Does anyone remember this?

I’ve always liked the EA Sports FIFA games although it would break my video gaming heart when they would remove features of the game that I liked. Seriously…the FIFA that had the indoor soccer was awesome…hated to see that go. Indoor arena venue or no indoor arena venue, soccer video games have come a long way since Accolade’s Pele.

I got Pele for the Genesis for Christmas in 1993. There are two things I remember vividly about the game 1) it was incredibly hard to score and b) there were no licenses for the players.

I think I scored probably 6 times…and always while I was attacking the goal at the top of the screen. Come halftime…forget about it. I had to get the lead and play a style of Cattennacio that even Dino Zoff would be proud to stand behind. Unlike the EA games today…there was virtually no player licensing in Pele. There was a player from Argentina who was named “Maradini”. You had a lot of that.

The actual footage from the game makes me feel a lot, A LOT older than I actually am.

The Spring 94 Soccer World catalog had this to say about the game:

Soccer superstar Pele brings his special magic to a fantastic new soccer game for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. It’s super soccer action, as dozens of teams from around the world clash in a furious duel of international styles. Choose a team from the U.S., Europe, South America, Africa, or Asia. Or edit a team to create your own evelen superstars. Using Pele’s great “Team Logic”, players move towards balls being passed from teammates. Give your players pinpoint shooting ability, championship speed and great ball control. Take on dozens of international challengers in an electrifying mix of bicycle kicks, headers, slides, dives, scoring and goal keeper saves. Computer features allow you to:

• Control the goal keeper’s defensive dives and jumps
• Adjust the difficulty level by customizing player attributes in play
• Customize team uniforms to your preference
• Play real “fight songs” with the digitized crowd noise and sound effects
• Challenge a friend in “2 player” competition

I came home today to find a gem of a package waiting for me from Eurosport.

I geek out pretty hard over soccer memorabilia…the prospect of old soccer catalogs being inside the package…got me all the more fired up. I could feel a couple things…an article of clothing…a stack of catalogs perhaps? I opened the package and found…

…a Eurosport t-shirt. Very cool. In addition to the t-shirt there were two envelopes, one smaller than the other other. The smaller envelope had something written on it.

The envelope says “Germany v. Albania – when Germany qualified for ‘98 W.C.” I opened the envelope to find glossy, action shots of Thomas Hassler, Ollie Kahn, Olaf Marschall’s mustache and Grinnsy Klinnsy.

The last item in the package was a large envelope.

The envelope contained 2 Acme Soccer & Widget Works catalogs, a Eurosport from Spring of 93 (I still have my original), some stickers, a 2001 Champion’s League statistics guide, some Nike literature…and a Eurosport…in pristine condition from…1988.

This Eurosport is now the oldest catalog in the archive beating my first Eurosport by four years. It was really great to see so many items that I’ve never seen before such as the Rummenigge Star and the Maradona World Cup.

Thanks again Chris…and Eurosport!

Brian over at Eurosport was kind enough to send me the cover of their first catalog.

Eurosport’s first catalog features Bayern Munich’s Karl-Heinz Rummenige on the cover. Anyone want to weigh in on the identity of the bearded wonder marking him?

I love how the Eurosport logo has not changed in their 25 years of existence. It’s classic.

Acme was kind of like Eurosport’s older brother Kyle. You know Kyle…he’s the kid who moves above the garage and spends a good portion of his time trading Dead shows from 77. He’s conscientious about the environment and doesn’t seem all that interested in turning a profit. He does what he does because he likes to…not because he has to. Yeah…Acme was that guy.

Acme was great for finding rare gems at great prices. It was rare that you came across a pair of Hi-Tec or Patrick boots in the other catalogs…Acme sold them…and sold them on the cheap. I always assumed that Acme sold all of the inventory that Eurosport didn’t want to sell in their catalog…either because it was a few years old…or they just had a surplus of gear.

Acme was green before it was cool to say you were “green.” Their catalogs were printed on recycled paper with soy inks. They urged subscribers to recycle their catalogs. I’ve been recycling this catalog for about 15 years…as the wear and tear depicts.

This particular catalog was created and illustrated by Jeff Poe and Candis Rivers.

Aside from providing a great selection of soccer gear, Eurosport has always produced interesting and unique articles to tie into the products they’re selling. I’ve always been interested in how things are maid. The behind the scenes look into a Copa Mundial from the Fall 1994 World Cup Edition was right up my alley.

