Pro Soccer USA brings MLS to readers
Orlando’s growing reputation as a soccer town gets a boost next week when the MLS All-Star Game comes to Exploria Stadium on July 31.
The Major League Soccer All Stars meet Atlético de Madrid, a club from Spain, in a match that starts at 8 p.m. MLS-sponsored and related events, however, start Saturday, so it is likely that if you are in or around downtown Orlando, you will see and hear a lot about the game.
Soccer is growing in interest across the nation — including on OrlandoSentinel.com and in the pages of the Orlando Sentinel.
Our soccer coverage comes from Pro Soccer USA, a national website that covers Major League Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League. The Orlando Sentinel and Tribune Publishing started the site with the goal of providing the same local coverage in every MLS market that we delivered in Orlando with Orlando City.
I talked with Alicia DelGallo, Pro Soccer USA co-founder and editor, this week about soccer, the sport’s future and her recent experience covering the Women’s World Cup in France. Below is our question-and-answer, edited for length and clarity.
A: We started the website in March 2018 and now have correspondents in every MLS city as well as some NWSL ones — more than 20 writers in all. It is a national website and our coverage also appears on Tribune Publishing websites and in newspapers (like the Orlando Sentinel).
A: Go find your closest professional soccer club. Soccer is made to be watched in person. It’s about forming connections, building a tie to the team and the people in the community. For a long time, that was hard to do close to home, because there weren’t teams, as there are now in Orlando with Orlando City. Start building that knowledge and love and relationship with the team. If it’s your first game, you might want to try to sit near the center line to see the whole field, but the most thrilling experience is with the supporters,
standing and cheering. It will really rev you up.
Q: What was it like covering the women’s World Cup in France? From here, it seemed an amazing sporting event but also so much more, with the attention to the pay-equity issue and the political back-and-forth with President Donald Trump?
A: It was exhausting. That’s the only word I can think of. It was non-stop and all the things off the field added to it. It was 33 days and I wrote 76 stories, as well as videos and radio appearances. We had four Pro Soccer USA contributors there at various points. I traveled to five different cities, often writing on the bus. It was insane. In the beginning it was heavy on the pay equity lawsuit (where the women were suing over pay discrimination), then the mediation story broke, then the President TrumpMegan Rapinoe Twitter back-and-forth. A lot of our access to the players got dominated with those questions, but interest outside of sports fans skyrocketed because of it. It brought attention to the women’s team.
Q: What do you see as the future for the MLS and NWSL?
A: The growth of MLS has been incredible in the last few years. There are 24 teams and plans to expand in next two years to Miami,
Nashville and Austin. The expansion fee is $150 million now and teams are building soccer-specific stadiums, which makes the fan experience better. I don’t see a slowdown any time soon. The NWSL has had some struggles but is getting stronger.
Q: I sometimes hear from readers who wonder why we cover soccer so much. It’s a small group, but their attitude is soccer isn’t as important as football or basketball.
A: We get the opposite at Pro Soccer USA. We get a lot of feedback saying thank you, you do it right, you cover soccer the way it should be treated. Not many outlets that approach covering soccer (in America) the same way we approach
covering the NFL or NBA. But fan interest in soccer is growing. It’s a movement that I only see growing.
(I also posed that question to Orlando Sentinel sports content director Iliana Limón Romero. Here is her response):
I’ve received largely positive feedback on our coverage, with readers especially appreciative of our women’s soccer coverage. In the early years of our soccer coverage, I was asked to stop covering the sport completely. Now those readers have adjusted and mostly ask that we cover their favorite teams, primarily football, in addition to the soccer coverage. There are one or two emails a month still asking us to drop or slash soccer coverage, but people seem to have accepted the team is part of the community.)
Want to learn more about Pro Soccer USA? Come to its All-Star Trivia Brunch Presented by Publix from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday at Lion’s Pride Orlando, 123 W. Church St. There will be complimentary food, and your first drink (a mimosa or bloody mary) is free. The top three trivia teams win prize packages. Additional prizes will be raffled off for all who attend. There is limited seating for trivia on firstcome, first-served basis.