Announcing Pittsburgh’s new soccer alliance: PittsburghSoccerNow.com

Since 2013, when Highmark Stadium was built, it created a new sense of excitement for soccer in our region — and it’s been my goal to provide Pittsburgh soccer fans with a source for news, analysis and coverage of the world’s most popular sport.

After covering the sport for a number of outlets, in 2015 I created Pittsburgh Soccer Report as a great starting point to create such a forum.

It’s been an exciting experience to build PSR incrementally — and response from die-hard soccer fans has been very positive.

I’ve striven to provide the latest news, but also dive a bit more into things with feature stories, in-depth analysis and provide an objective voice for all soccer topics as they relate to our region.

Now — I am looking forward to the next step — which is being part of forming Pittsburgh’s new soccer alliance.

With that — I would like to announce that I’ll be joining forces with the Pittsburgh Sports Now network, which also includes Pittsburgh Hockey Now, to create a new site – Pittsburgh Soccer Now.

In addition, we will be formally aligning with Mike Sparks and the MonGoals podcasts that are part of the Beautiful Game Network.

Mike and I will be the co-owners of this exciting new venture and working with Pittsburgh Sports Now team.

www.pittsburghsoccernow.com

In addition to creating a joint partnership with Mike and the MonGoals team, which provide many fan-driven shows and perspectives via podcast format– a few more contributors will be joining the new site.

Our first formal addition is relatively new to the Pittsburgh soccer scene, Mark Goodman, but has been around the game and has covered Colorado Rapids. We will also be planning to have additional contributors who also are a part of the Pittsburgh Sports Now network.

One of my priorities with this transition was to ensure that content from Pittsburgh Soccer Report was able to be integrated into the new site, so much of the library of stories and news chronicling the soccer scene in our region since 2015 will remain .

As Pittsburgh Soccer Now launches this week coinciding with the Riverhounds opener coming up Saturday — we’ll be hitting the ground running. There’s lots of great content coming your way including:

Riverhounds Rabbi’s Scouting Report: Mark, who has covered MLS Colorado Rapids, will provide his first scouting report of the season — as part of a regular feature that will take a look at the Hounds next opponent prior to each game.

Pittsburgh Soccer Stories: What better way to kick things off than with a long-form piece on the Hounds’ venerable midfielder Kevin Kerr, who enters his sixth season in Pittsburgh having been the constant, face of the franchise through its ups and downs of the Highmark Stadium era.

MonGoals podcasts: we’ll post the latest MonGoals podcast which includes Mike having me on with the guys to talk about the season ahead in an analysis show. This is the show we’re officially making this Pittsburgh Soccer Now announcement as well. Additional podcasts will be added, including “Of Soccer And Steel” series that begins with Mike’s one-on-one with Riverhounds legend Rob Vincent.

Game coverage: All home games we’ll have on-site coverage — and occasional road games too. In fact, I will be in Nashville on Saturday to cover the Hounds opening game at Nissan Stadium against expansion Nashville SC before what will be a crowd of more than 15,000 fans. Coverage of the games will be more than a recap, but we’ll be adding player grades, using social media platforms and there will be post-game reaction with MonGoals team on live podcasts.

Speaking of social media — here are a couple of additional things to be aware:

You can follow Pittsburgh Soccer Now on Twitter here.

Pittsburgh Soccer Report’s Facebook page will become Pittsburgh Soccer Now.

Very special thanks to the members of the Pittsburgh Sports Now team for working with us and helping us getting project off and running — especially Alan Saunders for facilitating this and Joe Steigerwald for his work in developing a first-rate site that looks terrific. Mike and I are excited to be part of this growing network.

Looking forward bringing all of this to you — and much more!

 

A meeting of the Pittsburgh Soccer Now minds… 

Mike and John at Highmark Stadium during Riverhounds event in late February.