Do you have two hours free and yearn for the days of non-ironic mustaches and soccer played on astro-turf-covered hockey rinks? I knew you did.
This morning, Youtube user eddiebear60 uploaded the full broadcast of Major Indoor Soccer League’s 1990-91 final game between the Cleveland Crunch and San Diego Shockers. The Cleveland Crunch drop game six, and the best-of-seven series, but it’s still an entertaining broadcast reminiscent of Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn’s Dodgeball movie (on ESPN8, “The Ocho”). The videos starts with a recap of game five — played at the Crunch’s home field at the Richfield Colosseum, which closed a couple years later — and the game kicks off at the 10 minute mark.
The Crunch lose the game, but don’t get too depressed, there’s also a Youtube of the Crunch winning the 1994 National Professional Soccer League championship (two years after the MISL folded). Jeff Phelps, the current cohost of Fox Sports Ohio’s “Cavaliers Live” and The FAN’s “Baskin & Phelps,” was a broadcaster for Cleveland’s WUAB and excitedly announced the end of Cleveland’s championship drought:
Cleveland’s gone 30 years without a championship, the last one was the Browns in 1964. The Crunch changed that, though, in double overtime against St. Louis in the Convocation Center
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2013.
This is awesome! We loved the Force and the Crunch, I miss MISL!!! I sat with 20,000 (yes that’s the right number) screaming soccer fans at some of those games.
The ticket lines outside The Coliseum on many game nights were incredible and interest carried over for a number of seasons at CSU. There are three North American-based indoor leagues bouncing around – it’s surprising that Dan Gilbert has yet to explore the feasibility of filling arena dates with a franchise; marketing a team to the numerous youth leagues in northeast Ohio would appear to be a slam dunk to get fans in the seats – and spending cash.