NASL 50th!

"People forget that the Cosmos sent so many American players to the national team.”

"For me, it will be a nostalgic celebration of a life in soccer for everyone that was involved."

"It’s great city, great people and I had great teammates.”

"I learned quite a bit from him, it was the kind of soccer I preach one still love to follow."

“For a kid from Vancouver to be a part of that was amazing,”

“Looking back, I just think it was overwhelming, the number of great players in the league,”

“When you’re 19 you don’t think past the next week. I was thrilled to be with a professional team close to home."

"Back in the late 1960s Jan Book, a 19-year-old soccer player from Sweden, could have never conceived that the North American Soccer League was about to change his life."

“There were 17 teams, we were competitive and were successful against some international teams. It was a good year.”

“After 11 years in the NASL we had some damn good experience playing against international players.”

"It was a very liberating experience to come to the U.S. and attend college -- I met so many wonderful people, I played with excellent players from all over the world, I got an education."

"I was pretty cocky at the time, and thought I can compete in this league. So I went with it -- it was a good decision, a great decision."

"I hope you can join us for what promises to be a great weekend."

“I always feel good to know I was part of the beginning of what I think has been a great influence on the development of soccer in America,”

“I’m not a guy who does things in half. They only wanted me to go for the summer. But if I was to commit, it had to be full on.”

“Like every other guy who played in the NASL, I take pride in the part we played in soccer in this country,”

"In the end, was the NASL a failure? Absolutely not. It laid the groundwork for where we are today."

"I told him that ‘if you go there you can win the European Cup, but if you come to America you can win a country.’"

“George got me started understanding the game, I had never played, and I never really liked the game,”

“My whole life changed because of that trip, that game,”

"I was on the same field and training every day with some great players. Eighteen years old and now it’s my livelihood.”

"We were expecting 5-7,000 people and they only have six gates open and are 20,000 people out there. It was a great start for soccer in the state of Minnesota."

“The NASL was the first to number jerseys beyond No. 11, to put names on shirts, do clinics, marketing, PR, outreach all those things the rest of world took for granted."

“Time passes so quickly it seems as we get older, and I think when we reflect back on those time in NASL, it was an extremely special time."

"It was crazy that we were able to get people of that caliber to show us how to play. In those days we were so naive. All we wanted to do was work hard, run and play.”

“It’s a culture that starts with leadership,” he said. “For us, when we were on the field we were all brothers, when we were off the field we were brothers. But also fought like brothers.”