I'm On The Third Half

Yours truly will be on the airwaves again, this time joining my good buddy Johnathan Starling, host of The Third Half, to preview teams A-F in the Premiership. We recorded a couple solid segments yesterday afternoon, and the podcast will become available for download on iTunes at some point later today after its first airing on CSRN. You can also, of course, listen to the show on CSRN, and on Sports Byline.

It's a weekly, hour-long show devoted primarily to MLS and the Premiership, and I encourage everyone to have a listen to any of the first nine episodes that John has put out so far. I'm honored to be his first guest; it meant a lot that he asked me to come on. My spot comes towards the end of the hour, so keep your ears peeled for that, but enjoy the rest of the show as well.

I'll be back on The Third Half again next week, and possibly the week after, to talk about several more clubs as we get closer and closer to the start of the Premiership season. As I wrote here on Monday, my full previews start tomorrow here at English Soccer Talk, and I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback on the show and my team capsules.

I'm On The American Soccer Show (Part II)

Hopefully everyone enjoyed my segment on the American Soccer Show last week with Kartik Krishnaiyer, a good buddy of mine. We had a good chat about the Euros and the US National Team and the feedback I've gotten so far has been positive, so I appreciate that.

Living where I do in Virginia (at least I until this fall, when I head up to Erie, PA for my second year of college), I get a chance to follow DC United fairly closely. They're playing very well in MLS right now and advanced in the US Open Cup last night with a victory over Rochester, and ABC reached a record audience in United's 4-1 win over the LA Galaxy last weekend immediately before the Euro 2008 final. Players like Luciano Emilio, an early MVP candidate, and Marcelo Gallardo are extrememly fun to watch, so keep an eye out on this team heading into the dog days of summer.

DC United was the topic du jour for Kartik and I in our segment today, which will hit CSRN's airwaves on Friday at 2 PM and iTunes shortly thereafter. With SuperLiga upcoming, we previewed United and their chances as they're in a group alongside Atlante and Guadajalara of Mexico as well as MLS' Houston Dynamo. We discussed their recent surge in form and some potential landmines down the road. We touched briefly on SuperLiga itself as a competition and where it ranks on the pyramid of importance for United.

Check it out and have a listen Friday afternoon; hopefully you'll enjoy it.

I'm On The American Soccer Show

For those of you who have enjoyed the previous audio spots featuring myself as a guest, it's your lucky day.

This week on CSRN's American Soccer Show, hosted by my good friend Kartik Krishnaiyer, I'll be on twice for one segment each (about 12 minutes long). Kartik and I recorded the conversation that you can hear starting tomorrow night, either by subscribing to the hour-long show on iTunes or by heading over to CSRN's website (www.csrnusa.com) and navigating your way to the American Soccer Show archives.

We had a good chat about Euro 2008 and how it's been received in America, then covered the US National Team and their recent friendlies against England, Spain, and Argentina, as well as their 9-0 aggregate win over Barbados to move on to the next round of World Cup qualifying. I posted the first part of my E-mail interview with Kartik concerning the USNT a couple weeks ago and will have the second half up either tomorrow or Wednesday.

I'll also be on later this week after the Euro 2008 semifinals have been played, so we'll probably get into those games a fair bit then.

Check out the show and feel free to give me your thoughts. If all goes well, something bigger and better could be on the horizon...

Summer Plans

With the 2007-2008 season winding down, it's time (unfortunately) to wind things down a little bit here as well.

Euro 2008 will be on everyone's minds this summer, and you'll be able to find coverage of that here as I'll be posting a daily recap much like I did for the African Cup of Nations in January. I definitely look forward to watching that tournament, the second-biggest international competition in the world, and will go out on a limb right now and pick England to advance past the quarterfinals and win the whole thing..

Oh wait, England won't be there. Whoops.

In all seriousness, I'm going with Portugal as my choice to win the Euros led by the best player in the world right now, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Posts concerning the Premiership will obviously become more infrequent as there just isn't much to talk about other than player movement and transfers. I'll keep you all updated on that, but the "Useful Soccer Sites" section on the left side of the home page has all the information you'll need to keep up with the goings-on in the summer.

When pre-season friendlies start picking up and teams start getting ready for next season in earnest, English Soccer Talk will pick up again to multiple posts every day (hopefully) like normal.

I'm also still flirting with the possibility of a weekly or bi-weekly podcast during the summer as a way to expand the site. I've lined up a couple of potential guests, so we'll see what happens and possibly by July, the debut of the English Soccer Talk podcast will be available for your listening pleasure.

It's been great writing this season, although I did take a bit of a break last fall, and I look forward to checking in as much as possible during the summer. Can't wait for the 2008-2009 season!

Podcast Possibilities

So, I've been writing this blog for almost a year now and I think it's about time that I sort of upped the ante a little bit. Posting daily (or as close to daily) like I do is great and I love doing it, but I know that you all may be tiring of me, right?

That's ok, my feelings aren't hurt. I'm a big boy; I can handle it.

In all seriousness though, I feel like bringing a guest on for a short podcast/interview/conversation every now and then would be a fresh, new aspect and upgrade to this site.

I'm trying to grow English Soccer Talk and get some more exposure for it, and one way to do that certainly is by making it more interactive with the readers. As a part of that, I'm interested in your opinions concerning this new plan of mine. Should I try and contact some individuals for a 20-30 minute show, maybe once or twice a week? If so, who would you like to hear? Obviously I can't just get in touch with Cristiano Ronaldo or Alan Parry or gentlemen of that stature, but I do think it's possible to still get some well-known figures on for a bit of a chat.

