This Is Your D.C. United: Tony Limarzi

There's nothing better. Soccer's always been a passion for you, then? I read that you had been a fan since '96 -- maybe you can talk about how you got into broadcasting for United and the path you took?

I went to Georgetown University, and the year before my senior year, I had an internship at Home Team Sports (HTS), that was the summer of 1997. At that time, HTS was doing a weekly coaches show with [current United television announcer] Dave Johnson, and I was a production intern on that show. I would go out to training, and we'd shoot some interviews, they would cut highlights, and all that -- I know some of the United fans remember that show being on. So that's when I met Dave Johnson, and at that time, there weren't a lot of very knowledgeable soccer people in the media. So, I think he and I just hit it off. Then I actually did some work with the Washington Wizards until 2001. So I was traveling with Dave during that time too, working for HTS, doing graphics with the Wizards. Dave and I stayed in touch and hung out a lot, and there was some opportunities through a company that Dave had helped found called Internet Soccer, which did radio broadcasts of soccer over the internet. The first time I worked there with Dave, and Gordon Bradley, was the Olympic Qualifying in Hershey, Pennsylvania for the 2000 Olympics -- Ben Olsen was on that team, [former United defender] Chris Albright too. So that was the first time I did a live broadcast, Dave and Gordon, and I was on the sideline doing reporting. Then they started doing the English radio for D.C. United in 2003, and I think Dave gave me a big bode of confidence and threw my name in the ring. D.C. United hired me, and I'm very grateful.

You mentioned the legendary Gordon Bradley. Obviously, he had to be one of the bigger influences on you in terms of your broadcasting.

Yeah, he and I didn't see each other too much, but that first thing where I really got started, that Olympic qualifying, we were there together all week. The tournament was going every single day, and he was great. For somebody like I was at that time with no significant experience, and he didn't know anything about me, but he was always very nice and happy to talk soccer -- to impart his knowledge to everybody. The thing that always stood out about Gordon was that even though he had all this experience having been a player and a coach, he never seemed like he knew more than anybody. So I would be talking to him with my limited expertise, and he would be talking from four decades of knowledge, and he never made it seem like I didn't know what I was talking about. He was a very gentle person, and it was great to be able to work with him.

I wanted to ask you -- when you're going into a match, what's your philosophy? Radio's an interesting medium for soccer, in that you have give people a little more narrative.

I have been a fan of not just soccer, but of sports, for a long time. In the old days, when I was younger, there were fewer games of all sports on TV -- so when I used to listen to the radio, you sort of had to be able to envision what the announcer is talking about. So that's always what I've tried to do as the radio guy -- be very descriptive. You can't really talk about stats or about player background. You just have to describe the game as well as you can. Especially with soccer, you never know what's going to go on. NFL, baseball, there's a lot of downtime, but with soccer, if you take 15 seconds to tell a story, you could end up missing how a goal was set up. All I really try to do is describe everything as well as I can. I think people can always tell when the ball is moving closer to the danger zone because I get talking a little louder. [laughs]

I try to make sure everyone knows what's going on. If they're sitting at home on the radio or driving around the city listening, they can envision where things are going. It's especially helpful for people that are at RFK a lot, and who can't be at the game, because I talk about the Barra Brava sections and people can envision where the action is.

Right. Speaking of RFK, we were talking to Chris Pontius about what it's like to play at RFK, and he didn't have the words to really describe it. When Barra Brava is in full throat, do you get the same kind of feeling when you're calling a game? It has to seep into your work a little bit, right?

Yeah, definitely. They energize -- the players always talk about how the crowd energizes them -- but really, if you're a fan, and you're out there in the stadium, you get energized by the fans, too. It changes the whole atmosphere. It's great. If you're in the stadium, you can't not feel the passion and the energy of these people. It helps everybody. I think there's a lot of times where my work is better because of all the emotion that's flowing around the stadium.

How does that experience at our stadium differ -- better or worse -- from the other venues in MLS?

The only place that I can think of is sort of comparable is Toronto.

Yeah, I can see that.

I mean, those people are crazy.

