Ives Galarcep on his soccer reporting path to 24/7 coverage at CBS Sports Golazo Network

Have you heard this one before? A college football player quits his sport to cover the soccer team for his school newspaper. 

That’s what happened to Ives Galarcep — more or less — and it’s what kickstarted a lifelong career as a soccer writer and editor for some of the industry’s biggest names, such as ESPN, Fox Sports, Goal.com, and his own site, SBI Soccer  (Soccer By Ives).

Now the Editorial Producer for CBS Sports Golazo Network, Galarcep is the man behind the curtain for the soccer channel that debuted April 11 and offers two daily live shows and 24/7 soccer programming. 

SOCCER AMERICA: How did you get into soccer?

IVES GALARCEP: My family’s Peruvian. But the place I grew up was a lot more baseball, basketball and football. That’s more of what I followed growing up. I played American football in high school and Division III in Ramapo College in New Jersey. 

In college, though, I stopped playing football and covered soccer for the school paper. I became very close with the players on the soccer team, just because that was the main sport there.

SA: You quit playing football to cover soccer? Huh?

IVES GALARCEP: My school dropped football in 1992. I went and played at a different school but it was kind of like chasing the dream — it was Division III football, you know? So I went back to Ramapo and from there I started to write about soccer.

In my first newspaper job at the Herald in New Jersey, the person on the soccer beat got moved. At the same time, a friend of mine got drafted to the MetroStars. This is 1999 — I tell the editor-in-chief of the paper, ‘Listen, I got a friend of mine on the team, if you put me on the beat I have a connection.’ That was my sell. 

The editor-in-chief, a British and big soccer guy, said, ‘Yeah, go for it.’ The rest is kind of history. I tried to cover it as well as I could and I’m thankful to that editor who believed in American soccer and there being an interest in it.

SA: How did you transition from newspaper sportswriter to full-time blogger with SBI Soccer? 

IVES GALARCEP: So, in 2006, I was at the Herald in New Jersey, a small newspaper where I got my start. They wanted me to write a blog about the World Cup that year. So they sent me to this workshop at Columbia University. The workshop opened my eyes to the possibilities of websites and reporting away from the traditional means of journalism and the media. 

I kind of saw the writing on the wall with newspapers. I saw the future, in a way, and I thought to myself, ‘Maybe I can create something.’ So I did the workshop, blogged at the World Cup, and it was a hit. After the World Cup, I approached them and said, ‘Listen, let me start a soccer blog. I guarantee it will do well.’ They said, ‘OK, go for it.’ 

And it just took off  immediately — within three months, it was the biggest blog on the network, bigger than the Yankees, the Knicks, Nets, Devils, you name it. Six months after that, it was bigger than all of those blogs combined.

SA: What do you attribute that to?

IVES GALARCEP: Part of that was because there weren’t that many outlets consistently covering American soccer. The plan was to build up a following and then launch my own site. That was the idea and that’s what I did: In January of 2008, I quit the newspaper job, which is crazy to say that now — and I launched my own site [SBI Soccer].

It was a hit right off the bat. The transition was easy. When I launched that, I made it a national magazine — not just New York and New Jersey soccer. It took off from there and grew in the next couple years. 

In 2010, Fox Sports hired me to be their main soccer writer. I changed the site from me building everything to me building a staff of writers, content creators, and turning SBI into a bigger site.

I still ran SBI and did that for 10-12 years. 

SA: How important was it to be based in the New York area, from a journalist’s perspective?

IVES GALARCEP: I had a lot of connections from all over the league — I’m lucky in that being in New York and New Jersey, the connections you make here with the people who pass through here. The different players and coaches who came through here — a who’s who of American soccer. 

I was able to make some good connections there and if you build that out over time and you’re going to have some pretty good connections. I broke news in a lot of different markets and was able to build a following that was outside of just New York and New Jersey. California was our No. 1 state for traffic for a lot of years.

SA: How does the work as a daily blogger, essentially, translate into what you’re doing now with the Golazo Network, which is trying to offer news twice a day along with its other live game programming?

IVES GALARCEP: Yeah, now we have a channel that covers not only American soccer but international soccer, from maybe an American lens. I think that’s really exciting. In terms of how it translates? Trying to cover as much of the game as possible, know as much about the game as possible — that’s a fun challenge. 

