Big-Time Soccer: The Remarkable Rise & Fall of the NASL

Nearly 40 years since its demise, the North American Soccer League continues to linger in the memories and imaginations of soccer fans across the United States — and beyond. The colorful, oftentimes controversial league attracted some of the game’s greatest players: Pele, Best, Cruyff, Muller, Beckenbauer, to name a few. Crowds of 70,000-plus flocked to games as the NASL brought star power to a country where soccer had been virtually invisible just a few years earlier.

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  Brandi Chastain

  Self
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  Pelé

  Self (archive footage)
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  George Best

  Self (archive footage)
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  Johan Cruijff

  Self (archive footage)
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  Franz Beckenbauer

  Self (archive footage)