PELE HAS PASSED AWAY
- Thread starter Loca5174
- Start date
Just a matter of time.
I'm just glad I got to see him play the Chicago Sting and The Roughnecks live and in person.
I'm just glad I got to see him play the Chicago Sting and The Roughnecks live and in person.
I forgot that Pele retired the year before the Roughnecks moved to Tulsa. So my watching The Sting and the Cosmos in 1977 was during his last year. Now that I remember it, that was a big heartbreak that he retired before we had a team. '77 was when I first started playing soccer.
No he didnt. He played with the Cosmos from 1975-1977. Team Hawaii moved to Tulsa to become the Roughnecks in 1978.
I do recall seeing Giorgio Chinaglia at Skelly. That might have been the biggest name that came to town.
Beckenbauer. Johan Neeskins. George Best (far from his best).
Not sure if Cruyff played in Tulsa during his brief US run.
So there is obviously the debate as to whether Pele was the greatest player. IMO he was. He has done more for the game both from a player perspective and his absolute brilliance to the ambassador of the game he was. You can point to his brief time in the US in NASL as one of the points in time that kickstarted the soccer craze in this country. Many of the players on the 1990 USMNT would have been 9-10 yrs old and getting into soccer. That 1990 team plus the 1994 really pushed soccer to the forefront in this country. I can only imagine what Pele did for soccer in other countries where soccer was a passion of life.
I remember him playing at skelly, but I wanted to check it out first, to make sure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. He was here once in '79 with LA, & once in '80 with Washington. My only memory of him was with Washington, so I guess I saw him play with Washington in '80. The only time he scored a goal on us was at RFK.
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I don't remember anyone scoring more against the 'Necks than Chinaglia. He just tore us up ( & the rest of the NASL as well).
I think a friend of mine attended that camp and went on to have pizza with Pele at the late, great Tom Iadevaia's house. I was told Pele juggled grapefruits over pizza.