Soccer history in Utah

Yeah, but free tickets are better than $5 tickets, right? I didn't say I didn't go to games, but free is a better deal.

 

were jeans part of that teams uniform? dafuq?

 

It was all part of the "Where's Waldo?" theme. You didn't know that the Utah kids soccer team was the inspiration?

Mom to grandmother: "There's Waldo playing soccer"
Grandmother: "Where? I don't see my grandson"
M: "He's the one with the jeans and red/white striped shirt"
G: "They're all wearing that"
M: "He's the one near the ball"
G: "Which one? I must need better glasses"
M: "The one with the knit cap"
G: "Oh! There's Waldo!"​

 

There's just so much material to mock in that one picture. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

 

Ahhhh....the APSL's Salt Lake Sting. 1990-91 if I remember correctly. I went to a bunch of those games. They were coached by the Russian Valery Volostnyk, who later was a contracted trainer for the AAA America youth clubs, including my own team. That guy scared the sh@! out of me. Ahhh memories.

 

I started watching Utah soccer when BYU got a PDL team. Then they played against this team called The Blitzz and there were these crazy guys drumming and chanting and damn that looked fun so I went to talk to them and started going to games at RES. The RAF was awesome. Still have the Blitzz and RAF shirts hanging in my closet.

First MLS game was in San Jose with Donovan and I was amazed at how they actually completed passes and stuff! Who knew? They went on to win MLS Cup that year after a pretty hideous first leg in one of the earlier playoff games and I couldn't wait until we got our own MLS team. Thought it was a total pipe dream. I still have that San Jose t-shirt in my closet as well. I'm waiting until some time when Lendouche is in town to burn it in effigy.

I'm pretty sure I've said this all here before but I'm getting up there... 35 now! So give an old lady a break when she wants to reminisce.

 

I used to go to Sting games, too, but they were at Wrigley Field.

And Comiskey Park, and Chicago Stadium, and Soldier Field, and . . .

 

Delighted to be called out.
However, I watched Italia 90 on TBS (commercials too) like the rest of you. My old-timerness only reaches back to the Blitzz in '00.

 

I can verify this statement. I was kind of tagging along.

 

I watched that also, but I've got you beat. I watched Mexico 1986 on regular broadcast TV (I think it was NBC) and was yelling at the stupid Brits to take Maradona down when he scored the "Hand of God" goal.

As for the Blitzz, I remember the Utah "Stink" (German prounuciation) and actually went to a game but I don't remember where exactly, at the ball park I guess. I just remember being far from the field.

I also remember that the Stink had a competition for their jersey logo or something along those lines and I entered that and of course, my entry lost. Poop!

 

Let's see, i went to several Sting games at Derks Field. (Vs the Penn-Jersey Spirit and san Francisco Bay Blackhawks among others.)
I also remember going to the couple of misl exhibition games they had at the Salt Palace.
I went to as many Freez games as i could.Some of those games were the most exciting sporting events I've ever been to (out of thousands of games)...i liked them that much. The tall guy you may be thinking of is possibly Matt Johnson. He also played for the Blitzz for a while (and on my rec league hockey team, lol)
In 95 i was finishing my senior year of high school in Minnesota, so i wasn't totally in tune with what was going on in Utah soccer...so i never heard of Flamengo fc.

 

could the USL or NPSL be coming to Ogden...definitely worth a thought

http://www.standard.net/stories/2013/12/14/big-soccer-complex-planned-ogden

 

In '86 I was in Argentina testifying that God loves everyone. Maradona et al got me hooked on soccer.

The Blitzz game could have been the D3 championship at Franklin Covey.

 

Wait - you paid for Freezz tickets? I went to most, but not all of the games, and not sure if I ever paid. I always felt that their eagerness to give away free tickets was maybe part of the reason they folded.

Favorite Freezz memory was when my son was a ball kid along with Karl Malone's daughter. After the game all the players were high-fiving my son, well they ignored his daughter who seemed out of place there.

Couldn't find the answer to the original question, although I did see that both Brian Haynes and Ted Eck scored for Colorado. My suggestion is to get in contact with Josh Hakala (http://thecup.us/contact-us/). I don't know anyone more of an authority on the US Open Cup than him.

 

OK, if you want to go way back in SLC soccer, does anyone here remember having no place to buy Adidas soccer shoes but at Herr Zanders basement across from Fairmont Park?

 

I bought my first pair of cleats at Scoreboard Sports' original location in Bountiful off of 4th North and Main Street. It was a little shop, and Shawn (the owner) still wears the same short-shorts today that he did back then. The cleats I bought were a black pair of Franklin's with purple and green stripes. I thought this was in the late 80's, but their website says they started in '91. That would've made me 7 years old, so I must've worn tennis shoes or hand-me-downs for my first two years of playing soccer.

 

I remember going with my older brother to a place up in Salt Lake (pretty sure it was Soccer Plus) and looking at Patrick's with him. I found this awesome as it's my name. Kelme's were the thing, then. So he never bought them and I never did either

 

I wasn't in Utah then, but I remember just how awesome it was to find a shirt with the Patrick's logo and name back in the day ...

 

That's the one! My first cleat's were Patricks, not Franklins. My bad. I knew they were a first name...

 

ahhh black Patricks with lime green logos. Loved those shoes. And the Pele model of the Ponys. Good times.

 

Didn't Connie have a shop on about 27th South just above 13th East for awhile? In the late '70s, I bought a pair of old Lottos or Umbros or something like that from him, with screw-in cleats, one of which came up through the sole and turned my heel into hamburger during a game. What awful shoes!

Edit: Which means I would have bought these shoes about five years before SenordrummeR2 was born. <sigh>

 

My first experience buying soccer cleats (besides the really cheap ones my mom would buy me at KMart) was at the Soccer Parrot on State Street.

 

THANK YOU!!! I was trying to remember the name of that place.

 

I never went to the store, but I remember Soccer Parrot having booths each year at Mayor's Cup and other tourneys.

 

Wow. I guess it is definitely the offseason when we start comparing where we buy or bought soccer cleats.

For the record, even in the early '70's I could get either Puma or Adidas cleats at the Sunset sports in Bountiful.