Author: Scott Adamson

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

Atlanta United FC became the biggest success story in Major League Soccer history this year, with an average attendance of 48,000 per game and a quality team that made the playoffs in its first year of existence.

On Tuesday, the organization took another step forward in building its brand.

The United Soccer League, which has designs on becoming one of the premiere second division soccer circuits in the world, announced that it will field a team in 2018 owned and operated by Atlanta United.

The club will play at Coolray Field in Gannett, Ga., which is home of the Gwinnett Braves International League baseball team. Seating capacity for soccer will be 10,427.

“Atlanta United’s organization has quickly proven itself among the leaders in Major League Soccer, and we are delighted to welcome them to our world-class ownership groups that make up the USL,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis said in a statement. “The caliber of organization that has been assembled by Arthur Blank and his team has raised the bar for professional soccer in the United States, and their addition to our league is another step toward the USL’s goal of becoming one of the best Division II professional soccer leagues in the world, on par with the English Championship, Liga Adelante and 2. Bundesliga.”

The team’s name and logo will be released in the coming months.

All MLS franchises except Minnesota are affiliated with USL teams, with four (LA Galaxy II, New York Red Bulls II, Portland Timbers II and Seattle Sounders FC II) bearing the name of their parent club.

Atlanta already has a strong academy system, and in 2017 benefitted from a working relationship with the USL’s Charleston Battery.

“This is a great opportunity for our club’s long-term success to be able to bridge the gap between our best in class academy and our First Team,” Atlanta United President Darren Eales said. “Establishing a top-level academy was the first priority for our club, and while our staff has done a marvelous job in identifying and developing young players, the next step has always been to create the pathway for the 18-to-19-year-old player who needs to continue his development before competing for a starting position at the MLS level.

“We’ll now have the capability to develop players in our system from the time they’re 12 years-old until the minute they reach the First Team.”

Louisville wins USL title

Cameron Lancaster’s goal broke a scoreless draw in the 88th minute to give Louisville City FC a 1-0 victory over Swope Park Rangers in the 2017 USL Cup on Monday. The season finale was played in front of a sellout crowd of 14,456 at Slugger Field in Louisville; it was the second highest-attended USL Cup in the league’s history.

Speedy Williams crossed the ball into the center of the penalty area and Lancaster headed the ball into the right corner of the net for the game winner.

Goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh earned the clean sheet for the victors.

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

No. 1 Wake Forest, which finished as national runners-up last season, will enter the 2017 NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament as the top seed.

The field of 48 was announced earlier today.

The Demon Deacons won the ACC regular season and tournament crowns, while the league tied its own NCAA record with nine teams in the field.

Joining Wake are North Carolina, Louisville, Duke, Clemson, Virginia, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and North Carolina State.

Champions of 24 conferences are automatic qualifiers and 24 at-large teams comprise the field. The top 16 teams were seeded and receive first round byes.

Those schools are, listed from 1-16, Wake Forest, Indiana, North Carolina, Louisville, Akron, Duke, Michigan State, Clemson, two-time defending national champion Stanford, Western Michigan, Virginia, Notre Dame, Michigan, Georgetown, Dartmouth and VCU.

All first-round games will be played this Thursday on campus sites and second-round games are set for Sunday.

The third round is Nov. 25- 26; the quarterfinals Dec. 1- 2; and the Men’s College Cup Dec. 8- 10 at Talen Energy Stadium in Philadelphia.

NCAA Men’s Soccer Tourney Bracket

Deltas claim NASL title

The North American Soccer League has a new champion.

Will it be its last?

On Sunday at Kezar Stadium, the San Francisco Deltas topped the New York Cosmos 2017 to win the 2017 Soccer Bowl.

And while 9,691 fans showed up to celebrate the expansion team’s victory, there are some dark clouds hovering over the league and the champs.

The NASL has been denied second division status by the United States Soccer Federation, and unless that ruling is overturned by an appeals court the league could fold.

