A newspaper clipping from the Rowdies Exhibition Game, against the Atlanta Chiefs played on March 12th, 1980, in Gainesville.
The Rowdies won 2-1.
Does anyone have a better clipping of this game?
Does anyone have a better clipping of this game?
I think it's unlikely you will find a better article than this one sentence masterpiece (covering TWO games, no less). A fine example of '70's and '80's American efficiency in soccer reporting!! Others sports reporting were just too wordy! Let the newspaper space be dominated by large, detailed articles about minor league baseball, the ladies croquet club, lawn darts, horseshoes, fishing, etc... the newspaper editors said. Of course we cover big american football games with two or three big articles encompassing pages. I guess newspapers thought that soccer fans weren't print pigs, like other sports fans, all in a game where they don't use their hands, can you imagine? How do they manage to play not using their hands?... no timeouts?... no rigid set positions-they can run wherever they want?... and no set plays usually?... running for 90 minutes!!!... bigger than an American football field?!? This was a sport that was mindblowing to the average American in the 70's and into the 80's; totally in a different sports universe to U.S. This definately applied to small and big time reporters or TV commentary. Many "fannies" were mindblown in a good and tremendous way, never having seen anyone accurately head a ball, stop a hard ball dead, let alone witness a Marsh bicycle kick. It really had an otherworldly quality to many of us- It was so facinating!! How could a reporter who knows very little about soccer report such things? Score 2-1, Baralic scored. Now for cow tipping. They played in Gainsville(Southern, farm country). Gordon Hill (on this blog a few days back) helped American Tom Keene on WTOG ch. 44commentate at least a few Rowdies games, and had some insights about the match and colorful knowledge about the players and other soccer stuff. We could have used much more of that!! Maybe we could have had a freelance British reporter/writer write the articles, and colaberate with the American, if needed, to somewhat "Americanize" it, if called for. ---Dan
ReplyDelete