From The Stands

Today I will be talking about football's greatest rivalries. Now rivalries or Derby's start because of location (same city, state, or region), history (notable games being played between the teams or fan division), and or quality of the teams (two heavyweights who always have an exciting match). I will be going through some of the most notable.

Researching for this episode afforded me the opportunity to learn a lot about how deep the rivalries football have in history. I was stunned when reading the Manchester Derby was well over 130 years old. The readings of this episode were full of learning and discovery more than any other episode.

I had some knowledge of the hostility of the River Plate and Boca Juniors rivalry but I had no idea it led to crimes being committed against the players by opposing fans.

This critical reading needed for this podcast was essential in creating a deep and strong understanding of these highly emotional and important games in the sport of football worldwide. I had to understand the reasoning and basis for these rivalries so that I could then convey the same information to the audience effectively.

Sources

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dTG8Ae9GaumMhpdGOPpG4VSZVZObDxT5ByKUw3nNH2E/edit?usp=sharing 

Today I will be looking at the life and career of the late great Diego Maradona.

Maradona 

1960-2020

This was a hard episode to write because of the emotional impact from Maradona recently passing. I was planning to do this episode before this happened and it affected my writing process as it pushed me to establish a deeper connection with the information I was using for this episode and created more ideas for me to strengthen the claims I made during the episode.

When composing this episode the structure had to be different given the topic was the life of Diego Maradona. I had to format the episode in a timeline-like format as I was covering the entirety of Maradona's life.

The information from his personal life I was able to use was needed to intertwine with his career and there needed to be a balance between them. This was essential given the situation of his recent passing meant everything needed to be included in his life.

Sources

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DMPwW_094By9QLRL4T3ynmifgR90YGRoVfHfVuiveKQ/edit?usp=sharing

Today I will be going over the Fall of Leeds United. Leeds United's history of success and failures in footballs can be imagined quite literally like a yo-yo. Up and Down. Up and Down. Up and Down. Up and Down.

This episode revolves around the fall of Leeds United from football greatness to the despire of Championship football. This is a well documented tragedy in English Premiership Football.

It is a high profile and complicated issue to discuss. There are many moving parts that lead to the downfall of Leed which brings a lot of opinions. I had to sift through many sources that I couldn’t use due to lack of a foundation to support the claims or analysis being made.

The composition was made of facts about their success, stats, and known financials. There was extensive critical reading of resources to retrieve the information that was relevant to convey to the audience what befell Leeds United. I had to organize the information so I could structure it in my podcast in an easy to understand informative way.

The structuring of my story was complex given that there was so much information on the various issues that plagued the club. I had to weave together the timeline of the various events and or issues that Leeds United faced with my analysis and commentary. I found this to be a frustrating process but going through it made me intentionally know how to change my writing style for what situation I was trying to discuss.

Source/Script Page

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a_CCs42M9cH9A97qcBvUxu3JcDGexBllciUxgda5g3g/edit?usp=sharing 

Today, I will be going over Manchester United's iconic Academy Class of 1992 and what they accomplished together at Manchester United and individually. 

The fourth episode required a fair amount of editing and revising before I was able to settle on what I was going to say for the episode. I am a diehard Manchester United fan and this episode unsurprisingly was about a specific class from their youth academies. I had to revise to not convey an over eager bias that might put off the audience or impact the critical reflection needed as I would just brush reasoning aside for being a huge fan.

In comprising this episode I realize that my audience might not know Manchester United as much as I do. I factored this in when I chose which players of the Class of 1992 to speak about in my episode. I recognized that going over all the players who might have had little success, impact, and or notability after their youth careers might disengage them from my episode and not truly highlight the emotional high that this Class of 1992 was able to achieve and not what they did not.

I chose to focus on stars such as David Beckham for example who went on to become an icon and legend. I think players like him are truly the essence of what makes this Class so memorable and I had to focus on them opposed to others.

Sources

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O_RShylz7Mj5-es9jan5HNd6ALwcSzpwjmz_Xx0131Y/edit?usp=sharing

Today I will be listing my choice for the best player in each position: Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder, and Striker in the Premier League during the 2000s.

The third episode I recorded was a lot of fun for me as I got to take on a decisive topic in football. Who was the best? The reading required was definitely needed as I needed to brush up on my common knowledge of the players I would be considering. It was essential to not just use my general knowledge but use stats and other peoples analysis to formulate my conclusion.

The composing of this episode was interesting for me to develop. I ended up just stating who I thought was the best in each position first. Secondly, I followed that with a brief reflection of the reasons for my pick as the best of each position. I then stated some key stats that I thought could illustrate and or contextualize my process.

I went through several different structures of this episode. There was one instance where I wanted to reveal the player slowly by leading with stats, clubs, awards, and nationality much like how player packs are released in the game FIFA but I ended up not doing that because upon reflection I would be taking a long time to get to my conclusion. This format works if I was just long enough for excitement or curiosity like in the game but not deep, long, and complex discussions like in my podcast.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18j3Uusd_JM7kBGENjex1scuZ9E9zTb3ZY-rqJevxl5g/edit?usp=sharing 

This week I will be looking back on errors made by referees on the highest levels of football on a club and international level and what could have happened had they gotten it right the first time.

My second Episode required a lot of critical thinking as I was forced to hypothesize what would have happened had the referee not messed up or if there were more rules and regulations that would have prevented such issues.

This episode revolved around referees making mistakes or just having bad luck that resulted in incidents that changed the outcome of the game and or have even bigger implications.

I could not just state that some team would have won the league had this not happened or this team would have won this game and so on. I had to articulate my critical thinking process to the audience so that they could understand my reflection on the events that occurred.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V8Nt3nlDb99HANNs2-pnUoOSsQTDALEKDYbApVQJqH8/edit?usp=sharing

This weeks episode goes over three football transfers that almost happened but didn't. We will go over some crazy  What if? transfers that we stopped for many different reasons that might surprise you. This episode will through around some big names in football that might surprise you.

The first episode I recorded was about transfers that almost happened but for various reasons did not go through. I did reference several sites and sources for this episode and I had to critically read and reflect what the facts of the matter was and what other interpretations of the facts were.

I was trying to find my general tone and formality I wanted to speak from what I had chosen to write. I found that my audience would be soccer fans much like I was and I wanted to be relatable to my audience. I chose to speak casually but with a lot of in depth thought and discussion that anyone could comprehend the points I was making.

I was making a football podcast that was not focused on specifically American Soccer so I had to change my general conventions of communication in my podcasts. America is an outlier with the general lingo for football. I had to choose the overwhelming convention of football not soccer because I would be focusing largely on international football level. I had to use my knowledge to change my phrase and terminology of the game.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B3_27WtubwdcuT0JJvIY2p23y68K-emQODOVDu6OwMs/edit?usp=sharing