{"id":23455,"date":"2014-01-06T23:01:47","date_gmt":"2014-01-07T04:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=23455"},"modified":"2014-01-07T08:31:56","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T13:31:56","slug":"the-black-panther-in-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=23455","title":{"rendered":"The Black Panther in Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rick<\/a>

Rick Sewall (left) played with Eusebio (second from right) when both were members of the Boston Minutemen (NASL) in 1975.<\/p><\/div>\n

Legendary Portuguese footballer\u00a0Eus\u00e9bio established himself as one of the sport’s greatest players during his stellar European career – a career that saw him thrive with Benfica and A Selec\u00e7\u00e3o.<\/i><\/p>\n

But the “Black Panther,” who died on Sunday at age\u00a071 in Lisbon, also made his mark on the\u00a0New England\u00a0soccer scene during one fateful summer.<\/p>\n

After 15 superlative seasons with Benfica, the Portuguese international arrived in the United States in 1975 to play for the fledgling Boston Minutemen of the NASL.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0his stay with the Beantown side proved brief (seven games), former Minutemen teammate and current New England Soccer Today<\/em> contributor Rick Sewall has vivid memories of the legendary striker.<\/p>\n

“Having him on the team was pretty exciting,” said Sewall,\u00a0who played center back for the Minutemen in 1975,\u00a0on Monday. “Boy, was he tricky, if lazy- he didn’t like to run laps. He was great with teammates.”<\/p>\n

Running laps in training\u00a0may not have been\u00a0Eusebio’s strong\u00a0suit, but\u00a0the supremely talented superstar\u00a0didn’t view himself above his\u00a0teammates when he arrived in Boston.<\/p>\n

“He was playing with players nowhere near his talent,” Sewall said.\u00a0“(But) he was never critical of them. I never saw him being negative.”<\/p>\n

In fact, Sewall said Eusebio was a “nice guy, totally unsnobbish and pleasant” towards him and his teammates. That attitude only served to aid the Minutemen, who secured a first-place finish in the Northern Division before they were knocked out by the Miami Toros\u00a0in the NASL quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Although Eusebio didn’t feature as a forward in Boston, he nevertheless found ways to uncover opportunities from his spot in the central midfield. After all, a striker’s instincts never fade.<\/p>\n

“I clearly remember him attacking the goal a couple of times,” Sewall said. “Boy, could he head and shoot the ball.\u00a0 He had technique like it was –\u00a0and is – supposed to be.”<\/p>\n

In his seven matches for the Minutemen, Eusebio scored two goals and added two assists. He scored his first goal for Boston in 4-0 romp of the Philadelphia Atoms on Jul. 5, 1975 at Nickerson Field. He also struck in his penultimate match – a 3-0 win over the Hartford Bicentennials on Aug. 9, 1975.<\/p>\n

But his stay with the Minutemen was all too brief. Sewall is\u00a0not entirely certain\u00a0of the reasons that led to Eusebio’s departure, though signs point toward an epidemic that afflicted many NASL sides: financial distress.<\/p>\n

Eusebio went on to star with the Toronto Metros-Croatia in 1976, and scored 16 goals in 21 games. His efforts\u00a0helped\u00a0guide the\u00a0Canadian club to\u00a0a Soccer Bowl championship that season, but he was once again on the move in 1977.<\/p>\n

He joined the Las Vegas\u00a0Quicksilver after his stay in Toronto, yet at 35, his body was starting to betray him.\u00a0In 17 games, he scored only two goals, though added\u00a0five assists.\u00a0Three years later, he retired\u00a0after a stint with the Buffalo Stallions, an indoor side in the MISL.<\/p>\n

Around the time of his former teammate’s\u00a0retirement, Sewall\u00a0saw\u00a0him in Boston at\u00a0a World Cup viewing party.\u00a0It didn’t take long for the two get reacquainted.<\/p>\n

“He immediately recognized me,” Sewall said.\u00a0“We chatted for a while about God-knows-what.”<\/p>\n

Eusebio’s\u00a0Stateside career may have paled in comparison to the one he authored overseas, but the Portuguese legend never bypassed the opportunity to\u00a0impress the crowd – or his Minutemen teammates, for that matter.<\/p>\n

“One clear memory I have of him was when, during practice, he let a ball bounce through his legs, butt-trapped it, turned and ran away,” Sewall said. “I’ve never seen that done before or since.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eus\u00e9bio made his name overseas, but came to the U.S. in 1975 to play for the Boston Minutemen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Rick-Eusebio-1.png?fit=494%2C259","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23455"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23455"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23465,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23455\/revisions\/23465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}