Title/Author:
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Soccer:
The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League” by Ian
Plenderleith
Tags:
Soccer, professional, business
Soccer, professional, business
Publish date:
September 1, 2014
Length:
368 pages
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (very
good)
Review:
Soccer fans who enjoy Major League
Soccer may not be aware that there was another professional soccer league in
North America that also saw success at the box office and on the pitch, albeit
for only a brief time. The history of this league, the North American Soccer
League (NASL) is captures in this very objective and factual book by Ian
Penderleith.
In the 1970’s and early 1980’s, the NASL
brought the sport’s international superstars to American shores and the public
loved it – at least for a few years. The New York Cosmos were the glamor
franchise of the league, achieving that crown when they signed Pele, considered
to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game. However, the
Cosmos weren’t done as they added other superstar players such as Franz
Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia. Given
this, it would be easy to have the book and league’s history focus on just the
Cosmos.
Fortunately, Plenderlieith didn’t do
that. Instead, he pieces together
stories and information on other teams that may not have had the glamour of the
Cosmos, but nonetheless contributed to the culture of the league. The appropriately-named Tampa Bay Rowdies,
who had their own flamboyant star in Rodney Marsh, brought entertaining soccer
to the fans. Offering free parking for their fans who often preferred the
tailgating parties to the soccer inside the stadium, the Minnesota Kicks also
were one of the more successful franchises in the league both in attendance and
on the pitch, despite the fact that they never won a championship and appeared
in the Soccer Bowl (the NASL championship game) only once, during their first
season in 1976. By including passages about teams like the Kicks and Rowdies,
and their players such as Alan Merrick and Marsh respectively, Plenderlieth
paints a complete picture of the league to the reader – at least of those
successful franchises.
The demise of the league and the
reasons have been well-documented elsewhere – the league expanded to too many
teams too fast amd the ownership groups did not have the capital to invest in a
losing business for the long haul.
Plenderlieth takes a level headed approach at these issues and doesn’t
lay a lot of blame on any one person, but doesn’t make excuses or sugar-coat
the problems that the league faced.
Instead, he simply reports what happened.
The NASL also was at odds with the
governing body of the sport, FIFA, over several rule variations it made to make
the game more entertaining to fans.
Correctly believing that American sports fans would not take to a game
that had very little scoring, the league made two radical rule changes. One had
to do with standings and the points awarded.
The usual point allocation for a match was three points for a win, one
point for a draw and none for a loss.
Instead, the NASL awarded six points to the winning side, three for a
draw and win or lose, a bonus point for each goal scored up to three per
match. This gave teams incentive to try
to keep scoring throughout the game. Also, the pitch had a 35 yard line on each
side – offiside could not be called on the offensive team until it was past
that line instead of midfield as was the case elsewhere. While these rules went by the wayside when
the league disbanded in 1984, the offensive style of play it encouraged is
still felt today as clubs realize that more goals mean more fans in the stands.
The meteoric rise and spectacular
crash of the NASL is a compelling story and this book is one that anyone who
has memories of the league, as this reviewer does (a Minnesota Kicks season
ticket holder for two seasons), will want to add this book to his or her
library.
Book Format Read:
E-book (Nook)
E-book (Nook)
Buying Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment