SEE YOU ON THE PITCH
Top-5 Mac Musings – August 28, 2025
SEE YOU ON THE PITCH
Welcome back to the blog. Mac Musings took a day off yesterday while I was on special assignment. More details to come. Continue to check back in this space for updates and the very latest.
As someone who grew up during the embryo stages of this country’s first youth soccer boom, I have a somewhat complex relationship with the sport.
My first team was sponsored by a local pharmacy and we were called “Godfrey’s Gorillas”. I hesitate to describe how historically bad we were because it would seem like I was making stuff up. But I challenge you to think of the worst team you have ever witnessed… and I know a lot of you are probably envisioning the New York Jets right now… and then double the ineptitude and reduce the athletic ability by ⅔ and you have a clear picture of the Gorillas.
Words can scarcely describe how putrid we were. In five years of competition I do not remember a single win and I can recall our side scoring maybe six goals jammed into five seasons, which is not a lot, especially since we gave up approximately 16-18 per match.
STORY TIME
At halftime of our U-9 match, played against a team that featured at least six starters that were already shaving, we were trailing approximately 13-0 at halftime. While sipping our Caprisuns and powering down fruit rollups, we celebrated the fact that none of our teammates had died against a bigger, stronger, faster opponent.
Then lightning struck. One of the team moms got the bright idea to make an offer of rewarding the team with $5 each if we would score a goal in the second half. I was briefly concerned this could impact my future college eligibility, but then decided to go for it.
In the second half we broke out of a 14-month scoring drought and scored three goals, to seize a financial victory in a closer-than-it-seemed 17-3 loss. The team mom began asking for donations to help offset the costs. The offer was never repeated and we responded in kind by never scoring again.
Why am I sharing thesis details with you today? Well, today is a big day in the world of sports. Pelé’s last competitive match in the North American Soccer League (NASL) was the Soccer Bowl championship game on August 28, 1977. Playing for the New York Cosmos, the icon led his team to a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Sounders at Portland’s. The legend didn’t score on any of his seven shots. Highlights can be found here.
When the 34-year old Pelé came to America in 1975 to play for the Cosmos in the fledgling NASL, he started an interest and passion for soccer that was previously thought impossible, sparking the creation of thousands of youth soccer programs from coast to coast, including my offensively and defensively challenged Godfrey’s Gorillas team.
Decades later Pelé’s contributions can be seen as the USWNT flourishes after winning hundreds of international matches, multiple FIFA Women’s World Cups and Olympic Golds. Meanwhile, the USMNT struggles mightily to eke out wins against Trinidad and Tobago. Maybe they need to get a team mom to offer $5 per-goal bounties?
Top Five Things I Love About Soccer
- The passion and energy displayed by the fanbases of matches played at a high level between longtime rivals. This energy lifts matches to another level entirely.
- Andrés Cantor and his “GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL” call.
- I love the story of Wrexham A.F.C. and its celebrity owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds and its back-to-back promotions to the upper echelons of professional soccer. I’ve written about that here.
- I love watching the domination of the USWNT, especially when viewed through the lens of the ongoing series of embarrassments suffered seemingly nonstop by the USMNT.
- Ian Darke.
Top-Five Things I HATE About Soccer
- Scoreless Ties
- Seemingly endless, theatrical, Oscar-worthy fake injuries
- Any soccer match featuring less than 20 combined shots on goal.
- Hooligans
- Gus Johnson calling soccer. And I love Gus Johnson.
Mac Musings for Thursday, August 28.
- August 28 is also famous for being the day in 1963 when Martin Luther King’s March on Washington culminated with his “I Have a Dream” speech. The crowd at the National Mall was estimated at 250,000 people.
- I would be glad to share that my athletic career improved and could only get better after my tenure with the Godfrey’s Gorillas. Sadly this was not the case. At all. I have been wracking my brain to remember a single basketball win we had in 40 attempts from seventh to eight grade.
- I seem to remember a couple of wins my freshman year of varsity football, but I dimly remember being in concussion protocol for at least part of that season.
- I was given smelling salts at least twice after “getting my bell rung” my freshman year and I returned to the huddle. We’ve come a long way.
- After considerable reflection over the last three to four minutes, I have determined that my favorite thing about soccer is probably Ted Lasso. This show did more to boost my hope and optimism during the pandemic than almost anything else. I will forever be grateful and it occurs to me I am overdue for my next season one binge!
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