April 20, 1996, 30 years ago: The New York/New Jersey MetroStars play their 1st home game, at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It doesn't go so well: They lose 1-0 to the New England Revolution, on an own goal in the 87th minute, by Nicola Caricola.
The MetroStars' 1st manager was Eddie Firmani, a South African of Italian descent, who had played as a forward in England for Charlton Athletic; and in Italy for Sampdoria, Internazionale Milano and Genoa. He had won the North American Soccer League title as manager of the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 1975, and the New York Cosmos in 1977 and '78. The MetroStars fired him after 8 games. As of April
20, 2022, he is still alive, 92 years old, but has never managed another club.
I once saw a list of the best-dressed and worst-dressed people in sports, compiled in 1980. I can't remember who made it, but he was rough: He said that Yankee reliever Goose Gossage had one loud tie that looked like it could have been Jimi Hendrix's headband. Of another person, and I forget who that was, too, he said he dressed as if he thought Georgia Armani played for the Cosmos, an obvious reference to Eddie Firmani.
The original MetroStars included Caricola, who had been a star in his native Italy, with Bari, Juventus and Genoa; Roberto Donadoni, a legend with AC Milan; Venezuelan forward Giovanni Savarese; and established American stars Tony Meola, Peter Vermes and Tab Ramos. But they ended up losing their 1st 3 regular-season games. After winning their next 3, they then lost 5 out of 6, and later on had another 4-game losing streak.
They still managed to finish 3rd in the Eastern Conference, but lost their 1st Playoff series to D.C. United, which went on to win the MLS Cup in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2004. As a result, MLS is the only league in which the New York Tri-State Area has a team whose biggest rival is a team from Washington, D.C., as opposed to another Tri-State Area team, or one representing Philadelphia or Boston: As much as the team's fans now hate New York City FC, the Philadelphia Union or the New England Revolution, they still refer to United as "The DC Scum," and the week of playing them as "DC Week."
Known as the New York Red Bulls since 2006, and playing at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey since 2010, the Red Bulls have won 3 Supporters' Shields (regular-season league titles), and have reached the Final of both the MLS Cup and the U.S. Open Cup twice, but have never won those. Some Metro fans (many RBNY fans resist the corporatization of the club) attribute their failure to this home opener, and call it "The Curse of Caricola."
Caricola retired before the next season began. He is now 63 years old, and runs a coffee company in South Africa.
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