I’ve always wanted to talk to Phil Parkes. He’s had a long football career playing 15 years for Wolverhampton Wanderers and shifting to play in the United Sates.
The year that most interested me was 1967.
In 1966, Americans were treated to England winning the World Cup in their living rooms. The Final was broadcast live in the US and to capitalize on the newest soccer fever, Soccer bigwigs rushed to start a soccer league. The only problem was that there really were no teams ready to jump on and play.
The United Soccer Association came up with a brilliant idea to quickly start the league. A wholesale transplanting of entire teams from different countries to fly to the US and represent an adopted city.
Wolverhampton Wanderers, fresh from being promoted to the Top Flight of English soccer were given Los Angeles and were name The Los Angeles Wolves.
Joining Wolves were…. Aberdeen (Washington Whips); ADO Den Haag (San Francisco Golden Gate Gales); Bangu (Houston Stars); Cagliari (Chicago Mustangs); Cerro (New York Skyliners); Dundee United (Dallas Tornado); Glentoran (Detroit Cougars); Hibernian (Toronto City); Shamrock Rovers (Boston Rovers); Stoke City (Cleveland Stokers); Sunderland (Vancouver Royal Canadians)
WOLVES RESULTS
May 27: Bangu 1 Wolves 1 in Houston (Woodfield). Att: 34,965.
June 4: Wolves 2 Cerro 1 in Los Angeles (Hunt, Burnside). Att: 7,000.
June 7: Stoke 0 Wolves 0 in Cleveland. Att: 4,128.
June 11: Hibernian 1 Wolves 2 in Toronto (Thomson, Dougan). Att: 5,000.
June 14: Wolves 5 Sunderland 1 in Los Angeles (Buckley 2, Hunt, Dougan, Knowles). Att: 6,000.
June 18: Wolves 4 Glentoran 1 in Los Angeles (Thomson, Dougan, Hunt, Knowles). Att: 5,381.
June 20: Aberdeen 1 Wolves 1 in Washington DC (Burnside). Att: 7,847. Match annulled and replayed on July 10 as Wolves fielded three outfield substitutes and only two were allowed.
June 25: Wolves 1 Shamrock 1 in Los Angeles (Wharton pen). Att: 8,000.
June 28: ADO Den Haag 1 Wolves 0 in San Francisco. Att: 7,123.
June 30: Wolves 2 ADO Den Haag 0 in Los Angeles (Wharton, Davies). Att: 12,000.
July 5: Wolves 2 Cagliari 2 in Los Angeles (Hunt, Wharton pen). Att: 11,000.
July 9: Dundee United 2 Wolves 2 in Dallas (Knowles, Thomson). Att: 7,946.
July 10: Aberdeen 3 Wolves 0 in Washington DC. Att: 7,641.
And Wolves didn’t disappoint. They ended up in the Final playing against The Washington Whips.
July 14: Wolves 6 Aberdeen 5 in LA (Knowles, Burnside 3, Dougan, Thomson). Att: 17,824. Wolves line-up: Parkes, Taylor, Thomson, Holsgrove, Woodfield, Burnside, Wharton, Hunt, Dougan, Knowles, Wagstaffe.
In my opinion…this was the greatest final match in the history of American domestic soccer.
Phil Parkes was the goalkeeper at the final, Wolves #1.
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