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Kristian Jack interview


dalglish07

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Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soccer-snobs-episode-15-tsn-soccer-analyst-kristian-jack/id1525769929?i=1000495485239

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Up2qwLWt8oZxrxtHxOfcy?si=JNFO9hYlQeKC_L__QEUtWQ

Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWRpYS5yc3MuY29tL3NvY2NlcnNub2JzZXBpc29kZTEvZmVlZC54bWw/episode/YmY3OWFkNGMtZDc5OC00MDJkLWEzN2MtMTQ2ZmUwYzUwY2Mz?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwiwzOLmjMbsAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ

TSN soccer analyst Kristian Jack joins! The man between the benches, the analytical mind we listen to about the beautiful game! If you listen you may learn who KJ supports in England and what position he played when he was a young lad. Listen in, you may be surprised! LOTS of great Canadian soccer talk.

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Good point KJ made about every match matters in European and world football leagues. Unmatched by North American leagues is the celebration of a goal especially when you're away supporter. And the lows are really low and again unmatched by North American leagues.

In North American pro sports leagues, the validity of a match can be questioned. Too many games are meaningless. KJ views regular season of North American leagues as more of a pre-season. The actual sport is seen in the playoffs. But yet, people pays big bucks to see regular season games.

So in MLS, a loss can be shrugged off. It's just becomes a night out. Complacency is his biggest worry for the MLS. If fans get too complacent, MLS will die of boredom or never taken seriously as a top league. Wants to see pro/reg and at least less teams in playoffs or split season for MLS to get to the next stage. 

2016 playoffs between Impact/TFC was the closest KJ saw the North American soccer matching European football culture - wants to write a book about it. 

I also think this applies to the endless CPL discussions about appealing to the casual North American sports fan such as by wanting more teams in the playoffs. Maybe nice boost for teams in the short run but you're basically chipping away at the fabric of the league over the long run.

 

This discussion starts around 30 mins.

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1 hour ago, LeoH037 said:

I've always liked the play off system in North American sports, its fun. That's not to say I dont agree with regular seasons not being meaningful enough.

I agree.  We are playing a European sport in a North American market. True.  We should be able to figure out a way to make both the league and playoffs matter.

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I really enjoyed the interview.  Jack is extremely thoughtful and articulate.  His comment about North American sport also stuck with me.  Basketball/NBA lends itself more to an 80 game pre-season, as it’s a sport/league with ability to showcase the talent of its stars, even in a less intense atmosphere. And at least you hear they are contemplating adding a euro football style cup within the season to freshen things up. Hockey may have a larger problem than they think - the league seems to stifle skill and individual star-power through the calling of the game and bully/dinosaur mindset of the ‘old boys’ who run everything. 
MLS will also struggle with the “lack of interest during regular season” problem if they continue with the regular season / playoff / no-relegation format.  But I doubt any of the owners who ponied up large expansion fees or see their soccer franchises as part of a larger  multi-sport company want anything to do with the threat of relegation to a lower league without a good TV contract.

It was also interesting to hear that at one point in his career that his manager suggested he “dumb down” his technical analysis of the game for the “average” fan.  I always have enjoyed this higher level of analysis that Jack provides before, during and after the game.  As a huge hockey fan I’m always frustrated by the limited low-level ‘dumb’ analysis provided by the on-air talent during intermissions and post-game.  

 

 

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51 minutes ago, TOcanadafan said:

As a huge hockey fan I’m always frustrated by the limited low-level ‘dumb’ analysis provided by the on-air talent during intermissions and post-game.  

 

 

Fully agree. I mute hockey games during intermission, because most analysts are just clueless. I think it's a symptom of hockey having changed more than soccer in the past 20-30 years, with analysts going back a lot further. I'm convinced that someone like Don Cherry has never considered that hockey might be a bit different than when he started There are also just a lot more cliches that just get passed down between generations, rather than actual analysis. 

 

This sounds silly, but I played football manager for the first time, and I think we've just had more time to understand soccer, like... as a sport. Outside of the coaching staff, we don't have these endlessly detailed roles and strategies like we have in soccer. It's getting there with people shifting to advanced analytics, and regular sports writers trying video scouting, but it'll be a while before they stop putting morons like Brian Burke on the air. 

 

Anyways, there's some really good content on SB Nation blogs, and I'm hoping that's where we see it drift in the future. 

