[Mountainia]

Does anyone have links to good soccer reporters? I have been reading espn.go.com/soccer for a while, but they seem to have fewer good analysts than they did even a year ago. Also, I cannot ever find a soccer magazine at the newstands, or even a general sports magazine that covers soccer.

If anyone knows good sources, please post them to this list. Thanks.

[skipshady]

They're not reporters but I always enjoy Marc Connelly and Jeff Bradley's columns. Grant Wahl's contributions to SI are excellent as well.

What part of Virginia do you live in? In every city I've lived in, Barnes & Noble usually had a half decent selection of soccer magazines. Or you could subscribe to FourFourTwo, When Saturday Comes and/or Soccer America.

[Jose L. Couso]

Steven Goff of the Washington Post is one of the best!

[Mountainia]

Thanks, Skip. I didn't think. Of course a bookstore has much better selection. I'll stop by a B&N for a look.

I like Goff's articles, and I also like Jeff Bradley's columns. I was hoping that there were some good analysts writing about individual players in MLS, their strengths, progress, etc. I remeber hearing Dave Dir talk about strategy on ESPN. For example, how players should be supporting the attack as well as positioning themselves in case the ball is lost. Things that help people who already know the game, not stuff for non-soccer people.

I also like the series about Americans overseas. I forget who writes those. Anyway, thanks for the tips.

[Texan]

Rob Hughes for the International Herald Tribune and Henry Winter for the Daily Telegraph are two of my favorites. David Lacey for the Guardian was also a favorite, but sadly has recently retired.

[Minnman]

Craig Merz does a good job in Columbus.

For the most part, I think the great soccer reporters are in the same place as are the hoards of soccer fans who demand their daily does of soccer reporting (i.e, they don't exist).

What we have (as has been pointed out) are columnists (Bradley, Connolly, Wagman) who cover soccer, but don't necessarily report on the day-to-day happenings of the sport. The best (like Connolly) don't just spew out their own unsubstantiated opinions (as do Trecker & Jones). But until the fan base for the sport grows, and grows a lot, in this country, I doubt that we'll see much of a jump in the numbers of soccer reporters.

The fun (if I can focus on the silver lining) is that this means soccer fans, in the Internet age, are free to roam countless websites looking for the diamonds in the rough; guys like Charles Gardner in Milwaukee who does a very good job covering the sport for the Journal-Sentinel. Hopefully, as the fan base grows, as the USMNT gears up for its WC Quals in 2004, and if MLS ever gets around to expanding into more markets, we'll see better coverage evolve. But it's gonna take a while.

[mpruitt]

Frank D'Apala of the Boston Globe is also very good. very in depth analysis

[bocatuna]

Try http://football.guardian.co.uk/ or www.worldsoccer.com to read Brain Glanville the best in the buisness

[Boro_lad]

I got to say none. (when it comes to transfers)

And very few as most are always negative towards middlesbrough. Southern b@$t@rds

yea so good journolists....non from england as they are all biased....

[desertfox2]

Well, all I have to say is that I want to be a soccer writer (especially about the WC) when I get out of college. I mean, I wrote a 167 page analysis on the 32 WC Finalists of this past WC, and that was just for fun. Hopefully one day I'll be travelling the world and you will all see my articles about the WC on some site.