“a collection of college boys and second-rate professionals.”īrooks: “If you remember Brazil and Czechoslovakia (in 1970)…” Yes, Pele. The Daily Mirror ran with “we can’t get any lower.” The Daily Express went with “an abject failure against a third-rate soccer nation” before adding that “English football died of shame last night - and the coffin could be draped with the Stars and Stripes.” They also called the U.S. Here’s a selection of coverage from British newspapers at the time. Wait a minute, didn’t England lose 2-0 to Meola’s U.S. Pelé was so witty and funny and timely, it was almost like he’d rehearsed it, but you could tell he hadn’t.īrooks: Tony Meola defending Pelé’s honor before an English film crew is not an image I ever expected to have. You’re talking to Pelé! You can’t talk to Pelé like this! Come on, dude.
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He said ‘this Englishman is being pushy.’ The guy turns around to Pelé’s guys and says ‘you do know the English invented this game, right?’ and Pelé hears this and he turns around immediately and says, without missing a beat, ‘the English may have invented the game but they sure forgot how to play it.’ He goes on and says ‘they invented the game but they forgot the formula.’Īt that moment, I was thinking about jumping on the dude. Something happened where Pelé’s guy said something about this Englishman. They had this area where we could go grab a snack or some refreshments or sit in this meeting room. They were getting kind of pushy and in between shoots we had a locker room it was in the facility building there. It was getting hot - it was a long day, we filmed for like 10 hours. And they were getting a little bit irritable. Tony Meola: There was an English camera crew. Tony Meola remembers his involvement with this tape well, and he shared this gem when I reached him just last week. Pablo: Well, you’ve led me into a pretty great story, which I’m sure was entirely unintentional. So, originated by an Englishman, but popularized by a Brazilian. Pablo: On the rear of the VHS jacket, this gem: “Pelé guides you through the fundamentals of what he calls ‘the beautiful game.’” Did Pelé himself curse us with that phrase?īrooks: According to Wikipedia, it was, in fact, popularized by Pelé, but goes back to an English match commentator in 1958. And we have a MasterCard tracksuit-clad Pelé telling a group of children “soccer is the beautiful game” within the first two minutes. To be king of your kitchen, use Crestfield wax paper." /QKKCKqcY1Pīrooks: The ‘90s video game music playing over this opening montage is spectacular. Every time I hear him mention the name of a corporation, all I think of is the Simpsons. Pablo: Let’s get this out of the way: Pelé is the greatest player in the history of the game, but he’s also a notorious shill. If we had had a few more of those over the years, we’d never be in our current youth development mess to begin with.īrooks: After a particularly jarring turn to his left, “Pete” mentions MasterCard’s “commitment to raising the level of awareness of soccer in the United States.” So is all of this (waves hand across the pay-to-play, closed pyramid, lawsuit heavy landscape of modern American soccer) thanks to them? Pablo: Finally, an old white man with something to say about how players should be developed in the United States. Is that a nickname he came up with just for this video? As if to say “I’m the Pelé of the American credit card game - Pete”? If I don’t get an explanation for that at some point in this video, I am definitely giving it a negative review on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Feel free to watch along (you’ll find the video embedded below.)īrooks: Well, right off the bat I’m wondering how “Pete” fits into MasterCard president and CEO Alex W. What follows is our analysis of this MasterCard MasterWork. I offered to answer any questions he might have upon his first viewing. We share a mutual appreciation for this particular brand of absurdity.
Immediately, I knew I had to share the tape with all of you - but I also knew I needed to share it with my editor Brooks Peck. National Team.” It is a sizzling, 30-minute long instructional tape “narrated by Merlin Olsen, Co-Host of the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon.”
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There are some real gems in there - goal compilations from Major League Soccer’s early years, a tape full of footage from the 70’s of the NASL’s Tampa Bay Rowdies and a few other prizes - but honestly the real catch is “MasterCard Presents Mastering the Game of Soccer with Pelé and the U.S. So when Jason Obermeyer, a follower on Twitter, reached out and informed me he had a box of old U.S.-soccer-related VHS cassettes, I told him to send them along immediately. I’ve mostly just been sitting alone at home, being as socially distant as possible and talking to my cat, who I sense has grown tired of me. It’s been two months since I saw a live soccer game, let alone wrote about one.
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