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#1 Los Angeles Galaxy (Away Shirt, 2006)
This was one of the first shirts i bought, back in 2006 or 2007. I bought it in New York. I spent a few weeks in the US with my parents (and my younger brother), and while i was there, i was desperatly looking for a nice shirt from an american club.
The funny thing is that LA Galaxy weren't popular back then. Well, at least not in Europe. Beckham was still playing in Real Madrid, so you wouldn't read much news about them here in Portugal. To be honest, i guess most people didn't even know there was a team named LA Galaxy. Which is a pretty cool name for a football (not soccer, my dear american friends) team, like almost every other team name in the US. Houston Dynamo, Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, San Jose Earthquakes, Kansas City Wizards... Fuck yeah. If i was a football player, i wouldn't want to play against teams that proudly call themselves "Earthquakes".
Anyway, so I was walking around in NY, and everytime i saw a sports shop, i'd get in and ask for some american "soccer" football jerseys. And everytime i'd have the same answer: "uh, we don't have any, i think it'll be pretty hard to find those". "Not even something from NY Metrostars?", i'd ask. "Nah", they'd say. Not cool. Back then, soccer was not unknown to them, but people didn't know much about local clubs, and didn't pay much attention to the MLS. Beckham wasn't there yet, remember? And their national team wasn't brilliant either. I think things are a bit different know, and I bet it wouldn't be a problem to find a LA Galaxy shirt in NY.
Ok, back to the purchase story. So, i was walking around in some obscure NY area, and there was this huge Adidas store. I went there to have a look, but I wasn't actually hoping things would be different there. I was wrong! There were like 7 or 8 shirts there, mostly away shirts. One of those shirts was this one.
It's a pretty cool shirt, in my opinion. Definitly the best among those i could choose from. As you can see, it still has the old Galaxy crest. Also, the legendary Cobi Jones played for them for quite a few years, so my first instinct was obviously to buy this one.
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| Here's Cobi Jones playing for Galaxy. Nice hair, Cobi. He looks like a young Henrik Larsson. |
So, a few years later Beckham joined LA Galaxy, and their name was on the headlines. I hope my shirt is now more valuable because of that.
A few days later i went to Washington, and i actually saw a DC United shirt for sale. It was way too big for me, though. XXL, i believe. Freddy Adu was their star back then. That's how i know it was a long time ago: Adu was still a promising youngster.
More to come soon.
