FOOTBALL COMES .... USA UNO, MEXICO NADA

Well it has been a super summer of soccer. Major League Soccer plows through the heat waves, their MLS ALL-STARS beating European Champions - CHELSEA FC. Meanwhile we had SPAIN winning the 2012 EUROS, the 2012 London Olympics saw MEXICO upset the favored Brazilians. 

So it must be time to rest my weary television blurred eyes - NOT.

The English Premier League kicks off this Saturday and the world watches (ESPN and FOX SOCCER CHANNEL here in the USA)

Liverpool are on a teetering brink or either sinking further from their glory years or rising under the new ownership (BOSTON RED SOX). As I await the new season, I have acquired 5 more cards for my 1975 TOPPS set. All of them RED !

The day when Liverpool had anywhere from 6 to 8 players on their respected National Team. 

The colorful Topps cards of the 1970s 

I have figured I only need less than 10 cards to have a complete run of TOPPS Liverpool cards from the 1975-1979 era. 

The USA triumphed in Mexico city last night. After 75 years, and the best result being a 0:0 draw in 1997, the Yanks came through winners in Mexico's Azteca Stadium.  

Not counting the smog, the high altitude and that the U.S.  was missing several key players, Sam's Army went in an played tough. Young guns kept the hosts busy enough that even Manchester United's "Chicharito" could not find the net. A 2nd half sub, Brek Shea turned on some boosters and combined with Michael Orazco, in his first appearance, to score the winner.

The hero of the night had to be Everton's netminder - TIM HOWARD, who made three amazing saves late in the match to preserve the historic shutout. This spoiled the halftime show dedicated to Mexico's Olympic gold medal winners - including their soccer team.

My own amateur photo of U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard ...

and a professional trading card ...

2011 Futera Unique - Tim Howard

 USA ! USA ! USA !

ROOKIE HAUL - White Whale !

I have never done 2 posts in a day, but as Arbitrary Crap had a midnight deadline for his contest, I will take tomorrow off and go surfing.

I had an exceptional collecting week, hauling in some most wanted cards. 

Crossed of my list, is this -

Carrera's STAN MATTHEWS rookie

 I had seen the Matt Busby go for a pile a few weeks ago, so when I saw this I jumped -

 TED DRAKE rookie

Ted Drake was transferred to Arsenal where he held every scoring record until the Premier League began (1992). 

The cards are quite small compared even to cigarette cards. They came with Adventure Magazine, a boys publication. The backs (above) were used for game cards.

The haul included a few different rookie issues like this gas station premium.

1973 ESSO - KENNY DALGLISH rookie

These were thin metallic discs that could be put in a collectors album.

And last but not least, a cigar band (a tobacco card ?) of "Der Kaiser"

1966 Casimir FRANZ BECKENBAUER rookie

I will not disclose how much I paid for fear I may be imprisoned. Let's just say I am pleased :)

Sporting KC Spoils Seattle Sounders History

The Seattle Sounders would have gone down as the greatest Cup team in American history. But the home field advantage went to Sporting Kansas City in the 2012 U.S. Open Cup Final. 

It was not a ballet, but a slugfest as Brazilian Paolo Nagamora finished with a bloody gauze taped over the left side of his face.

Kansas City ended a drought that neither the Chiefs or the Royals have been able to fix. Sporting Kansas City cards will probably get a bit of the bump on the hobby market.

GRAHAM ZUSI - US National Team Player

JIMMY NIELSEN - MLS All-Star

TEAL BUNBURY - USA and KEI KAMARA - Sierre Leone 

I like this horizontal card of Nielsen. Remember a few blogs ago I featured his Danish rookie card. Nielsen  was voted MVP of the match. His crazy antics during the Penalty Kicks was surreal. But the Captain came through and lifted the Cup for the MLS club.

GOODBYE LONDON

The Gold Medal soccer match is on Saturday. Brazil v Mexico. Its been an good tournament with lots of young guns emerging. I'm hoping that some are going to show up in the next FUTERA or Panini set. The MLS had half dozen players in the Olympic Soccer competition. 

One of the stars - ROGER ESPINOSA - 

played in the U.S. Open Cup Final for Sporting. Rumors have him moving to a big European team at the end of the season. His rookie card is still a bargain at .90 cents at the above web site. The European season has begun with qualifying games and some leagues had their first week of play.

To think what might have been if the USA had qualified for London 2012 ... 

Here is a look back at Upper Decks 1996 Olympic Moments subset -

COBI JONES

ALEXI LALAS

The "red rocker" looked better getting his head kick in then in a tie and jacket as ESPN analyst.

Are you ready for some REAL FOOTBALL ?

Its a Whoa Man's World - 2012 OLYMPICS

The Olympics seems to chage very little through the ages. Yes, there is technological upgrades, and equipment modifications and of course the Olympic motto "high, faster, stronger". However, in my lifetime I have hardly NOTICED great strides of advancement.

That is until LONDON 2012.

This is being called the woman's Olympics. Indeed, I find myself watching much more of the women's event than men's. Perhaps its the programming, or maybe just my selective remote control fingers. 

Either way, I am seeing the advent of women on trading cards. The USA women have been absolutely impressive. The Gold medals in the pool, the track and even the single vents like judo, fencing and skeet shooting. 

But the USA Women's Teams ... well we got killers !  My question to fellow bloggers and readers is WHICH USA WOMEN'S TEAM do you pick as your favorite ?

