Television

After a record breaking year, FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi won his fourth FIFA Ballon d'Or award today recognizing him as the best player on the planet. 

But how did he get so good?

The venerable icon of broadcast television, CBS' 60 Minutes, takes a close look at the phenomena that is Barcelona and, in particular, they examine the strength of the legendary La Masia football academy that produced Messi. A rigorous institution, La Masia also produced Timbers midfielder Franck Songo'o who came up through the ranks with the likes of Messi, Gerard Pique, and others.

While the 60 Minutes treatment can be a bit simplistic to the experienced soccer-phile, there's no denying that is a unique look into one of the best soccer factories in the world. 

Also of note is 60 Minutes' Overtime section where they talk about how they put this particular episode together. It gets a bit deeper into the how they brought it all together as well as how La Masia works and a bit on how MLS is developing their own academies:

Another exciting development at the FIFA award ceremony was U.S. national team women's striker Abby Wambach winning the Women's Ballon d'Or. It is the first time the award has been won by an American since Mia Hamm received it in 2002. Wambach was recently in Portland in November as the USWNT crushed the Republic of Ireland 5-0 in a friendly at JELD-WEN Field.

Dunseth (broadcasting) & Charles (NASL era)

You may recognize the voice of Brian Dunseth as it has become fairly ubiquitous across the American soccer spectrum. A soccer analyst on NBC Sports, Fox Soccer—often paired with our very own John Strong—as well as on Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas games, Dunseth has become a keen observer of Major League Soccer which should come as little surprise given his long playing career in MLS.

The first ever signing to the Project 40 initiative in 1997—now more commonly known as Generation adidas—Dunseth went on to play for the New England Revolution, Miami Fusion, Columbus Crew, Dallas Burn, and Real Salt Lake. After his playing career ended, Dunseth got into broadcasting but also teamed up with his old college teammate from Cal State Fullerton, Ben Hooper, to start a clothing company called Bumpy Pitch that bridges soccer, culture, history, and style. That same theme led their foray into an online “magazine” of sorts called The Original Winger that collects stories about soccer, shoes, watches, fashion, movies, music, and more.

But Dunseth also has a unique affinity to Portland. In 2000, he was the captain of a loaded US Olympic U-23s team that featured the likes of Frankie Hejduk, Ben Olsen, Conor Casey, Danny Califf and Landon Donovan as well as Timbers Alumni Ambassador Adin Brown. The head coach of that team was none other than Timbers legend Clive Charles who had a defining impact on Dunseth as a player and as a person.

In this episode of the Backcut, we talk about soccer in Portland, the influence of Charles both on a personal level and on American soccer, and much more. It’s an illuminating and emotional conversation. 

The Backcut Podcast sits at the intersection of Timbers, soccer & culture to explore the unique elements of the beautiful game. You can subscribe to The Backcut on iTunes in the same feed as the Talk Timbers podcast.

Erik Hurtado (left) & Steven Evans (right)

With the San Jose Earthquakes coming north to Portland on Saturday afternoon to take on the Timbers, their home field of Buck Shaw Stadium will hardly be quiet.

Timbers U-23s teammates Steven Evans and Erik Hurtado will find themselves on the opposite ends of that pitch as Evans' University of Portland Pilots travel south to battle the Santa Clara Broncos on the NSCAA Game of the Week on Fox Soccer at 7pm PT Friday night.

Evans has been having an excellent season in his junior campaign with two WCC Player of the Week Awards, 11 goals (a real stunner here) and two assists. The senior Hurtado has also been on fire with 11 goals and four assists for the Broncos as they look to win the WCC title and vie for an NCAA Conference berth.

Check out the Pilots preview of the match while the Broncos give their notes as well then be sure to watch what should be a cracking game.

Last Saturday afternoon ahead of the Timbers-D.C. United match, NBC Sports aired the excellent MLS 36 episode devoted to Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe. The concept of the show follows a player for 36 hours on and off the field in the lead-up to the match. In Nagbe's case, it was all shot ahead of the Timbers 2-1 win over Vancouver in August--a match where scored.

But I know how these things go. On Saturday, maybe you were too busy pre-functioning for the Timbers match that you missed it, your DVR went on the fritz, you were playing your own soccer game in the backyard. These things happen.

Never fear, the excellent episode featuring Nagbe is set to rebroadcast numerous times. Here's a handy schedule for you to mark your calendar:

Oct. 5 - 1:30pm PT, NBC Sports Network
Oct. 6 - 8:30pm PT, ROOT SPORTS
Oct. 10 - 1:30pm PT, NBC Sports Network
Oct. 12 - 12:30pm PT, NBC Sports Network
Oct. 12 - 6:30pm PT, KPTV (in place of Timbers in 30)
Oct. 21 - 3:00pm PT, ROOT SPORTS (following the Vancouver-Portland Cascadia rivalry match)
Oct. 23 - 1:00pm PT, NBC Sports Network
Oct. 25 - 4:30pm PT, NBC Sports Nework
Oct. 30 - 1:00pm PT, NBC Sports Network
Oct. 31 - 1:30pm PT, NBC Sports Nework
Oct. 31 - 9:30pm PT, NBC Sports Network

Here's a teaser to get you hooked.