For those of you that haven’t seen it yet, the second part of the Bumpy Pitch project (our online magazine), The Original Winger just got a new look and design. It’s only part one of lots of new things that will be dropping in the coming months. Stay tuned for much, much more…
Quick reminder that orders need to be placed by Friday December 18th for guaranteed delivery by Christmas. Get those orders in and we’ll get them out asap!
ESPN Soccernet writer Mark Lomas has put together a story where he lists the biggest soccer stories of the decade. Starting with the Galacticos of Real Madrid in 2000 and culminating with Real Madrid for 2009 (their signing of Cristiano Ronaldo). It’s crazy to think that the decade is coming to an end, and crazy to think back on all the soccer stories that have taken place over the last ten years. Click here to see the full article and see if you agree with him on his picks.
I posted a little something about the historical importance about the MISL is regards to the growth of soccer in America over at The Original Winger. The old MISL often gets overlooked when people talk about how soccer has grown by leaps and bounds in the US, but it played a key role in a time when there was very little soccer on the US radar. With that in mind, I tip my hat to the MISL in the 1980’s…thank you for giving us something when we were young and impressionable and had very little other options in terms of professional soccer.
Some of you may know that we have a series going on our site The Original Winger called Soccer in America – A Photographic Journey. The point is to show what the sport looks like across the US and get a glimpse into the sport in places we might not always get to see. Some of the photos are ones that we have taken, some are user generated, but I think all of them help us to see more of the sport than what we would normally get to see on a daily basis. Here are a handful of my favorites.
That’s it for now. Make sure you keep up with us over at The Original Winger to follow the series daily.
Version 2.0 of the BPFC Crest t-shirt is now available. This design has been a work in the progress, as many things are. We were big fans of the first crest, but as things evolve, we have wanted our Crest to evolve as well. I’ll be honest, and I might be biased, but I am a huge fan of the new Crest. The filled in ball in the middle works particularly well with the laurel crest and seems to fill the space a bit better than it did before. But that’s just my opinion. I’ll leave each of you to your own opinions.
I was having a conversation with a friend over the weekend, and the infamous Eurosport catalogue got brought up. If you are, or were, anything like me, the arrival of this famed catalogue held some sort of magical power.
This might be hard for some of you cats to imagine, but for a long time (even after the Internet was holding things down), Europsort was the only source of the latest and greatest gear for soccer geeks like me. Finding the Eurosport catalogue in the mailbox was like finding a treasure chest of everything that I wanted to cop. Boots, jerseys, training gear, bags, accessories…this was my Willy Wonka Factory and I wanted all of it.
The thing is, the arrival of the Eurosport Catalogue represented one of those simple things in life. A collection of everything that a kid could want and dream of, interspersed with photos of the players that they idolized. Hard to imagine the mailman dropping off anything more exciting (hold off on the jokes here). You always knew the catalogue would arrive at some point, you just never knew when. So its arrival always made my day and kept me busy marking off item after item that I was trying to figure out a way to get my hands on.
Things may have changed a bit since these days. Everything you want is a click away, and that is an amazing thing. As much as I embrace the Internet, I’ll always have an affinity for printed material. Be that magazines, books or catalogues…and even more so when it is filled with all the latest soccer equipment I could possibly imagine. I have no idea if there is a future for physical catalogues, but every once in awhile it’s good to look back and remember.
As most of you who visit this site and The Original Winger know, a lot of what I talk about is the culture and lifestyle of American soccer. For a while now I have wanted to start a project that explores the culture of soccer in the US, but from a strictly visual medium. A digital lookbook of the vast soccer culture that is taking place throughout the United States.
Even though the sport faces some difficult challenges here in the US, it has not only survived but continues to flourish. And that is because of the fans around the country that are involved and participate with the sport on a daily basis. So I’m going to be starting a new photo project on The Original Winger that explores the culture of the sport around the country. From rec leagues, to fans watching games in pubs, pickup games on the beach, fans tailgating, post work matches behind a building, abandoned soccer fields, professional games, etc. All of this, and much more, makes up the soccer culture here in the US and I want to document it via photographs and share it here and on TOW. I’ll be taking lots of pictures, and sharing them, but I can’t capture what all of you see and do in your daily soccer lives. So I’m going to ask for your help.
Send in pictures that you take that are soccer related / inspired and we’ll make sure and get them posted. If you can send a little info like when the picture was taken, where, and any other relevant info that would be great. This is going to be kind of like a digital quilt that is made up of images from soccer fans around the country. At least that is my hope.
I’ll go ahead and get this started. I wanted the first picture to be something that had some meaning to me. The goal you see in this picture is from the field at the elementary school I went to when I first moved to Los Angeles as a kid. Nothing about it has changed since I went to school there. There is still no net and the grass is usually overgrown with weeds. But it didn’t matter. I learned a lot about soccer at a young age on this field and it still has a special place for me. Every once in awhile I’ll drive by it and there is a new generation of young soccer players practicing on it and I can’t help but wonder where the sport will be in this country when they grow up.
Location: Golden Springs Elementary School
Date: 2009
Growing up in LA in the 80’s, and being completely devoted to soccer, you would have thought that the LA Aztecs would have been a team that we were all hip to on some level. The team was around until 1981, so their history and legacy should have been something that all of us young bucks were aware of. Sadly this wasn’t the case.
The LA Aztecs played in the NASL from 1974-81, featured players such as George Best and Johan Cruyff and at one time or another were owned by Sir Elton John and Alan Rothenberg. They eventually were compared to the New York Cosmos, although their successes on the field and in the stands never compared to their east coast counterparts.
Before the celebrity owners and world class players, the LA Aztecs joined the NASL in 1974 and played their home games at East LA College with average attendance of around 5,000. This rookie season for the Aztecs proved to be their most successful, as they did one of the most difficult things to do in sports, and they won the NASL Championship in their inaugural season. With that in mind, we are happy to release the 35th anniversary LA Aztecs Bumpy Pitch t-shirt.
LA Aztecs 35th Anniversary T-Shirt
This shirt pays tribute to that LA Aztecs team and their single NASL title. 35 years after winning this championship, we are tilting our hat and paying tribute to the Aztecs, their accomplishments and their impact on soccer in the United States. I for one can’t wait to see where soccer is at in the United States 35 years from now.
