Landon Donovan on KNBR 680/1050 AM this afternoon... Leading into their show (3-7 PM), Ralph Barbieri just mentioned that Landon will be a guest this afternoon. He hasn't given a specific time frame yet. 680/1050 AM As usual, webcast can be found: http://www.knbr680.com/
Landon Donovan on KNBR 680/1050 AM this afternoon... Again? Lord, why don't they just make him a "regular" already...you'd think Ralph & Tom were turning into soccerheads or something.
Maybe because he's the one the Quakes make available to the media. I'm sure he's a better interview than some of the low-key guys, and, unlike his abomination of a visit with Raj Mathai the other night, Landon has good rapport with radio personalities. FWiW, Ralph just said "in an hour," so assume somewhere after 4 PM for the Landon interview.
      But wasn't it either Ralph or Tom (or both) who, back in either late-1995 or early-1996, promised that "This new soccer league will last two, maybe three, years tops!"?       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
...and then proceeded to have a weekly segment with Quinnie? The local broadcast media has been hypocritical all along. Right now, they're on the bandwagon. Sharks get the same treatment.
they just said in a 1/2 hour: 4:30? said they were going to talk soccer again and joked about it. said Landon's a cool guy to have on to talk soccer or "whatever"
At 3:54, Tom said they'll have Landon in about half an hour. I'm listening from 4:15 on. If you miss(ed) it, they'll probably archive it at knbr.com.
Landon Donovan on KNBR 680/1050 AM after 4 PM PST this afternoon... Should be coming up soon, Tom and Ralph say. Probably in the next 5 minutes or so.
      Interview has begun.       It turns out that Landon is a videogame player (on his X-Box)... YES!!!       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
[R] to be sure Some thoughts... Just some jousting over video games with Tolbert and so forth and all the EA endorsements. On a serious note, talk is over the marketing of the game, low scoring, the exciting scoring chances of the Premiership, and so forth. Razor playing devil's advocate with the goals--goalie battles or high scoring. That's just their mindset--they think the masses hate soccer and then they get on the bandwagon, but I'll give Hoops Man Tom the benefit of the doubt--he should be embracing the game. Razor thinks it's soccer only at HDC--Landon noted it's the Olympic training center. still going on as of this post...
Landon Donovan on KNBR 680/1050 AM now (4:28 PM PST or so...) Well, I like how Ralph and Tom cut Landon off almost everytime he tried to say something. Better than nothing I suppose...
Just wrapped. He's developing a good rapport with them, even if the hosts have a little bit of ignorance about MLS. They still think the league is barely surviving but they recognize that Landon is very good at what he does. Joked about x-box, talked a little bit about the fire, and amazingly, almost nothing about Freddy Adu.
Most profound question, I thought, was when Tolbert asked whether the intensity of play in MLS rises during playoff time, when it does in the other sports. Landon gave a standard answer, that he feels that it does-- but it's good to see that there are others in the mainstream media that are recognising this trend.
I think Ralph and Tom are a bit more cluey about the Quakes and MLS than they were a couple of years ago. Which is to give them the benefit of the doubt, because I naturally haven't heard them for a couple of years (I even joined the segment late today, too). Given the fact that from my observations on this board, LD's been a frequent guest, Frank Yallop's been a guest on their program from time to time, and maybe other players have been on, too-- I think these guys are starting to catch on. They may not be as articulate about soccer, MLS and the Quakes as we all are, but it's obvious that they're catching on. Of course, the "bandwagon" mentality may have something to say about that, too.
They did talk about Freddy Adu right before Landon Donovan called in. Ralph mentioned that Adu was on David Letterman last night and that Freddy did a "stupid human" trip. The interview was Adu-free but the pre-talk was not.
I thought the most interesting part of the who deal, was when Razor & Tom asked if the May 31 drubbing still hurt, & LD said, "It don't mean a damn thing". Personally, I think it's in the playas mind, well I know it's still in Walker's mind. That was when he met Mr. Thornton up closer & personal.
They also talked about the referring, the tendency to not pull cards, etc. in the playoffs. They also asked if the players pay attention to who the ref is, and alter their expectations or even the way they play based on that. Landon said yes, and eventually also went on to say that the ref for the MLS Cup (Hull?) was one of the best or the best in the league (he then said "I hope he's listening"). He says he calls games very evenly, almost bending over backward to avoid pandering to the home team (of course, not really relevant to the MLS Cup with no real home team).
My former co-worker, and America's ref representative at the '02 World Cup, Brian Hall. Landon called him America's best ref. I missed where they said he's reffing Sunday, but if true, great. I remember he used to get a lot of crap at Blackhawks games ("Come on Brian, let 'em play fer Chrissakes" was a common fan mantra).
That sounds like it was a pretty good interview. Not all fluff. Hope they archive it on their website like the last one.
Re: Re: Landon Donovan on KNBR 680/1050 AM today Next time you see your buddy, give him a big thank you for his job reffing the Oympic qualifier between Canada and El Salvador!!!! We've been jobbed by the referee when playing Central American teams too many times.
One thing I liked about the interview was the defense of soccer's low scoring made by the guy with the higher pitched voice, who said that he understood because watching a good pitcher's duel in baseball with low scores is often more exciting to him than a game in which the ball is constantly getting knocked out of the park. You have to have a fairly good understanding of the game to appreciate that, and I'd say that, generally speaking, the 16,102 have that.