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3 hours ago, PiedPilko said:

Fully agree. I mute hockey games during intermission, because most analysts are just clueless. I think it's a symptom of hockey having changed more than soccer in the past 20-30 years, with analysts going back a lot further. I'm convinced that someone like Don Cherry has never considered that hockey might be a bit different than when he started There are also just a lot more cliches that just get passed down between generations, rather than actual analysis. 

 

This sounds silly, but I played football manager for the first time, and I think we've just had more time to understand soccer, like... as a sport. Outside of the coaching staff, we don't have these endlessly detailed roles and strategies like we have in soccer. It's getting there with people shifting to advanced analytics, and regular sports writers trying video scouting, but it'll be a while before they stop putting morons like Brian Burke on the air. 

 

Anyways, there's some really good content on SB Nation blogs, and I'm hoping that's where we see it drift in the future. 

Along those lines, for a long time I have believed that soccer is farther along the evolutionary scale than other sports. Both in terms of strategy and skill level, and frankly, the darker arts. The fact that everyone in the world plays it and brings their own things to it helps it go along further. Hockey is one of the lowest on the evolutionary scale, it still has a lot of room to grow in my opinion. Baseball basically is very close to or at its ceiling and probably has been for 60 years or more, but the ceiling is lower. American football is a confusing mix of sophisticated coaching and dumbed down specialization for players that I have a hard time putting it on my imaginary scale.

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On 10/21/2020 at 9:17 PM, red card said:

2016 playoffs between Impact/TFC was the closest KJ saw the North American soccer matching European football culture - wants to write a book about it. 

That was something amazing.  I never thought that i would see the day that i would see or experience something like that in Canada.   For that two leg tie,  there were a total of a hundred thousand people who paid and came out to watch that (65k at the big Owe and 36k at BMO).  Both were advanced sellouts.  Lets think about that for moment. 

But even more importantly,  even though i was only at the game at BMO,  you could not spot anybody who were sitting on their hands.  If you go back and watch the highlights of both games,  listen to the background and atmosphere at both venues,  you’ll never see that kind of charged atmosphere for a sporting event in canada.

Edited by Free kick
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5 hours ago, PiedPilko said:

Fully agree. I mute hockey games during intermission, because most analysts are just clueless. I think it's a symptom of hockey having changed more than soccer in the past 20-30 years, with analysts going back a lot further. I'm convinced that someone like Don Cherry has never considered that hockey might be a bit different than when he started There are also just a lot more cliches that just get passed down between generations, rather than actual analysis. 

 

This sounds silly, but I played football manager for the first time, and I think we've just had more time to understand soccer, like... as a sport. Outside of the coaching staff, we don't have these endlessly detailed roles and strategies like we have in soccer. It's getting there with people shifting to advanced analytics, and regular sports writers trying video scouting, but it'll be a while before they stop putting morons like Brian Burke on the air. 

 

Anyways, there's some really good content on SB Nation blogs, and I'm hoping that's where we see it drift in the future. 

I agree.  Except that I find Brian Burke a really smart guy.  He has his views but he defends his arguments really well.  Such that it makes you think.   He has great stories to tell and he is very well rounded and talk intelligently and in an informed manner about a great variety of differnt sports and subjects.    I always listen to him.

Edited by Free kick
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20 minutes ago, Free kick said:

That was something amazing.  I never thought that i would see the day that i would see or experience something like that in Canada.   For that two leg tie,  there were a total of a hundred thousand people who paid and came out to watch that (65k at the big Owe and 36k at BMO).  Both were advanced sellouts.  Lets think about that for moment. 

But even more importantly,  even though i was only at the game at BMO,  you could not spot anybody who were sitting on their hands.  If you go back and watch the highlights of both games,  listen to the background and atmosphere at both venues,  you’ll never see that kind of charged atmosphere for a sporting event in canada.  There were examples of “one off plays” such as the Khawai Leonard basket, or joe carter home run, or take your pick of overtime goals accross NHL cites in canada.   But for a whole game,  that level of engagement from the crowd, was un matched.

That’s the only playoff game I’ve been to but I’m so glad it was that one obviously. To be fair at first my section (I think around the top-middle of the east end) wasn’t super hyped at first, other than me and my brother not a ton of people were being loud. Slowly the atmosphere got better and better though, by extra time the whole section was finally standing I think.  The Cheyrou goal definitely made us all go apeshit, when it was 2-0 there were Chelsea reject chants towards Drogba that pissed off these English guys behind me which was hilarious. 

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