A New Year’s Eve Look Back at PSN’s Union/Soccer Coverage in 2023

It’s the last day of the year! 2023 has been a rollercoaster of a year; especially for Philly Sports Network’s Union/soccer team. PSN has always been dedicated to covering Philadelphia’s soccer team, the Philadelphia Union, as well as other topics of interest surrounding the beautiful game! This past year was no exception!

421 pieces of content created

Our PSN Union/soccer team went above and beyond to bring coverage of soccer to the readers/listeners/viewers of Philly Sports. The team created the most soccer content ever this past year! Here’s a look at the numbers.

Philly Sports Network Articles: 315
Doop by the River Podcasts: 36
Youtube Videos: 70

The most soccer articles written, and a whole lot of podcasts and YouTube videos as well! Our team was dedicated to giving the people of Philly news, analysis, and opinions on soccer that would help them connect with the sport on a deeper level.

Let’s look at each category more in-depth!

315 PSN Articles written!

The Goal for 2023 was to write 275 articles. Not only did the PSN Union team smash that record, but they also overachieved by 40 articles! The team covered The Philadelphia Union (176 articles), MLS (18 articles), Union II/the Union Academy (7 articles), Cup competitions (22 articles), and International Soccer (92 articles). Last season the Union team produced 260 articles; at the time it was the most ever, this year the team blew that out of the water by 55 articles!

A major part of our soccer writing this past year was covering the Women’s World Cup! A portion of the Union/Soccer team took on that task on top of our normal soccer coverage! It was a joy to follow the Women’s game, and give it the coverage it deserves!

This past year saw the PSN writing debuts of three new writers: Jimmy King (95 articles), Paul Frenzel (52 articles), and Eric Frysinger (23 articles); that’s a combined 170 articles from these rookies, a total that is more than the articles written in a calendar year by PSN in 2016, 2017, and 2020! Congrats to these three amazing guys, and there’s even more to come next year!

Returning PSN writers who contributed to Union/soccer articles this year were: Tim Lovenguth (99 articles), Regina Ham (24 articles), Liam Jenkins (10 articles), Steve Beavon (9 articles), Justin Friedberg (7 articles), and Griffin Foll (1 article). Thank you to all of these writers for giving their all to cover the beautiful game!

Here’s a look at our all-time soccer articles written since we started tracking them at PSN back in 2016:

2016 Articles: 50
2017 Articles: 136
2018 Articles: 227
2019 Articles: 194
2020 Articles: 101
2021 Articles: 190
2022 Articles: 260
2023 Articles: 315
TOTAL SINCE 2016: 1,473 Articles

On top of writing the most soccer-specific articles ever for Philly Sports Network, the team also had 9 articles picked up and featured in the Metro Philadelphia Newspaper! Five writers had articles featured in the paper: Jimmy King (2 articles), Tim Lovenguth (2 articles), Paul Frenzel (2 articles), Liam Jenkins (2 articles), and Justin Friedberg (1 article).

The team has worked so hard this year to produce some amazing written content, so much so that they were recognized by fans of PSN, and fellow members of PSN as the Contributing Team of the Year in 2023! We put in the work this year, and will go above and beyond to keep the content flowing in 2024!

36 Doop by the River Episodes; 70 YouTube videos!

2023 was a successful year for our PSN Union team. In the areas of our podcast and YouTube content, Justin Friedberg and El Parcero Philly ground out some content between the months of January and September! 36 podcast episodes and 70 YouTube videos were created in nine months!

At the end of September, one of our own El Parcero Philly made a transfer to PHLY Sports to join their Union team. El Parcero Philly singlehandedly churned out YouTube content and hosted DOOP by the River for almost four years. He’s a genuine guy who is now doing his thing for the PHLY Union team. We wish him nothing but the best!

Here’s a look at the breakdown of the four seasons of our Doop by the River Podcast!

Season 1 – 2020: 41 episodes
Season 2 – 2021: 64 episodes
Season 3 – 2022: 48 episodes
Season 4 – 2023: 36 episodes
TOTAL: 189 Episodes

Thanks to El Parcero Philly and Justin Friedberg for their hard work!

Gold Cup, PSN — U.S.s forward Brandon Vazquez (19) celebrates his game-tying goal against Jamaica with forward Cade Cowell (11) during the second half of a CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer match Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/David Banks)

2024 goals

This past year was stressful, but successful! Covering soccer is a year-long endeavor, and it can be exhausting and invigorating all at the same time! Our PSN Union team has shown resilience and the ability to cover the game in ways that truly connect to footy fans all over the world! In 2024 the team is set to be ambitious in our coverage.

The team is ready to cover the Philadelphia Union, MLS, Union II/the Union Academy, Domestic Cup competitions, International soccer, and we are adding European Club soccer in the form of roundup articles. These articles will give a glimpse at how the clubs in the top European Leagues are faring through the conclusion of their 2023/2024 seasons. We are looking to make more history as a team in 2024 by writing 365 articles throughout the year!!!

In terms of podcast and YouTube content, the team is hungry to get to work producing more content in audio and video form! Look forward to some new faces and voices bringing you soccer news from PSN in the new year. It may be lofty, but the PSN Union team is looking to produce 40 podcasts and 50 YouTube videos!

Here they are, the goals for 2024!