For months now we’ve discussed Major League Soccer taking a big step with their web sites by taking things away from the current MLB-run system to their own set up. Today they’ve announced the hiring of a pair of veteran soccer journalists Greg Lalas and Johan Freeman.

Lalas will step in as editor in chief while Freeman will be the new managing editor of the league’s new website that is set to launch in early March. The two will over see the editorial staff for MLS and help relaunch the clubs new websites as well.

Its very interesting to see the league take this step. Lately a lot of soccer journalist have been moving around with Ives Galarcep going from ESPN to Fox Soccer, Grant Walh making a permanent move to SI.com and now Lalas and Freeman making this move.

Some folks aren’t fans of this by MLS, particularly due to Lalas. But you can’t argue with how well he has ran Goal.com over the last couple years, if he has the same success as he has seen with Goal.com, the league’s new website will be much better for it. Like him or not because of his stuff on ExtraTime or in Revs broadcasts, Lalas is probably the best hire for this position for the league.

Now the question comes down to is it good thing for two of the top soccer journos to be writing in-house for MLS? There are unfortunately some ethical questions that have to be raised here with this. I’m not totally bothered by it because that is just the way things are going these days. Believe me bloggers will and are going to be hired by teams before long whether you like it or not. It just comes down to whether or not the league or the clubs will let these writers do what they do best, and that is be honest.

Overall I think this move will work out for all involved. The league gets two solid writers (and people for that matter) and we all get better coverage from the league…something that has lacked in years past if you ask me.

Usually I have trouble agreeing to anything Greg Lalas says or writes. A lot of times I find him to be pretty full of it but there are a few times out there that he says something or writes something that I find him to be dead on about.

Today is one of those days.

He posted the American Soccer Fan’s Responsibilities.

Give it a read, its honestly one of the better soccer related posts I’ve seen in some time here. Pretty much every point he is dead on about. Also, if you need another decent Lalas read…check out his American Soccer Fan’s Bill of Rights.

This is a subject near and dear to my heart due to my history of being in the broadcast world over the last few years. I’ve been working on coming up with some sort of guide for people for when it comes to who they will probably be listening to on a broadcast of a Major League Soccer game.

I’m going to be real honest about some broadcasters on this list. If you don’t like a broadcaster of your club or a national one, that’s fine. You can always voice your opinion below. Also, I just got to a point over the last few weeks of watching/listening to games that I felt I had to say something about some of these guys in one, long post and not in some short mention in a weekend recap or something like that.

Why am I doing this? Mainly because of my history in the broacast world and because I’ve done enough soccer broadcasting to understand what it takes to have a good duo on a call.

I will say this too, I didn’t find information on all clubs here. Some were real easy to find while one or two clubs I had real trouble. So if you know who does those games and have a clue about how good they are I want to hear it as well. And saying that, it also means I haven’t seen or heard everyone on this list. I’ve made an effort to but I know for the life of me I haven’t heard everyone. A good reason may be because there probably are more national broadcasts these days and on MLSnet.tv you tend to get the same clubs’ feeds over and over again.

For time purposes and my own sake since I don’t speak the language, no Spanish broadcasters are included on here. I hardly ever listen to those guys anyways if they are the only option for a MLS game. Usually my telly is on mute in those cases. One day I swear I will learn Spanish and actually listen though.

Let’s start with the big boys first. The national broadcasters. Continue Reading…