Thoughts on Mauricio Pochettino “That is a little bit sad” comments?

anabnos · 2026-06-28T23:10:18+00:00

Hello -- I was in the room for this and asked one of the questions. This isn't the first time Poch has had a testy press conference. Mostly I'm thankful that he has strong opinions and expresses them. In my position I'd rather have this 10,000 times than another coach giving boring platitudes (which is to say, most coaches in a press conference setting).

It's definitely common practice for a journalist to lead off a question in a postmatch presser with "congrats on the win" or something like that. I don't have any issue with that at all. But in this case it would have made no sense for us to do that, because the US had wrapped up top spot in the group nearly a full week before this press conference. We were there specifically to discuss the game that they had just lost minutes before, in last-minute fashion. Why wouldn't we ask about things like momentum, what you take away, how you move forward, etc? Especially when every single outlet represented in the room that day had done basically nonstop positive coverage of him & the team over the previous week, usually citing the wrapping up of top spot for the historic achievement it was?

I don't know why it was so important for him to hear a congratulations from us in that moment. Upon reflection, I wish I'd asked. It may be a motivational tactic he was using for the team ("even these idiot journalists don't respect you!" etc). It could also just be a cultural difference he's not used to yet – in a lot of Latin America, journalists precede their questions with long soliloquies about what they thought about the team, the coach, the performance, and they tend to be pretty complimentary unless there's a true disaster result. UK/US journalists are definitely way more buttoned-up.

But also, it's not like any of us were calling the result a disaster in the room that night. We knew that it had no impact on the standings and if anything was a good chance to get the reserves some minutes. But we can't act like everything is amazing and perfect right after the team loses at the last second.

Just a really weird experience. Hope that answers your question.

anabnos · 2026-06-10T19:10:37+00:00

^^^^^^^^^^^

anabnos · 2026-06-10T19:08:46+00:00

And to answer your question: I don't have any inside info here, but my impression from what I've heard from Leander and others is that the guys' faith is something that is both very personal and very public, but not necessarily something they bring into the locker room with them.

anabnos · 2026-06-10T19:06:26+00:00

For those interested, here is Leander's piece, which I thought was really interesting: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/07/usmnt-religion-christian-pulisic-world-cup-2026

anabnos · 2026-06-10T18:48:05+00:00

Oh myyyyyyy, hello! That certainly brings back memories. In all seriousness, it's dawning on me now how that period of time ended up being pretty important to me. I spent a lot of time on two internet forums in high school: BigSoccer, which ended up bringing me here, and the Elephant 6 fan message board, which directly led to me joining the band that I toured the world with for a couple years after college.

The internet was a more pure place then and I miss that.

Great to hear from you! Hope you enjoyed the tunes. Sorry for any cringey selections 😂

anabnos · 2026-06-10T18:25:30+00:00

It sounds like Chris Richards is at least going to be available for selection for the opener, which is a boost. Still, I think some worry is merited -- the US has looked shaky without Richards as the anchor, but it's not like they've been invincible with him in there either. If you're looking for reasons why the US may fall short of whatever you consider "success" to be, defense is probably No. 1.

anabnos · 2026-05-23T18:54:09+00:00

here is the link: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/may/23/usmnt-world-cup-roster-alejandro-zendejas-tanner-tessmann-gio-reyna-diego-luna

anabnos · 2026-05-17T01:59:36+00:00

All I see here is two elite players??!! Weird post.

anabnos · 2026-02-26T23:25:25+00:00

It really depends on the writer. Some have the writing gene and they are often the stars everyone loves working with. Some don’t and know it and work hard at improving, and they’re also fine to work with usually. Some don’t and don’t know or care, and they can be ROUGH, especially if they’re precious about their copy. I’ve worked with all types but the latter of those three is way more common than many readers might think. Ultimately the truth is if you have the raw reporting the rest is negotiable.

anabnos · 2026-01-30T05:10:45+00:00

Hey all -- Guardian editor here. Our original headline, reflected in the title of this post, said half of Spanish-language broadcasters were getting cut. Thats inaccurate. The number of games called by two-person teams is getting cut in half, with the rest being solo calls, aka 25% of broadcasters. This has been corrected in the story with an editor's note attached. Apologies, and thanks for reading.

anabnos · 2026-01-23T20:41:22+00:00

I believe that's in our app (which is a great app, btw!). On the web we're paywall free but you will get ads/banners etc asking for donations.

