May 31, 1972: Arsenal Play In America for the 1st Time

May 31, 1972, 50 years ago: North London soccer team Arsenal play in America for the first time, at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Here's the starting lineup for "The Gunners":

1 Goalkeeper (GK) Geoff Barnett (in place of the injured Bob Wilson)
2 Right Back (RB) Pat Rice
3 Left Back (LB) Sammy Nelson (in place of Bob McNab)
4 Midfielder (MF) Peter Storey
5 Centreback (CB) Frank McLintock (sub: 14 John Roberts)
6 CB Peter Simpson
7 MF George Armstrong
8 MF Alan Ball (sub: 12 Eddie Kelly)
9 Forward (FW) John Radford
10 FW Ray Kennedy
11 FW Charlie George.

The Arsenal (the "The" is not official, but it is common) had won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970, both England's Football League Division One and its FA Cup ("The Double") in 1971, and had just finished a season in which they finished 5th in the League and lost in the FA Cup Final. The "club" had played all over the world from the 1930s onward, including the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, but this was their 1st time on North American soil.

They played the Miami Gatos, a North American Soccer League franchise that played from 1972 to 1976, known after that 1st season as the Miami Toros -- the Cats becoming the Bulls.

Arsenal fell behind 2-0, but came back to win, 3-2, with goals by George, Radford and Kennedy. Apparently, things got a little rough on the pitch. Sadly, there seems to be no surviving footage of this match.

Attendance, at the 78,000-seat Orange Bowl: 4,725. I guess there just weren't that many people willing to watch a soccer game in Miami in late Spring, between a soccer team they'd never heard of and... The Arsenal.

Arsenal have since made the following return visits to North America:

* May 23, 1973, Varsity Stadium, Toronto, defeating a team called Toronto Select, 1-0. Charlie George had the goal. Attendance: I can't find a reference.

* May 27, 1973, Police Recreation Field, Devonshire, Bermuda: Arsenal beat Devonshire Colts, 4-0. Goals by George, 2 by Radford, and, in his last appearance for the team, Peter Marinello. Attendance: Not listed. It took them a long time to get back:

* August 6, 1989, Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium), Miami Gardens: Arsenal beat Independiente of Avellaneda, Argentina, 2-1. Each team had won its national league that year. This match was for the Zenith Data Systems Challenge Trophy, a phony "world championship." David "Rocky" Rocastle scored from open play in the 1st half, and from a penalty in the 2nd half.

For the 2nd time, Arsenal decided that the best place in America to visit during the Smmer was Miami. Attendance: 10,042, the vast majority of them Hispanics rooting for the South American team. Each team had someone sent off: Independiente, a player; Arsenal, oddly enough, physio Gary Lewin.

At the time, I was 19 years old, but I didn't even know Arsenal existed. Once again, it took Arsenal a long time to get back. When they did, I was ready, and I was there.

* July 26, 2014, Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey, outside New York: Arsenal lost to the host New York Red Bulls, 1-0. Attendance: A sellout of 25,219, including myself. If the game had been played at the 41,922-seat Citi Field in Flushing, Queens; at the 49,638-seat new Yankee Stadium in The Bronx; or even at the 82,566-seat MetLife Stadium, at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, it would still have sold out. That's how much of a following The Arsenal had achieved by this point in America, and particularly in the New York Tri-State Area.

Bradley Wright-Phillips, son of Arsenal legend Ian Wright, scored the only goal. Abou Diaby had a goal disallowed for offside -- incorrectly, I thought. (Some things never change: Even in meaningless games on other continents, The Arsenal get screwed over by the officials.) It is ironic that the Arsenal player most known for not playing due to injury has come the closest to scoring in an Arsenal uniform than any player I've ever seen. I have seen Thierry Henry score, and in that very stadium, but for the Red Bulls.

Several Arsenal players who featured in the 2014 World Cup did not make the trip: Germans Per Mertesacker and Mesut Özil; Frenchmen Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud; Englishmen Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain; and Chilean Alexis Sánchez.

As a result, the club was short at certain positions. Tomáš Rosický, normally a midfielder, played the 1st 70 minutes up top. Nacho Monreal, normally a left back, was moved to centreback. Gedion Zelalem, only the 3rd American ever to play for Arsenal (after Frank Simek in 2003 and Danny Karbassiyoon in 2004), became the 1st player from a CONCACAF nation to play for Arsenal in a CONCACAF nation, let alone his own.

This game, and the 2012 Emirates Cup 1-1 draw between the clubs, may be as close as we come to Henry, who with only 9 seasons in an Arsenal shirt falls just short of qualifying, ever getting an official testimonial.

* July 28, 2016, Avaya Stadium (now named PayPal Park), San Jose, outside San Francisco: The MLS All-Star Game, and Arsenal beat the MLS All-Stars, 2-1. Joel Campbell and Chuba Akpom were the Arsenal scorers.

Özil, Koscielny and Giroud did not play, because they featured in Euro 2016. (Özil at least made the trip. Mertesacker was injured.) Sánchez did not make the trip, because he featured in the Copa America.

Attendance: Listed as exactly 18,000, which, if true, would be a sellout. Just 2 days later, Liverpool and AC Milan played just a few miles away at Levi's Stadium, the new home of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, and sold out at 68,500. I have no doubt that Arsenal, never mind the MLS All-Stars, could have sold that out, too.

* July 31, 2016, StubHub Center (now named Dignity Health Sports Park), Carson, California, outside Los Angeles: Arsenal defeated Mexican team Club Deportivo Guadalajara, 3-1. Rob Holding, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Akpom were the Arsenal scorers against the team popularly known as Chivas.

Attendance: 24,000. This may have been the 1st time that a Mexican team has played in California and had their fans outnumbered. Three days earlier, Chelsea beat Liverpool nearby at the Rose Bowl in front of 53,117. Arsenal would have done at least that well.

Arsenal had intended to play in the Florida Cup in Orlando in the Summer of 2021: On July 25 against Internazionale Milano of Italy, and on July 28 against either Everton of Liverpool or Millonarios of Bogotá, Colombia. But they backed out, due to a COVID outbreak among team personnel (not just players).

So, in the Summer of 2022, Arsenal are making it up to their North American fans: They are playing not one, not two, but three matches on U.S. soil. On July 16, they will play Everton at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. On July 20, they will play Orlando City at Exploria Stadium in Orlando. And on July 23, they will play West London team Chelsea F.C. at the much larger Orlando stadium, Camping World Stadium, formerly known as the Tangerine Bowl and the Citrus Bowl.