Your first time

First Match live: 1980 Minnesota Kicks, I was five
TV: 82 World Cup final, don't remeber much.
Played: That same year.
A USA match, Olympic Qualifer in 1991 against Panama USA won 7-1 I think.

 

First match on TV: 1986 world cup finals. my dad pestered the cable company for 3 months to get the spanish channel (in Lexington, KY). We did not have cable before the WC. My mom still calls me Burruchaga sometimes.

First pro or international match attended: was probably the Marlboro Cup in Miami (1988) where I got my picture taken with Pele. I saw Mario Kempes (the player not the BS poster) and Edu scored 2 goals (he was over 55 years old at the time). The Marlboro Cup was for O-35 national teams.

First time I played: We have home videos of me dribbling around my brother and sister at about 3 years old (Boulder Colorado 1977)- I knocked my brother over and my sister went and told on me.

Real Match: first real big match I played in was qualifying for final four high school teams in Florida in front of about 2500 people. Incredible atmosphere. Came on as a substitute, did not score. We won. That would have been 1990.

 

First TV: Toby Charles' "Soccer Made In Germany." The first specific match I remember seeing was the Germany-France WC Quarterfinal in 82. There were also a lot of Chicago Sting games on WGN.

First in person: some Chicago Sting game. I've been to a bunch.

First US Nats game in person: USA 1, Commonwealth of Independent States (post USSR, pre Russia) 0, Pontiac Silverdome, 1990-ish. Goal scored by a young kid named Chris Henderson.

First played: age 8, Chicago Park District youth league, 1975.

Best-attended game played in: Niles/Buchanan (MI) All-Stars vs. South Bend St. Joseph prior to Notre Dame vs. St. Louis U game. Thousand or so fans.

Highest level played: U of Michigan vs. Spring Arbor College, September 1984, as a freshman. Won 2-1, gave up a PK. Nervous as hell.

 

First match on TV:
Hard to say, I grew up with the background 'noise' of Spanish football matches on TV for much of my early childhood. (Although I do distinctly remember watching the WC 82 matches on TV).

First match in person:
Must have been around 1981, Real Madrid home match my uncle took me to see (I was 5 and really don't reamember much of the game except the crowd, the cigar smoke, and the chocolates my uncle bought me after the game; it must havbe been my first match because my mother took pictures of both of us before we left for the stadium).

First played:
Pick-up games with the other kids in the building and in the kindergarten, must have been when I was five.

First 'proper' match played:
When I moved to the US my parents signed me up for youth soccer, I was eight (don't remember the game but it was the first time playing with 11 players on a large grass field, etc. I hated it because it seemed boring (and the daily drills and the practices really sucked) so after that season I never played in an organized match again.

 

first match attended: usa v. t&t, june 16, 2001
first game: september 1993, recreation soccer for the yellow team
first 'real' goal: one-touch volley that nutmegged the keeper in 1997 (i had played defence prior and scored dumb goals)
best game: 4 goals in middle school against a team that was undefeated 2 years in a row.... i scored on corner kicks from both sides
also, assisting on the lone goal to beat our archrivals my rookie year of hs soccer

 

First time I played: 1965 on gravel, hard to forget the gravel.
First match seen in person: Mexican local league match. they had one guy who could throw the ball in damn near 50 yards.
first professional match attended: San Diego Toros
first match watched on tv: they didn't have soccer on tv back then. I remember going to a local hall and watching the 66 cup final on super 8. A lot of drunken brits were there.

 

the game that got me hooked- manchester united vs bayern munich 1999 champions league final

 

first time:
Mom goes to sign young four year old benine up for teeball.
Mom comes back home, says that teeball sign up is closed, signed benine up for soccer instead.
Benine asks "whats soccer"? Goes to first day of under-7s practice. runs around like loose cannon, learns bell drills and does them every minute that GIJoe, Pinwheel or MASK is not on TV.

I really didnt even become totally aware of pro soccer still existing untill a much later date. We used to go to Charlie Mitchell's (restaurant) all the time and I'd see all the old Roughnecks stuff up on the walls and every now and then Charlie would be there and tell some story about playing Pele (it was customary to wear your kit into charlie's if you were a kid). Anyway, one time I was there I wondered into the bar to get my dad as our table was ready, and on the tv was the ManU-Crystal Palace FA Cup final. I was hooked and so enthralled that they didnt care I was under age and at the bar (its illegal in Oklahoma for minor to be in the bar area of a restaurant). Since then, my concept of soccer opened up exponentially and that was that.

anyway, borring story I know.

 

First match on TV: Some game in the '82 World Cup, I don't remember who it was, I was closer to 5 years old than 10 years old. First real memories of watching televised games were watching USA in the 1990 World Cup.

First match in person: my older brother's game, I was 2 years old. First "big match" in person was USA vs. Argentina in 1996 Olympics.

First time I played: too early to know, virtually born with a ball on my foot.

First time I played in a real match: once again, too early to know, played in offical organized match by age 6 or 7.

 

On TV:NASL matches c.1967 with Danny Blanchflower doing commentary.

Live:My school didn't have gridiron,so soccer was our main fall sport.

Played:From 3rd-4th grade on,the first 10 weeks of gym class was soccer.

Would like to see a live pro match sometime.

Would like to find an over-40 league.

Does anyone remember Soccer Corner?That was a nice mag.We had it in our HS Library.