Nobody knows it all, or knows every league. But I think it’s helped me that I didn’t just follow MLS — I followed European soccer and South American soccer. That helps me here at the Golazo Network where we cover everything.

SA: What brought you to the opportunity at the Golazo show?

IVES GALARCEP: I was a writer — I guess I still technically am a writer. But about two years ago, I worked with CBS Sports on their coverage of the Concacaf Nations League. It was an opportunity to get my foot in the door in a new area of media. 

It was a great experience — the 2021 Nations League in Denver [Where the USA beat Mexico 3-2 in overtime in the final] and the talent and the crew there were a lot of people I already had known for a long time, like Clint Dempsey, Charlie Davies, Oguchi Onyewu and Maurice Edu.  

It was a little different from what I had done but a lot of it still translates — knowledge of the game and of the topics. So I started as a researcher, like an entry level position, and it went well. 

Because of my connections, I ended up with a lot more responsibilities than just a researcher — making connections, setting up interviews, or just having knowledge after covering the national team for 25 years.

CBS Sports and the group there, with soccer growing in their portfolio — they saw me as someone who could help them in other areas. After the Nations League, the opportunity was there to join their Serie A coverage, and that’s when I really went into the TV world.

SA: Do you miss being a full-time writer?

IVES GALARCEP: It’s funny, honestly I don’t. I did it for so long. I miss the interviews and connecting with people and telling their story — as a writer yourself you know that’s the fun part. Interviews were always my thing, I felt like I was very good at interviews. But the actual writing itself? I can’t say I miss the grind of it. 

I did write at the World Cup, for my website SBI Soccer. That was a chance to get back in there and still write, and I enjoyed it.

SA: If only every assignment was a World Cup match. What’s your favorite and least favorite part of the new job?

IVES GALARCEP: The most fun thing is definitely working with the talent to tell stories and getting to work with them to help them deliver the news or entertaining content and angles. Whether it’s feeding them a line or giving them something they need to know. That’s the most fun thing. 

In terms of least fun? That’s a tough one. Sometimes I wish there were eight days in the week so I could have an extra day to rest up and catch up on sleep. The hours, probably — waking up at 3 a.m. is a little different. I used to spend a lot of my career going to sleep at 3 a.m. 

SA: Besides Morning Footy and Box 2 Box, what else is in store for the Golazo Network down the road?

IVES GALARCEP: Obviously, we’re a 24/7 network and we have a ton of programming and shows: game replays, live games from a huge portfolio. I’ll let guys above my pay grade tell that story, but obviously I think it’s pretty clear and obvious to anyone that we are really trying to cover soccer completely inside and out.

There’s so much soccer to cover that it isn’t that hard to do a 24/7 network of interesting and entertaining soccer content. That’s what Golazo Network is putting together.

SA: And it’s free.

IVES GALARCEP: When you’re creating something new, you need to show people what you’re providing. If you build a good product, people are going to find it and over time you’re going to have a pretty good-sized audience.

SA: How do you evaluate the network’s success so far?

IVES GALARCEP: I think it’s been received well. Sometimes it’s tough to really get a sense of how it’s perceived, but for me personally, I’m lucky enough to connect with other people in the industry — organizing interviews with players, coaches, and soccer people to come on our show is part of my job, and getting feedback from them has definitely shown me that it’s been really well-received. 

And that’s great because it makes it easier to get guests and good interviews, which I think has been a strong suit for the network.

SA: A channel devoted solely to soccer needs a lot of soccer properties. CBS Sports has built quite the roster: UEFA Champions League through 2030, NWSL, Concacaf Nations League, Italian Serie A, Argentina and Brazil’s first division. What does that say about how seriously CBS is taking soccer and the value the network sees in it?

IVES GALARCEP: Anyone who watches our coverage, I got to believe you think that we care about the sport and care about covering it thoroughly and well. Obviously, I’m biased — I’m on the team here, but I’ve been around a long time. 

I was a part of the Fox Soccer Channel and that was the closest thing that ever was to what Golazo Network is. What we have here blows that away. 

That’s what I’m excited about, and I feel lucky to be a part of this project. … I feel like one of the OGs here, the old man who has that experience and — like it’s cool to see it grow. 

Our team here realizes the opportunity we have to create something special and something American soccer fans can get excited about. We’re looking pretty good right now — we’re the best in the game.