Thursday, July 31, 2014

Liverpool FC Tour 2014

Tour 2014 program cover

The Liverpool program for the 2014 tour of the US. Includes features on each of the teams they are facing (Manchester City, AS Roma, Olympiacos and AC Milan) the cities they are playing in (New York, Chicago, Boston and Charlotte).

An Interview with Brad Friedel, the first American to play for the Reds. Stories on three Liverpool players who came to the US to play "They Crossed the Pond" - Steve Heighway, Kevin Kewley and Steve Nicol. Past tours of North America - 1946, 1948, 1953, 1964, 2004 and 2012.

Player profiles, very nicely done with a small photo and paragraph on each (6 to a page). Stories on Brendan Rodgers and the city of Liverpool. A very nicely done souvenir program for the US tour....

2014 - International Champions Cup

Liverpool FC v Manchester City 2014.07.30 Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY
Both teams played an exciting game trading goals to reach a 2-2 tie. With seconds remaining it appeared that Liverpool would win when Sterling placed the ball in the top corner, only to be called offsides. 

Liverpool would win on penalty kicks, when the first 3 players could not find the net. Kolarov (MC) missed the net, Sturridge (LCF) missed the net, Yaya Toure's (MC) shot is saved by Mignolet. Emre Can (LFC) hits the first for Liverpool. Navas (MC) hits the equalizer. Henderson (LFC) scores. Iheanacho (MC) scores. Lucas (LFC) scores the winning shot...

My first visit to the new Yankee Stadium. Very impressive from the outside and yet it still holds the memories of all the past Yankee memories. Excellent crowd, very much a Liverpool crowd. Stood for the entire game with many fans from England singing and cheering on Liverpool...

The International Champions Cup returns for a second year, with a two groups of four in a round-robin format played in 12 cities across the US and Canada.

Jul 24 - AC Milan 0 - Olympiacos 3 - BMO Field, Toronto (originally scheduled for Citi Field, NY)
Jul 26 - AS Roma 2 - Manchester United 3 - Sports Authority Field, Denver, Co
Jul 26 - Inter Milan 1 - Real Madrid 1 (Inter 3-2 PK)- Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, Ca
Ju 27 - Manchester City 5 - AC Milan 1 - Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, Pa
Jul 27 - Liverpool FC 1 - Olympiacos 0 - Soldier Field, Chicago, Il
Jul 29 - Inter Milan 0 - Manchester United 0 (ManU 5-3 PK)- FedEx Field, Washington DC
Jul 29 - AS Roma 1 - Real Madrid 0 - Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Tx
Jul 30 - Manchester City 2 - Liverpool FC 2 (Liverpool 3-1 PK)- Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY
Aug 2 - AS Roma 0 - Inter Milan 2 - Lincoln Field, Philadelphia, Pa
Aug 2 - Manchester City 2 - Olympiacos 2 (Olymp 5-4 PK) - TCF Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Mn
Aug 2 - Real Madrid 1 - Manchester United 3 - Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Mi
Aug 2 - Liverpool FC 2 - AC Milan 0 - Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC
Final -
Aug 4 - Liverpool FC 1 - Manchester United 3 - Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Fl

The Aug 2 game in Michigan set a US record for attendance with 109,318 fans watching Real Madrid and Manchester United

Again there are a number of international friendlies, which is great for the American audience:
Jul 19, 2014
 - Tottenham Hotspurs 3 at Seattle Sounders 3
Jul 23, 2014
 - Liverpool FC 0 -  AS Roma 1 - Fenway Park, Boston, Ma
 - Tottenham Hotspurs 3 at Toronto FC 2
 - Crystal Palace 2 at Columbus Crew 2
 - Manchester City 4 at Sporting KC 1
 - Aston Villa 2 at FC Dallas 0
 - Manchester United 7 at LA Galaxy 0
Jul 25, 2014
 - Crystal Palace 1 at Philadelphia Union 0
Jul 26, 2014
 - Arsenal 0 at NY Red Bull 1 - 2014 NY Cup
 - Fulham 3 at DC United 0
 - Tottenham Hotspurs 2 at Chicago Fire 0
 - Aston Villa 1 at Houston Dynamo 0
Jul 27, 2014
 - Atletico Madrid 0 at San Jose Earthquakes 0 (Atletico 4-3 PK)
Jul 31, 2014
 - Bayern Munich 1 - Chivas Guadalajara 0  - 2014 Audi Football Summit, Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ
Aug 6, 2014
 - Bayren Munich 1 at MLS All-Stars 2 - Portland, Ore
Aug 12, 2014
 - Club Tijuana 1 at Real Salt Lake 1

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

1996 Bandai MLS Figures


1996 - Bandai Tab Ramos
Image taken from Dash Action Figures

Bandai produced several figures for the MLS in conjunction with it's inaugural season. Each figure came packed with an Upper Deck trading card. The cards have an action shot on the front and a head shot and bio on the back.

