[Journeyman]

[Duckstabber]

Nope - at least not from this picture...

[JackDee]

me neither, weird looking field too, looks like a plastic field, no grass, and players don't wear spikes, by the looks of it with the mcdonalds ad it's the u.s. sometime in the early to mid eighties probably judging by the quality of the photo and the players physique and fans haircuts, weird like i said though the artificial field because I didn't know there were any that back, must have hurt the players real bad to play under such conditions, even by todays standards artificial terains make players very injury prone. From what I can tell it's glass shield between players and fans, very unlikely to almost impossible in europe and by the size of it and the fans closeness it looks like it's been played indoors.

Enough detective work, spill the beans journey!

Ok checked the url zungulvforce, that in the beggining didn't make any sense, but i noticed the word force on the players shirts, so i reckoned the v. stood for versus and zungul must be the players name.

Steve Zungul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Slavisa Zungul)
Jump to: navigation, search

Slavisa "Steve" Zungul (born July 28, 1954 in Yugoslavia) is a Croat soccer player, who spent most of his career playing in the United States.

Zungul played for the Golden Bay Earthquakes of the North American Soccer League in 1983 and 1984, winning the NASL MVP Award in 1984, the league's last season. Zungul registered 20 goals and 10 assists in 24 games that season, but could not keep the Earthquakes out of the bottom of the Western Conference.

Besides playing outdoors in the NASL, Zungul was clearly one of the best players in American indoor soccer throughout the 80's.

Zungul led the MISL in scoring in 1980, after finishing second in 1979, while playing for the New York Arrows in both seasons. Zungul would dominate the league for the next four years, leading the league in scoring each year from 1980 to 1983. After focusing on the NASL for a year in 1984, he returned to the MISL to lead the league again in 1985 and 1986. It was not until 1987 that his run finally came to a close, as another indoor luminary, the Dallas Sidekicks' Tatu, took Zungul's place at the top of the scoring charts. Zungul was also named the league's MVP from 1979-1982, and then again in 1985 and 1986.

Zungul earned 14 caps for Yugoslavia and played in Euro 76.



Very interesting I learned quite a bit about the league by reading around, six players, surprisingly high attendances at around seven thousand per game average in all years, in the early years even competing in some states with mlb and the national bussiness association basketball...it pretty pathetic though that the u.s. couldn't put together a proper government regulated soccer league and had all those splits and sub splits and different competing leagues open to entrepreneurial risk taking.

Jack.

[Duckstabber]

Nice work, Columbo!




Journeyman, is it a picture from your time playing indoor soccer?

[Journeyman]

No, unfortunately I never came close to playing in the MISL, if there would have been farm systems like in other sports I have no doubt I would have made it, just no opportuity really...the league was made up of foreign players, each team would have maybe 1-2 american players and those players usually weren't the focal point of their teams..

Zungul was every bit as dominant as Wayne Gretzky, he was simply spectacular...If indoor soccer was as popular as Hockey or the NBA in America he would be a household name.

Unfortunately the game never captured the imagination of the U.S. , it was very popular within the cities who had teams, Baltimore, Cleveland, St louis, Wichita, Chicago (to a lesser degree) the biggest problem was no national TV revenue...teams came and went, even the New York franchise struggled because it was competing directly with hockey, and back then the Islanders were kings of hockey..

Stan Stamenkovic was another unbelievable player, his unique dribbling which was perfect for the indoor game, was something else, hard to even describe his ubique abilty to make the ball look like it was on a string, Stan was the best passer, he could find a streaking player and thread the needle behind his back, it was if he had eyes in the back of his head...Stan died a few years ago, in a freak accident , slipped on ice or something and was killed.

I wish there were more posters who followed this sport back then because it was a very entertaining game,it had sort of a cult following, it was the place to be back in the day, the Baltimore Arena would sell out every game, I remember one night the Orioles were in town and sold out the stadium 50,000+, and the soccer gamewas sold out too, this was back in 1984 during the MISL finals vs St Louis.....

kind of funny thinking back now, as I never watch soccer.

[Journeyman]

me neither, weird looking field too, looks like a plastic field, no grass, and players don't wear spikes, by the looks of it with the mcdonalds ad it's the u.s. sometime in the early to mid eighties probably judging by the quality of the photo and the players physique and fans haircuts, weird like i said though the artificial field because I didn't know there were any that back, must have hurt the players real bad to play under such conditions, even by todays standards artificial terains make players very injury prone. From what I can tell it's glass shield between players and fans, very unlikely to almost impossible in europe and by the size of it and the fans closeness it looks like it's been played indoors.