 

First TV match I can remember: Sitting on my dads lap (being 4 or 5 years old) and he says to me "Now that is Ajax, in the blue jerseys". I knew the word Ajax from chants and songs, but I never knew what it was before that day

First visit: with my nephew to Ajax - Feyenoord in the Olympic stadium in 1990 I believe (I was 10 at the time). We won 2-0 but feyenoord had their worst season ever I believe that year. I can especially remember the feyenoord fans and Ajax fans climbing out of their stands, running to each others ends and trying to get each others flags. At a certain moment 3 or 4 Ajax boys set a feyenoord flag afire, and the whole feyenoord crowd starts pushing and pulling the fences until it comes down (naughty boys, the stadium speaker had kindly asked them to stop breaking the fences a few mintes earlier)... the Ajax fans, right in front of hundreds of feyenoord fans going mental decide it would be best to make a run for it and are chased by police who at the same time hold back the feyenoord fans. The Ajax fans open a hatch somewhere next to the field and go in, followed by police. I was laughing my ass off!

 

First match on TV--one of many of the '94 WC games.

First match in person--not counting my oldest son's when he was in first grade (1982) and all my kids' games through the years (yes, 20 years and counting--and still watching)--DC United's inaugrial game at RFK.

First US match in person--US v Portugal (Olympics) at RFK when we broke the sports event attendance record.

First time standing with Sam's Army--2001, US v T&T at Foxboro.

First time playing--when I was 20, a pick-up game in a vacant lot in Ankara, Turkey

First time playing in a formal league--never--just messing around from time to time with work colleagues--mostly indoor on basketball courts with those small plastic goals.

First time reffing--1994.

and, most important of all:

First time a game brought tears to my eyes--US v Portugal, 2002.

 

first match on TV - World Cup 94

first match I realized there was no turning back - EPL 98/99. I worked in pub in Central London, that was popular amongst Spurs fans, that i couldn't stand. They always gave me a hard time for being a Yank. The game was Spurs v. Leicester and Kasey Keller was so dominant, it was incredible. From that day forward, I was a football fanatic.

first match in person - Lazio v. Piacenza in Rome.

first time i cried b/c of football - US v. Germany
I was riding home from the pub in my car and I saw this young Mexican kid with a flag over his shoulder, walking hand in hand with his Dad who also had a flag and US kit and it just sunk in.

 

First live game 1979 Sting v Cosmos at Wrigley Field 3-1 for the Sting

I cannot remeber first time watching on TV, but it would been in 1979 and a Sting game.

Played in 8th grade on a team, but did not play again until 2 years ago.

 

Correction

You must mean the Scott Norwood of Buffalo Bills
infamy. Although in retrospect, the G-Men do have a soft spot for the man

--Tom

 

Goose, is that you?

 

First Watched game I remember : Italy - W Germany '82 WC Final on Wide World of Sports
(I remember a Netherlands-Greece game before that, but don't know what it was for.)

First watched US Nat Game : The Shot Heard Round The World - US 1 T & T 0

First live soccer game (Professional) - LI Rough Riders (I forget the opponent) about 1993

First National Team game - England - Denmark 1994 - El Tel's first game as gaffer, back when Darren Anderton looked like he would amount to something

First WC game - Nigeria-Italy WC '94

First USNT Game - US v Mexico/Pumas US Cup
(I had jalapenos and other stuff thrown at me by Mexican fans after shouting "tres a cero" at them)

First US Qualifier - US v Barbados

First US World Cup game - '2006 Germany opponent TBA

--Tom

 

First game played: When I was about 5. Didn't score until my second game though.

First game on TV: USA vs. Trinidad and Tobago in 1989. Yup, you guessed it, the Shot Heard Round the US Soccer Community game. I was so proud, and since I was 8 at the time, I didn't realize that it was the first time the US had qualified for the World Cup in forever, and that it was a huge deal. Oh, how the years have passed.

No professional games in person yet, though I'm trying to get to a Chicago Fire game sometime soon.

 

Great topic, Skipshady! This is fun.

First game on TV: Like Whirlwind, it was "Soccer Made in Germany" which was a show on PBS in the 1970s that showed a Bundesliga game each week. I tuned in because I was studying German. I had never seen anything like it and I was hooked. The singing. The flagwaving. The excitement and speed of the game. Great players like Beckenbauer, Rummenigge, Muller, Schumacher. Plus Toby Charles commentary ("Oh - it's in the back of the net!").

First game in person: Saw part of a game while I was living in Hungary but the first one was QPR vs Oldham Athletic at Loftus Road in London in 1992. Freezing cold. Bought a hideously ugly (in my wife's opinion) QPR ski cap which I still have and still treasure. (And still wear, much to her dismay)

First game played: After becoming a follower of the game and supporter of local youth soccer, I started to play as often as I can in whatever pick-up games I could find. When I first started playing (at age 40!), I was truly wretched. Now, I am merely bad. My goal is to get to be "not bad" someday and play on an over-40 team. I want to have my own jersey ... I suppose that at my age I should be taking up golf or improving my tennis, but all I want is to play on a real team someday. Crazy, eh? But it keeps me going!

 

First match on television: US and Switzerland in 94.

First match in person: Metrostars and Revolution in 99.

First US game: US and Mexico in 2000 in the US Cup.

First time I played: Somewhere in the 4th grade around 1994.

I never played in a real match.