Players issued:
Cobi Jones, LA Galaxy
Tab Ramos, MetroStars
Carlos Valderrama, Tampa Bay Mutiny
Alexi Lalas, NE Revolution
Frank Klopas, KC Wizards
Hugo Sanchez, Dallas Burn
Doctor Kumalo, Columbus Crew
John Harkes, DC United
Marcello Balboa, Colorado Rapids
Eric Wynalda, San Jose Clash


I finally picked up a Tab Ramos, which I had kept putting off for another time. The back of the package shows all of the MLS figures as well as their 2" keychain counterparts.

The full figure is 4" tall with a green base, although the images on the back of the package show a white base. My figure still has the original $5.99 price sticker...

updated 2014.07.26

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

2012 Franz Bread - Timbers and Sounders



Franz Bread, which has provided trading cards in their packaging for the Mariners, Seahawks and Trailblazers, also included the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders. I love the regional issues over Topps or Upper Deck, they have a connection to the team...

I have only come across a few of these cards, running from $3-5.00 on ebay.

Cards I am aware of include:
Portland - Darlington Nagbe, Kris Boyd, Troy Perkins, Diego Chara, Jack Jewsbury, Jake gleeson, Brent Richards, Franck Songo'o, Eric Brunner, Kalif Alhassan, Eric Alexander, John Spencer

Seattle - David Estrada, Mauro Morales, David Gspurning, Steve Zakuani, Freddy Montero, Osvaldo Alonzo, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Eddie Johnson, Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez,

Monday, July 14, 2014

Cereal boxes

After Post Cereals issued cereal boxes with Alex Morgan and Omar Gonzalez, I decided to do some research on older cereal boxes that may have been issued.
1998 Kellogg's - Alexi Lalas and Tab Ramos
sold on ebay for $10.00

In 1996 Kellogg's featured several players for the inaugural season and continued to do so over several years. In 2002 Kellogg launched a special edition of it's Frosted Flakes cereal featuring the Kansas City Wizards following their 2000 MLS Cup Championship and the San Jose Earthquakes following their 2001 MLS Cup championship..


In 1999 Wheaties, famous for all of the athletes they feature on their boxes joined the women's soccer craze honoring members of the US Women's National team following the  US Women's World Cup held in the US in 1999. Brandi Chastain, Brianna Scurry and Christine Lily were each featured individually

2004 Taylor Twellman - Waffle Crisp

In 2004 Post issued 4 boxes featuring Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution), Landon Donovan (San Jose Earthquakes), Chris Armas (Chicago Fire) and Freddy Adu (DC United) on boxes of Alpha-bits, Waffle Crisp, Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles, Honeycomb, Strawberry Blast Honeycomb, Oreo O's, Golden Crisp and Marshmallow Alpha-bits. Each box offered a free footbag (hacky sack) with the MLS logo.  Post is a product of Kraft foods, which became an official sponsor of the MLS in 2004.


2012 Quaker's Life cereal box featured Chicago Fire's Austin Berry. As sponsor of the Chicago Fire Quaker took it upon themselves to help promote Berry as the selection for 2012 MLS Rookie of the Year, which he was awarded...

1999 Quaker - US Soccer Golden Goals, featuring the 1999 US Women's World Championship team.
updated 2014.12.23

Friday, July 11, 2014

Nabisco - US Soccer = Pass the Love

Clint Dempsey - Pass the Love

Additional promotional packaging from Nabisco. Side panel from Nabisco 12-pack of mini Oreo cookies. The same image was featured on other 12-pack minis, such as Teddy Graham crackers.


Walking through my local Target, I came across this from a box of Nabisco Honey Maid Grahamfuls.
OMar Gonzalez, Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey and DaMarcus Beasley
updated 2014.07.27