Milwakuee a soccer hotbed?

[Onionsack]

The third round Open Cup game between the Milwaukee Bavarians and the Milwaukee Wave United will showcase talent from perhaps the hotbed of the sport.

The Bavarians just won thier third straight national championship by winning the Amatuer Cup and completed the double by winning the Amatuer Open Cup this weekend in Milwaukee.

The Wave United are comming off an A-League title when they were the Rampage.

The Wave indoor team has either won or finished second every year for the past 4-5 seasons.

The UWM men's college team has reached the NCAA tournment 2 seasons in a row and currently is ranked #11 in preseason polls.

A few years ago the city made a attempt to bring an MLS side here but a stadium deal fell through. The area is rich in soccer tradition and few cities in the States can boast the sucsess of Milwaukee.

To me this game is the best game in the third round because the game means so much more than a trip to the fourth round. It is a game rich in personal rivalry between the cities two most sucsessful clubs, many players have played in each teams colors before, many have played for the same college. For the Bavarians a victory would assure them $10,000, a substantial sum for an amatuer squad. For the Wave United a chance to get results in the first year of new ownership.

Anyway thats just my opinion.

[Khansingh]

Until you laid out the particulars, I didn't know if I agreed with the thread title. Maybe. This would be an interesting game to see, but it's the Open Cup, so no luck there.

[FlashMan]

I don't know if it's THE soccer hotbed in the country, but the initial post does point out nicely the tentacles of soccer are deep in the city, something I really didn't know. Would love to be able to see this game (I'd also love to see Fresno take on El Paso - I think that one will be interesting)...it's too bad FSW doesn't pick up the tournament earlier to show us some of the non-MLS matchups.

One day.

[footballitis05]

In my opinion, my home town St. Louis is a hotbed for soccer. We have produced and helped develope talents such as Brian McBride, Chris Klein, Mike Sorber, Taylor Twellman, Brad Davis, and Steve Ralston. The club teams that play here are always in the top ten in the nation. We have a relitively new PDL team, who in a couple of years should be strong.

[MilwaukeeChris]

I didn't grow up in Milwaukee but I have found that it is a great place for soccer. I think the origin of Milwaukee being a great soccer town is that soccer has been important in Milwaukee for years. Same with St. Louis. Bob Gansler head coach of the 1990 Men's World Cup team is a former Milwaukee Bavarian. He had this to say about the U.S. soccer landscape in the 1960s.

Bob Gansler: "At the beginning of the decade, your top soccer was played by the amateur/semi-professional teams in the big cities. College soccer was a miniscule dot on the landscape. In Chicago you had Schwaben, Kickers and the Greeks among others. In Milwaukee you had the Bavarians. In Detroit you had the Carpathian Kickers. In Philadelphia you had the Ukrainians, where Walter Chyzowych was playing, and there were clubs like this all over the country. The national team was about to compete in the Pan American Games in 1963, and shortly thereafter you had the trials for the World Cup team. Basically those teams were the same guys who were playing in the ethnic leagues. Not by accident, the trials for the 1963 Pan Am Games were held in St. Louis. More often than not, and justifiably so, half of the team was from St. Louis. That was the soccer environment."

[Revolt]

Originally posted by footballitis05
In my opinion, my home town St. Louis is a hotbed for soccer. We have produced and helped develope talents such as Brian McBride, Chris Klein, Mike Sorber, Taylor Twellman, Brad Davis, and Steve Ralston. The club teams that play here are always in the top ten in the nation. We have a relitively new PDL team, who in a couple of years should be strong.

It continues to amaze me that St Louis doesn't have an A-League team.

[olujosh]

I'm told St. Louis is #1 in youth soccer participation. #2 is Cincinnati...

St. Louis has a new PDL team

Cincinnati has a poorly run A-League team

It's a shame

[footballitis05]

One thing that has helped St. Louis become one of the top hotbeds for soccer was the amount of money put into the sport in the past few decades. Also, there is a large amount of Bosnian immigrants that live in St. Louis. One top player thats is Bosnian will be playing for St. Louis University next year, however his name slips me right now. I think that many cities are catching up to St. Louis talent wise, such as Dallas, as they are now starting to also put a lot of money in to building more fields and having a youth soccer program

[Onionsack]

Wave 4 - Bavarians 1

Here is the summary as well as a pre match artical.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/socc/jul03/156986.asp

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/socc/jul03/157322.asp

Was hpoing for a closer match, a couple costly keeper errors may kind of inflated the score.

[Pyro]

Once again, I'm leading the charge against calling any metropolitan area that does not have an MLS team a "hotbed." South Florida is a hotbed isn't it?
I wouldn't even call any of the MLS cities hotbeds. Look at the attendances. I think the closest thing to a hotbed is Rochester, NY. (Highest National: Team Attendance/Metropolitan Population)

Not that that venting is over, it was nice to see a true derby game draw 4k+ and get coverage on the front page of the Milwaukee Sports sections.