LONDON – Anders Limpar played 21 years of professional football. He was a Colorado Rapid from 1999-2000. He was a part of the Sweden team that finished third at the 1994 World Cup. The former Arsenal and Everton man sat down with SveaCasino. Burgundy wave was lucky enough to get two questions as a part of the interview. Enjoy some old school MLS history:
How did you enjoy your time with Colorado Rapids and what did you make of MLS at that time in the league’s history?
I have so many funny stories from that period.
The league was only four years old when I signed for Colorado and Carlos Valderrama and I were the faces of MLS that year.
My first game at the Mile High Stadium, which is a stadium for American football that can hold 110,000, was against Kansas. Back in those days there was only one soccer stadium and that was Columbus Crew.
I was playing in midfield and I put the ball in for our guy to run on to who was two meters offside. Suddenly the announcer goes: ‘Offside, ladies and gentlemen! Offside is when the player is on the wrong side of the ball…’ He was explaining the rules to the audience while we were playing!
Of course we took penalties from the halfway line too where you had five seconds to run towards the goal, so it was this fun, young league, but it was a good league too. We lost the cup final against North Carolina who played in the lower divisions. We made the quarter-finals one year and the semi-finals another year because of the playoff system.
It was a good experience living and playing in Colorado. We had 1,500 people watching us in a stadium that could take 110,000. Then, one day, we played against Miami and 54,000 turned up and no one seemed to understand.
It turned out that was the first game where they didn’t have any ice hockey, baseball or basketball to watch so the soccer game was the only show in town.
I’m glad that I got to play in MLS for two years in the very early years of MLS. Now it’s got all these mega stadiums and so many good players. Not like 1999 to 2000 when I played there but I was glad to have played there.
Q: What are your most fun stories of travel or cultural experiences during your time in America?
I’m a big ice hockey fan and I know Peter Forsberg, the mega star. I became friends with him and he’s a massive Spurs fan who hates Arsenal so we had a little row about that. I saw him at every home game I could and he came to watch me 10 times, sitting in the box we had. He’s a really, really nice guy and we’re still in contact but I was hanging with him a lot.
I saw a lot of basketball and ice hockey and living in Colorado I did a lot of hiking, enjoying the scenery. I was skiing every Wednesday up in the Copper Mountains, Breckenridge, Aspen and so on. It was a nice, easy life living in Colorado.
Thank you for reading Burgundy Wave. Support us via our Patreon starting at $5/month. You can also make a one-time contribution via Tip Jar. We’re always looking for new talent. Let us know if you’re interested in covering Colorado Soccer.
Eamon Shaw 
Zach Lowy 