAFC moving up to second, while Sporting Kansas City languish at the bottom. (ESPN)  

SCOTLAND: Less than five years ago, Duncan Ferguson was a key member of Carlo Ancelotti’s coaching team at Everton. He’s now languishing in the third tier of Scottish football at Inverness Caledonian Thistle having to travel 135 miles to their new training ground with fan boycotts, the chairman resigning, and administration looming large. (Guardian)  

• Lest we forget their giant-killing cup exploits that led to this gem:

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The Daily Soccer Quote of the Day

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"It felt like shit (...) "We hung up and I cried for myself. Then I called my wife and said, 'Honey, I didn't make it.' Then we cried together on the phone for another two minutes." - Robin Gosens on being told he hadn’t made the Germany squad.

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