As for the Deltas, the club is drowning in red ink and could also go out of business, regardless of the fate of the NASL itself.

For 90 minutes however, none of that mattered.

Tommy Heinemann and Devon Sandoval each scored goals for the victors while Romuald Peiser recorded the clean sheet.

It marked the Cosmos’ first loss in a modern NASL title game. New York won the Soccer Bowl in 2013, 2015 and 2016.

USL title game tonight

Louisville FC and Swope Park Rangers will meet at 9 p.m. tonight in the United Soccer League Cup final.

Swope Park (Kansas City) enters the fray with an 18-8-9 record while Louisville City is 20-6-9.

The USL featured 30 franchises in 2017 and has a working relationship with Major League Soccer.

 

Where were you on June 15, 1975?

If you’re in your mid-50s – and a sports fan – maybe you tuned into CBS for a rare telecast of the North American Soccer League.

That was the day the New York Cosmos took on the Dallas Tornado at Downing Stadium, a match that saw Pele make his American soccer debut.

After signing a three-year contract worth nearly $3 million, the magic man of world football was the highest paid athlete on the planet, and he came to the United States to make soccer not just a big deal here, but the real deal.

I was transfixed.

Until that day I was a fan of the Tampa Bay Rowdies, but Pele turned me.

It wasn’t long before I had a Pele poster on my wall and snatched up every copy of Soccer America I could find so I could read up on his exploits.

And even after he retired, soccer greats such as Giorgio Chinaglia, Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Albert and Hubert Birkenmeier cemented my Cosmos fandom. As a teenager, the New York Cosmos was my favorite professional sports team, period.

So, it was quite a gut punch when the NASL “suspended operations” on March 28, 1985.

It was bad enough that top-notch soccer seemed finished in the United States, but the Cosmos were gone.

Within a week of the league’s demise, I had ripped the Pele poster (which had been joined by posters of Chinaglia and American-born soccer star Kyle Rote Jr.) off the wall. At that point, looking at them made me both mad and sad.

Now, jump 32 years into the future, and I wonder if I’ll have to bid the Cosmos farewell one more time.

The current NASL – the one that just competed its 2017 season on Sunday with the San Francisco Deltas blanking the Cosmos 2-0 in the Soccer Bowl, may not return. And if it’s dead, one has to assume the Cosmos name will finally be put to rest once and for all.

The modern NASL has nothing to do with the original NASL, of course. For a while, the Cosmos of the 1970s were one of the greatest soccer clubs in the world.

The “new” North American Soccer League has never been more than second division, and might not have even been on my radar if not for the Cosmos.

The name had been purchased by former Tottenham Hotspur official Paul Kemsley, and he was looking at the possibility of reviving the Cosmos as a Major League Soccer franchise.

He eventually sold his interest in the club and it was reborn in the NASL, although team officials as late as 2013 said the idea was still to somehow find a path MLS.

That didn’t happen, though, and now that New York has the Red Bulls and NYCFC, it probably never will.

But no matter … I still root for the Cosmos, and they remain my favorite domestic team.

But will they ever play again?

Will the NASL ever play again?

After being denied second division status by the United States Soccer Federation, the league sued in hopes to prove the USSF, MLS and the United Soccer League (another second division circuit) had colluded and, therefore, violated federal antitrust laws. However, NASL’s petition for a preliminary injunction was denied, and if it loses an appeal (set for the week of Dec. 11), it could be the death knell.

None of the stakeholders in the league have any desire to play at the third division level, and that might be the only realistic option.

I’d love to see the NASL become a “renegade” league if it can’t get relief from the courts; with no promotion/relegation system, if it spent enough money on players it could claim major league status.

But that would be a financial war it couldn’t win.

If the ruling stands, MLS, USL (and USL Division III, which is coming in 2019) will have effectively cornered the market on American soccer.

Hey, you never know how a judge is going to rule, but I’m going to go ahead and get ready to say goodbye to the Cosmos for the second – and probably last – time.