One of England’s greatest talents, the success of Trevor Francis abroad highlights why he is so much more than the first million-pound footballer
Tag: nasl
Boasting a team made up of ageing British stars, the Vancouver Whitecaps would win the NASL in 1979 in one of the sport’s great North American seasons
Few men in South African football have had impact of Jomo Sono. Fewer still had to endure the challenges that this gifted maverick did
Poland is a proud country with a rich and compelling history, especially when it comes to football, and the 1970s and 80s were its golden period. The names behind it are well known…
FOR THE AMERICAN GAME AT-LARGE – from every conceivable angle – nothing is what it seems. A diverse country with vast amounts of resources and a well-established sporting infrastructure has ensured these…
WHO IS THE ONLY SCOTSMAN TO SCORE IN A WORLD CUP SEMI-FINAL? It wasn’t Kenny Dalglish, who despite his God-given talent could never take his country past the group stages. Nor was it…
Johan Cruyff’s impact on football was far-reaching to say the least. His influence on the game in the Netherlands and Spain has been rightly lauded, and his role in the revolutionary Total…
In 2007, David Beckham left Real Madrid. He had regained his place in Fabio Capello’s starting line-up and played an integral part in Los Blancos’ return to the pinnacle of Spanish Football,…
AMERICA IS A COUNTRY WITH A GREAT PASSION FOR SPORT. They have the largest leagues for basketball, baseball, ice hockey and American football. However, soccer has never been the most popular of…
THINK OF AMERICAN SOCCER the way people viewed cars and technology in 1950s science fiction mail-order catalogues. Everyone thought we’d have our flying car by now, right? In essence, the quandary morphs…
ON 3 JUNE 1978, Peruvian footballer Teófilo Cubillas broke the hearts of five million Scots with a set-piece of ineffable magic. Moments earlier, Cubillas stood 20-yards away from the Scottish goal, staring…
US Soccer’s concept of professional league divisions is a farce and a red herring, because it masks Major League Soccer’s real agenda and intention. • • • • MLS’s real agenda and intention is simple: what…
WHY HASN’T THE UNITED STATES produced a world-class player in the men’s game? That question might as well read like Enrico Fermi’s intergalactic quandary, “Where is everyone?” I imagine physicists and astronomers…
LONG BEFORE A TEAM OF ANIMATED PUPPETS decided to take on the world under the banner of Team America, a hodgepodge collection of superstars and NASL underlings joined together in 1976 to take…
THE TIME BEFORE PELÉ, CRUYFF AND CHINAGLIA was a barren one for the North American Soccer League, or NASL to you and me. Born in 1968 following a merger between the United Soccer…
“The New York Cosmos were the best and worst of American soccer,” Rodney Marsh once said. It’s often rare that one sentence can sum up every argument you want to make; Rodney Marsh does…