Lousy video game yo mama : ) Are you referring to "Tron", "Discs of Tron" or the Intellivision classic "Tron Deadly Discs" ? And by lousy do you mean Chico Borja-lousy or Jeff Durgan-lousy? P.S. I also saw "The Black Hole " at the cinema. That was only Perry Van Der Beck-lousy.
Saw USA v Partizan Belgrade at the Yale Bowl when I was a kid. I believe it was in 1988. USA won 1-0, and I remember there being a decent crowd with lots of Yugoslavian fans. The one souvenir I have from that game is a 10-page or so pamphlet promoting the US bid for the World Cup. It's amazing the progress that's been made since that pamphlet's been written.
Well, given that the "college stadium in New Haven" is the Yale Bowl, can seat 60,000+, was one of the last sites eliminated when choosing venues for USA94, (and I believe was also the site of the US upset win over England), I don't know that it makes too much sense to use that as the example of "look how far we've come."
The US beat England in 1993 at Foxboro, not New Haven. The last game we played in New Haven was, I think, a 2-0 loss to Brazil in 1993 I think.
Ok, wrong location because this definitely wasn't a huge stadium. Maybe it was New Brunswick. Or something like that.
Nice topic for a thread. I definitely remember US men playing a couple of games at Rutgers U in New Brunswick in the late 80's. It may have even been in qualifying for the '90 WC. This was back when Alexi Lalas was still playing college ball for Rutgers. I also saw a friendly against Brazil (I believe a dreaded 0-0 draw) in front of a good crowd at the Yale Bowl in late 80's/early 90's time frame. If anybody has any memories of games at these two locations, please refresh my memory. I'm too lazy to do any research.
I saw a couple of matches at the Yale Bowl. The first was just before Italia '90 and was a 1-0 win over, wait for it,.... Partizan Belgrade. Mike Trittschuch and Mike Windischmann anchored the defence I believe, and a very long-haired Eric Wynalda got a few minutes up top. Standards have improved and mullets have disappeared, and there has been much rejoicing.
ROTFL. Thanks for the history lesson. _____________ As a kid I remember seeing some team called the LA Aztecs on T.V. as my dad had me turn the televison dial in search of a Dodger game. It was not until the early 90's when I befriended a Spanish girl in college that I began to be made aware of Futbol. Visiting her family in Espana I saw her brothers in front of the tube cheering on their national team at World Cup 94. Seeing all the passionate fans in the streets was a real eye opener. Luckily I made it back to Los Angeles in time to party in Pasadena after the final. After that its been all uphill. I've been a fan of the Worlds game. One of the first games I attended was USA vs MEX at the Rose Bowl, I think in 1993. Wow, what a game and what a crowd.
WC 90 I was close to tears when Paul hit the winner in Trinidad and immediately sought tickets for Italia 90. On the way to Italy I watched the US Play in Vaduz, Liechtenstien 4-1 US (Balboa, Wynalda, Vermes and Henderson with the goals) a very confident Meola and a shy reserved Kasey Keller whom I thought wasn't as good as advertised. (Time sure has changed) Sat next to the famous Walter Bahr from the 1950 WC team, didn't know it at first then got to chatting and then immediately got an autograph on my programme, Then on to St. Gallen to watch us lose 1-2 to Switzerland (Murray with the goal) and me and a few others shouting UVA UVA at Harkes and him looking back at us with that dumfounded expression..priceless. I met and got photo's of Chris Sullivan and John Stollmeyer in front of the Team Bus after the game with Meola still cussing out loud after the loss and the coaching staff telling him to pipe down, funny. Later on down to watch us play the Czech's or rather the Czech's play with us in Florence. Took a picture of the US kicking off for the first time in 50 years at a WC, (prize possession) and then take the embarrassment of a 1-5 asswhuppin. Although the Czech fans were very sporting I have to say, no salt tossed in the wounds. Men against boys in that game. We have come along way from those days thats for sure.
No problem, my friend. I remember in the arcade version of Tron, you could defeat the first light cycle by driving a simple "P" formation. Heh. Those spiders and that light cone seemed so daunting - till you figured out all it took was a quick trigger finger. Blast and move, eh Ben? Ah, we were just kids then.
Ahh...the old Dnepr world tour. I remember I had to miss their match against UVa because of soccer practice
Wow, glad I started this thread. So far we got lots of 80's and 90's memories, but does anyone remember anything before the 80's?
Many qualifiers were played at the St. Louis Soccer Park and for most qualifiers additional temporary seating would be installed bringing typical attendance levels to around 10,000. The Saint Louis Soccer Park was considered the "Home Pitch" of the Mens National Team and if my memory serves me correct the National Team is undefeated when playing at the Soccer Park which by the way has under gone a name change now called The Anheuser Busch Conference and Sports Centre.
Are you sure that wasn't a long haired Eric Eichman running up top? Wynalda at the time if I recall had a reasonably short haircut.