Here are some candidates:

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

MISTY MAY-TREANOR

and

KERRY WALSH-JENNINGS

WOMAN'S GYMNASTICS

"The Fierce Five" 

 ALY RAISMAN

JORDYN WIEBER

WOMAN'S SOCCER TEAM

ABBY WAMBACH

ALEX MORGAN

HOPE SOLO

I'm sure anyone who has read this blog knows my partiality toward the kicking game. Hope solo has been one of my favorites ... better than ...

NAPOLEON SOLO (Man From U.N.C.L.E.)

HAN SOLO (Star Wars)

But for 2012  LONDON it has to be ....

"THE BABY HORSE" 

ALEX MORGAN !

Vote for The Box Break ... 2012

Our fellow blogger Martyn over at Arbitrary Crap  (gotta love that name) has decided to run a contest. And, in the Olympic spirit I chose to join in - and as one of the prizes is a pack of Olympic cards.

Having been a long time collector, I've reach a peak with most of the sports I collected - baseball, football and hockey. When my collections reached a peak, I sold them off. The challenge that remained was - soccer. A whole world of soccer cards to be discovered. Over 30 countries (that I know of) produced soccer cards - 100's of sets, many since the 1890's.

But the question at hand, in this election year (did I really go there ?) is to join a box break or not to break. 

My fellow bloggers ... to be perfectly honest, I would break. However, you see I collect footballer cards.

If anyone was to offer to break a box of the above type  TOPPS packs, I am in - all the way in !

I would even bust a move to break the above high end cards - FUTERA style.

But until I can find vintage boxes of these ...

or get results like this ...

I will have to "just say no".

I Like CHIX and World Cup Autographs

When I talk to people about some of the cards sets I collect, I sometimes (erroneously) assume that they are familiar with these soccer collectables.

So, maybe there is educational value on these here pages.

Even the beginners know that Panini stickers have albums to put the sets into. But they are far from the only ones, as card albums go back to at least the 1920's for soccer cards. 

The fact that fewer and fewer card makers have albums for their cards is a bit disheartening.   Which brings me to a manufacturers from the 1950's and 1960's that had wonderful cards and some colorful albums to match. In their heyday the CHIX Confectionary Limited sold candy with their soccer cards.

Some of the colored renditions of star player truly have held their own even by todays glitzy, memorabilia infested card world. 

The 1955 CHIX - Stan Matthews

The above card was meant to be adhered into the aforementioned album. Not long after the last of the cigarette card era, most examples still came in the size of tobacco issues.

But things were changing by the 1950'sand cards were almost the product that sold the item.  In this case, the cards sold the candy and the samples became more colorful and elaborate.  By the 1960's most soccer cards were full color and larger.

I recently landed this 1960 CHIX STAN MATTHEWS for the collection.

The double photo fronts have an outstanding portrait shot and a nice posed action photo to match.

The card backs are black and white but score a triple by adding a cartoon caricature of the player.  So more "Stan art" goes into my collection.

1960 CHIX - Stan Matthews

There are some CHIX issues that are very short printed and highly desired for their magnificent painted portraits. I will be looking for more Chix examples for my type collection.

WORLD CUP SIGNATURES

A fellow collector - Alan, was kind enough to send me a pair of BERGMANN cards. They both were signed by players from West Germany's 1974 World Champions.

Hubert "Berti" Vogts was a tenacious defender for Borussia Munchengladbach. He helped his club to 5 League titles in the 1970's and part of the dynasty for Germany's 1972 Euros and 1974 World Cup sweep. He would later manage his own National Team to the 1996 Euro title. 

"Der Terrier"had a reputation that made Vogts one tough defender.

Josep "Sepp" Maier was the Bayern Munich goalkeeper and also key to the 1972-74 German successes. At Bayern he not only won 5 League titles but 3 European Champions League trophies.

Sepp Maier -  3 time German player of the year.

Alan probably has one of the finest vintage pre-war collection in North America. I appreciate his additions to my collection.

Card Find Part 2 - WINGS Cigarettes

For those of you tuning into the blog for the card find and expecting a "Black Swamp" payday, all apologies. This is my version, and more like "Florida Swamp" find.

The second group of cards I purchased at the yard sale were from the 1940 WINGS CIGARETTES - MODERN AMERICAN PLANES. The cards were produced for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company of Louisville, Kentucky.

The 50 card set featured several military aircraft. Despite the title, here are no jet engines, only propellers.

By 1940, surplus WWI biplanes (double wings) were used for training, not combat. 

Some of the bigger planes (bombers) were now in regular service.

Some unusual designs appeared in the set.

The 1940's saw aircraft became more common travel for non-military personnel.

Commercial Airlines like T.W.A. (above) and 

American Airlines (above) were in business. [check out the waterfalls in the background]

The set still contains some of the power-punch fighter planes. I bet they didn't charge for pillows or peanuts !

 The advent of private commuter planes was the novelty in air travel. It must have been very new as the  names caused an error in the set.

The SPARTAN EXECUTIVE was listed as "Sparton". Brown & Williamson  would release a further 3 series in the following years.

The "Spartan" error was corrected in the next series. It seems the error card is one of the more sought after cards in the set.

The cigarette packs were very affordable during the war, costing 10 cents when most packs sold for a quarter dollar. I got 15 cards, so I guess I made out even better.