4 former Chicago players on ballot for Soccer Hall of Fame

Besides Waldo, you'll have to convince me.

 

Waldo, Pato, and Klopas should be in.

I love Francis, but he's borderline, on the wrong side.

 

Hala is on the mark. Okaroh is a class act and a fine defender, but there's no way he should be a Hall of Famer.

 

Re: Re: 4 former Chicago players on ballot for Soccer Hall of Fame

what!?!?
Give one valid reason Pato and Frankie should not be in the Hall of fame?Both were top of the class Players during THE ERA THEY PLAYED IN.Both made significant impacts on the sport during their playing career.And that is what should count.

Francis on the other hand is a tough choice.I would like to see him recognized ,but in truth his impact on US soccer and the Era he played during is not as much as the other three.and is not what you would expect from someone of Hall of fame caliber.

Wynalda without a doubt is a shoe in, if not this year he will be a Hall of Famer eventually.

 

Re: Re: 4 former Chicago players on ballot for Soccer Hall of Fame

Had the US federation not had their collective heads up their asses Pato Margetic would have been our midfield general for the US national team general during 1990 world cup. He would have wiped the floor with Hugo Sanchez. He was a US citizen way back then. He was only 29 in 1990 and the Boca juniors Croatian Argentinian product tore up the NASL as one of the leading assit mean in all of outdoor and indoor. Nicknames the "Magic man" and MC Hammer as part of his days with the CHicago Power. This man is a Chicago and US soccer legend. He was always a top socrer and assist man in the MISL and NASL.

I had the honor of playing with Pato on the same squad in Croatian soccer tournaments similar to the open cup in US and Canada, during the summer months in the 1994-1998 years.

Had you been around to watch this guy you would never say something so bone headed about Pato.

 

Maybe this is the first time me and Steve have ever been on the same page, but yeah, Pato should have been in that 1990 team. Gansler and the federation had collective stiffies for the Anglo college boys.

 

IMO, Pato was every bit as important to the success of Der Schting as Graniza & Willy Roy. He rates above Frankie, but both deserve the honor. Maybe Pato can coach the new indoor team. Waldo is a no brainer & sorry Francis.

 

Hey man you and I have been on the same page lots of times in those bars on Halsted.

 

Seriously. Yes I have seen them play for the Sting. So, let's go one by one:

Pato played 5 years total in the NASL--Det 80, Chi 81-84. He is joint 49th in goals scored (with Willy Roy among others in 31 more games played). He is 16th on the NASL list in assists (sandwiched by the immortals Carl Valentine and Ron Futcher). To contrast, Karl-Heinz is top three in both categories. Yes Pato brought skills to the NASL that were rare for the time. Yes he surely made the Sting a contending team each year. My question though is what did he do to advance US soccer?

Frankie you might call a trailblazer. He was signed out of High School to make the Sting's roster for one year. IIRC correctly he didn't play much--heck he was 17. Afterwards, he played awhile indoors then went to Greece. Although on the '94 WC squad, he didn't play. He came back and eventually played 4 years in MLS splitting with KC and the Fire. His domestic career is pretty unremarkable (he was a spot starter at best the last two years). The prime of his career was spent playing in Greece--which doesn't match the criteria.

His international stats (40 caps, 12 goals) is proportionally Razov-like. (BTW, I was there in St Louis in 88 when he bagged 2 v. Jamaica.) 12 goals BTW puts him at #10. Sure, being an offensive-minded player in an era when the coaches were looking for defensive minded guys, he started maybe half the games in which he was capped, and actually rarely finished. But for some reason he is never mentioned in the same breath as Ramos, Lalas, Wynalda and the rest of the '94 gang.

Do these players mean a lot to Chicago soccer? Yes. Do they mean that much to US soccer, even Connolly has his misgivings.

 

Pato, Frankie, and Waldo should all go in. I'm not 100% sold on Francis, though.

 

What he did for US soccer

1.Top 50 in goal scorers in NASL History with 42 goals in 130 games over 5 years.

2.Top 50 in Assist leaders with 59 assists in 130 games over 5 years (TWO LESS than Karl Heinz G-man)

3.1981 NASL Soccer Bowl Champion team, Chicago Sting

4.1984 NASL Soccer Bowl Championship, Chicago Sting

5.1981 NASL AllStar PAto Margetic Honroable mention
6.1982 NASL AllStar Second team PAto Margetic
7.1983 NASL AllStar First Team, PAto Margetic
8.1984 NASL AllStar, Second team PAto Margetic

9.NPSL 1991 Champion Champion, CHicago Power
NPSL 1990-2000 Top ten in point leaders 942
points
(CHicago Power, Detroit Rockers).
10.NPSL 1990-2000 #3 Alltime assist leader in
NPSLhistory with 506 assists.
11.1991 Leading Scorer Chicago Power, 118P
27 goals 65 Assists in 40 games.
12.1992 Leading Scorer Chicago Power 120P
13.1993 Leading Scorer Chicago Power 137 P
36 Goals 71 Assists.
13. 1991 NPSL AllStar
14. 1992 NPSL AllStar
15. 1993 NPSL AllStar
13. NPSL #3 Alltime Coaching list in wins at162.
14. Top 10 Scoring in MISL with the Chicago Sting.


