Awhile back, I was talking to my wife and kids about my soccer playing days. So many years have passed since I played that many of the games and moments have long slipped into the deep recesses of my brain never to be brought forth again. Yet, for some reason, there are still the nuggets that I can recall with clarity and may be my peak ability.
Many soccer fans may be aware of the book "Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby, which "tells the story of the author's relationship with football [or soccer depending on where you're from], and with Arsenal Football Club in particular." It was adapted into a 1997 movie with Colin Firth, based on the book, and then a 2005 movie, based on the first movie, which changed the sport to baseball and starred Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore. Hornby has also written a book called "High Fidelity," (adapted into a John Cusack movie and a recent Hulu series with Zoe Kravitz) in which Top 5 lists is a significant part of the story and is one that I really love.
That's a long way to say that as I talked to my wife and kids I started rattling off my Top 5 Moments from my playing days. I decided that it might be fun to start a new series on this site (separate from The Soccer Life survey click here if you want to see examples of that), where I get players to give me their Top 5 Moments from their careers. This can be from anytime from their days as a youth to their final game as a professional or international. Given that I didn't play beyond high school (not counting some intramural games and my time on the International Club team at DePauw), my list is entirely of my youth. However, the first participants in this series are Peter Wilt, Jon Busch, and Lovel Palmer, guys with whom I have had great conversations about soccer over the years, and have much more interesting Top 5 Moments.
Without further ado...
