By Bobby McMahon, Contributor

The first MLS Cup Final in 1996 was a dramatic affair that saw D.C. United recover from a late two-goal deficit against the Los Angeles Galaxy to win through Eddie Pope’s golden goal in overtime. Yet the drama at Foxborough Stadium that day could not come close to emulating the ‘Greatest Soccer Final Played on American Soil’ — the first continental professional final held between franchises from those two cities to crown the 1967 United Soccer Association champion. Nearly 18,000 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum witnessed 11 goals, two hat-tricks, three penalty kicks, last-minute equalizers in normal and extra-time, one sending off, countless punch-ups and a heartbreaking golden own goal in sudden-death overtime.  Ian Thomson is a former Wall Street reporter and freelance soccer journalist based in Morgantown, West Virginia. In his first book “Summer Of ’67” Ian tells the story of that final and the 12 teams that arrived in North America from around the globe to compete in the first United Soccer Association. The twelve teams were adopted by cities across North America and went through name changes. Cagliari of Italy became the Chicago Mustangs, Wolves and Sunderland from England played as the Los Angeles Wolves and the Vancouver Royal Canadians. Stoke City became the Cleveland Stokers, Bangu from Brazil the Houston Stars and Dundee United offered a Texas rivalry as the Dallas Tornado. Toronto City was Hibernian from Scotland, C.A. Cerro of Uruguay the New York Skyliners  and the Netherlands side ADO Den Haag took temporary possession of the mouthful that was the San Francisco Golden Gate Gales. Rounding out the 12 teams was Glentoran of Northern Ireland as the Detroit Cougars, Shamrock Rovers from the Republic not surprisingly lined up as the  Boston Rovers and Aberdeen became the Washington Whips. Ian was kind enough to take time to answer some of my questions. Q What drew you to this specific subject? A I’d heard many years ago that my team, Aberdeen from Scotland, had played as the Washington Whips in some far-flung American tournament before I was born. I never thought too much about it until I attended my first D.C. United game at RFK Stadium last year. Shortly afterward, I interviewed Notre Dame head coach Bobby Clark for a college soccer story. Bobby was Aberdeen’s goalkeeper during the 1967 tour. It struck me that the United Soccer Association was a key milestone in the timeline of U.S. soccer history that remains largely obscure. Q As you did your research what level of awareness did you find 0f the 1967 United Soccer Association on both sides of the Atlantic? Or was it case that Pele signing for the Cosmos years later was the starting point for most?  A It’s funny, I was talking to Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Martin Rennie after his team’s 1-0 win at RFK Stadium in June. Rennie is an Aberdeen fan, yet he had no idea that The Dons had played in that venue. Sunderland’s club historian had written a …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest