Comments on: When Over 100,000 Watched Soccer at the Rose Bowl in 1984

By: Palo Alto Real Estate

Palo Alto Real Estate — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:41:12 +0000

I’m not sure if soccer will really ever catch on in America. That was the goal will all the millions paid to Beckham, but that hasn’t really produced. Americans just need more points, more tackling, less 0-0 games. We have no attention span.

By: Thomas Dunmore

Thomas Dunmore — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:51:52 +0000

Thanks Scott, I've made that correction. It even says ABC in Wangerin's book. Adam, isn't it a shame the best book about American soccer's history isn't published in America? It might also be possible to order it direct from When Saturday Comes, at wsc.co.uk.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:15:13 +0000

I highly recommend Wangerin’s book. The beginning is quite dry because it discusses very early American soccer history. At times the book reads like a term paper. Once he gets into the modern history of American soccer it’s a facinating read. To read it I had to order it directly from David at http://www.davidwangerin.net/.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 11:12:56 +0000

Minor correction: the 1984 Olympic football was ignored by ABC, and not NBC. ABC had broadcast rights to both Olympics that year. NBC did not start ignoring Olympic football until 1988.

By: Thomas Dunmore

Thomas Dunmore — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:46:05 +0000

The suggestion in Wangerin’s books is that the ticket prices and the desire to be part of the Olympics were big factors. I’m sure they were, too.

On the other hand, Vecsey’s report (which unfortunately I can’t link to, as it’s behind their paid-archive wall as far as I can tell) implies it was a crowd that knew soccer well for the most part.

I have emailed Mr. Vecsey about it, and if he responds I’ll be sure to post. It would be fascinating to learn more.

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:41:27 +0000

I think the fact that the final was a 0-0 draw decided on penalties did hurt the game in terms of its potential to the casual American sports fan. With the possible exception of the US matches earlier on (none of which were classics) it was the only match of the tournament that many of them would have been aware of, and even if they didn’t watch, the score and post-match commentary simply confirmed what many of them had been brought up to believe since the early days of the NASL (and before).

I was in Europe for the ’84 Olympics, but my recollection of the contemporary accounts was that the crowd in Pasadena that day wasn’t primarily a soccer crowd, but rather full of people who wanted to take part in the Olympic hype that had taken over Southern California. The soccer tickets were the most reasonably priced and most widely available for any team sport (other than team handball, which hardly anyone in the US even knows exists, let alone understands and appreciates).

By: Thomas Dunmore

Thomas Dunmore — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:38:19 +0000

Em, there’s so much of American soccer history barely commented on nowadays. It’s almost as if there’s a blank slate until the 1994 World Cup.

One of the books that briefly discusses the Olympics, David Wangerin’s Soccer in a Football World, does explore this history in depth and for anyone interested I highly recommend it.

But it can be a touch dry in that it doesn’t get at the atmosphere at games like this one: as you suggest, a first hand account would be fascinating. I’ll send a note to the Flickr user responsible for the photo I used of the Egypt quarter-final, as they may well also have been at the final too.

As for the 1994 final, what a shame it was the worst game of what was otherwise perhaps the best World Cup I can remember properly. I wonder if that hurt soccer here amongst the general public or if the quality of the play didn’t really matter?

By: Em

Em — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 08:31:27 +0000

Crap, I don’t think my first comment went through …

Anyway, this is an incredible find, Tom. It would be supremely interesting to track down someone who was actually there at the game that day and ask him/her what the atmosphere was like, both inside the stadium and surrounding the event.

That image of Baggio pretty much represents my earliest memory of watching football. My dad made me watch the 1994 WC final with him, and although the game itself turned out to be boring, Baggio’s misery after missing his PK was seared forevermore onto my brain. I’ve never forgotten it — down to the exact slump of his shoulders — not Italy’s sadness, but one man’s failure to live up to expectations. (Whose expectations, his or his country’s? Both, I guess, but at that moment his grief was the only thing I could focus on.) Wow, that was a hell of a long time ago ..