It was funny the way the fans would boo when the opposing team did that. But they never seemed to boo when their own goalkeeper handled a backpass.
Yes, and the artificial turf back then was much worse than the kind used today. Back then they used to call artificial turf "fuzzy concrete."
I know, I played high school soccer on an AstroTurf field in the 90s and it was just a thin pad over concrete.
Try playing several codes of football on that rug! More so when it was cold. That new Tango Ball tho...
Yep, as others have said that old astroturf was harsh. I'll add that you would get strawberries if you slid on it. I also like the nice Canadien Football League markings on the field with the C at the 55 yard line. Oh, and how about that countdown clock. The playing conditions in matches vs Canada weren't much better in 1998. I recall a WCQ away being played at what looked like a small college.
The USA's WCQ at Canada in the Hexagonal for World Cup 1998 was on November 9, 1997 at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, British Columbia, which has a capacity of 5,288 according to Wikipedia. Swangard Stadium is about 6 miles southeast of BC Place in Vancouver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swangard_Stadium says the Whitecaps played there from 1987 to 2010. They used to be the 86ers and changed names to the Whitecaps in 2001. They were in the CSL from 1987 to 1992, the APSL from 1993 to 1996, the USL from 1997 to 2009, and the NASL in 2010. Wikipedia doesn't mention the A-League. I don't know when the A-League existed.
The A-League was the USL's D2 league from 1997 (when it merged with the APSL) until it renamed its pro divisions USL1 and USL2, I think around 2004 or 2005.