Enough detective work, spill the beans journey!

Ok checked the url zungulvforce, that in the beggining didn't make any sense, but i noticed the word force on the players shirts, so i reckoned the v. stood for versus and zungul must be the players name.

Steve Zungul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Slavisa Zungul)
Jump to: navigation, search

Slavisa "Steve" Zungul (born July 28, 1954 in Yugoslavia) is a Croat soccer player, who spent most of his career playing in the United States.

Zungul played for the Golden Bay Earthquakes of the North American Soccer League in 1983 and 1984, winning the NASL MVP Award in 1984, the league's last season. Zungul registered 20 goals and 10 assists in 24 games that season, but could not keep the Earthquakes out of the bottom of the Western Conference.

Besides playing outdoors in the NASL, Zungul was clearly one of the best players in American indoor soccer throughout the 80's.

Zungul led the MISL in scoring in 1980, after finishing second in 1979, while playing for the New York Arrows in both seasons. Zungul would dominate the league for the next four years, leading the league in scoring each year from 1980 to 1983. After focusing on the NASL for a year in 1984, he returned to the MISL to lead the league again in 1985 and 1986. It was not until 1987 that his run finally came to a close, as another indoor luminary, the Dallas Sidekicks' Tatu, took Zungul's place at the top of the scoring charts. Zungul was also named the league's MVP from 1979-1982, and then again in 1985 and 1986.

Zungul earned 14 caps for Yugoslavia and played in Euro 76.



Very interesting I learned quite a bit about the league by reading around, six players, surprisingly high attendances at around seven thousand per game average in all years, in the early years even competing in some states with mlb and the national bussiness association basketball...it pretty pathetic though that the u.s. couldn't put together a proper government regulated soccer league and had all those splits and sub splits and different competing leagues open to entrepreneurial risk taking.

Jack.

There was no one close to him really, when he was in the league he was the MVP, he left the league , came back and was still the best plyer, in the later years, when Tatu took over top scorer, Zungul just got old.

The MISL official tried to sell their act to Vegas and have Vegas put a line up for the games, but Vegas wasn't interested.

The league was most popular from 1980-1985, peaking around 1983-84, with a few natonal telecasts....

Without a means to gamble on the games I guess the sport couldn't draw enough interest , even on ESPN, which use to carry the NASL indoor games back around 1979-80.

Some other great players who were foreigners...the Yugoslavian players were the most dominant.

Branko Segota YUG
Mike Stankovic YUG
Kaz Deyna GER (he was in the movie with Pele and Stallone)
Kai Haaskivi Finland
Stan Terlecki Poland
Stan Stamenkovic YUG
Keith Furphy ENG
Peter Baralic Yug
Tony Glavin Eng
Tatu
Julie Vee

Some American players who were good goal scorers;

Joey Fink
Davey MacWilliams
Bruce Savage
Kim Roentvend
Andy Chapman

Recalling these old names sure brings back some memories.

[JackDee]

Great Thread.

"Without a means to gamble on the games I guess the sport couldn't draw enough interest" True. But why did they have all these competing federations for soccer, why not established a government control centralized one as in europe, i know it's not the american way, but...How did this league compare to outdoor soccer?

Just the sight of an indoor playing field is, well, a sight to see for european fans.

[Journeyman]

Jack...I think the main reason indoor was popular was it was much more exciting than the outdoor game, to 'americans'...I played both indoor and outdoor, both were great IMO.

I can totally understand the european fans getting a good laugh at the site of soccer being played on an ice hockey rink, with artificial carpert layed over top the ice!

Still though this was an exciting sport, with some incredible soccer stars, totally different game no question.

The leagues didn't really compete against each other, the NASL formed first,which was outdoor than during the outdoor off season they came indoors and played a very short indoor season (like 18 games)

Then in the late 70's the MISL was born, which was strictly an indoor league, and this league was a more popular league...eventually the NASL folded and some of those teams joined the MISL, namely the San Diego Sockers coached by Ron Newman, the Sockers became the team to beat, they won the title almost every year, also they eventually aquired Zungul, they also had Julie Vee and Branko Zegota, both great players , Zoltan Toth was their all star goalie.

These soccer players have some of the craziest names, we had Batata, Tatu, Julie Vee, Dragon Nikitovic, Slobo Illievski, Drago Dumbovic, there were some real personalities in this league!