What else do you need??

 

Take all his indoor records and throw them out. From Connolly:

Maybe you would like to re-write the rules and include his indoor play, but things don't work that way. And sorry, even FIFA does not recognize the US indoor game. Their 'official' indoor game is futsal.

Yes he was an NASL All-Star. But alltime he barely makes honorable mention.

In terms of championships, heck even Rudy Glenn won two

And actually, according to this we have:

Code:

ASSISTS
    Player / Teams   Seasons   Games  Assists
 1 Vladislav Bogicevic   7      203     147   NY 78-84
 2 Karl-Heinz Granitza   7      199     101   Chi 78-84
 3 Ray Hudson            8      197      99   FL 77-83, Min 84
 4 Steve Wegerle         8      196      88   TB 77-81, NY 81-82, FL 83, TB 84
 5 Ace Ntsoelengoe      11      244      82   Mia 73, Den 75, Min 76-81, Tor 82-84
 6 Giorgio Chinaglia     8      213      81   NY 76-83
 7 David Bradford        7      197      80   Det 78-80, Was 81, Tul 82, Sea 83, Tul 84
 8 Jean Willrich         7      192      78   SD 78-84
 9 Jorgen Kristensen     5      130      73   Det 68, Chi 78-80, Tul 80, Cgy 81
10 John Bain             7      191      68   Por 78-82, Sea 83, Min 84
11 David Byrne           5      132      68   Atl 80-81, Tor 82-84
12 Julie Veee            7      166      68   LA 75, SJ 76, SD 78-82
13 Laurie Abrahams       7      162      64   NE 78, Tul 79, Cal 79-81, Tul 82-83, SD 84
14 Teofilo Cubillas      5      120      61   FL 79-83
15 Carl Valentine        6      165      59   Van 79-84
16 Pato Margetic         5      130      59   Det 80, Chi 81-84
17 Ron Futcher           9      201      58   Min 76-81, Por 82, Tul 83-84

So K-HG has a little more than just two more assists. Lastly, if we are going to hand out Hall of Fame plaques based on NASL assists, I would give it to Jorgen Kristensen.

 

After the NASL sting folded in the fall of 84, what did Pato do?

I know he played for KC in the MISL in 86-87 and was back with the MISL Sting in 87-88. But what did he do for the two seasons between the NASL folding and that season with KC?

Also, the MISL Sting folded after the 88 season. What did Pato do between then and when he was player-coach of the Chicago Power on the 90-91 NPSL team that won the league championship?

Two more questions. I know Pato left Chicago for Detroit beginning in the fall of 94. How long did he stay with the Rockers and was he player-coach the whole time or did he hang up his boots and just coach towards the end?

And, what is he doing now?

For the record, I think Pato deserves to be in the HOF. He was a real pioneer back in the days when the indoor circuit kept the pro game going in this country and that shouldn't be forgotten.

And it burns me up knowing that the USSF never incorprated him into the national team system, even for just the five-aside/futsal teams. When you look back at some of the stiffs that did play for the US in the late 80s and early 90s, it's hard to believe the USSF passed up a playmaker with Pato's ability.

 

Yes, but the league folded on him and kept him from getting more all-star accolades. Pato joined the NASL as a 19 or 20 year-old in 1980. In the five seasons he played in the NASL, he was all-NASL first team once, second team twice and honorable mention once. Had he had more years, I'm sure he would have gotten more awards, which would have moved him further up the ranks of the list you cite. (Hell, Pele only has one more point, based on the above link, than Pato. Maybe he shouldn't be in the HOF either!)

He was an impact player every year he played in Chicago, that is undeniable.

As for what he did to further the game in this country, aside from helping make the game more popular in the country's third biggest market, as I said in the last post, Pato helped keep the pro game alive during the dark years between the NASL and MLS when indoor soccer was the best thing we had most of the time.

Yeah, it ain't real soccer, no one disuputes that. But it kept the game vibrant in this country and the indoor circuit allowed a lot of players to get a paycheck and stay in the game. A lot of those players made, or went on to make, contributions to our national team and MLS (Preki, Clavijo, Wegerle, Quinn, Gabarra, Banks, Windischmann, Vermes, even Klopas), not to mention some future coaches and execs, not the least of which are Peter Wilt and Dave Sarachan.

The indoor leagues provided a means for those guys to stay in the game, or in Wilt's case, get into the game, and without guys like Margetic, the indoor leagues wouldn't have survived. Hard to believe, but back then indoor players who had accomplished something outside actually brought some cred to the indoor game. And, they played an entertaining, fan-friendly style that helped stoke the meager crowds the league drew just enough to keep it alive.

Indoor soccer is part of US Soccer history, and in the Dark Era between 84 and 96, it is a large part and it shouldn't be forgotten or ignored now that we have a viable outdoor league again. And, the dominant players from that era shouldn't be ignored, especially when they also have pretty good outdoor bonafides to enhance their case.

 

When is a decision on the HoF to be announced?