The Soccer Media Podcast with John Shrader

Shaw Brown is the producer of US Men’s National Team and US Women’s National Team soccer on the Turner networks, TBS and TNT. He has spent three decades producing television, mostly soccer. He has done Major League Soccer, the World Cup and just about everything in between.  This is more than an ‘inside television’ conversation. Lots of big-picture thoughts as well. Recorded December 8, 2025 THE S...

THIS EPISODE: Derek Rae is a soccer commentator for ESPN and other outlets, and the voice of the Electronic Arts soccer video game, EAFC. The Aberdeen, Scotland native splits his timebetween the US and Europe, where he is one of the leading television voices of the German Bundesliga.  We would expectto see him working the 2026 World Cup for Fox. In this conversation we chat about his work, includi...

Heidi Smith is the author of the new book Play On: from Adversity to Advantage Through 140 Years of Women’s Soccer, published by Sunheart Productions. Smith is a writer, former high school and community college teacher, magazine editor, and soccer coach. The format of the book is interesting. Heidi writes about women’s soccer, historically and contemporarily, in chapters titled after elements of t...

JOHN STRONG has been doing soccer on Fox since 2012. From his days as a very young man announcing the Portland Timbers games to doing every World Cup since 2015 it has been quite a ride for the Lake Oswego, Oregon native.  He and his mates at Fox are preparing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.  Who knows what’s after that, FIFA has not yet awarded television righ...

This time around a conversation from the Soccer Media bookshelf. Dr. Joe Machnik – coach, administrator, referee, manager ofofficials, television rules analyst, and more – has written a book about his life in soccer, From the Sandlots to the World Cup: Inside Seven Decades in American Soccer . Machnik was a high school and college goalkeeper, and hasgone on in the last 60-plus years to work in nea...

MICHAEL LEWIS has covered soccer for more than 50 years. He is the editor of Front Row Soccer (frontrowsoccer.com) and writes View from the Front Row on Substack. Michael has worked over the years for many outlets, including 22 years for the New York Daily News. He covered the big doubleheader of activities this weekend for Forbes. He was at both the FIFA World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washing...

JAKE ZIVIN , who will call the MLS Cup Final Saturday on Apple TV, Inter Miami vs Vancouver, joins to look ahead at the matchup. It's Messi vs Muller and more. MIKE WOITALLA, Soccer America Executive Editor, in D.C. for Friday's FIFA World Cup draw. He looks ahead at that event, with interest around the world. Recorded December 3, 2025 THE SHOW: American soccer’s frontline storytellers int...

DESCRIPTION Jay Neuhaus, Senior VP Event Consulting for Play Fly Sports, has been in the middle of big soccer eventsaround the world for more than two decades. He worked for EUFA, FIFA and IMG. He spent several years in Rio de Janeiro working for FIFA in the buildup to the 2014 World Cup. He now helps cities and organizing committees get the best out of their opportunities in the 2026 FIFA World C...

At the end of his 17-year playing career Herculez Gomez turned to the broadcasting business. He started withFox Sports while still playing, and since 2017 he has been with ESPN, where he hosts a daily show Ahora o Nunca (Now or Never) on ESPN Deportes and ESPN+. He also appears on ESPNFC and you can find his work on YouTube. A Mexican American who chose to play for the US national team, Herculez s...

Steven Goff has been covering soccer full time for about 35 years, during a 40-year career with the Washington Post. He left the Post in 2025 and is now covering the US Men’s team and more for Yahoo Sports, a job he signed up for through the2026 World Cup. There’s not much he hasn’t seen in his days chronicling the rise of soccer in America. He talks about the men’s team, the state of journalism a...

Jen Cooper is the stats manager and historian for the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and my any measure has been the person most responsible for researching women’ssoccer. More than that, though, she works World Cups for Fox Soccer and the Olympics for NBC.  She creates an almanac on women’s soccer each year. American soccer’s frontline storytellers interviewed by Emmy Award-winning John Sh...

JP Dellacamera has broadcast thousands of soccer matcheson radio and television in his long career. He has worked 17 of the last 18 FIFA World Cups, both men and women, since his first appearance in 1986. He was on the call for what he describes as the billion-dollar goal by Paul Caligiuri and the Brandi Chastain Cup-winning penalty kick. And, he will work the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America,...

American soccer Hall of Famer Marcelo Balboa joins John this week to talk about his broadcast work in both English and Spanish; the American soccer team; his Argentine-American heritage and the World Cup champions. Soccer America's Mike Woitalla with a first-hand report on Lionel Messi's golden boot performance on the final weekend of the MLS season, and talks about the Americans run to the quarte...

Episode Description: The Sunday Night Soccer host hails the impact of MLS on Apple TV in a conversation with John Shrader that delves into the art of broadcasting. The former MLS scoring star Taylor Twellman reflects on his transition from the field to the studio, his player-safety advocacy, and not shying away from on-air criticism of former teammates and friends.   SOCCER MEDIA PODCAST: American...

The legendary Andres Cantor is with us in this, the debut episode. His life, his career, his heritage are all on the table with the man who made it big at the 1994 World Cup and his star has been rising since. American soccer’s frontline storytellers interviewed by Emmy Award-winning John Shrader. Insight from the editors of Soccer America, the nation’s longest-running soccer publication, founded...