Over the last few days I attended the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia. I was able to interview legends of the game including Fox Sports play-by-play announcer JP Dellacamera. If you want to listen to the full interview make sure to stay tuned to the podcast and YouTube channel! Subscribe to the substack as I will be posting additional interviews over the next few days.
Jake: JP Dellacamera! Thank you so much for joining us. For anyone that doesn't know you, although there probably aren't many out there, who are you? What's your role?
JP: I’m a soccer play-by-play announcer and have done it for many years, many decades actually, now that I think of it.
16 World Cups, 10 men, six women and I love what I do. Couldn't dream of doing anything that would bring me more satisfaction than doing these games.
Jake: Seems like you're living everyone's dream. I know you because you are a Philadelphia Union guy. But most people might recognize your voice from something recently, the 2022 World Cup, you were there.
What did you make of the US Men's National Team performance?
JP: I thought that they went as far as I thought they would go, to be honest. I, I totally expected them to get out of the group. I had no doubt they would get out of the group. And then the rest of it is a crapshoot. Like when people say, how far can they go? Well, show me who they're gonna play next. Because if their next opponent was gonna be France well then they're not gonna go much farther. Or if it was Argentina, whoever it was. In this case it was the Netherlands.
I watched the Netherlands in the summer during the UEFA Nations League, and I thought, this is a really good team. And I think when they were playing the US, they were unbeaten in 16 or 17, something like that. The Euros was their last loss. So I didn't, I didn't have high hopes for the US. I wanted them to win, obviously, but I thought it was gonna end there. So I think they went as far as they could.
The things that we thought were good from them were good. The things that we worried about, we're still worried about. We still don't have a number nine.
Jake: What are you looking forward to in the next few months and years for the US.
JP: In terms of coaching and developing players? Well, I think first of all, um, with all this controversy, you know, the USSF has to decide what they're gonna do with the coaching situation. And until that happens, it's hard to speculate on the direction, right?
Because a lot of it is, is who your coach is and what their philosophy is, and how do the players adjust to it. You're not gonna have to qualify for the next World Cup. I think that's bad. For a lot of teams it could turn out to be good, but it hurts you with competition.
And I think you can say CONCACAF is improving if you'd like. I won't argue that. But if you want to be the best that you can be, you gotta do something outside of your region. And with all these nations leagues and other competitions that they have, it's hard to have meaningful friendlies like you used to.
So is it Copa America? Is it your own tournament? Whatever it is, we need to find that in the next couple of years.
Jake: If it is Gold Cup or Copa America, do you feel like that's enough to prepare USMNT for 2026, or is there something else that's kind of the secret sauce that we need to find?
JP: There is no secret sauce, I don't think Jake. I think that the more games you can play against quality competition is the best preparation. Give me USA vs Mexico five times a year, six times a year!
It's always gonna be good competition and will make them better. I can't say the same about if you're playing Jamaica or Honduras or Panama. But there are some countries where you could say that. So I think you've gotta find a way in this very crowded calendar, even if it is friendlies.
I mean, there's gotta be a way to. I think the more games like that, that we can find the better. Yeah.
Jake: Now, switching gears a little bit. There is a World Cup this year. The Women's World Cup will be held in Australia and New Zealand. The US Women's National Team is in a bit of a transition period. But we are going for our third title in a row. What are you expecting from the women's national team this year?
JP: I said today in an earlier seminar that I don't think they have weaknesses, but they do have question marks.
Maybe more question marks than we've ever seen on this Women's World Cup side. So starting at the back, who's our goalkeeper? They're splitting time between Alyssa Naeher and Casey Murphy. So we have to identify who that number one goalkeeper is today. I believe it's Alyssa Naeher. But after these two games in New Zealand, are they splitting them?
What are they, what are they doing? So we'll find out. I think we have good goalkeepers, but you have to decide on who it is. I think we have, at least if everybody's healthy, four good center backs, but who are the two? They're gonna get a bulk of the time. I can't answer that now. I don't know.
Only Vlatko Andonovski can answer that. We've never replaced Julie Ertz, and no one talks about Julie Ertz. Does Julie want to come back and play? I have no idea. If she does, there's nobody better at that position than her.
Do you keep the same formation? Do you play with with two in that role? Like what do you do? So that's a concern. And then, I worry about injuries to Catarina Macario. Is she gonna be the Catarina Macario of old? Fully healthy? If she is, that's fantastic. I've never seen as many injuries as our national team had last year.
When you think about it. Tierna Davidson, Lynn Williams were injured… even Sam Mewis is not back. She was injured last year, so we've gotta get some of these players back healthy. I still think on paper we're the best team. The best on paper, but paper doesn't lift trophies and doesn't play the games.
Jake: So we did a bit of future looking. I wanna look back in the past, because I dare say you're a legend of the sport in your own right. Looking back on your storied career, is there anything that really sticks out to you as a moment that you'll always think about?
JP: 1999. USWNT wins World Cup final because I remember so much about it.
So much about the game, the fans, the stadium. Just so many things I remember about that day and the only other game that if somebody said, you're two most memorable games, that was one and the game in Trinidad, 1989, World Cup Qualifier. But I remember so little about that game. What I remember are the fans there that filled that stadium four hours maybe before kick-off. Everyone in red, except for two rows of American fans.
I remember people painting their cars, red, their houses, red Trinidad had a national holiday the day after the game. They expected a win. I remember all that stuff, but the game itself more of a blur.
Compare that to like Women's World Cup with the drama and everything. I remember it a distant second. It was the energy of the day.
Jake: Amazing! Thank you so much for the time. I want to thank you and Fox Sports as well for all the free press for It's Called Soccer during the World Cup
JP: Hey, we do what we can!
Jake: Just helping the little guy. Thank you JP.
JP: My pleasure. Thank you.
Good interview, Jake! .... USA v MEX three times a year would be awesome. Make a trophy out of it, the Rio Grande Cup. Play once in Mexico City (home for El Tri); once in Columbus (US home match); and once in Houston/Dallas (hopefully a mixed stadium; and it's the closest to where I live).
I want to compliment you for your work at diversifying your portfolio. In the lead-up to the World Cup, I tried to listen to several (mostly independent) voices to inform my own opinion. I ended up with 5 "must-listen" shows - yours being one of them - and a couple of others.
Now that the WC is over, some of the other creators are back to the same-old, same-old. They're not bad, but they're also not doing anything to retain and grow interest. You, however, are clearly firing on all creative cylinders. I know that there are other people taking notice, and I can't wait to see where your journey will take you in the next year.