For old NASL fans...

Best was past his prime, but still damn good.

Cruyff was unbelievable. Easily the best soccer player I've ever seen. The atmosphere at those games was fantastic. The Aztecs had also brought in Rinus Michels, Cruyff's coach at Ajax and the Dutch National team, and a number of other Dutch stars. The stadium was packed with singing Dutch fans at the home games. They the ownership sold the team to a Spanish-language TV network, unloaded the Dutch players to bring in Latino players, and the attendance cratered.

 

Was too young to properly appreciate the NASL when it was around, but I saw that documentary in the theater when it was out. Excellent movie, and of course Chinaglia thinking he is the greatest of all time is hilarious. Dude was hilarious when he talked to SI:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/richard_deitsch/06/16/q.a.giorgio/index.html

"Are you the best player ever to play in America?

Chinaglia: Yes. Why? Facts and figures. I won more world championships than anybody. I was top goal scorer. What else do you want to know? Let's be realistic. No offense to anybody. Numbers don't lie. Two and two make four. Like sometimes I read a quote from a player and then they say, "They misquoted me." No, you said it. You f------ said it. What is your problem?"

He's certainly a piece of work.

As for the NASL's place in history as opposed to MLS, lessons were learned regarding salaries and also taking steps to ensure the domestic player was developed this time. The NASL did jack for our national team, and that is its ultimate failure.

Oh, some will say that the Eric Wynalda-John Harkes generation first played soccer because they were inspired by the NASL, but the NASL ultimately failed as a league since only a few of the 20-something teams actually had those great players.

I did like the original MLS shootout., If you MUST have a winner, that was an entertaining way to do it.

And I'll take any excuse to repost this:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=cosmos

goalmouth: What is the answer? I like a challenge, so I cross-referenced the more recent NCAA champions with the Cosmos' all-time roster and came up with bupkus.

 

Yeah, come to think of it, the powerhouse New York Arrows teams in the first few years of the MISL were mostly made up of Lancers like Zungul and Segota, so that rivalry makes sense.

 

I wish, in a way, the documentary dove into those aspects instead of just centering things on New York.

 

The NASL fell apart one disastrous decision at a time.

 

i covered the cosmos/chinaglia in 1982. he was wonderful for a young reporter -- who knew little about soccer to deal with -- on a daily basis.
i traveled with the team and it was a treat.

just sayin'.

 

I was a huge Strikers fan.... At 10:30 p.m. I tuned in to my radio (610 on the AM dial) to listen to their game in San Jose in 1981.

I heard Rick Weaver's call of this goal live... He was beside himself with awe... and, mind you, Weaver was a dyed-in-the-wool NFL guy, he was...

Never saw the video of it until almost 25 years later.

 

The Tampa Bay Rowdies were a blast to watch when I was a kid. Wish they were still around.

 

Sadly, Zungul never suited up for the Lancers. They thought that they had gotten him in the steal of the century, which (for them) it would have been. But there was some sort of issue with FIFA and/or his Yugoslavian club over transfer fees and he was never allowed to join the Lancers.

As for Segota, he hit the ball a ton even though he was only 17 or 18 years old. The Lancers played at a decrepit, horseshoe-shaped stadium. We used to sit in the bleachers at the enclosed end and (because we were young and dumb) try to catch his errant shots. Not so bad on a normal day, but big mistake on a chilly May night.