Suddenly, Last Summer: trade with Arbitrary Crap - Pt. 1

ALMOST LIVERPOOL

Well, "just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in again !" Summer is gone as of 10:40 PM today and Euro 2012 and the London Olympics are a distant memory ...

... almost. As you see from the cards (above and below), I got some Euro hangover from my friend Martyn over at Arbitrary Crap. These are some sweet Panini Euro game cards.

Knowing that I am a Liverpool supporter, Martyn sent me a few of the guys that USED to play at Liverpool.  He also added some Panini Champions League cards:

Sami Nasri - Manchester City

Alou Diarra - Olympique Marseille

Franck Beria - Lille F.C.

Vyecheslav Malafeev - CSKA (GOAL STOPPER foil)

Eric Abidal - Barcelona

Marek Hamsik - Napoli

We featured a few of Topps Olympic cards earlier, but the Brits had there own version mad by Panini. I got the card of the greatest player NOT to play soccer at in London 2012.

DAVID BECKHAM looks like he's training for some other sport on his card. I also got a Ladies footballer and a 7-a-side footballer. Interesting, I guess ?

Martyn sent along a three unopened packs so I can try my luck at a later time.

Here is a Liverpool player from the past - EMLYN HUGHES. I like this sample as it is a cigarette card size issue. There are several companies making retro sets and reprints in the UK. I'm not a fan of reprints at all, but these retro sets are nice if you have favorite players or teams from another era and don't want to spend a lot searching or spending big money.

The last card in this group is a 1979 TOPPS sticker from the NASL logo set. What's cool about this is that the NASL is back (as a 2nd division) and so are the Earthquakes. San Jose is in 1st place and may win the league this year. I featured their top gun Chris wondolowski before in an earlier blog.

coming next: part 2 of the trade

What Could Have Been, But Never Was ... Topps NASL

You know you have been on this planet long enough when things come full circle. Back when the (NASL) North American Soccer League was at its heyday - there was only one trading card company that produced sports cards. That was Topps Chewing Gum.

At some point, one Topps executive made the call whether or not to market soccer cards. Personally, I think the guy was a bonehead. Looking back at the international stars that were playing in the United States at the time - he looks like a real baffoon.

No league up to that point had 4 of the 5 greatest names of soccer in playing one country - except America. It is pretty close to what the English Premier League has now but even bigger.

Instead of putting the best faces on cardboard, Topps ran with a cheesy sticker set that had only the logos of the 24 NASL teams. What they could have made were cool cards of George Best, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cryuff and Carlos Alberto.

For the benefit of fantasy - these are what might have been the 1979 Topps NASL cards. This year the NASL will return in 2010 to playing in the USSF Division 2 - included will be the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers - three original names from the league. Two teams from MLS already have original NASL names as well - Seattle Sounders and the San Jose Earthquakes.