USA Soccer Guy - USA Soccer Guys 50 Insane Soccer Moments

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CONTENTS

HEY.

Popularity is a pretty crazy thing, right? I mean, take a look at the great singers and songwriters of the last century and youll maybe get where Im coming from: Michael Jackson, Madonna, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Ja Rule, Elton John Did you ever take a look at these guys and ask yourself how they got to be so popular?

I sure did. The more I thought about it, the answer was kinda easy. You gotta be in the right place at the right time. No matter how much talent those guys have, if they arent on the right platform, then that talent is totally wasted.

Before you guys that thought you were getting a book on soccer get all weirded out, let me just say that Im getting to my point.

I am Soccer Guy. I am American. I have a passion for the sport of soccer that goes back further than most. Way back to the summer of 94, to be accurate. That was the summer when the sport was truly globalized right the way around the globe, thanks to my country getting to host the World Soccer Cup.

The dominance of the Alexi Lalas-led US Mens National Soccer Team (USMNT) was a pretty obvious attractionbut there was more to it than that. I loved the uniforms, the fact that there was only one time-out, the way that there were only two quarters instead of four and, despite all the pretty obvious differences, the way that some European guys thought it was like football.

Here was a sport that was clearly not that popular, but still all kinds of different countries were tryin real hard to play it.

Thanks to that summer, the lives of many were changed into way better, soccer-filled ones. As it has done with most things, the USA had shown the way for the rest of mankind. After years of trying, everyone could now take this sport to their hearts.

The 94 World Soccer Cup in America was therefore the sports platform to popularity. My own platform would come almost twenty years later.

The excitement of soccer was burning inside me, and I started to read around. Amazingly, I discovered that many places right around the world had already been playing the sport for a long time. Places in Europe had establishized pretty lame leagues that could not even afford cheerleaders.

When the internet came along, I found it even easier to find out cool stuff about the history of soccer, and by the turn of the millennium I was pretty much fluent in soccer speak. Being recognized for my depth of soccer knowledge was surely not too far away.

Actually, things started to happen around my spring break, 2013. I created my own Twitter page (@usasoccerguy), to get my voice heard. Specializing in the developments of the English EPL League, my views on soccer in Europe soon drew some attention.

My follower count got pretty big, and I soon found myself being congratulized by soccer lovers right the way around the globe. Having chosen a picture of Alexi Lalas as my Twitter page picture, I was honored when the man himself began to follow just a few weeks after I launched.

By the time fall came around, I had hit the big time. After years of loving soccer I had become one of the most powerful voices within the sport.

So I guess getting asked to write a book was pretty much expected. Sure, I am honored, but its not so much of a big deal. Its kinda expected. Like I said at the start of this: if you got the talent, all you gotta do is find that platform. I found it. A look at some of soccers most insane moments through American eyes is something that hasnt really been done beforego check the bookstore. Having just notched up another World Soccer Cup, a book that does this is nodoubtedly overdue.

Soccer is way more than just the goalshots, and this book will hopefully show this, ranging from the real famous momentslike major felony cards in World Soccer Cup finals and Landon Donovan wearing a sports brato lesser known events like some German cheerleader unexpectedly getting a cleat-rocket right in her face.

So go right ahead! Enjoy the read as you educize yourself on some of the weirdest events to take place on and around the soccer field.

The opening ceremony of the greatest World Soccer Cup the world has ever seen was one of the high points in soccer history. It is widely known by many as the day that soccer really started. The organizers were clearly pretty smart guys and, realizing that nothing screams World Soccer Cup more than a Motown diva, they invited Diana Ross along to join the party.

Singing some song, the climax would be when Ross ran up to a soccer ball and kicked it real hard into the soccer net past a helpless goaltender. Then, the goal would fall apart and shed run through it and go someplace else, making a truly supreme spectacle in front of the eyes of the watching world.

The problem was, Diana Ross is not a soccer player. Her deathstrike technique was bad, and she wound up kicking the sphere of leather way wide of the soccer goal. Even if the goaltender had been trying to reach out and touch the soccer ball, he would have got nowhere near it. This sparked a chain reaction of laughter right around the world and turned Diana Ross love for all things soccer well and truly upside down.

Nevertheless, the party had started.

In their black and white striped uniform, Juventus Soccer Franchise is one of the worlds most recognizable soccer franchises. With humongous support around Italy, life seemed pretty good for the Old Ladies back in the mid-00s. At the end of the 06 soccer season, theyd just become Serious A World Champions again. But the Old Ladies, as they are known, were about to have one humongous fall. Reports hit the press that one of the Juventus director guys had tried to organize which soccer referees refereed soccer in their soccer matches. A serious felony in soccer, if the reports were true.

Juventus were kicked outta Serious A and the Euro Soccer Cup, and had to lose a whole bunch of awesome soccer players in the next franchise-enhancement window. Other franchises were also charged with some bad stuff, but it was Juventus that were in the biggest trouble.

The timing of this scandal kinda sucked for Italy as a soccer nation too. 2006 was the year that they just won the World Soccer Cup, but this pretty embarrassing situation meant that nobody really cared.

In the 80s, the sport of soccer was still years away from achieving the popularity boost that was the 1994 World Soccer Cup in the United States of America. The Mexican World Soccer Cup took place in Mexico in 1986, and the quarter-finals saw England Soccer Club take on Argentina in the unimaginatively named Mexico City.