Jan. 25, 1942 – Eusebio da Silva Ferreira born in Lourenço Marques, Mozambique

Eusebio had a strong New England connection, partly because of the region’s Portuguese population. Eusebio probably could have had success in the Boston area similar to Pelé’s in New York, but circumstances worked against him.

The first soccer game at Foxboro Stadium matched Eusebio’s SL Benfica against Sporting CP on June 16, 1972. Eusebio did not score the first goal at the stadium – Sporting’s Mario Mateus Marinho converted in the sixth minute – but he equalized in the 43^rd minute and broke the deadlock in the 80^th minute of a 2-2 draw. The match drew a 24,396 crowd and organizers were encouraged enough to schedule a rematch a week later, this time attracting more than 25,000. For perspective, the Boston Red Sox were playing a 12-game homestand from June 9-21, crowds ranging from 8,860 to 21,682.

I never quite understood why a promoter did not follow up with another Benfica-Sporting match in the area. I talked about it with former Patriots’ announcer Gil Santos, who did the PA duties for the Benfica-Sporting games in ’72, but he did not have an answer, either.

Three years later, Eusebio’s move to the NASL with the Boston Minutemen coincided with Pelé joining the New York Cosmos. But the Minutemen were poorly funded and sent Eusebio and former Bayern Munich midfielder Wolfgang Suhnholz to the Toronto Metros-Croatia, where they won the 1976 Soccer Bowl. Pelé and the Cosmos won the 1977 Soccer Bowl. By then, both Eusebio and Pelé were ready to retire, though Eusebio hung on for a couple more years.

It seemed Boston could have promoted its relationship with Eusebio, a true global superstar, but nobody was able to capitalize on the opportunity.

TODAY IN NE SOCCER HISTORY