#John Harkes

[dweemeister]

November 14, 2023

By Adam Elder

(BBC Sport) — On a Saturday evening in February 1990, many of the United States' finest footballers stepped on to A&M Studios' historic soundstage in Los Angeles.

A month before John Barnes would implore his England team-mates to "hold and give, but do it at the right time" in a studio in Berkshire, the United States team recorded their own rap - one they hoped would make the sport famous at home.

In a moment, some of Hollywood's biggest celebrities would walk through the door to join them.

The plan was to record a novelty music video for a star-studded jock jam called Victory. The track celebrated the United States' first trip to the World Cup in 40 years, long before any of these players were born.

Never mind fame, though. In 1990, making football a little less hated in the United States would have counted as a runaway success.

Americans mostly considered football a fringe concern - if they even considered it at all. Baseball, American football and basketball were the "real" American sports.

For most of the 20th century, football in the States was for "the others", to put it politely: expats, cab drivers, dishwashers, exchange students, leftists, intellectuals, Euro snobs and the like.

Still the US Soccer Federation was constantly thinking about how to grow the game.

Werner Fricker, the federation's stern but visionary president, had cannily realised Fifa's desire to wring American dollars out of the world's most popular sport. By 1988, he had guided the United States to victory over Brazil and Morocco to win the right to stage the 1994 World Cup.

But Fricker knew a World Cup in the States faced scepticism. He wanted to prove the hosts had a team good enough to qualify on merit.

He put up his own money to fund a push to qualify for the 1990 event. If the United States succeeded it would be the first time they had made the World Cup since Brazil 1950, where they earned their place via a second-place finish in a three-team pool.

"Werner refused to accept that qualification wasn't doable," said Kevin Payne, former director of marketing and national administrator for the Federation. "He knew what needed to be done, and that past attempts were amateurish."

Fricker made Bob Gansler the team's first full-time coach. A tough yet erudite German-Hungarian immigrant, Gansler's knowledge of American youth football ran deep.

The team picked by Gansler, many fresh out of college, had been raised during the North American Soccer League's Pele-led glory days and were a clean slate from past failures to reach the World Cup.

They had chips on their shoulders for all sorts of other reasons though.

Many of them were second-generation immigrants, their parents and family lives different from an 'apple pie' American ideal. They loved a sport that many around them reviled and yet there was no nationwide outdoor league for them to play in.

[shiveringfrogspawn]

has this been done?

[aenslem]

But… that's a Compact Laser Deluxe! - Doctor Who "Bad Wolf" (2005) One secretly stashed vortex manipulator. - Doctor Who "Revolution of the Daleks" (2021)

[winter-seance]

Doctor Who | 3.11 Utopia

[itsatorchwoodthing]

i feel like you can swap them all and it would still make sense

[screaming-sparrow]

that last one can be read from either perspective and i think that's beautiful :)

[the-doctor-dances]

jack’s type in men can really be summed up by

doomed by the narrative

doesn’t want to admit their attraction to men

looks good in a suit

[stewy]

#not Jack arriving amidst divorce proceedings

[thesilverrarrow]

captain jack harkness and captain john hart bar scene

[nkp1981]

Meanwhile In The Time Vortex

found on: pinterest

[aw-shit-my-ulna]

100% believe this is what they got up to in the Hub when the rift was slow

[freemaagyemans]

Legend says the Face of Boe has lived for billions of years. What happens if I live for a million years?

[aceofwhump]

Torchwood 1x13 "End of Days"

The team's relief at seeing Jack alive after he was dead for several days.

[aenslem]

DOCTOR WHO (2005–) ⤷ Last of the Time Lords

[winter-seance]

Doctor Who | 4.13 Journey's End

[thekingofspin]

so spoilers I was gonna come here and talk about all the parallels between rouge and Jack with the whole outerspace bounty hunter, flirting with psychic paper, calling the doctor "doc" all of which had me so excited until I heard THIS and my entire soul fractured I was SO EXITED.