Correction. Not to nitpick usa1950 but the NCAA declined to name a Champion after Howard was disqualified for using several ineligible players. Why SLU wasn't named the Champion is a mystery to me but that particular years NCAA Title remains vacant to this day and the "Official" Saint Louis U title count remains at 10. Hopefully this will be the year SLU wins number 11 as I have been not so patiently waiting since 1973 for that elusive 11th NCAA Championship! The T&T game was on National TV when Caliguiri scored his historic goal. Speaking of the St Louis Post Dispatch coverage of soccer it used to be fantastic however for the last 15 years or so it is has been pretty frickin miserable although the Post still does cover SLU soccer decently. The St. Louis Post Dispatch was the only Major USA Newspaper to send a correspondent to cover the 1950 World Cup proceedings and great coverage from the legendary Saint Louis soccer reporter Denton McSkimmings provided the United States with first hand coverage of the tournament and the miracle upset vs England. Of course much of that 1950 USA Team was made up of Saint Louisians.
Honestly, there's not much reason for the Post-Dispatch to give soccer as much coverage as papers such as the LA Times and the Washington Post, or even the New York Times for that matter, since they don't have an MLS or WUSA team and the Nats haven't been there in so long. I do think St. Louis would be a great MLS city though, not just for its soccer heritage but because it's one of the best sports cities in the country.
I grew up watching some of the best soccer one could hope for. I began my playing career n 1960. The two towns, Fall River and New Bedford Ma. were factory towns that hired English workers based on thier soccer skills. Many a summer I saw full English teams arrive to compete against some very good "factory teams". My first coach Arnie Oliver, played in the 1930 World cup. He also played for the national champion "Defenders". A couple of the 1950 cup players were regulars in the New Bedford/Fall River areas in the early and mid 60's. Souza lived in the area I think. Over time the Portugeese became the dominant immigrant population and were resented by the mainstream. Soccer became a "Portagee" sport and faded for a couple of decades. My friends and I always spoke about the St. Louis area as the hotbed of the sport. Over time we watched and heard all the good, and all the horror stories of how the sport grew to the level of today. I have been a fan for many years. There was very little news of the NATS till the late 80's. TV coverage was nil. ABC would show the WC final on Wide World show, and the only way to see any games around here was closed circuit tv at the old RI Arena. $8 bucks admission. Very steep in 74. Thats the years 74-78 that I became a fan of the Dutch. They were really fun to watch. Especially when the leader, Cryuff would have a couple of cigaretts at the half. The NASL was the turning point in this country. We got to see some of the best in the world, still at world class levels. The league planted some good seed and produced what we have today. As to video games. I had the "odyssey" game where I taped a plastic overlay of a tennis court on my tv screen and knocked a square "ball" back and forth that made a 'tic' noise when it was hit. Till next time
You would have to be a Saint Louisian to fully appreciate the disdain St. Louis soccer fans hold toward the Post Dispatch and its current lack of Soccer coverage. During the good ole days, the Saint Louis Men's Senior Amateur Soccer Leagues enjoyed weekly large write ups along with regular really good articles on College teams such as SLU, UMSL, SIU, Quincy and the 3 local Junior Colleges as well as great reporting of High School soccer. This was all before the 1980's. Since then the Pro Game is completely ignored the amateur coverage has disappeared entirely and the College coverage has dwindled to minimal reports of SLU and minimal High School coverage. The US National team get short shrift if anything at all. Once you have grown accustomed and enjoyed a certain level of coverage it is very difficult to settle for the meager scraps thrown our way. Thank goodness for the internet which is the refuge for soccer starved fanatics such as ourselves.
Great thread. I too would like to hear from some old fans. Only problem is if you are looking for fans who remember the 1950 England v USA match and let's say they were 10-20 yrs. old then, that would make them 62-72 yrs. old now. I don't know the stats. I could be wrong but I would bet that internet usage from that age is is very low.
In 1985, I went to see the Nats play against Costa Rica in a WC Qualifier at EL CAMINO JUNIOR COLLEGE! The crowd (if you could call it that) was 95% pro-Ticos, and my best friend being of Costa Rican descent and haven taken me to the game, I sat on their side of the field as well. Costa Rica won the match 1:0, and with that victory knocked the USA out of the 1986 World Cup (something I didn't know at the time, or even care about). Looking back on it all now - wow, what a bonehead I was. It took me living five years in my twenties in Europe to really realize what football / soccer was all about. Oh those lost years! But I'm making up for it now...
Well, I sit corrected. I was two in 1973, and my dad still brags that my first ever soccer match was the double overtime championship game against Howard. St. Louis U matches, Season tickets to Steamer games at the Checkerdome... I'll bet I have seen Ty Keough play more soccer games than anyone else on bigsoccer!!!! Isn't ther a prize for that? And I moved out of St. Louis 15 years ago. Haven't read a Post-Dispatch in years.... But it's gotta be better than soccer coverage in the Indianapolis Star. After the historic qualifying win over Mexico in Columbus, our local rag devoted a whopping 29 words to the win, and named Mathis as one of the scorers, (instead of Stewart) They actually printed my letter demanding better coverage, and ran a match preview article and a decent day after story for all our remaining quallies. They even did a column on the 75 or so nutters that met at 6 AM at a local restaurant for Poland and Germany. Things are a bit better now in our local media. Anyone here remeber Toby Charles on PBS' "Soccer Made in Germany?" We went to church early most Sundays just so we could be home before the show started.
Being from central Kansas originally, I didn't get into soccer until I was in college after Frace 98. Obviously, I'm not an OG supporter, but here's cool web site that packed full 'o US soccer history. http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/