Favorite moments in MLS history

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by PTFC in KCMO, Mar 29, 2020.

  1. Papin

    Papin BigSoccer Supporter

    Nov 19, 1998
    le côté obscur
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I was there too. Such a great game. Oshiniyi grabbing the ball out of the air one-handed, Mcbride heading the ball to himself off a goal kick and one timing it past Causey, the sense of excitement in the air, the ridiculously small field... Good times!
     
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  2. PTFC in KCMO

    PTFC in KCMO Member+

    Aug 12, 2012
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nasco!!!!!!

    I laughed for probably 15 minutes when that happened.
     
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  3. JasonMa

    JasonMa Member+

    Mar 20, 2000
    Arvada, CO
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That makes one of us...
     
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  4. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    #29 falvo, Mar 31, 2020
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2020
    I was actually the first fan to arrive at the San Jose Clash vs. DC United game at Spartan Stadium. I got there between 9-10 AM and the San Jose State University football team was having their spring morning practice in the field adjacent to the stadium and no one was there.

    I recall talking to the football coaches who cared less about soccer and the fledgling league. I got the sense that they we’re a bit jealous of the sport or didn’t want soccer to take over. A few hours later, the lot was packed with cars and tailgaters. It reminded me a lot of the old NASL days when we had weekly parties before Quakes games. I ended up working my cousins restaurant booth in the back lot and got interviewed on an east coast tv station. I saw Tony DiCicco and Mia Hamm snd got to talking with them both.

    Tony Meola & Alexi Lalas were guests of the league and signed autographs. I gave them food and beverages only to have Nike officials come around to pour out their beers because they weren’t allowed to drink alcohol. I then spoke to both of them in Italian so no one would understand and they told me they would meet me after and that was when I set them up with free food and drinks.

    The game was sort of lackluster and boring which was understandable as it was both teams first game together. John Harkes and Eric Wynalda (in 1996 as opposed to 98) were still pretty good friends and got along pretty well even though they were on opposite sides. Harkes tried to taunt the crowd. At the end of the game in the 88th minute I believe it was , Wynalda put the ball between Jeff Agoos legs and scored the game winner for a 1-0 win. It was great seeing the home team win the inaugural match.

    The league has made incredible strides since then and I have seen many better MLS games. The circuit today is nothing like it was in 1996 but to me anyway, that was the most exciting and most important match I’ve ever attended since the old NASL halcyon days...I watched the World Cup Final live in Pasadena two years before but I didn’t have as much fun or as many memories as I did on that Saturday , April 6th, 1996.


     
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  5. don gagliardi

    don gagliardi Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    Feb 28, 2004
    san jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    I was at that game. Friendly against West Brom. Sun in the eyes of the West Brom keeper with the assist. Home pitch advantage.

    I invited my city councilman (now the mayor) to the game, which I believe was his first. Naturally, he arrived late and missed Bingham's goal. :)
     
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  6. don gagliardi

    don gagliardi Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    Feb 28, 2004
    san jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    This was MLS! I would have enjoyed it more if the Galaxy weren't the beneficiary. :)

     
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  7. CeltTexan

    CeltTexan Member+

    Sep 21, 2000
    Houston, TX USA
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That fail couldn't have happened to a better guy!
     
  8. KCbus

    KCbus Moderator
    Staff Member

    United States
    Nov 26, 2000
    Reynoldsburg, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    OMG. One of the all time blunders of sports history.
     
  9. GunnerJacket

    GunnerJacket Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 18, 2003
    Gainesville, GA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Link off that one to a video showing every team's first MLS goal (through Atlanta, anyway) which was a) a trip through uniform nostalgia for those so inclined and b) makes me feel weird in that so many of those feature names that surely just 1% of fans will remember.

    Also another nice retrospective regarding how far MLS has come.
     
  10. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    Nike in their infinite wisdom came up with some horrible marketing , color team names and logo schemes for the intramural campaign in 1996. .

    The San Jose Clash playing at Spartan Stadium was taken from Clash of the Titans.

    Their colors were the color of celery and had a scorpion as their logo. To this day I don’t think anyone knows what any of it represented.

    @Goodsport I’m sure can explain it better...
     
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  11. PTFC in KCMO

    PTFC in KCMO Member+

    Aug 12, 2012
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    They thought the kids would like it.

    speaking for all 90s kids .... we did not like it.
     
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  12. KCbus

    KCbus Moderator
    Staff Member

    United States
    Nov 26, 2000
    Reynoldsburg, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The Crew are live-streaming MLS Cup 2008 on their website right now.
     
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  13. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #38 Ismitje, Apr 2, 2020
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2020
    Lots and lots I've enjoyed. Several involve the Quakes:

    1) The aforementioned comeback game.

    2) DeRo's unbelievable free kick goal (THE one, not just one - man he was fun to watch, probably my all-time favorite in MLS)

    3) Mike Magee going into goal for LA and getting the shutout is one of my favorites.



    4) Troy Dayak getting red carded - perhaps on purpose - in the midst of a lackluster display and then firing up the crowd and his team while charging out to the tunnel, setting up a comeback in an eventual tie with both Quakes goals coming in stoppage time. 2-2 with the Revs in 2004.
     
  14. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'll add any game involving Pachuca in the old SuperLiga in the late aughts. Those were epic games and I came to really respect Pachuca. The games against the Galaxy and the Dynamo over a couple different iterations were terrific fun.
     
