June 12, 2009
DON'T FORGET TRIBUTE MATCH
Game illumines Dallas soccer legacy

Living legacies of Dallas Soccer will be on the pitch Saturday when FC Dallas presents its inaugural Dallas Soccer Tribute Match at Pizza Hut Park at 5:15 p.m., prior to the MLS game between FCD and the Houston Dynamo.

The most popular and iconic figure to wear a Dallas soccer uniform, Antonio Carlos Pecorari, or “Tatu,” will help lead the veterans in the Tribute Match. He is one of the most beloved Dallas sports figures. In his hey-day, even the major media touted him as one of the most recognizable sports stars in the city. But the shirt-tossing Brazilian is just a start.

At least seven former Dallas Tornado players have confirmed their participation, and 15 former Dallas Sidekicks players. You have to be a soccer old-timer in this area to remember the Dallas Tornado and their impact on the community. Without the example blazed by the Tornado players, the game in North Texas would be totally different today.

Simply put, soccer was almost an unknown game in Dallas when Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Tornado pioneered the sport here. But young men like Freddy Garcia, Dick Hall, David James, Bobby Moffat, Rudy Pena, Teodoro Santana and Zequinha, all of whom will be playing Saturday, poured themselves into the community. Coaches, such as Ron Newman, and players alike took the sport to the schools and parks and helped establish the identity of the sport, its uniqueness and availability to the average and even small athlete. They piqued the curiosity of thousands of young people who had never seen the sport live. Their diligence helped establish the groundwork of the soccer leagues seen today.

Young soccer players now could hardly imagine the obstacles they faced or the total lack of facilities they had to deal with.

While they did this, at the same time on the field, the Tornado were winners. Besides all of the costly monetary mistakes made by the league in its management decisions so many of those early Dallas players and their kids went on to seed the sport and are still active today. FC Dallas fans know that full well, since Kenny Cooper Jr. is the offensive mainstay of FCD, and Jr. is the son of former Dallas Tornado great Kenny Cooper.

After the NASL folded, the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and Dallas Sidekicks kept the professional side of the sport alive. A new generation of players, including Tatu, became the face of soccer in Dallas, playing for the four-time champion Sidekicks.

More of these players, younger than the NASL vets, will be testing the afternoon heat. Many of these players are still coaching Dallas youngsters today and some of them were coached the NASL vets. Sidekicks players participating include: David Doyle, Brad Flanagan, Paul Hason, Chris Hayden, Brian Hooten, David Hudgell, Curtis Partain, Giampolo Pedroso, Wilco Ravestin, Shawn Ray, Dev Reeves, Chris Ring, Patrick Shamu, Terry Woodberry, and of course, Tatu.

Finally, the Dallas Burn and now FC Dallas, through Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Hunt Sports Group (HSG) keep Dallas involved in the top U.S. soccer league. Fourteen former Burn and FCD players will also be involved. They are both a product of Dallas historical soccer legacy and some of the newer standard bearers. These players include: Matt Behncke, Carl Bussey, Chad Deering, Richard Farrer, Jorge Flores, Jordan Stone, Steve Jolley, Antonio “Chivas” Martinez, Oscar Pareja, Brandon Pollard, Ed Puskarich, Bobby Rhine, Jorge “Zarco” Rodriguez and Phil Salyer,


Tribute games such as the one Saturday are important and FC Dallas and HSG must be commended for their sponsorship. It is not just a spectacle of older athletes long past (a few not so long past) their prime, enjoying once more a game they love. It is a tribute to men who helped instill a new way of life to North Texas, a new sports industry here, one that didn’t exist here before they pioneered the sport here in the 1970’s and ‘80’s.

Enjoy what you have now, young player, or spectator. Sit back and see the joy these men still have for their sport and go out and do the same. Leave North Texas a better environment for soccer than when you started. They did.