On beginnings, endings, and new beginnings

My origin story, some words about the death of SB Nation, and what I'm doing next.

Around 2010 or so I went to my first in-person soccer game to see the Philadelphia Union open what was then called PPL Park against the Seattle Sounders. I had watched soccer on television and was eager to take in my first live game, and it changed me. I wanted more. I couldn’t wait until the next game. I couldn’t stop talking about it. I was still fairly new to twitter at that point, and wound up getting in with a bunch of Union fans who all would tweet incessantly about the game. I loved it.

But like most experiences with new groups of friends, the shine wears off after a bit. This isn’t to say that we weren’t friends anymore, but our differences became more and more apparent as time went on. Most of them were EPL fans and talked about that a lot. Me on the other hand, I could never get into the EPL and instead talked incessantly about the Mexican Primera División, which was my foreign league of choice. It was the league I had watched since after the 1994 World Cup, and perhaps best of all, it was on Univision, which I got for free.

One day in 2011 after tweeting about some game in Mexico, a friend of mine said “You should start a separate twitter account and blog about this.” I’m pretty sure they were telling me to shut up and take my Mexican soccer talk elsewhere, but also don’t dare me to do something you don’t actually want me to do because I’m dumb enough to do it.

So I started a new twitter account called Golazo de Gringo and was in the process of setting up a WordPress site when a friend pointed out that it was actually del Gringo, pointing out what was probably the most gringo of mistakes I could have made. I changed it, and in the process of doing this project, it changed me. I found that I enjoyed writing. I could have conversations, however one-sided they were, about something that no one else I knew cared about.

In time, I found that others cared about it too. I met some really awesome people and found a whole community that loved the league in Mexico, some of whom I still consider dear friends today. And I also connected with a guy who was running a blog in Philadelphia that wanted to cover North American soccer; all of it, not just (like so many other sites) the US and Canada. I said if they needed someone to talk Mexico and if they’d let me I was in, and I’d opine on the Philadelphia Union once in a while. Done deal, and I joined the Union Dues, where I wrote for a couple of years.

Then we got an offer from SB Nation to take over their Philadelphia Union site Brotherly Game, which had gained some notoriety (most of which was bad!) and then went dormant. We agreed, and took over in January of 2013. The stipulation though was that my writing about Mexico was on the back burner indefinitely. I was bummed, but figured I could pivot easily into it and get more boots-on-the-ground experience.

I got my first media experience when I went to the MLS Draft (as a fan) and the editor handed me a media credential and said to go in and see what I could do. Thankfully I had a sweater I could throw on over whatever t-shirt I was wearing that day and went in and covered the Draft. The Union traded up to get Andre Blake, people went nuts, and I got to ask him a question in a scrum next to soccer sportswriting legend Jonathan Tannenwald. I also got to ask MLS Commissioner Don Garber a question in a scrum about Camilo Sanvezzo leaving Vancouver for Mexico. I felt proud of myself for holding my composure around these people who I truly revered.

It wasn’t all gravy though. The Union front office at the time didn’t really care that a new crew was in for Brotherly Game. We were told in no uncertain terms no photographer or reporter was getting a press pass. We decided however to keep it professional as always, and kept doing what we were doing. Most of the time it was simply figuring out how being a member of the media worked, other times it was doing actual work in the journalist space.

I became managing editor in 2014, and in doing so became a paid member of the media. I made the princely sum of $20 a month, but I was doing something I had never dreamed possible. And luckily for us there was a lot of turnover in the Union Front Office, and finally someone came in who had worked with SB Nation blogs before and gave us a shot at a clean slate. We had a great relationship, in part because this person valued what SB Nation brought to MLS clubs.

In a media landscape where the television networks and most of the print media don’t know you exist and don’t care, independent bloggers were usually the only source of content that didn’t come directly from the club. Some clubs liked it that way, controlling the narratives as they saw fit. Others saw the value of having an independent media that could talk about things a club account couldn’t or in a way that they couldn’t. I’m glad we finally got the latter. That person has since moved on, and I’ve have had a great relationship with their current press officers when I’ve needed to reach out.

Covering the Union was great, but my heart was always with Mexico. I revered SB Nation’s FMF State of Mind (FMFSoM) as well as the writings of Tom Marshall (who was with ESPN then), Kim Tate, the FutMexNation crew, and so many others. I was thrilled to get a spot with FMFSoM, writing about Tijuana in addition to my duties with Brotherly Game.

Then in 2017 my wife and I found out she was pregnant. I didn’t think I could handle this while writing this much and doing my day job. I made the decision to turn over being the managing editor at Brotherly Game at the end of the year and the plan was to stop writing altogether for a while. And I did.

But a few months in I was bored. I missed writing. I still watched all of the soccer I could and the baby hadn’t come yet, so my wife suggested I go back to writing. I reached back out to FMFSoM’s managing editor Rafa to see if I could come back, and he said of course. I picked back up covering Tijuana and Santos Laguna too. The baby came and I still had enough time to do all of this writing. Staying up late for Xolos games meant someone was up late when the baby woke up and needed feeding, and once in a while I’d grab him and lay him on the couch next to me with the game on tv.

Why am I telling you this?

Because soccer writing has given me joy and purpose. And if you’ve made it this far, I’ll take the liberty of assuming that you enjoy it as well. And seeing SB Nation effectively destroy independent soccer (and hockey and basketball) coverage on Friday was hard. So many of my friends and colleagues got blindsided by this. The blogs and podcasts that they had worked on for over a decade in some cases were just gone.

Through my career I’ve seen people go from SB Nation blogger jobs making no money or not much money at all to actual jobs with teams and large legacy media outlets. I was always so happy to see that, because their talent and ethic were always apparent to me and I love seeing that rewarded almost as much as I love seeing awesome things happen to my friends. No one works that long for that little money to often times get ignored by the club they’re trying to cover and treated like garbage from some legacy outlets and fans alike if they don’t have drive and (usually) talent. If they don’t, they don’t tend to last long because it’s much easier to do literally anything else.

And on a personal level, I have been able to go places, do things, and talk to people that most other people who grew up in a trailer park in Central Florida and barely graduated high school never did. I’ve written articles in three different countries and conducted interviews in two languages. I’ve talked to coaches, players, fans, club presidents, and owners from around the world. I’ve interviewed some of my favorite players. Players who played for national teams, professional teams, and Sunday leaguers alike. I owe all of those opportunities to SB Nation, and these are just the stories of one person in a network with almost 1500 people in our soccer Slack.

So what’s next?

On some level, I don’t know. FMFSoM is from what I’ve heard still up and running, and I’ll keep covering Santos Laguna’s men’s games there and copy editing work until it stops (or stops paying me). But I’ve also been thinking for a while about what I should do to take the next step in my career, and what that even is.

I’ve been doing a lot with women’s soccer, especially with Liga MX Femenil, and love the community that’s springing up around that. This site will be familiar to you if you’ve been following my coverage of the league on FMFSoM. I’ll bring you a weekly recap of the league’s games, a weekly preview and how-to-watch article, and a weekly article titled “Notes and Other Things” that shines a light on women’s soccer from around the world.

Eventually I’m looking to stand up a paid subscribers tier where I’ll publish interviews with players, coaches, fans, and other notable people in this space and more. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, sit back and enjoy the ride.

As always, I’m open to any ideas and collaborations. Feel free to hit me up on twitter or via email at golazodelgringo@gmail.com, and please subscribe to this!