Which history-making (or games would be remembered in 20 years) soccer games did you attend live??? Me??? I saw Argentina-Nigeria at WC 1994. It was only a historical game because it was Maradona's last international game. Othervise, it was another WC match.
I watched Argentina v Uruguay in the final of the inaugural JN International Cup at the brand new Salt Lake Stadium (Yuba Bharati Krirangan) in Calcutta. Argentina had most of their 1986 stars (including Burruchaga, Brown, Valdano etc) but not Maradona. Uruguay had it's stars such as Francescoli. That tournament was the biggest thing in football in the region since Pele came to play with Cosmos in 1977 (he played at the Eden Gardens, the world's best cricket ground, previously used for major football matches as well). I have also been fortunate to see Belanov's Russia, Roger Milla's Cameroon, Romario's PSV Eindhoven (with Bawalia, Koeman etc. in it), Fisher's Bochum and many African stars. Among these, watching Romario's PSV Eindhoven play in front of 125,000 fans in SLS (YBK) was a real treat. Awesome atmosphere! Sadly, such international tournaments featuring the world's best not longer take place as cricket has assumed a firm grip on national sports psyche. Nowadays, only the B or C club/national teams come to play.
I went to the US 3-2 Portugal game in South Korea. Some people say that it was the best game of the 2002 World Cup.
USA 2 Mexico 0 at Crew stadium in Columbus during qualifing for WC 2002. It was only like 10 degrees and there was a huge pro-USA crowd. When Josh Wolff score I swear I saw a bright flash of light!
Well... -I was at the Arena for last year's Champions League Final (turns out they sold a good 2,000 tickets to us Schalke members at the club offices the week before the game) -I was at the Schalke-Leverkusen game where Mike Hanke lobbed Hans-Jörg Butt right on the kickoff after Butt, the Leverkusen goalkeeper, had scored on a PK. -I saw Bayern Munich-Real Madrid last season at the Olympiastadion, the game where Olli Kahn let the free kick from Roberto Carlos slip through. -And I was at the game last season where Fortuna Düsseldorf and Bayer Leverkusen Reserves tied 0-0 while Union Solingen beat Borussia Mönchengladbach reserves, two results that in a torrential downpour guaranteed Fortuna would be promoted from the 4th Division Oberliga Nordrhein the next season. And I still have my patch of grass, my champagne cork, my ticket stub and my memories of the utter chaos that ensued after the game ended :-D -I guess the Schalke-1860 game on March 22nd, 2003 was significant as well. Frank Neubarth's last game in charge of us and a Marco van Hoogdalem own goal that, if you haven't seen it, will change your life and your view of soccer as you know it. The scary thing is that of all the soccer games I've ever been to, I can only think of five that would be of any interest to anyone else, and some of those are really a stretch as well.
I attended a total of ten matches during the '94 World Cup. Went to both Stanford and the Rose Bowl. My car broke down driving home after the Cameroon-Sweden match. It took a few days to get fixed, so I missed Andreas Escobar's own goal against the U.S. Sitting inside Stanford Stadium during the last set of first round matches, many of us were a bit ticked that Brazil had to travel to Detroit to play Sweden, especially since Brazil had played their first two matches in Palo Alto and the fans had established Los Gatos as their home base. (Great parties!) So while Brazil and Sweden were playing in the Silverdome, we were stuck with Russia and Cameroon. Turned out we got the best of the deal because Roger Milla scored for Cameroon to become the older player to score in a World Cup match, and Oleg Salenko netted five of Russia's six to set a record for most goals by one player in a World Cup match. I took a snapshot of the scoreboard as I exited the stadium. Here are all the '94 World Cup matches I attended: Rose Bowl: Romania 3-1 Colombia Rose Bowl: Cameroon 2-2 Sweden Stanford: Brazil 3-0 Cameroon Stanford: Colombia 2-0 Switzerland Stanford: Russia 6-1 Cameroon Rose Bowl: Romania 3-2 Argentina Stanford: Brazil 1-0 USA Stanford: Sweden 2-2 Romania - Sweden on penalties Rose Bowl: Brazil 1-0 Sweden Rose Bowl: Brazil 0-0 Italy - Brazil on penalties I missed Brazil-Russia (Stanford) and USA-Colombia (Rose Bowl) because of my car being fixed. Also missed USA-Romania (Rose Bowl) because it was played simultaniously as Colombia-Switzerland, which I chose because it was closer to home. For the Final, I remember sitting in the stadium two hours before kickoff and thinking to myself, "There are over 2 billion people on this planet who'd give anything to sit where I'm at right now!"
