No, Not Wolverhampton vs. Sunderland This Time

Here's the front cover of the official program of the Saturday, June 29, 1968 North American Soccer League contest between the Los Angeles Wolves and hosts Vancouver Royals.



Both clubs had played the previous year in the US Soccer and FIFA-sanctioned United Soccer Association with both clubs actually clubs from England in disguised, Wolverhampton Wanderers masquerading as the L.A. Wolves and Sunderland disguised as the then-Vancouver Royal Canadians.

Needless to say, when the USA merged with the "renegade" National Professional Soccer League after the '67 season to form the NASL, these two clubs had to start over from scratch.

The Royal Canadians were largely taken over by the former owner of the defunct San Francisco Golden Gate Gaels (USA) and were renamed the Vancouver Royals.

Both clubs vanished after the '68 campaign as only five of the 17 clubs survived (Dallas, Baltimore, Kansas City, Atlanta, and St. Louis) into the 1969 season.

Two Ex-USA Clubs In Action

Here the front cover of the official program for the May 11, 1968 North American Soccer League contest between the Washington Whips and the home-standing Cleveland Stokers.



Both clubs had played the previous season in the United Soccer Association with the Whips actually being Scotland's Aberdeen in disguise and England's Stoke City masquerading as the Stokers.

When the USA merged with the National Professional Soccer League merged after the 1967 season to form the NASL, both the Stokers and Whips, like the other surviving former USA clubs, had to build their own teams from scratch.

Both clubs folded after the 1968 season.

Here Comes Pele, Folks!

Here's the front cover of the official program of the July 14, 1968 exhibition match between the Washington Whips of the North American Soccer League and Santos of Brazil, featuring the one-and-only PELE!



Of course, this in the end did the Whips, a former United Soccer Association club (Aberdeen of Scotland in disguise the previous season), as well as most of the NASL much of any good as the league, by the time the 1969 season started, shrank fro 17 clubs to only five, and the Whips weren't one of them.