I did not write any of the content…this all comes from page 4 of the Fall 1994 issue of Eurosport.

Enjoy!

When the world’s great players take the stage for the 1994 World Cup, over half of them will be wearing Copa Mundials. The fact that so many footballers choose the same shoe in a market flooded with quality boots is remarkable. Perhaps even more incredible is the fact that the Copa has remained virtually unchanged since its inception in 1978.

Innovations in shoe technology come and go. Cutting-edge materials are constantly being applied to soccer boots, be it the latest plastics in outsoles or synthetic upper materials. Yet, nothing has quite taken hold like the simple, understated Copa. While shoemakers are constantly reinventing themselves with new designs, Adidas’ plant manager Herr Heumann, who has been with the company for nearly forty years, says there is no reason to alter the Copa Mundial. When asked why it has remained such a popular shoe to this day Heumann doesn’t hesistate, “It’s the craftsmanship of the shoe. Everyone who works on the Copa knows the shoe inside out. That kind of experience and attention to detail makes all the difference in the world.”

At Adidas’ shoe factory in Scheinfeld, Germany, 1200 pairs of Copas are produced daily.

The first step in the production of Copa’s is cutting the leather. Once all piece of the shoe have been cut, they are stitched together with the other parts of the upper such as the heel tab, tongue, stripes and logo.

Once the upper is completed, it is placed on a machine that uses heat to mold the heel counter to the exact shape needed. The right side of the machine then freezes the heel counter to keep its shape.

Next a machine stretches the leather around the last and nails it to the lasting board. The last is a piece of plastic designed by the shoemaker to resemble a foot. The shape of the last determines the final fit of a shoe because the upper and outsole are shaped around it.

After the outsole has been bonded to the lasting board, studs are attached to the outsole using direct injection molding. Twelve rubber studs are placed in holes on this machine. The outsole is placed over the studs, and heat is applied to mold the studs to the outsole. After cleaning off the excess polyurethane, the insole is then glued inside the shoe. The shoe is then inspected for quality is is ready to leave the factory.

The first time I saw Friedel in action was on ESPN’s “Just for Kicks.” Former US MNT Captain Peter Vermes was demonstrating a move, the body swerve. He introduces Brad and both he and Carin Jennings take turns doing the move and trying to score. Vermes scored…Jennings didn’t.

Following the footsteps of Kasey Keller, Brad has solidified defenses in some of the top teams in Europe…a trend that Tim Howard is continuing.

The former Bay Village Bay high school star is currently tending the net for Aston Villa in the English Premier League. I caught Villa’s FA Cup tie with Gillingham this morning. Brad’s face…and hairline…tell the story of a seasoned veteran who has spent years stopping shots from the world’s greatest players. Hairdos aside, Brad is still as nimble and quick as he was during his days at UCLA.

Take a look at Friedel and former US #1, Tony Meola from the Winter 94/Spring 95 issue of Soccer Madness.

What’s in Meola’s hair? Soul Glow or Canola Oil…leave your thoughts in the comments.

I always wondered how the Florida based company managed to land such high profile stars to hawk their gear. From what I can gather, the company does not appear to be in existence anymore…or…if they are in existence they’re not doing anything with the soccermadness.com url…aside from redirecting to starstruck.com. How was it that Soccer Madness was able to snap a photo of a young Paulo Maldini wearing a Soccer Madness cap? How were they able to get Marco Van Basten to don a Soccer Madness sweatshirt for a few pics? The biggest soccer catalog, Eurosport, never featured professionals wearing Eurosport branded t-shirts.

A clue from 1993

A Soccer Madness catalog from 1993 provided some clues as to the identity of the spokesman for Soccer Madness.

Hello there. I am the spokesman for Soccer Madness. You’ve probably seen me before on clothing but actually I’m a real person.

As a young man, I mastered the game of soccer and become Europe’s most exciting player. I starred on six European Cup Championship teams and played in 234 full internationals.

Now that my playing days are over, I dedicate myself to conducting private training sessions for many of the top players around the world. Many of these players seek my advice on all aspects of the game including which equipment to buy, and of course they call me at Soccer Madness.

I want to take this time to thank all our customers for your continued patronage. I also want to thank my friends Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Tony Meola, Klaus Augenthaler and John Harkes for helping me with our catalogs. I want to congratulate our women’s World Cup Team for that excellent effort as well.

I hope everyone has a healthy and wonderful year.

