Re: Salad Days Interesting to see that completely dumb-ass opinions pre-dated Bigsoccer. Some things never change.
It's called, "NASL-A Complete Record Of The North American Soccer League" You can get it at Soccer Books Ltd. It's $29 plus overseas shipping.
Re: Salad Days Great point. Also perhaps sheds some light on an attitude that we see from time to time in the mainstream sports media from people who are otherwise generally very friendly to soccer. I've wondered why a guy like Mike Wilbon, who is comparatively soccer knwolwedgable for a mainstream sports analyst and generally a bright fella, still offers the observation that soccer will never "make it" as a pro sport without offering much in support of that position - as if it were a painfully obvious fact that needs no further analysis. Maybe part of the answer is that while we have a different (more realistic) perspective about what it means to "make it" as pro sport than we (or more specifically, Phil Woosnam) did about 20 years ago, even soccer-friendly mainstream sports analysts just haven't caught up.
Ahh...then you want my book. Alas, it's still in a very early draft. Some of my rough cuts are part of the Year In Soccer series at Dave Litterer's Soccer Archives site (the sover site). I try to go into politics and business in the summaries. Check them out and let me know if this is the kind of style you're looking for.
Ah, yes... Sounder Soccer: "Red, white, black and blue"... Actually, I think my favorite year to be a fan was '79 when the Roughnecks had a great deal of turmoil between general mgr. Noel Lemon and new coach Alan Hinton (the England vs. N. Ireland version of the Steinbrenner/Billy Martin saga). Hinton was accused of favoring English players like Roger Davies, David Nish and Wayne Hughes and being more of a finesse team than the hard-nosed style favored by GM Lemon and the Northern Ireland players like Billy Caskey and Victor Moreland... at least that's my recollection as the '79 team struggled to a 14-16 record before sweeping the Minnesota Kicks and blanking the Cosmos in the 2nd round (still remember the big pic in the paper of fans with GK Jack Brand on their shoulders -- amazing)... in the middle of the season, Alan Hinton called the radio station to dedicate a song to his general mgr, Noel Lemon... "Nowhere Man by the Beatles"... After Hinton was unceremoniously sacked by Lemon, he and Davies, Brand, Nish showed up in Seattle, reviving the Sounders to a 25-7 record... Alan Hinton got Coach of the Year, Roger Davies was the league's MVP, and Jack Brand was named "North American of the Year"... David Nish was named 3rd team NASL All-Star Defender... Thus began an instant rivalry anytime the Sounders would show up in Tulsa... then the Sounders 1982 Soccer Bowl loss to the Cosmos... followed by a new owner who dismantled the team to "Americanize" it... then came Team America... I think the beginning of the end was when we lost rivals in Dallas and Minnesota and were moved to a "Southern Division" that included Ft Lauderdale, Jacksonville and Tampa (the Florida plus Tulsa division)... I have to say, it REALLY WAS the league that let us down... some NASL teams were moving to the MISL while Tulsa was looking at ASL and USL options (MISL already had a team in Wichita, Kansas and were not interested in a Tulsa team that didn't have a large indoor facility). Tulsa just wasn't going to spend the $$$ to compete in an ever shrinking league (7...6...5...4... zero?). Yep. Go figure.