It's Soccer Madness

Striker Likers, listen up. Here's a little history lesson for those who forgot the second coming of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. This is the APSL Strikers, coached by Thomas Rongen and the only Striker squad to win a league championship. I grew up with this team and if I needed soccer gear I went to one place: Soccer Madness.

Soccer Madness held offices right here in Broward County and if you needed some new adidas Copas or that new Nike track suit, this is where you would go. The catalog they produced was a bible as it also displayed top-flight European stars in Soccer Madness gear.

That was a great time, just waiting for my Soccer Madness catalog in the mail, it was better than EuroSport, it felt like a magazine, and it was home grown.

Today, Soccer Madness is a faded memory, just like those 1994 United States national team uniforms. But, the soccer store institution is a growing one. Sure you can score some cheap cleats at the Sports Authority or even Wal-Mart, but devoted soccer stores are the true hotspots for soccer passion. You can find them more often than ever before, especially here in our back yard. With the success of these shops will come pro soccer, no question. So let's give Soccer Madness our respect, as well as the Soccer Connection, I miss you guys.