Team America (NASL)

Articleissues
POV = July 2007
weasel = July 2007
tone = July 2007
essay = July 2007
copyedit = July 2007
cleanup = July 2007Football club infobox
clubname = Team America


fullname = Team America
nickname =
founded = 1983
dissolved= 1983
ground = RFK Stadium,
Washington, D.C.
capacity = 55,677
chairman = Robert Lifton
manager = Alketas Panagoulias
league = North American Soccer League
season = 1983
position = 10-20, Last Place
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Team America was a professional version of the United States men's national soccer team which played as a franchise in the defunct North American Soccer League (NASL) during the 1983 season. The team was based in Washington, D.C., played its home games at RFK Stadium, and was intended by the NASL and the United States Soccer Federation to build fan support for the league and create a cohesive and internationally competitive national team. It did not accomplish these objectives.

History

NASL: A league in decline

When Howard Samuels became the president and CEO of NASL on June 25, 1982, he inherited a league on the verge of collapse. Several teams were folding and the players were threatening to go on strike. Furthermore, the league had lost its television contract which had previously poured some money into the otherwise insolvent league. When Samuels came into the NASL, he brought with him the idea that the league needed to build itself on U.S. players in order to build long term fan support.

USSF: Building for the future

Samuels concept coincided with a growing feeling in the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) that the U.S. was failing to achieve its potential in international soccer. The 1984 Summer Olympics, being held in Los Angeles, was around the corner and USSF wanted the U.S. team to shine in front of the home crowds. Qualification for the 1986 FIFA World Cup was also about to begin.

NASL and USSF work together

In order to fulfill the twin objectives of nurturing new U.S. talent to reach a greater fan base while feeding that talent into the national team, Samuels and the USSF decided to enter the national team into NASL as a franchise. In this way, U.S. players would not need to compete for roster spots against the foreigners who stocked most of the league’s teams. At the time, NASL teams tended to use U.S. players predominantly as goalkeepers and defenders. Imported foreign players took most of the "skill" positions of midfielder and forward. On Team America, U.S. players would finally have an opportunity to play every position on a team. Furthermore, they would train and compete with other U.S. players in a professional team environment, fostering a sense of team cohesion which would pay dividends when the U.S. played international games. This ran counter to the established order of soccer where club commitments often meant that national team players did not have a chance to train and practice together for some international matches until days before they were played. NASL and USSF decided on Team America as the name for the new franchise.

Origin of name

The name Team America was a reference to both the U.S. national team as well as the 1976 Team America which played in the 1976 U.S.A. Bicentennial Cup Tournament. ^{[http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/year/1982.html]} The 1976 Team America, while ostensibly the U.S. national team, was actually a mixed bag of U.S. and international NASL players, including Team America captain Bobby Moore who had earned 108 caps for England. To make things even more confusing, the 1976 squad played Brazil, Italy, and of all teams, England. Brazil and Italy would both count the games against Team America as full internationals, while England did not. ^{[http://www.englandfootballonline.com/CmpT/CmpT1976.html]} This confusion should have been an omen of things to come in 1983.

Initial forebodings

To create Team America, Samuels brought in Robert Lifton as the team owner, and in coordination with Lifton and USSF secured RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. as the team’s home field. In order to create a roster, the NASL and USSF invited U.S. players from the NASL, American Soccer League (ASL) and Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) to tryouts January 1983. The first hints of the disaster to come came with the response to this invitation. Team America needed 20 players and soon discovered that two things were conspiring against it. First, several top U.S. players, such as Rick Davis, Jimmy McAllister, Winston DuBose, David Brcic, and Juli Veee, refused to leave their teams to play for Team America. Secondly, came the realization of just how shallow the U.S. player pool was. Many Team America players were recently naturalized citizens. One, Alan Green, had not even gained his citizenship when he was signed by the team. ^{[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E1D61738F930A15757C0A965948260]}

Samuels, Lifton and USSF were shocked to discover that players would actually refuse to play for Team America. They had actually thought they would need to force teams to give up U.S. players by making each NASL team liable for three players each. They were stunned that the players themselves would refuse to come. ^{[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE2DF163BF93BA15752C0A965948260]} In retrospect, this was not so difficult to understand. Players such as Davis, DuBose and Vee saw no reason to jeopardize fairly well paying and secure spots to play for what they considered a novelty. Especially since the league only planned to pay each player for Team America $50,000, good money for some, but below what the top U.S. players were making.

