GolTV soccer color commentator Lindsey Dean has left GolTV.

Dean, who often covered the Bundesliga and La Liga for GolTV, has left South Florida and moved to Chicago. The accomplished American commentator is best known by many as one of the pundits of the American Soccer show, which was a successful weekly soccer talk show that summarized all facets of U.S. soccer. During the show, Dean and colleague Ray Hudson often got into heated, but friendly debates, regarding controversial soccer topics.

Dean also was the host of Hallo Bundesliga, the GolTV show before Phil Schoen became host.

The reason for Dean leaving GolTV (and South Florida) is due to his wife getting a new job in Chicago.

Read Bundesliga Talk’s interview with Lindsey Dean from August, 2009.

Lindsey Dean of GolTV was kind enough to speak with me about the Bundesliga.   Those of us in America will know Lindsey as the voice of Hallo Bundesliga, the league’s review show on GolTV.  Lindsey is originally from Maine and grew up in New England; however, he enrolled at the University of Copenhagen in 1977 at the age of 19. He spend a year in Denmark and during that time he played for a small Danish side by the name L.I.F. Allerød/Lillerod (now Allerød FK), which has produced Peter Løvenkrands and Danish womens national team player Bettina Falk .  While Lindsey has a varied background in sports broadcasting having done almost every sport imaginable (including suffering through the painful pre-Belechick era of the Patriots), he isn’t some American who stumbled into the Bundesliga because there was a paycheck.  Lindsey has a pedigree.

1977 was a golden year for Borussia Mönchengladbach, who won their third straight title that year, and also met Liverpool in a memorable final of the European Cup.  One of the star players of that side was the Dane Allan Simonsen, who won the European Player of the Year and Lindsey watched this magical season in Denmark, where every Gladbach game was aired and watched religiously.  This was his introduction to the Bundesliga.

When he returned, he kept up with the Bundesliga the way so many of that generation did, by watching Soccer Made in America with Toby Charles.  I asked him if it’s in anyway odd to him that he would become the modern version of Mr. Charles.  He was humbly unwilling to compare himself to Toby Charles, but he did fondly remember the man that brought America the Bundesliga for so long.  He remembered his eloquence with words and could even recount a time when Toby said “Dusseldorf Dogs were wagging their tales in delight.”   I asked him if we was ever tempted to use the phrase “that shot was high, wide and not very handsome” which he enjoyed, although I don’t think I convinced him to use it.  But while Toby Charles would help shape the style of his commentary, he was quick to note that he grew up in a golden era of sportscasters. His influences include the likes of Johnny Most, Jim Karvellas, Gil Santos and Marty Glickman.

The next subject in our conversation was how he got started at GolTV.  At the time, he was working as an associate attorney at a South Florida law firm. However, he really felt unsatisfied by the work. He returned to sports broadcasting, (having done a plethora of work in New England prior to his move to Florida for law school),  as the P.A. announcer for the NHL’s Florida Panthers, and also as the radio/internet voice of the defunct Miami Fusion of MLS.  After the Fusion folded, Phil Schoen called him to tell him that someone was starting a soccer channel in Miami.  Dean auditioned and has been with GolTV ever since.   Besides his work on Hallo Bundesliga, Lindsey is both a play-by-play and color analyst commentator for various GolTV matches. As we talked about the start of GolTV, we realized that the Bundesliga owes a big bit of gratitude in the states to the Miami Fusion, where Ray, Phil and Lindsey were once all employed.

I asked him about his preparation for the weekly show and he gave me the breakdown of the week.  He is obviously privy to the matches he does commentary for, of course, but he has the full library of games at his disposal.  By Sunday he is reading game reports and summaries.  By Monday he has the DFL’s productions package and makes notes on each match.  Tuesday, he looks for news and finalizes his script.  The last minute check is invaluable as so much can happen from Sunday to Tuesday afternoon.  With U.S. players like Steve Cherundolo and Michael Bradley, as well as Canadians Paul Stalteri and Rob Friend, Lindsey keeps a close eye on the North American players in the league, and tries to include information about their appearances and status. For example, because of the situation with Landon Donovan and H1N1, Steve Cherundolo and Michael Bradley were quarantined by their respective clubs.  By the time he enters the studio, it usually takes him from an hour and a half to two hours to voice the show,  due in part to the preparation completed in the 48 hours leading up to the show’s final production.

I asked him about his expectations for this year.  He doesn’t see the season as a one-horse race (and I did this interview before the last two Bayern debacles).  While he feels that Bayern have a plethora of talent , he mentions the lack of a top class goalkeeper as one issue, and he also wonders about how well new signings like Mario Gomez will perform.   He feels that Wolfsburg are quite capable of repeating, due to having a very balanced squad, with a strong defense, a good central midfield pairing and great flank play to complement Grafite and Dzeko.  He, like Andy Brassel, brought up Ziani as a signing to look out for.

He feels that it will be more difficult for Hoffenheim this season,  as they will not be able to surprise anyone like they did in the first half of last season.  He thought that the challenge for them would be tactically, in that their opponents are now much better prepared for Hoffenheim’s intense attacking play.  Finally, he feels that, although it’s very early, it appears that Felix Magath has already made big improvements at Schalke, similar to how he began to improve things at Wolfsburg.  But for Magath, the job is a bit easier this time around, as Schalke already had the makings of a good team.  He could see them as dark horses.

Mostly he was looking forward to the season as the Bundesliga is so high-scoring and full of attacking play.   He says that one of reasons why the Bundesliga has so much scoring is the number of big, strong strikers, who are typically very hard to defend for a full 90 minutes.  (Don’t tell the EPL).  And he said something that I felt needed a quote as it was quite a great insight by Lindsey, “the mentality of attacking play comes in part from some of the philosophies of legendary players as far back as the 70’s, some of whom manage clubs and work to keep that attacking mentality.”  That a deserving place to end this piece, don’t you think?

