Broadcast #11 - vs. San Jose

We certainly looked good on the field Saturday night (3-1 win at home), but I’m not sure how good I sounded on the radio at times. I had a couple people ask me how my game went, and my answer was: “I’ve had better.” Not to go all Jim Carey, but I just didn’t feel I was on my game. I think I called the goals and big plays OK, but all the little moments in between probably didn’t have the touch or eloquence that I aim for.

There was some water in the broadcast booth from pre-game rain, and between dealing with that and joking around with my engineer, I don’t think my preparation was very good. I just wasn’t locked in when it was time to start. I couldn’t even think of a corny game intro, which I usually think about shortly before going on-air, even though I don’t write it down or anything.

On the pre-game show itself, I remember doing a decent job of setting the stage, although I haven’t listened to the tape. One main problem, in hindsight, is that I plugged San Jose playing a 4-3-3 because I didn’t think about it long enough to remember one of their forwards would probably play midfield. Another is that I misunderstood the timeline and started to introduce the lineups, only to realize the national anthem was about to start and I had to out-cue immediately. Not a good feeling.

My Keys to the Game, which I did jot down during pre-game and then ad-lib just before the game, turned out to be on the money, so that was a nice bonus. My No. 1 key was taking control of the game in the first 15 minutes, and my third key was set pieces. While I couldn’t imagine that the Dynamo would score twice from set pieces in the first 12 minutes (!), it felt good to nail those two points on the money.

Another issue for me during this broadcast was the live reads. I felt like I missed a few sponsored elements (sorry, BK, I made up for it!) early, and I felt like I didn’t introduce some of the others at the right time. I was able to talk about Brad’s Brigade for the May 30 game and some of the other game-based promotions, but I definitely remember going on a bit too long about the June 10 game.

The second goal was a fun one. Again I talked about Holden making a decoy run and went straight from there into the play itself. I was especially pleased with my post-script, as I was able to say “Brad Davis serves them up; Brian Ching and now Kei Kamara swat ’em out of the park,” an idea that only came to me as I watched Kei celebrate with a baseball-bat swing. Then I couldn’t resist a “Take that, Nick Garcia!” moment for Kei.

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Getting back to those in-between moments, I also worry that I didn’t do a good enough job of painting a picture. I’m usually able to follow play and who has the ball, but I think after the opening minutes I could have done a better job of reiterating the colors and sounds of the teams, the field, and the fans – basically, I could describe the atmosphere more.

Halftime was definitely a low point for the broadcast. We had a man down on the field with our head coach, Dominic Kinnear, and were set to interview him, but he could not hear us! Dom’s microphone was coming through to us, but something was malfunctioning with his headset – apparently the battery – and he could not hear us, so we exchanged some “What can you do?” gestures from field to press box, and he headed to the locker room.

The third goal, also the result of a corner kick, although not so directly, was a little more challenging because there were a lot of bodies in the area. I was able to pick out Geoff Cameron and his header correctly, and then Waibel was turning the ball in, so I ended up going with a simple “Craig Waibel … FINISHES.” It’s just instinct on those calls, and that’s came into my head. I mostly couldn’t believe Waibel had scored in his first MLS start of the season, so my next words were “Craig Waibel, how ’bout that?” – a subtle, though unintentional, tribute to all the Mel Allen baseball highlights I’ve heard.

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After the San Jose goal, things got a little bit frantic, as I tried to deal with figuring out an official scoring decision – what assist(s) should be awarded on the San Jose goal – while still broadcasting. I was texting, talking, and e-mailing people trying to figure that out, and I’m not going to lie, it took a bit of my focus away.

The post-game interviews went fairly well, I think, as I talked to Brian Ching and Brad Davis. The post-game show went OK. There was no “Lizards” misspeak this time on the scoreboard this time, thankfully. I had to ad-lib a bit to give our post-game call-in host time to get from the TV booth to the post-game radio show, but the timing actually worked out perfectly, as I sent it to him about 30 seconds after he arrived outside the locker room.

So I walked away a little disappointed with my personal performance in parts of the broadcast, but obviously the team’s performance was way more important, and I took solace in goal calls I thought were pretty decent.