[both laughing]

They're jam packed every game, screaming the whole time. I know it was really hard for them in the beginning, when Toronto really struggled, but then I think they tied or broke the record for most consecutive minutes without a goal. Then near the point where they were getting close, they're like counting down like it was New Year's. It's a really nice atmosphere up there. That stadium is not perfect: they've got the turf, the porch is a little weird, and there are some fans up there -- I don't know about the specific fan groups -- but there were some fans there that I felt went a little over the top.

Well, they seem split. United played Toronto after the stadium march, and there was a lot of Toronto fans out there supporting that, which is great. But on the same token, I believe it was Columbus, where there was a lot of unpleasantness going on.

D.C. lost a game up there, last year. They went out to the D.C. United bus, and were heckling the players as they were getting on the bus. To me, that wasn't fair play in terms of supporting your team, that was a little over the top. That said, those fans are great, and I don't think they are at the same level as D.C. United fans yet, but they're pretty close.

Do you have a favorite call? Personally, I really enjoyed the one from the Colorado game last season, when you described a Santino Quaranta goal as "CRUSHED CRUSHED CRUSHED into the net."

Well, first, let me tell you about the Colorado goal. You know, I love Santino. Great guy and a great player, and I saw him sort of winding up for that shot. I figured, he's going to blast this a mile over the goal or shank it into the corner flag, you know, because that's how Santino gets sometimes. He thinks he's going to unleash this amazing shot. So then, when it worked out just as he envisioned, I was not only impressed by the goal, but surprised by the whole thing. That one, it must be the best goal that he's ever scored with United. It was just wonderful, and I was just so happy for him after all the stuff he went through last year. It was emotional.

But I think that I don't have any real specific one. The Pontius goal from last week worked out pretty well. I think from the professional broadcasting standpoint, that one sounded pretty good. But historically, I used to really love calls with [former United forward] Alecko Eskandarian a lot. He scored so many great goals, and these crazy volleys from impossible angles, and all the stuff that Aleck did, those were the goals that looking and listening back, those were the ones I had a lot of fun with. It means a lot from that season in 2004 when D.C. won the Cup. I don't have any particular favorite, but there are some that stand out, and Eskandarian is in a lot of those memories when I look back.

Is Eskandarian your favorite United player of all time? Less as a broadcaster and more as a fan, it sounds like he's at the top of your list.

Yeah, just again, me being a big fan of goals, I think Etcheverry is probably my favorite player as a fan. With all due respect to Jaime [Moreno] and Ben Olsen, I remember that playoff run in 1996, the goal he had against New York, when we were really 25 minutes from going to a shootout and maybe going home, and he scored that one and set up a penalty in the next game. When you look at D.C. United's beginnings, it's hard to imagine anyone doing the things that Marco did. For all the great things that Jaime has done, and Luciano Emilio scoring goals every week -- all that stuff that Marco did, that's always going to be special to me.

D.C. United has a pretty wide presence as far as media goes -- obviously on radio, TV, etc. But the team has embraced things like blogging and Twitter. As a radio guy, do you ever think about the future of the medium as soccer in D.C. and in America at large moves forward?

I feel like most of the big time sports do satellite radio. That would be a big step for the league. There's just something about watching sports and listening to sports. I watch a lot of different sports. A lot of the time, I feel like the TV announcers, because of the way the game has progressed, they sort of forget about the game at times. And when you're on the radio, you can't really do that. So fans listening on the radio, I think there's something special about that, because it really puts the focus on the game -- which is really what everyone who watches sports cares about. You know, there's not a lot of times when you'll be watching the game and say later, "hey, I wonder where that guy went to high school." Whereas when that guy is talking about high school, you're kind of thinking that this is an important part in the game.

I think that moving forward, the goal would be a big time contract for the league, so that you wouldn't be limited to hearing your team's games locally. The league is expanding, and those things might be on the horizon. But as for now, I think everything is moving in the right direction.

Of course, you can hear Tony Limarzi on WTOP every matchnight, but he's also the host of "Access United," a weekly video series on United's official blog, Behind The Badge.