Not every good U.S. player turned down the opportunity. Chico Borja and Jeff Durgan joined Team America as did Arnie Mausser and Perry Van der Beck. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the roster was a combination of no-names and barely-names. Several players would go on to have excellent national team careers, but in 1983 they were still relatively unknown to the wider U.S. public. Not only could NASL and USSF not find many U.S. players, it couldn’t find a U.S. coach, opting for Greek Alketas Panagoulias, then the U.S. Olympic coach. Panagoulias would also coach the U.S. team which failed to qualify for the 1986 World Cup. He would leave the national team with a 6-5-7 record.

Team fails on the field

Panagoulias had no better luck with Team America which stumbled through the season, finishing dead last in the NASL with a 10-20 record and placing not a single player on the league's All Star team. What made matters worse was that Team America made a laughingstock of U.S. soccer players and the U.S. national team. If the best U.S. players could only manage a 10-20 record, no wonder they both failed to make the starting rosters of the other NASL teams. Furthermore, in the mind of the typical U.S. sports fan, it was now obvious why the U.S. had failed to qualify for a World Cup since 1950, it didn't deserve to.

As the team stumbled through the regular season, Samuels and Lifton became desperate. ^{[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05E3D81139F930A3575BC0A965948260]} On July 27, 1983, they announced that they had approached the owners of the other NASL teams about loaning U.S. players to Team America on a game by game basis when the players' regular teams had an idle game day. ^{[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E1DF1039F934A15754C0A965948260]} However, MISL refused the NASL/USSF request for player loans, citing the NASL policy forbidding teams in that league from loaning its players to MISL. ^{[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E4DE1038F931A25756C0A965948260]} As Team America stumbled through the season, tensions began to rise between U.S. players on the Team America and those who remained with their previous teams. Some, such as Durgan, were publicly critical of Rick Davis and Steve Moyers. Mark Peterson, the North American Soccer League's player of the year in 1982, began the season with the Seattle Sounders, but joined Team America during the 1983 season after receiving severe criticism from other U.S. players. ^{[http://www.jamiepeck.com/atoms/moyers.htm] [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E1D61E39F93AA3575BC0A965948260]}

Team America folds

The team's on field failures helped it to only pull an average of 12,000 fans per home game, not enough to pay the bills. To make matters worse, USSF, a generally amateur organization at the time, was wracked with internal infighting and failed to finalize several potential marketing deals which could have provided financial support for the team. At the end of the season, Robert Lifton pulled the plug on the franchise. Following the demise of the team, Lifton, Samuels and USSF engaged public rancour and wrangling regarding who was most responsible for this fiasco. Regardless, the team had obviously failed both as an incubator of U.S. talent as well as a way of building fan support for the league.

After the failure of Team America, Washington, D.C. was without a professional soccer club until the birth of Major League Soccer in 1996

Notable former players

While in theory Team America should have been a U.S. all star team, the reality was something far less. Of the twenty-one players on the Team America roster, one, Paul Hammond never played for the national team. Six others saw time in only one game each, several as late game substitutes. One player earned two caps, one three and another four. Hernan "Chico" Borja, Arnie Mausser and Perry Van der Beck are perhaps the only players still remembered today.

Team colours

As the U.S. national team, Team America wore red, white and blue.

tadium

Team America played its home games in Washington, D.C.'s RFK Stadium. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, better known as RFK Stadium, served as the primary sports stadium for the U.S. capital in 1983. It began its existence in October 1961 as D.C. Stadium. In January 1969, its name was changed to RFK Stadium in honor of assinated U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. RFK primarily served the National Football League Washington Redskins. However, it has also hosted baseball teams, three other NASL teams, the Washington Whips in 1968, the Washington Darts in 1971 and the Washington Diplomats from 1974 to 1981. It is the current home for D.C. United of Major League Soccer.

In order to change the field and seating arrangement to favor baseball or football/soccer, stadium staff will remove or replace sod, move stands and hydraulically raise or lower portions of the field. This costs approximately $40,000 every time it is done. In its soccer configuration, the stadium seats 55,677.

Roster

Year-by-year

External links

* [http://www.soundercentral.com/museum/1983%20updates/team_america.htm Pre-season article on Team America plus a write-up of the first game, against the Sounders]
* [http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/year/1983.html Year In American Soccer: 1983]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903EFD61E38F935A15752C0A965948260 NY Times article on Team America try outs]
* [http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/sports/soccer/27soccer.html NY Times Article on Team America]
* [http://www.slate.com/id/2168476/slideshow/2168583/fs/0//entry/2168579/ Black and white photo of Team America jersey]
* [http://ussoccerplayers.com/exclusives/index.html?article_id=912 December 2007 article on Team America including an interview with Alan Merrick]