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  15. Stuart95

    Stuart95 Member+

    Mar 11, 2012
    NoVA
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I have a few:

    1) Was at the DC United game with the Wayne Rooney to Acosta, game-winning cross versus Orlando ... still the best goal I've seen in person

    2) While on a work trip, went to an LAFC match vs the Union in their first season. I sat near the 3252 and was amazed at the atmosphere. Best seen at an MLS match.

    3) Watched David Beckham's first match on TV. I had lived in the UK during the height of Beckham mania. The joke in the family when we moved back to the US was what were we going to do without our daily dose of Posh and Becks news. It was a bit of a non-event (other than the Becks-cam) but was the first MLS game I remember watching live.
     
  16. don gagliardi

    don gagliardi Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    Feb 28, 2004
    san jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    The next morning, a sports writer in the San Jose Mercury News said in his "Morning Buzz" column, "I didn't watch, and neither did you."

    It was fake news (because I did, in fact, watch), and worse, the writer's statement revealed, and reveled in, a disregard for the core purpose of journalism -- to witness events as they unfold. One of the clearer cases of anti-MLS bias in the league's history.
     
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  17. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A quibble: if that was a columnist as it seems/sounds, then s/he should not be lumped in with journalists. Their jobs are different that what reporters do. And those folks have reveled in dismissing soccer since I've been reading them (mid-70s), up until recent times.
     
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  18. don gagliardi

    don gagliardi Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    Feb 28, 2004
    san jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Yes, but the Mercury News sports editor claimed both before and after this particular episode (during which the Quakes were on hiatus) that there was insufficient room to give reasonable coverage to the Quakes. Scarce resources, don'tcha know. Devoting space in the paper and a job position to a know-nothing columnist in lieu of actual coverage of the local team is the antithesis of journalism.

    The columnist is long gone, but the sports editor is still there, as far as I know.
     
  19. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    This came up on my facebook memories today. My family's business logo is on bottom right hand corner....

    A picture of the San Jose Clash on pre MLS inaugural game, Saturday , April 6th, 1996.......

    [​IMG]
     
  20. falvo

    falvo Member+

    Mar 27, 2005
    San Jose & Florence
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
    If I’m not mistaken, the goalkeeper for West Brom that day was Boaz Myhill who was actually born in Modesto , California...
     
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  21. Goodsport

    Goodsport Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 18, 1999
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This was first posted elsewhere here a little while ago, but I'll repost it again here :):
    _________


    Some time after leading the successful San José bid for one of the league's inaugural franchises, Dan Van Voorhis had to pull out due to messy ongoing divorce proceedings with his wife. The league then bought out Van Voorhis' franchise option (thus making San José one of three league-owned teams, along with Dallas and Tampa Bay) and named Peter Bridgwater as San José's President and GM.

    Bridgwater was then prepared to sell the rights to the "San Jose Earthquakes" name, logo, colors, etc. to the league when Nike stepped in and decided to name the team the "San Jose Clash" instead with scorpion logo and such (wanting the name to be "hip" and "kewl", Nike reportedly tested the Clash name, logo and colors with some skater-boy types who approved but likely never subsequently attended a game).

    Nike did indeed try to get cute with the team name by relating it to Spartan Stadium ("Spartan"... "Clash of the Titans"... get it? :rolleyes:). But I still wondered what a scorpion had to do with any of that until a year or two ago when another poster here pointed out this pic from the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans:


    [​IMG]



    Thankfully, Peter Bridgwater eventually did sell the rights to the "San Jose Earthquakes" team name, logo, colors, etc. to the league when he was promoted to the league office in New York in November 1998. An extensive survey of season-ticket holders throughout the 1999 season then led subsequent GM Lynne Meterparel through a series of events (that, oddly enough, also involved the Chicago Fire successfully defying Nike's demands for that team to instead have been named the Chicago Rhythm with a cobra logo) to rename the team the San Jose Earthquakes, but with a new logo designed by Sunnyvale graphic design artist Terry Smith (who also created the San Jose Sharks logo - both the previous and current versions - and the San Jose SaberCats logo, among other logos) and with the predominant color blue since, according to Meterparel, that was the overwhelmingly favorite color chosen in the survey.


    Correct, although the team name change officially occurred on October 27, 1999, a few days after the regular season ended. ;)
    _________



    -G
     
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  22. CeltTexan

    CeltTexan Member+

    Sep 21, 2000
    Houston, TX USA
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Speaking of name changes in our beloved league, it's always odd what kind of people turn up to cry foul, demand red cards be handed out, declare they love the beautiful game, all this before the first season is started no less...and yet they've never made it out to a game since.
     
  23. RafaLarios

    RafaLarios Member+

    Oct 2, 2009
    Medellín
    Club:
    Atletico Nacional
    Nat'l Team:
    Colombia
    who could forget Eric Hassli having a yellow card, then scoring a goal and removing his shirt (while having another one underneath) and receving a second yellow and going to the showers. :D :D
     
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  24. CeltTexan

    CeltTexan Member+

    Sep 21, 2000
    Houston, TX USA
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Anyone recall Big Mama from Tampa and this MLS ASG from 2000?
     
  25. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You mean that he passed the ball that one time? ;)

    (I think that first season he had a better contract that saw him pass the ball more often, and it was only later he mostly stopped doing so.)
     

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