USA vs. South Korea, 2002 Gold Cup. Not particularly historic from a results standpoint, or caps standpoint, but I think it marked the beginning of a new era for the USMNT. That, more than any other, was the day that Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley both cemented their places in the USMNT starting lineup. Donovan gave the Korean defenders fits for the whole game; while Beasley came in as a sub, the moment he scored the winner was the moment all of us in the Sam's Army section just knew that he was going to play and start in the World Cup. Even the week before the match, Beasley was generally considered to be a B-teamer (albeit a promising one), and Donovan's place in the lineup was still uncertain.
This year's Metrostars home opener against DC United. Got to see Freddy Adu score his first professional goal. But most importantly Metrostars won.
This is perhaps the biggest game you saw. I also saw 7 WC games in WC 1994 and one in WC 2002, but none of them is important. People will forget about them. I guessed california-based games were better. I had tickets for Russia-Cameroon, but I sold them to my brother in San Francisco.
I saved ALL of my tickets, even the ones that went unused. Expensive souvenirs! I guess my post sounded like I wasn't giving the Final the props it deserves. The match itself was a bit boring when compared to others I saw, so that's probably why I was doing it a disservice. But getting a look at that FIFA Trophy was priceless, even if it was from quite a distance. I sat at the 'curve' end where the shootout took place, but I was about ten rows from the top. I bought my ticket from a scalper and ended up sitting in the section reserved for Swiss fans, most of whom rooted for Italy. My semi-final ticket was also bought from a scalper. The tickets to the other matches I attended were bought when they had the first public sale in June 1993. I had to hit redial 64 times before I finally got connected! DAMN! All this talk has me wishing the US gets to host it again during my lifetime.
Darlington vs Crewe at some point in the early 90's. It might not sound that memorable, but I witnessed the then quickest red card of all time - 19 seconds from kick off for Crewe keeper Mark Smith. Several hundred people missed the incident as they were changing ends behind the main stand - and then had to suffer 89 mintues of the most mind numbing football ever. Final score Darlington 1 (from the resulting penalty) Crewe 0.
Soccer Bowl '77...the championship match of the old North American Soccer League. The game was notable as the final competitive match of Pele's career. NY Cosmos v Seattle Sounders, at (then) Civic Stadium in Portland. Civic officially held about 27,000 and change, but there were well over 33,000 if I remember correctly. Lots of temporary bleachers erected on the field level and people standing behind ropes very near the touchline. Incredible atmosphere, and also remembered for a colossal error by Seattle goalkeeper Tony Chursky that lead to New York's first goal. See it on this great tribute site: http://soundercentral.com/museum/VideoClips/Chursky's%20Famous%20Blunder.AVI Final: NY 2, Seattle 1. NY also featured Carlos Alberto, Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia. Arguably, the most exciting match in NASL history. Photo: http://soundercentral.com/Desktop Images/soccerbowl77desktop.jpg
I was at all of Arsebal's home games and a few away too in the unbeaten season last year. Kind of historic. Also, I was at the final of Euro 96, when Germany beat Czech Republic 2-1 on a golden goal from Oliver Bierhoff. Was this the first match decided by golden goal? I have a feeling it was, although I'm not 100% sure.
England 2-0 Scotland, Euro 96. The first time England & Scotland had met in the final stages of a major championship. Germany 1-5 England, Munich 2001. Germany's first WC qualifier defeat on home soil for about 1,000 years, or something.
I was at this match with my then German girlfriend who really wanted to leave around the 85th minute because the game was knotted at 1:1. I told her to just wait because something special was going to happen and sure enough, Beasley scored that great goal that gave us the momentum I believe to go on and win that Gold Cup. I went to the cooooooooooold semi-finals as well watching Costa Rica beat S.Korea and the US beat Canada in PK's. But after Beasley's goal, I knew it was all over...with my wanting-to-leave-a-Nats-match-early girlfriend that is!
argentina/nigeria 94 italy/spain quaterfinal 94 ' for me the most significant jamaica at USA 2001 when we qualified for 2002. It was a bizarre scenario that would let us qualify and it all happened. joe -max "where is he now"(don't answer i know revs injured list) Moore with 2 goals. The US mens teams finished undefeated 7-0-3 at the old foxboro stadium and that was the last game ever at the old foxboro stadium. for me that's history. i was also glad to stay around as the players heard they qualified and came around to all the fans
Probably Ajax-feyenoord 6-0 (98 or 99 I believe) when feyenoord already won the championship. Although Ajax-Bayern Munchen (5-2) in 95 and Ajax-Milan (2-0) in 94 probably fit the same category.
I went to a US women vs. Russia friendly at the University of Maryland in 2000. Michelle Akers went out of the match with a shoulder injury. That shoulder injury ended her international career.