The Soccer Media Podcast with John Shrader

MICHAEL LEWIS publishes soccer news at FrontRowSoccer .com and on his Substack, Viewfrom the Front Row , and at Forbes .com. He’s looking forward t covering his ninth Men’s World Cup. In this conversation we talk about preparations for the World Cup, including games being played in Atlanta against Belgium and Portugal, where a number of players have an opportunity to showcasetheir talents less tha...

FRANCISCO X. RIVERA is a bilingual sports announcer who has done all five major league sports in the last year. He is one of the voices, in Spanish and in English, for Major League Soccer’s Apple TV productions. He is one of the Spanish language voices of the Atlanta Braves since 2025, and the LA Kings for the last eight years. He also does free-lance work for the NFL and NBA. Rivera is a native o...

Dan Egan is the Executive Producer of the new film Transforming the Beautiful Game: The ClydeBest Story . Egan’s film takes an inside look at Best, who became a teenage star in the late 1960s at West Ham United in England, straight off the island of Bermuda. Best then would be one of the early stars of the North American Soccer League in the mid-1970s. This film looks closely at Best and also race...

JILL LOYDEN is a former professional goalkeeper and national team player who now broadcasts games for the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), mostly on ION but occasionally on the other outlets. In this conversation we talk about her career, broadcasting with people like J.P. Dellacamera, the quality of women’s soccer in this country and the world, and much more.   She is a goalkeeper coach and...

STEVE CANGIALOSI begins his fourth year in the Apple TV booth for Major League Soccer. He has been doing MLS games since 2002, when he stepped in to do host and back-up play-by-play duties. He became the full-time announcer for the New York / New Jersey Metrostars and later Red Bull New York. He worked for more than a decade as the television voice of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. Steve talks about...

MIKE WOITALLA is the Executive Editor of Soccer America. He covered the annual general meeting of the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) in Atlanta, at which the group reelectedCindy Parlow Cone as its president. He reports that it was a ‘feel-good’ event, which included decision on grassroots events. Certainly, they looked ahead to the World Cup. He had a conversation with USSF CEO JT Batson, which he...

DAVE BRETT WASSER has hundreds of videos of soccer matches played over the last five decades or so. He gets calls occasionally for videos he has but mostly gives away the rights to use them.  He looks at the soccer business as a fan and an archivist of video and a historian of the American game. He’s an animal rights activist and runs a nonprofit called Cruelty Free Investing. He kind of wandered...

Though still quite young Chris Wittyngham is a veteran television soccer announcer. He’s a regular on the Serie A broadcasts on CBS/Paramount and hosts and does analysis for Golazo Network . He can be seen and heard on UEFAChampions League matches for both the men and the women; and, will work again this year with Lori Lindsey on the Apple TV broadcasts for Major League Soccer. He occasionally doe...

MARK DONALDSON has been calling soccer matches on ESPN and the Disney family of networks since 2010. He can be heard on La Liga games and other leagues in Europe; also does NWSL games. And, throw in some golf and tennis and more. The Edinburgh, Scotland native is the author of four books. In this conversation we talk about, among other things, his start in the U.S. (thank Derek Rae); the World Cup...

THIS EPISODE: Colorado native Jordan Angeli made her way to Santa Clara University to play soccer, and managed to get the professional ranks. After suffering a third torn ACL, all on the same knee, Jordan talked her way into the broadcasting business. Now, Jordan is one of the leading announcers on NWSL games. She will work ESPN games with Jacqui Oatley this year and do other games as well. Angeli...

SAMMY SADOVNIK is a veteran soccer announcer who first came to the U.S. in 2000. The native of Peru has been with Futbol de Primera (FDP) since then, announcing games and he hosts a nightly show heard around the country and the hemisphere. He has been the lead Spanish-language voice for Apple TV’s presentation of Major League Soccer since 2023. He will once again be heard on FDP’s presentation of...

JEFF CARLISLE covers soccer for ESPN. His primary focuses are the US Men’s National Team and Major League Soccer.  He and the rest of the soccer reporting and editing team are getting ready to cover the World Cup in the U.S., Canada andMexico. Carlisle has seen the media business change and the soccer coverage change considerably in his more than 20 years of covering soccer for ESPN. Recorded Janu...

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...