Boris Bandov

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Boris Bandov
Personal information
Full name	Boris Bandov
Date of birth	November 23, 1953 (age 53)
Place of birth	, Yugoslavia
Height	5 ft 10 in
Playing position	Midfielder / Defender
Club information
Current club	Retired
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1974-1975 1976-1977 1977-1978 1979-1982 1983 1985	San Jose Earthquakes Seattle Sounders Tampa Bay Rowdies New York Cosmos Team America South Florida Sun	37 (8) 11 (2) 8 (0) 29 (1) 21 (0) 6 (0)
National team2
1976–1983	United States	33 (2)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 22:33, 3 january 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 7 December 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Boris Bandov (born November 23, 1953) is a Yugoslavian-American former soccer player. He was born in Yugoslavia and became a U.S. citizen in 1976, and was a member of the U.S. national team.

Bandov was born in Bosnia. He attended Silver Creek High School in San Jose, California, where he played on the school's boys soccer team. In 1972, he led the team to California's Central Coast Section high school championship game, which the team lost to Archbishop Mitty High School.^[1] After graduating from high school, he briefly attended San Jose State, playing on the school’s football team as a kicker. His longest was a 52 yard field goal in a game against Cal.^[2] He began his professional U.S. soccer career with the San Jose Earthquakes of the North American Soccer League on May 5, 1974. He played two seasons with the Earthquakes as a forward/midfield winger before moving to the Seattle Sounders after the 1975 season. He spent most of 1976 on the Sounders reserve team, only making the first team after midfield winger Jimmy Robertson suffered a broken leg from a brutal tackle from Julio Navarro in a July 24, 1976 game against the Philadelphia Atoms. Bandov played 5 games with the Sounders at the start of the 1977 season before moving to the Tampa Bay Rowdies for the remainder of the season.

When Bandov became a U.S. citizen, he was almost immediately called into the national team for its first game of the year, a September 24th 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifying game with Canada. Bandov began his national team career with a bang, scoring the tying goal. Bandov went on to start every national team game in 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979. In 1980, his appearances began to taper off, but he still played the only U.S. games in 1982 and 1983. The 1983 game, a 2-0 win over Haiti was his last with the team. Despite playing a total of 33 games with the team, he scored only once again after his first game, in a meaningless 3-1 win over Bermuda in October 1979.

In 1979 Bandov moved to the New York Cosmos. He played with them through the end of the 1982 season, including the two NASL championship teams of 1980 and 1982 as well as the 1981 NASL championship loss to the Chicago Sting.

In 1983, the U.S. Soccer Federation, in coordination with the NASL, entered the U.S. national team, known as Team America, into the NASL as a league franchise. The team drew on U.S. citizens playing in the NASL, Major Indoor Soccer League and American Soccer League. In April 1983, Team America announced it had signed Bandov from the Cosmos on a game by game basis.^[3] He played 21 games with the team during its single season in existence. When Team America finished the 1983 season with a 10-20 record, the worst in the NASL, USSF withdrew the team from the league.

Bandov returned to the Cosmos, but was released on November 16, 1983 when Bandov refused to agree to a 20% pay cut. ^[4] With the collapse of NASL, Bandov moved to the South Florida Sun of the United Soccer League. He retired in 1986 and coaches for the FC Westchester U-17 boys and at various soccer camps and clinics.

[edit] Links

• FC Westchester