Priory of Scion

Alright Robert Langdons…let’s try to crack this bitch…because I’m stumped. So what do we know? The mystery man played in Europe and had quite a lengthy international career. The “234 internationals” bit throws me because I have never heard of a player getting anywhere close to 200 caps. According to Wikipedia, the closet player to the 200 cap milestone is Mohamed Al-Deayea from Saudi Arabia with 181.

The catalogs feature a lot of Italian players. Roberto Baggio and Paulo Maldini are featured in the catalogs…as are Marco Van Basten and Ruud Gullit. While Van Basten and Gullit are Dutch they have ties to Italy from their AC Milan days. The catalogs also had their fair share of Americans. Cobi Jones, John Harkes and Joe-Max Moore all posed for the catalog a time or two.

So where does that leave us? A possible Italian who’s had quite a career and has ties to America? My first guess: Giorgio Chinaglia…the Lazio great and former Cosmos talisman. On paper, Chinaglia looks like a solid guess but I’m just not feeling it for some reason. The tone of the clues doesn’t sound like Giorgio. Giorgio doesn’t strike me a spokesman. Shifty businessman, yes…spokesman, no.

The last piece of the puzzle is the fact that he mentions “our women’s World Cup Team.” The catalog was printed in 1993…the only Women’s World Cup prior to 93 was the tournament from 91 which the US won. What does this mean? The spokesman can’t be American…could he be a naturalized US citizen?

I’d love to learn more about Soccer Madness. Really, I’d like to learn more about the marketing genius that thought some senior citizen skin was the key to selling Lanzera.

So hot.

What do you think? Does this make sense at all or am I reading too much into this. Anyone have any ideas who the spokesman could be? Leave any suggestions in the comments.

Anytime someone brings up Zlatan I tend to talk about two thigns: a) how is “Zlatan Ibrahimovic” Swedish (turns out he’s of Bosnian and Croatian descent) and 2) the gum incident.

Let me drop some science for those that are not familiar with Zlatan and his Hubba Bubba.

Zlatan is going through his typical warm up routine: stretching, light jogging, some 5v2 and some keepy uppy. The big Swede is chewing gum while he’s getting the blood flowing. Out of the blue he spits out his gum…juggles it…kicks it back into the air…catches it with his mouth and continues his warm up.

Zlatan was not knowingly putting on a show. The press loved the skill. One photographer was lucky enough to catch Zlatan in the act and snapped a few shots of the performance. The photos immediately made their way back to Stockholm and eventually spread throughout the soccer community.

Nike produced a piece about the incident for one of their Jogo Bonito ads.

…and speaking of Swedes…here’s a nice shot of Martin Dahlin jostling with Aldair from the November/December 1995 issue of Eurosport.

Months passed…I had totally forgotten about the submission. We returned home from a family vacation in Hilton Head and what do I find in the mail? A copy of Soccer Master…but it’s not like the usual Soccer Masters I had received in the past…this one was packaged in a padded envelope.

So I frantically open the envelope and find a catalog, a letter and the hot pic that I had submitted. I figured it was a “thanks for the submission…but the years have not been kind to you” type letter.

Slightly disappointed, I start flipping through the catalog and what do I find tucked into the lower left hand corner on page 9?

Yowzah! I think I was going through puberty as this photo was taken. Don’t ask why it looks like I have two left Copas on…I have my people working on it.

I was pretty fired up to see myself in a catalog. I always assumed that my photo was chosen because a) I brought some diversity to the catalog and b) I mentioned both Marco Van Baster and John Harkes in my letter. Soccer Master had placed on a page with some Lanzera boots. Both Van Basten and Harkes had deals with Lanzera.

So I go running to show my parents…my mom flips through the catalog and then says…”oh, look, Aileen’s on here too.”

“WAT?!” How did my sister snake my catalog debut? Apparently, her coach submitted a photo of their team.

My teammates were very curious as to how I got my gangly photo in the same soccer catalog that they were buying their Copas from. It was the summer before my freshman year…I had lofty ambitions of making my high school’s varsity team as a freshman. Each year one or two freshman had a chance to make the team. Unfortunately, the senior class had like a 13 guys on the team. I scribbled all the possible scenarios that could have gotten me on the team on a scrap of paper. In order for I to have made the team as a freshman, 4 seniors would have had to get cut…that was clearly not going to happen. You can imagine the shit I got from friends when I did not make the varsity team.