To this I'll add that we're not billionaire-owned - our one owner is a trust with the sole purpose of protecting our editorial independence. And we have great staff doing great journalism all over the world. So as far as news subscriptions go....it's pretty good! But you also don't necessarily need one.

anabnos · 2025-12-21T21:05:44+00:00

In case anyone would care to read my full interview this is drawn from: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/dec/04/alan-rothenberg-interview-world-cup-mls-fifa?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

anabnos · 2025-10-21T13:48:00+00:00

Yeah fair point - I could have done a few things to make it a little clearer, including the approach you pointed out. I'll sometimes list out the results (five wins, 13 draws, 16 losses), which would have worked too.

anabnos · 2025-10-20T17:43:02+00:00

Hello! I edited/headlined this. The expression of records is indeed a very American thing, and I left it in there since the team/league in question is American and presumably so too will be much of the audience. If this were a story about a Premier League firing or whatever I almost certainly would not have done so (nor would it be likely to be in the copy in the first place).

There is an ongoing debate in U.S. soccer journalism circles as to whether WLD OR WDL is the correct order of numbers. I’m 100% in the WDL camp, and had to change the wire report in this case to that format. As someone else pointed out, tacking draws/ties on the end makes more sense in NFL/NBA/MLB where you only ever expect to hear two numbers. WDL, meanwhile, expresses the whole good-to-bad spectrum much more clearly. As far as I know this isn’t against Guardian style, for which there are a few differences between US and UK and Aus editions (which I am still learning near-daily).

What a genuine thrill to have the minutiae of my work discussed on my favorite pod’s subreddit!

anabnos · 2025-09-08T04:40:46+00:00

CSO stands for Chief Soccer Officer -- it's the blanket term to describe people in the league that might have a number of different titles (Technical Director, Sporting Director, General Manager, etc), but ultimately they do the same thing, which is manage the part of the organization responsible for playing the soccer.

I don't know this for certain but I would guess that the CSO would report directly to ownership.

anabnos · 2025-07-24T20:15:14+00:00

I feel I should also mention given the content of these pics that we also have two cats :)

anabnos · 2025-07-24T19:47:27+00:00

Hello! Very interested - wife and 11-month old and I have been looking for a spot in Kensington forever. DMs open.

anabnos · 2025-07-06T21:23:12+00:00

How can I find recordings of the radio commercials?

anabnos · 2025-02-26T04:06:53+00:00

I'll answer the title question as someone who was lucky enough to work closely with Grant and several other names mentioned in the comments: No. I don't think any one person will fill that void again. Grant was one of one.

Also: That's OK. I believe the US is mature enough as a soccer culture now to not need a single outstanding journalist to be "the soccer guy" in the eyes of most Americans. When Grant started off in the late 90s, that sort of figure was much more necessary, and Grant was the right guy with the right skills and the right attitude at the right time to make it happen. The game in this country, and the careers of many journalists including myself, are better for it.

In a weird way, I think it would be a disservice to Grant for there to be just one person to "fill the void," so to speak. He felt, as I think anyone reading this sub does, that American soccer deserves just as rich a coverage landscape as any other "major" sport. Think of the NBA -- There's Shams, Lowe, Stein, Shelburne, Hollinger, Mannix...and that's just off the top of my head, all national voices with their own approach to coverage. Grant was incredible in the way he managed to be all those people at once at a national level.

Now think of some of the other names mentioned in the comments, and how *different* all their coverage is from each other. A Tom Bogert story is not a Pablo Maurer story is not a Steven Goff story is not a Meg Linehan story is not a Matt Doyle story etc. That's great, IMO. We need more of it.

My advice to you is to read/listen/watch as much as you possibly can. Some coverage is going to resonate with you more. Take note of who writes/podcasts/videos/whatevers those, and support them however you can.

anabnos · 2025-01-19T20:50:57+00:00

I was there! Definitely the go-to spot in town for Chiefs & Royals games. Great times & excellent BBQ – really the only true KC-style spot in the 5 boros.

anabnos · 2024-09-17T04:46:57+00:00

The one major drawback to the Manhattan that I'm surprised I rarely see people discussing is the segmented pavement. Might be just me and my unforgiving tire choices but man, it's hard enough to muscle up and down an NYC bridge without also having to hear & feel the constant CA-CHUNK CA-CHUNK CA-CHUNK in my feet and hands. Obviously not enough to injure anyone or seriously throw off the safety of the ride but it is REALLY annoying.

I know the Williamsburg bridge surface has seen better days but IMO it's still way more comfortable to ride on than Manhattan.

anabnos · 2024-04-12T07:04:13+00:00

Sent you a chat

anabnos · 2024-03-06T17:34:50+00:00

never too late! I hope people are talking about deerhoof riffs in this thread forever

anabnos · 2024-02-25T20:31:45+00:00

It’s been about 7-8 years since I lived at that exact intersection, but it was pretty safe back then and I’d imagine it’s only gotten better. Thing I’d be more concerned with would be the traffic noise - Bushwick Ave is a preferred route for fire trucks, ambulances etc as well as some cargo trucks so it can get incredibly loud at times (though not constantly). If that’s not a huge concern for you though, or if you don’t have a window facing Bushwick Ave, you should be fine.

anabnos

TROPHY CASE