Attendance dwindled, gimmicks no longer worked, and franchises folded leading to the demise of the league. Attendances increased, gimmicks grew, and franchise expansion followed, but it turned out not to be sustainable. The league started as a scrappy alternative to the established American sports of Baseball, Football, and Basketball, and things looked promising for their future when the New York Cosmos lured a retired Pelé to play in the league. The NASL operated as the premier United States soccer league from 1968 until it ultimately collapsed under its own weight in 1984.
was assassinated, Robert F. Kennedy's murder dealt another tragic blow to one of America's greatest political families, there were riots in Washington, D.C., Detroit, and Chicago, and with the burden of all that on America's shoulders someone had the temerity to start the North American Soccer League (yes, soccer). This gem of a book is an excellent cultural document of sports and deserves to be read widely (and enjoyed) by even the most jaded of footy fans.1968 was a watershed year for the United States of America in many ways. We were in the midst of the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon was voted the next president of the United States, the incomparable Martin Luther King Jr. Ian Plenderleith's rip-roaring Rock 'n' Roll Soccer is an account of the 1970s North American Soccer League which serves as a warning of what happens when football chooses to be simply a branch of a global entertainment industry and forgets where it came from on the way. * Inbedwithmaradona *Ī brilliant and necessary read. There's been nothing like the NASL since, and Plenderleith captures it very well indeed. Rock 'n' Roll Soccer is a compelling yomp through the tales that really made the NASL unique, from the 35-yard-line shootout tiebreaker to the Minnesota Kicks' legendary tailgates. Fergus Kelly * Daily Express *Ī fantastic book! - Danny Kelly * Talksport Radio *Ī compendious but vividly entertaining history of the League. Times Literary SupplementĪ hugely entertaining account of the north American Soccer League in its 1970s heyday.
Written with a raffish exuberance worthy of its subject.
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