The introductions before the game were also a big spectacle, a mixture of rock and stage show....I guess you had to experience it first hand to really appreciate the sport, I know Russia had an indoor game because they toured the US and played exhibition games one year.

[Journeyman]

Stan Stamenkovic, the most incredible dribbler you will ever see.

[Journeyman]

Leading Scorers

<TABLE align=center border=1><TBODY><TR><TH>Year </TH><TH>Player, Team</TH><TH>G </TH><TH>A </TH><TH>Pts</TH></TR><TR><TD>1979</TD><TD>Fred Grgurev, Philadelphia</TD><TD>46</TD><TD>28</TD><TD>74</TD></TR><TR><TD>1980</TD><TD>Steve Zungul, New York</TD><TD>90</TD><TD>46</TD><TD>136</TD></TR><TR><TD>1981</TD><TD>Steve Zungul, New York</TD><TD>108</TD><TD>44</TD><TD>152</TD></TR><TR><TD>1982</TD><TD>Steve Zungul, New York</TD><TD>103</TD><TD>60</TD><TD>163</TD></TR><TR><TD>1983</TD><TD>Steve Zungul, NY/Golden Bay</TD><TD>75</TD><TD>47</TD><TD>122</TD></TR><TR><TD>1984</TD><TD>Stan Stamenkovic, Baltimore</TD><TD>34</TD><TD>63</TD><TD>97</TD></TR><TR><TD>1985</TD><TD>Steve Zungul, San Diego</TD><TD>68</TD><TD>68</TD><TD>136</TD></TR><TR><TD>1986</TD><TD>Steve Zungul, Tacoma</TD><TD>55</TD><TD>60</TD><TD>115</TD></TR><TR><TD>1987</TD><TD>Tatu, Dallas</TD><TD>73</TD><TD>38</TD><TD>111</TD></TR><TR><TD>1988</TD><TD>Eric Rasmussen, Wichita</TD><TD>55</TD><TD>57</TD><TD>112</TD></TR><TR><TD>1989</TD><TD>Preki, Tacoma</TD><TD>51</TD><TD>53</TD><TD>104</TD></TR><TR><TD>1990</TD><TD>Tatu, Dallas</TD><TD>64</TD><TD>49</TD><TD>113</TD></TR><TR><TD>1991</TD><TD>Tatu, Dallas</TD><TD>78</TD><TD>66</TD><TD>144</TD></TR><TR><TD>1992</TD><TD>Zoran Karic, Cleveland</TD><TD>39</TD><TD>63</TD><TD>102</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[JackDee]

soccer's great even if they played it on a rag, like i said it's very interesting to see that a lot of people in the u.s., as in pretty much everywhere around the world, found the sport very appealing forming a sort of cult following, I always talk it was a very marginal thing until the world cup.

[Journeyman]

The game was played 5 on 5, just like hockey...a man advantage penalty occured two ways, the ref would pull out the yellow card (just like a hockey penalty) or after a team had six 'team fouls' in a quarter, they went down a man.

The greatest moment in "Baltimore Blast" history...this was easily in my top moments as a sports fan..

The Blast trailed San Diego in the MISL finals in front of a packed house, 5-4...with less than two minutes left in the game, the Blast was penalized and sent a man down, now trailing they pulled the goalie, with 43 seconds left on the clock and a man down Blast midfielder Peter Baralic uncorked a laser beam shot from the red line, that beat goalie to tie it up a man down, 12,000 fans going bonkers in Baltimore Civic Center !

Still the Blast was a man down, with 1 second left on the clock Joey Fink finished the game off...pandamonium! This was one of the more emotional games I ever saw , any sport! I will never forget that shot Baralic made and the power behind that kick.

[Maria Sharapova]

judging from the short shorts and the colors,this must have been
some sort of Gay Soccer League.

[Maria Sharapova]

actually Soccer's one microsecond in the sun was in the late 70's
with the New York Cosmos. Pele,Franz Beckenbauer(sp?)
and my favorite basket hanger Georgio Chinaglia(sp?) Maybe
johan Cruyff(sp?) as well.
The one thing that must have been different was playing on
an artificial grass surface.Just sliding on it can give you a serious
case of "carpet burn".Ball bounces higher as well

[Journeyman]

judging from the short shorts and the colors,this must have been
some sort of Gay Soccer League.

