Fort Lauderdale Strikers Archives

A decade of Miami soccer in review The Miami FC

Miami Soccer in Review: The Miami FC struggles on the pitch in its 2016 debut

By Matthew Bunch on Sunday, December 29, 2019

Miami Soccer in Review | The Miami FC forward Darío Cvitanich celebrates with teammates after scoring the club's first goal in a game against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale on April 2, 2016. Photo via The Miami FC.

Magic City Soccer will take the last 10 days of 2019 to review the last 10 years of Miami-Dade County soccer. Today in Miami Soccer in Review, we take a look back at 2016. The Miami FC debuts less than a year after being announced, and struggles to find its footing.

The Miami FC took the field for the first time in 2016, led by Italian giant Alessandro Nesta. In the club’s first match against Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Darío Cvitanich would score the first goal thanks to a penalty and a 10-man side saw out a 1-1 draw at Lockhart Stadium in Broward County. The Strikers, who qualified for the NASL playoffs the prior season, offered a measuring stick with which to compare Miami FC. The next week, the Blues again saw out a 1-1 draw, this time against Tampa Bay Rowdies, a team that came two points behind Fort Lauderdale the previous season.

It would be the last points Miami FC collected for more than a month.

A decade of Miami soccer in review MLS

Miami Soccer in Review: The decade begins with 2010, an Annus Horribilis

By Matthew Bunch on Monday, December 23, 2019

Marcelo Claure, now an owner of Inter Miami CF, originally intended to bring a Major League Soccer team to Miami in partnership with Barcelona in 2010. Photo by Patrick Farrell, Miami Herald

Magic City Soccer will take the last 10 days of 2019 to review the last 10 years of Miami-Dade County soccer. Here, we begin our look back at a decade of Miami soccer in review with 2010, an Annus Horribilis.

The decade of the 2010s was supposed to open with a bang for the Miami soccer community. In October 2008, Barcelona announced that it would be partnering with Brightstar Corp. CEO Marcelo Claure to bring an Major League Soccer team to FIU Stadium, possibly as soon as 2010.

If you know anything about soccer in Miami this decade, you know this couldn’t have compared less favorably with what actually happened. In fact, the only constant was Claure, now involved in the ownership of Inter Miami CF.

Miami Soccer in the News NASL

Gordon Banks: Former Fort Lauderdale Strikers and England keeper dies at 81

By Lee Ifans on Tuesday, February 12, 2019

One of soccer’s greatest goalkeepers, Gordon Banks, passed peacefully in his sleep last night at the age of 81. Banks was a World Cup winner with England in 1966 and part of the original NASL revolution in the 1970s. Banks was the goalkeeper for the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers in their infancy playing on the NASL roster alongside a whole load of greats including Gerd Müller, Teófilo Cubillas, Elías Figueroa and George Best.

Inter Miami CF

USL team in mind as Inter Miami CF plans Lockhart renovation, youth academy

By Matthew Bunch on Tuesday, January 29, 2019

It was part of a larger announcement yesterday, but largely overlooked. As part of its proposal to the City of Fort Lauderdale for a redevelopment of Lockhart Stadium and surrounding land, Inter Miami CF shared its intention to form a United Soccer League (USL) team in Broward County.

Miami

A look back: Ron Newman’s half-year with the Miami Americans

By Matthew Bunch on Wednesday, August 29, 2018

It was a blip on the radar of one of the most significant careers in American soccer history. But Ron Newman, who passed away Monday at age 82, had an active six months with the Miami Americans in 1980. His time in the Magic City is instructive in how far the sport has gone, but also reminds us that if the history of the game in the United States doesn’t repeat itself, it tends to rhyme.

Miami

Ron Newman, legendary Miami Americans, Fort Lauderdale Strikers manager dead at 82

By Matthew Bunch on Monday, August 27, 2018

Fort Lauderdale Strikers coach Ron Newman welcomes the Peruvian Teofilo Cubillas at a press conference in Miami in March 1979. Photograph via Kathy Willens/AP

Legendary American soccer manager Ron Newman, best known as the coach of the dynastic San Diego Sockers of indoor soccer but remembered in South Florida as the manager of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the original North American Soccer League and the short-lived leader of the Miami Americans, died Monday morning. The news was first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.