"Meeting Across the River”

While searching through the Topps Vault, unidentified film canisters from 1978 were recently uncovered. When developed just last month we discovered unseen photos of soccer players, but unlike the images used on cards from that era which featured teams and players from England, these featured players from a club much closer to the Topps headquarters in NYC.

It appears that prior to the full scale production of the 1978-79 Topps soccer set, Topps partnered with a legendary local soccer club out New Jersey for a test run. The Asbury Park Football Club (APFC), affectionately known as The Tillies, were making waves along the Atlantic coast, continuing their near-mythical undefeated run. Topps and APFC worked together on these cards in hopes of creating a US-based card set, but these never were printed as the film lost, only to resurface recently.

In celebration of the 40 year old discovery, Topps and APFC have once again joined forces, creating a special commemorative package that includes a reproduction of the iconic Tillies 1978 kit and a set of the 12 player cards from the unreleased test run.

All sales are final. Art subject to change. Not responsible for typographical/printer errors.