How did you guess? Yes correct the whole league was homesexuals , same as the NBA in the early 1980's , same as every player who wore a uniform in the 1980's they were kind of short, therefore we were all gay...you are correct everyone who played sports in the 1980's was homesexual.

[anxietyattack]

I do miss the indoor game very much also. Just remembering that bright orange flourescent ball which looked like it was shot out of a cannon when the players would shoot on goal still gives me goosebumps. It really was an exciting league with tons of talent !! The indoor game inspired me to play soccer throughout the 80's. I never would have played if it wasn't for all of the action from the MISL. I also think that the NBA copied off the MISL later on with how they did introductions. I believe the MISL had those rock type introductions before say the Bulls started with theirs later on. Of course no one really knows that but i think it all started with the MISL. The lights would be off and all of a sudden loud music with lights everywhere. It was truly an exciting time.

[Journeyman]

I do miss the indoor game very much also. Just remembering that bright orange flourescent ball which looked like it was shot out of a cannon when the players would shoot on goal still gives me goosebumps. It really was an exciting league with tons of talent !! The indoor game inspired me to play soccer throughout the 80's. I never would have played if it wasn't for all of the action from the MISL. I also think that the NBA copied off the MISL later on with how they did introductions. I believe the MISL had those rock type introductions before say the Bulls started with theirs later on. Of course no one really knows that but i think it all started with the MISL. The lights would be off and all of a sudden loud music with lights everywhere. It was truly an exciting time.

WHAT TEAM WERE YOU MOST FAMILIAR WITH..I BELIEVE I RESPONDED TO YOUR POST ONE OTHER TIME BUT I THINK YOU MUST HAVE MISSED IT....

I WOULD TAKE ZUNGUL (F), STAMENKOVIC (C), TATU (F), STANKOVIC (D) BRANKO ZEGOTA (D) ALAN MAYER (G) AGAINST ANY FIVE PLAYERS AROUND THE GLOBE.

[Maria Sharapova]

How did you guess? Yes correct the whole league was homesexuals , same as the NBA in the early 1980's , same as every player who wore a uniform in the 1980's they were kind of short, therefore we were all gay...you are correct everyone who played sports in the 1980's was homesexual.

Someone sounds awfully sensitive about their Indoor Soccer.

[Maria Sharapova]

I do miss the indoor game very much also. Just remembering that bright orange flourescent ball which looked like it was shot out of a cannon when the players would shoot on goal still gives me goosebumps. It really was an exciting league with tons of talent !! The indoor game inspired me to play soccer throughout the 80's. I never would have played if it wasn't for all of the action from the MISL. I also think that the NBA copied off the MISL later on with how they did introductions. I believe the MISL had those rock type introductions before say the Bulls started with theirs later on. Of course no one really knows that but i think it all started with the MISL. The lights would be off and all of a sudden loud music with lights everywhere. It was truly an exciting time.

I think Pro Wrestling was the first to come up with this.

[JackDee]

"I think Pro Wrestling was the first to come up with this."

yeah but you wouldn't consider it a "sport" now, would you?

[anxietyattack]

Now that i think about it all that must have started with wrestling but MISL was very close behind. Hawk and Animal had Black Sabbath's Paranoid playing in 1981. I don't know if they had it before that.

My favorite players from MISL had to include Scott Manning. I didn't like the
team he played for but i thought he was a dynamic goaltender.The way he use to punch the ball out and give his body up was awesome. Totally fearlous! Andy Chapman, Craig Allen, Haaskivi, Tim Wittman, and Preki were among my favorites.

Does anyone know who that bald goaltender on the Chicago Sting was? He was an evil looking dude. For some reason i remember that guy giving me the creeps. He probably played goaltender for them somewhere between 86 and 88.

[KsYaS]

to me looks like Cantona, the attitude, also the hair, the face and he was banned from the fifa since he kicks somebody, dont if a ref, fan or photograph, just remember that incredible kick, wow!

[wnyx_radio]

That fan got what he deserved. He'll think twice the next time he rushes the field. Cantona's Kung Fu kick was awesome.

[JackDee]

awesome kick, great stuff, that's what football is about, fun, and this sure adds up to the fun, I hate stupid conservative rules such as not letting players take their shirts off, which of course is done for the ads nothing more, but football is about celebrating, and it means a lot that a lot of players opt for taking their shirts off in the heat and frenzy of the moment disregarding the yellow card, or viewing it as a necesary evil.