Remembering the 1991 Professional Soccer Championship in Albany

One of the players on the Skidmarks, a trivia team I play against at Elbo Room, is a huge soccer fan.  He loves the English squad Arsenal, and he is hoping that when Thierry Henry plays for the New York Red Bulls, he can be in the stadium cheering it on.

He also has been boasting about how the English World Cup squad is going to pummel the American squad in the opening round of the World Cup.  Maybe they will, I don’t know.  I still hold fast to the argument that the United States has never lost to England in World Cup play, having beaten the Brits 1-0 in a 1950 World Cup preliminary round.  Yeah, the two teams never played each other in a World Cup after that, but hey… a win is a win.

Besides, the first American player to score a goal in Wembley Stadium was actually someone who played in Albany.  The team he played for actually competed in the highest level of professional soccer in this country at the time – and hosted the first game of a soccer championship that actually packed 5,000 soccer fans into Bleecker Stadium.

Travel back in time with me.

It’s the early summer of 1991, and I was on my way from one part of Albany to the other, when I stopped to see what kind of sports activity was taking place at the vintage Albany sports facility.  It was a professional soccer match, and the local squad – the Albany Capitals of the American Professional Soccer League – were holding their own against a Northeastern team called the Penn-Jersey Spirit.

I was intrigued.

And a few days later, I was a volunteer for the Capitals.

I should note that this was no “rinky-dink” club soccer league.  The roster of talent in the APSL included Tony Meola (Ft. Lauderdale Strikers), Desmond Armstrong (Maryland Bays), Marcelo Balboa (San Francisco Bay Blackhawks), Bruce Murray (Maryland Bays), Peter Vermes (Tampa Bay Freedom), Eric Wynalda (San Francisco Bay Blackhawks), Steve Trittschuh (Tampa Bay Freedom), and Jean Harbor (Maryland Bays).

Not that the Capitals were full of slouches.  Oh no.  Unlike other iterations of professional soccer squads in the Albany area (the New York Eagles, the Albany Alleycats, the New York Kick), the Capitals tried to build from a mixture of imported talent, local scorers and American skilled players.  The Capitals had players like former UK superstar Paul Mariner, Bethlehem High School scoring star Jeff Guinn, UAlbany scoring star Lee Tshantret, big defenseman Dave Smyth, leading goal striker Mike Masters, speedy F.J. Zwickelbauer, gritty Jimmy McGeough, and goaltender Scoop Stanisic.

The Capitals played as hard as any team in the APSL, which at the time was the highest level of professional soccer in the United States.  The MLS was a few years away from realization, and the Capitals stood tall – or at least as tall as they could – in the nine-team APSL.  The APSL was actually a merger of two regional soccer circuits, and it was hoped that the APSL would become the first coast-to-coast professional soccer league since the demise of the old North American Soccer League less than a decade earlier.

Their owner was Armand Quadrini, a local businessman who owned several real estate properties.  Quadrini loved soccer, and when the Capitals were inching closer to their first professional soccer championship in 1991, he had a choice – and it was a tough one.  Money was tight at the time, but Quadrini had a solution in 1991 to keep his struggling Capitals alive – sell some of his property at rock-bottom prices, essentially turning that money around to keep the payroll intact and make sure the Capitals had at least a fighting chance for a championship.

And fighting chance they had.  They needed to defeat the Maryland Bays in a semifinal round, and Maryland’s top scorer, Jean Harbour, could put the net almost by sheer will.  The Caps picked up a red card in the playoff round and were stuck trying to play against Harbour and the Bays with a one-man disadvantage.  Still, Albany was able to take a win from Maryland – and advance to the three-game APSL finals against the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks.

The first game was held at Bleecker Stadium on September 22, 1991, and as God is my witness, I never saw so many soccer fans in my life crowd into that tiny little arena.  Albany won the first game against San Francisco Bay, 3-1, and we were one win away from claiming a title.

Sadly, San Francisco Bay took the second game of the series 2-0 on their pitch, then immediately the teams played a 30-minute “mini-game” to a scoreless tie.  The only way left to decide this match was to employ penalty kick tiebreakers.

Sadly, the Capitals did not prevail, and lost the APSL championship on a penalty-kick tie-breaker loss.  Grr.

The team folded after that season, only to reform as the Albany Alleycats in the lower-rung USISL soccer league.

By the way, Albany striker Mike Masters later signed with a British team, Colchester United, and eventually became the first American to score a soccer goal on the pitch at Wembley Stadium.  Swank.

Just thought I’d share some memories of the Albany Capitals soccer team – especially on this day, when the American soccer team has a chance to continue their World Cup winning streak against England.