Rodrigo Lombello is the COO of our favorite network in America GolTV. I sat down for an interview with the congenial Palmeiras supporter to talk about GolTV’s recent renewal of their Bundesliga package for the next three year.

(his answers are in Bold)

Is the new rights package, the same offered by DFL Sports Enterprise?

Yes, it is. It includes every game (306 matches) live as well as the preview show Goal! And the weekly highlight show Hallo Bundesliga. The main difference in the package for GolTV is that in addition to the US and Canadian rights, we have exclusive rights to show the Bundesliga in Latin American for the next three years.

The Bundesliga is restructuring the schedule next year. There will be a Friday night match, five 3:30 Saturday matches, a new 6:30 Saturday match, a 3:30 Sunday match and a new 5:30 PM Sunday match. (these times are all CET, which is 6 hours ahead of EST). How will that affect scheduling?

Currently our plans are to continue to show 2 to 3 games each weekend, live and tape-delayed. The new Saturday late match looks to be a marquee game each week.

Marquee game?

Yes, the league is going to try to make that game a big match.

Typically on Saturday, we get our games tape-delayed, is there any chance this later game could provide more live coverage.

Yes, we have had to use tape delay because Germany is six hours ahead of the East Coast, but 9 hours ahead of the West Coast, which has key markets like Los Angeles. Since we use a single feed for the entire country, we have shown games tape delayed so that the west coast won’t get their games at 6:30 in the morning. With this new game, the match will be at 9:30 AM for the West Coast and it is our hope that we can accommodate more live matches next year.

Well the new times must help, since the old structure had typically 6 to 8 games at the same time, which tied your hands in programming.

Yes, but we are looking into other avenues to provide more programming in the coming years either through partnering with other channels or taking advantage of on-line distribution. Since we own every game, we are working hard to find new means of connecting the fans to the games.

And the Friday game? Can you tell me more about that?

Well the Friday game has a few issues. First it’s at 2:30 EST when everyone is at work. In addition, it rarely involves the more well-known clubs, who are usually involved in mid-week European games. Anytime it involves Bayern, we show that game live and tape-delayed.

Is Bayern the only team that draws substantial numbers?

Not at all. While they do provide the best numbers, Schalke, Hamburg and Werder Bremen have had consistently strong audiences. The Bundesliga is the second biggest league for us, after La Liga; however, I think it’s better to view the games from a team perspective rather than a league perspective. The bigger clubs, whether from Spain, Brasil or Germany have a brand, and that brand carries weight when it comes to an audience.

Does using the DVR with your matches hurt your numbers?

No, we get a Live rating followed by Live+3 days, Live+7 days and Live+10 days. These latter option will pick up any taped viewers. However if you watch it live and tape it, it will show up on the Live rating.

Can we expect the promotion/relegation matches to be shown?

We have the rights to the games. Depending on programming priorities and the time of the matches, we are hopefully going to be able to show it.

And will you continue to show German National games?

That is a separate deal, not incorporated under the DFL package, but we do expect to continue showing German National games for the foreseeable future, especially World Cup Qualifiers.

Finally, two years ago you had a great promotion that sent two lucky viewers to German to watch two live matches. Can we expect anything like that in the future?

Currently we are running the Soccer Cam promotion w with a grand prize of a trip to the Emirates Cup this summer. After that is done, we are going to run another Bundesliga promotion.

Can I bribe you to win that?

(laughs) No.

Bundesliga Talk recently went behind the scenes at the GolTV studios in Miami to discover what goes into a Bundesliga production. To show you more, we put together a video. Some of the highlights include a:

• Video segment showing how GolTV puts together the on-screen graphics we’re used to seeing for Bundesliga matches on GolTV,
• How GolTV differentiates its viewing experience compared to ESPN and other American networks,
• And more.

Enjoy the video:

[display_podcast]

As of August 1, GolTV — the 24/7 soccer network — has been removed from DISH Network due to a contract dispute.

According to GolTV, “this occurs despite efforts to continue GolTV’s availability to Dish customers.” DISH Network, in retort, inserted this message when you hit the INFO button where GolTV’s channel used to be: “GolTV has removed this channel after asking for unreasonable terms to renew the contract and we’re working to solve the problem.”

In the meantime, DISH Network is offering free previews of both Setanta Sports and Fox Sports Espanol to its customers. However, even if DISH Network customers subscribed to Setanta and Fox Sports Espanol, that won’t replace the void that’s left with GolTV gone because GolTV has exclusive license rights in the United States to La Liga and Bundesliga, as well as many 2010 World Cup qualifiers and this weekend’s Emirates Cup featuring Real Madrid, Hamburg, Juventus and Arsenal.

For DISH Network, the decision to remove GolTV is idiotic. Hopefully this a short-term disagreement between GolTV and DISH Network that will be resolved soon, but the timing couldn’t be worse and soccer fans will want to make a decision soon whether to leave DISH Network before the new seasons begin. My gut instinct says that this issue won’t be resolved soon especially when GolTV tells readers on its homepage that “You can find GolTV on our current distribution partners,” which includes DirecTV.

If you love GolTV, my recommendation would be to simply cancel your DISH Network subscription and move to DirecTV where you get GolTV there instead. If you’re upset about the situation, vote with your dollars by leaving DISH but don’t forget to send them an e-mail too to let them know why you’re canceling and moving to their biggest competitor.

DISH Network can be contacted here.