Thursday, December 15, 2005

1990 World Cup media guide



I got one of these off Ebay a while ago. I wish I had a scanner so I could show you some of the pics; maybe some other time. There's nothing too earthshatterting, but there's a few interesting things I'd like to share.

First, only 24 of the 52 1990 World Cup games were shown on English television (TNT). 12 first round games, and 12 of 16 in the knockout stage. I wasn't a fan back then, but I believe that they also had commercials during play.

I never knew that Bob Gansler was born in Hungary, and moved to the USA at the age of 11 from Germany. I know almost all of the "American" coaches in MLS were born elsewhere, but I never really heard anything about him though. There are only four American born MLS coaches: Bradley, Ellinger, Sampson, and Sarachan.

The players. Your 1990 US national team was made of mostly young college kids, and it's interesting to see what their profiles said about them. Some highlights:

Kasey Keller: Favorite food is popsicles.

John Harkes: Enjoys eating baked ziti and listening to U2.

Paul Caligiuri: Favorite movie is "Born on the 4th of July."

John Stollmeyer: Uncle played cricket for Trinidad & Tobago (so there's a another white Trinidad athlete besides Birchall).

Chris Sullivan & Mark Dodd: Both love Luther Vandross.

Desmond Armstrong: "Accomplished illustrator" who has drawn portraits of his teammates.

John Doyle: Hobbies include "collecting automobiles when I'm rich."

I also never knew that Tony Meola's first name is Antonio.


Fun stuff. I also have a 2002 media guide from Ebay, and a 1994 guide which is not the same type as the others, more about the whole event rather than the USA.

Comments on "1990 World Cup media guide"

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (10:48 AM, December 15, 2005) : 

Yeah, they interrupted matches to show commercials in 1990. I think they were on tape delay though, so maybe it didn't break up the match. I'll have to pull out some of my old tapes. I did rewatch the USA v Austria match from Florence last summer. It's amazing how things have changed.

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (12:19 PM, December 15, 2005) : 

In 1990, the worst part about watching the World Cup was hearing the following: "Welcome back from the commercials, a goal was scored during the break." Not only would the replays of the goal be over, but when the match ended, TNT would wait about 5 seconds before switching to another program, so you'd never see the goal. I know for sure that this happened twice during the famous England x Cameroon game. During the England x Germany PK's, commercials interrupted the first round of kicks. I was only 10, but I was fuming.

 

Blogger Scott said ... (7:06 PM, December 15, 2005) : 

I was also 10 at the time and I guess I didn't know any better about the commercial breaks. That tournament was what got me enthralled into watching the game.

I don't even remember any specific game or event - just that I loved it. It's been all downhill since.

 

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