ESPN Getting In Touch With Their Darke Side

Some circles have known this bit of news for quite a while, but now it has been made official. Ian Darke is leaving Sky Sports to join ESPN. But, not only is he joining ESPN, he is taking over their soccer coverage in a massive, massive way. Via ESPN press release: (bold emphasis is mine)

Ian Darke will be the primary play-by-play voice on ESPN’s U.S. networks for Barclays Premier League matches, the U.S. National Teams (Men’s and Women’s), marquee Major League Soccer events, 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He joins ESPN after commentating on Premier League and UEFA Champions League matches for the past 18 years. Darke was widely praised for his work on ESPN during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, especially for his commentating on the U.S. Men’s National Team matches vs. Slovenia, Algeria and Ghana.

“Having Ian Darke as our year-round signature voice for soccer programming reaffirms ESPN’s commitment to elevate our overall coverage of the sport in the U.S.,” said Drake. “Ian’s experience, authenticity and passion for the sport, which were evident throughout the World Cup, will resonate with our viewers, who have come to expect top-quality soccer commentary from ESPN.”

Darke added: "I am delighted and excited to be joining such a polished and talented team as ESPN. It was wonderful to be calling the USA’s dramatic World Cup campaign for American audiences – and I am flattered to be asked back on a permanent basis.”

Darke’s debut as ESPN’s signature voice for soccer will be Saturday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 a.m. ET, when he’ll provide play-by-play commentary for Manchester City vs. Chelsea, live from the City of Manchester Stadium. In his new role, Darke will be in the booth live from Barclays Premier League match sites each week for ESPN’s U.S. audience – a first for the network. His co-commentators (analysts) for each ESPN soccer programming series will be announced at a later date.

Holy amazing awesomeness, Batman! ESPN was blasted almost universally for their piss poor, deplorable coverage of the 2006 World Cup. And now, 4 years later, their 2010 World Cup coverage has been almost universally praised and now they have hired one of Britain's top voices to be their lead for every major soccer event they cover. Talk about a tremendous transformation. On a personal level, Ian Darke quickly became one of my favorite all time announcers during the 2010 World Cup, and now I will be able to hear him again on American airwaves, starting tomorrow as I wake up at 7:30 AM to see Chelsea take on the New York Mets of the EPL, Manchester City.

MLS Forgets The Philadelphia Union Exist

This is the pennant for the 2010 MLS All-Star game. Displayed in the pennant are the logos of 15 MLS franchises. Just one problem. MLS has 16 teams. Missing from the pennant? The Philadelphia Union. Yep, Sebastian Le Toux will be representing a league who forgets to add his team's logo to their special All-Star pennant. A soccer league that on a daily basis is competing for viability and legitimacy among both diehard American soccer fans and to an extent the soccer world has forgotten to include one of its teams' logo on the All-Star pennant. That's unfortunate.

(Hat tip to Brotherly Game)

Meet The Philadelphia Union

Lost in the mix today of schedules and Allen Iverson's retirement (I seriously doubt that there is a blogger in this world that got a post on that up before I did) was the fact that today was the day of the expansion draft for the newest team in MLS, the Philadelphia Union. Here are the players that were selected by Peter Nowak and the Philadelphia Union. Ladies and gentlemen, the 10 latest members of the Philadelphia Union (and their former team)!

Goalkeeper
Brad Knighton (New England Revolution)

Defense
Jordan Harvey (Colorado Rapids)
Dave Myrie (Chicago Fire)
Shavar Thomas (Chivas USA)

Midfield
Andrew Jacobsen (D.C. United)
Stefani Miglioranzi (LA Galaxy)
Shea Salinas (San Jose Earthquakes)
Nick Zimmerman (New York Red Bulls)

Striker
Alejandro Moreno (Columbus Crew)
Sebastien Le Toux (Seattle Sounders FC)

There are rumors going around that the Union have traded for goalkeeper Chirs Seitz for money allocations. And while it is unlikely that many of these players drafted will eventually be starting, it appears as if the Union have a good start and are saving some money to sign a big name or a big foreign player or something.

These will revealed a few days ago, but instead of googling Philadelphia Union and finding hideout predicitons people made, check out what the actual kits for the Union will like.

Away

Home
Now if those are not totally awesome soccer jersies then I'm not sure what is. The blue and gold really work together like this and I can't wait to see them in action on the field.

Only 4 months away until the Union kick off in their first game. Jungite Aut Perite!

Meet The Philadelphia Union!

After years and years of talks and speculation, it's finally official. Philadelphia has gotten itself an MLS team (well, that's old news), but they now have a name as was announced on Monday in front of City Hall. They will be the Philadelphia Union and that picture above is the logo. And now for some rather bits of information, while called the Philadelphia Union, their stadium is not in Philadelphia, but rather in Chester, Pennsylvania, a Philly suburb 10-minutes outside city lines in Delaware county along the banks of the Delaware River. And if that was not confusing enough, there is a county in suburban Philly called Chester County. Yeah. But I digress. Back to the staduim, this is an 18,500 seat, soccer-specific stadium that is being built for the Union (and the subsequent women's squad that will be joining that league also in 2010).



And like numerous other Philadelphia teams, the logo, the team name, and the colors also harken back to the colonial and revolutionary period. The secondary logo is on the left and that latin phrase that you see is "jungite aut perite" which translated means "join or die" (definitley won't help Philly's rep at all), and the rattlesnake was a symbol back then of how dangerous disunity could be as it was used in a political cartoon by Ben Franklin As far as the odd color scheme goes, no, the Philadelphia Union did not choose those colors out of jealousy of the Philadelphia Eagles hideous yellow and blue uniforms, it's the main colors that were worn by the continental army in their fight for independence against King Penguin King George III and the British army.

One last bit of information, I really, really dig the name Philadelphia Union (again, I'm a history guy), and while it does not take a historian to figure out where it comes from, not only does it really fit with the history of the city but it also has sort of a team aspect to it. Come on, a team called the "Union" has to, if nothing else, be a solid team with a bunch of team players and no in-fighting. But also be thankful that it was not any of the other available choices, which included AC Philadelphia, SC Philadelphia, and Philadelphia City. Good choice, Philly fans, good choice!

Personally, I'll admit that I hardly watch MLS soccer and international club soccer as well (i.e. English Premiership), although when it comes to international competitions (i.e. World Cup) I become completely enamored with the sport and the game of soccer. Now that Philadelphia has a team, I think that I am actually really pumped about this and I am looking forward to 2010 to see how we fare.

GO UNION!!!

Philly's new MLS team unveils name, logo (Norristown Times Herald)