Pitch Invasion - A Blog Exploring Soccer Around The World » American Soccer League

Classic Programmes #16: Cleveland Stars vs. Cincinnati Comets

Tom Dunmore — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:01:20 +0000

An American Soccer League match-up from 1974, this latest cover in our classic programmes series is fantastic in many ways, but most notably for the super-acrobatic ‘tache. Courtesy of

Classic Programmes #9: Philadelphia Ukrainians Open Cup Glory

Tom Dunmore — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:45:36 +0000

This week’s classic programme is from American soccer’s forgotten years, the pre-NASL early 1960s, and a reminder of some soccer glory in Philadelphia.

The American Soccer League was the only sanctioned professional league in the country at the time, and their championship was remarkably won by Colombo, a new team from Staten Island, New York who would disappear just as quickly after the season. In second place came the Ukrainian Nationals of Philadelphia, coached by Walter Medusha. He would win Coach of the Year as Philadelphia took the U.S. Open Cup title, defeating the Los Angeles Kickers 5-3 in the final at Edison Field in Philadelphia on May 29th after two overtime periods.

The Philadelphia Ukrainians would go on to win three more Open Cups in the 1960s and four straight ASL titles from 1961 t0 1964, before disbanding in 1970. Here’s the programme cover from the game that kickstarted their 1960s success, the 1960 Open Cup final.

Programme cover reproduced with permission of manchesterunitedman1 on Flickr, and historical infomation largely from Steve Holroyd.

The Return of the Pennsylvania Stoners

Thomas Dunmore — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:28:04 +0000

Looking for a team to support in the United States? Think names like the “Galaxy”, “Red Bulls” or “Dynamo” are just, well, all too sensible? Well, my friends, say hello to the Pennsylvania Stoners. The Stoners were reformed this month in Lehigh Valley, and will play in the National Premier Soccer League. The name actually comes from Pennsylvania being known as the “Keystone State”.

The Stoners go back a while, as they played in the second American Soccer League from 1979-1983, winning the title in 1980 in front of over 7,000 fans before folding (along with the league) just three years later. Moreover, the location is a historic one for the game here: nearby Bethlehem was home to the Steel (since they were founded by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation), the dominant team in the States in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Good luck to the Stoners. Local football as well as MLS needs to grow to make soccer a truly national game, and what better place to remind us of that. And what better name?

Hat-tip: jefe on OTF.