Let me know what you guys are thinking, either through leaving a comment or sending me an E-mail at bills2189@hotmail.com. In the meantime, I'm going to reach out to a couple friends of mine and see what I can come up with.

As I said, I want this site to grow. There are plenty of blogs out there about the Premiership, but not nearly as many of them that can also give you some quality conversation with other people who love this game. That's my ultimate goal, and I'm hoping that you can help in achieving it. After all, you're the ones who come to the site and read what I have to say, so I owe you something in return.

Give me a couple names and I'll see what I can do. I'm going to try and work a little magic here, but I need you guys to help me out and point me in the right direction.

Liverpool Advances to CL Quarterfinals; New College Basketball Podcast

As sure as the sun will rise and set every day, a Rafa Benitez-coached team will not give up a 2-0 lead in a Champions League tie. I've criticized Benitez's tactics in the Premier League on many occasions and will continue to do so when the situation calls for it in the future, but this man simply is built for two-legged ties and knows exactly how to get the job done in Europe.

I never once got the feeling today that Liverpool were in danger of losing to Inter Milan, even though Milan had their fair share of near-misses. Once Fernando Torres scored midway through the second half, the tie was, for all intents and purposes, over. Torres has been the best striker in the Premier League this season and without him, I'm not sure where Liverpool would be.

As far as I'm concerned, the Reds are England's best chance to win the Champions League this season; they may not be a better team than Manchester United, Arsenal, or even Chelsea, but as far as in Europe, they have the best manager in Benitez and a team full of players who have a lot of Champions League experience and the same can't be said about those other three teams.

On an unrelated note, I was asked by my good friend Kartik to come on to his Canes Rising podcast again and talk about the college basketball landscape heading into Championship Week and Selection Sunday. We'll be recording tonight and the finished product should be ready for your listening pleasure within the next couple of days, and trust me, if you're a fan of the ACC, you'll want to listen.

Podcast is Available

I know I mentioned this already today, but the most recent episode of the Canes Rising podcast, featuring myself and host Kartik Krishnaiyer, is actually out right now for you to listen to or download.

I didn't think it would be available until Tuesday, but once again, I've been proven wrong.

Head over to canesrising.com to download this episode directly, or go to iTunes and search "Canes Rising" in the Store, where you can subscribe to the podcast and download each show.

We'll be talking more about college basketball in the days to come as conference tournament and NCAA Tournament time is drawing near.

College Basketball Podcasts

Just wanted to let everyone know that if you're interested, a college basketball podcast featuring myself and host Kartik Krishnaiyer (from CSRN and US Soccer Spot) will be available for your listening pleasure within the next few days over at canesrising.com.

I was a guest on the show earlier this month and Kartik and I had a good discussion about the ACC and the Big Ten, particularly the different styles of play in both conferences and some early NCAA Tournament talk.

This weekend we'll be talking more about the ACC and the bubble teams currently making a push for the Big Dance from that conference. We'll have a chat about each of those teams' tournament résumés and examine the stretch run of regular season conference play. The focus, of course, will be on the Miami Hurricanes and their situation on the heels of impressive back-to-back home victories over Duke and Maryland.

Canesrising.com, go check it out and look for the show within the next couple of days.

Also, for more college basketball information you can always check my "Useful CBB Sites" section on the lower left side of the homepage.

Thank God That's Over; Podcast News

Finally! The international break is over and at long last, I'm done with my season summaries for each of the 20 Premiership teams. I hope they were informative.

As I hinted before when talking about my colleague's new podcast, I have more info to pass on. Final details have still not been set in stone but we're aiming for a December 27th debut. The podcast will be released twice a week with my brother and I making our appearance on one of the shows, and each podcast will be about 45 minutes in length, give or take a few minutes depending on the news or the Premiership/European schedule.

Again, I'll have more details here when we figure everything out but until then, regular updates will be posted here concerning the new 3rd Half Podcast.

Enjoy the slate of games this weekend.

New Podcast

In conjunction with BCJohn (who runs "The 3rd Half", a new blog listed under the Useful Soccer Sites section, and can be heard as a regular contributor on the Major Soccer League Talk podcast as well as the EPL Talk podcast), I'm excited to announce that I, along with my brother, will be once-a-week guests on the new Third Half Podcast, scheduled to debut within the very near future as a creation of BC himself.

This podcast will be done on a twice-a-week basis with another guest scheduled to cohost the other weekly show with BCJohn. Full details will be released by BC very soon as to where the podcast will be available for your listening pleasure and to the actual date of the show's debut.

According to BC, this new podcast "is going to be a no-nonsense look at the Barclays Premier League and beyond, a perfect compliment to the interviews done (elsewhere). So you ask yourself how this is going to be different than from other podcasts online? Simple, it's going to be the most honest, brunt analysis of the events at the weekend, cutting through the BS to get to the heart of the news. It will also look at the action in other leagues around Europe as well as Major League Soccer."

To say the least, I'm excited for the show to get started and I can't wait to start recording. I speak for my brother in saying we're honored that BC has asked us to cohost with him once a week and it's something we think will be enjoyable for all the listeners out there and for the readers of our blogs.

Once BC lets me know about the full details and show schedule, I'll be sure to post back here with everything regarding the new Third Half Podcast, where to find it, when to listen to it, and how to contact us. Until then, once again, I'm excited and can't wait for the show to begin.