The Miami Fusion F.C. was a professional soccer team based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They played in Major League Soccer (MLS) for four seasons, from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one of the league's first two expansion teams, their best season was 2001, when they won the Supporters' Shield with the best regular season finish. In 2002, after four years of lackluster ticket sales and revenues, MLS contracted the Fusion along with its other Florida-based team, the Tampa Bay Mutiny. The Fusion played their home games at Lockhart Stadium.
Dominic Kinnear is an American soccer coach and former player. On January 18, 2022, he was named an assistant coach by FC Cincinnati, his first coaching role since serving as the interim head coach of the LA Galaxy.
Predrag Radosavljević, better known by the nickname Preki, is a former soccer player and coach. He is currently an assistant coach with Seattle Sounders FC in Major League Soccer (MLS). He previously coached Sacramento Republic FC and Saint Louis FC in the United Soccer League and coached in MLS with Toronto FC and Chivas USA. Born in Yugoslavia, he represented the United States national team.
The 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 2nd edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament took place from 10 to 25 July 1993 and jointly hosted by 2 cities in two North American countries: Mexico, and the United States.
Roy Lee Lassiter is an American former professional soccer player. who played as a forward. He played the first few years of his professional career in Costa Rica. He returned to the United States to play in Major League Soccer when that league was launched in 1996, and from 1996 to 1999 he was one of the most prolific goal scorers in MLS. Lassiter served as the assistant coach of MLS Next Pro club Houston Dynamo 2. On Thursday, June 15, 2023, Lassiter was named Head Coach of Carolina Core FC.
Thomas Eddy Rongen is a Dutch-American football coach who has spent the majority of his playing and coaching career in the United States. In December 2016, he was named Chief Scout of the United States men's national soccer team. Rongen won the MLS Coach of the Year award in MLS's inaugural season in 1996, leading the Tampa Bay Mutiny to the best regular-season record. His stint managing the American Samoa national team was covered in the 2014 documentary Next Goal Wins, and the 2023 biographical comedy-drama also called Next Goal Wins.
The Tampa Bay Rowdies were an American professional soccer team based in Tampa, Florida, that competed in the original North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1975 to 1984. They enjoyed broad popular support in the Tampa Bay area until the NASL folded in 1984, after which the team played in various minor indoor and outdoor leagues before finally folding on January 31, 1994. The Rowdies played nearly all of their outdoor home games at Tampa Stadium and nearly all of their indoor games at the Bayfront Center Arena in nearby St. Petersburg, Florida. Although San Diego played indoors until 1996, the Rowdies were the last surviving NASL franchise that played outdoor soccer on a regular basis.
Yari Allnutt is an American retired soccer player who played professionally in Mexico and the United States, including the American Professional Soccer League and Major League Soccer. He earned five caps with the United States national team, including games at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
The Western Soccer Alliance was a professional soccer league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States and Western Canada. The league began in 1985 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1986, it became the Western Soccer Alliance. In 1989, it existed for a single year as the Western Soccer League before merging with the American Soccer League to form the American Professional Soccer League in 1990.
Stephen Kinsey is an English former football forward who began his career in 1979 with Manchester City before moving to the United States in 1986. He then played professionally in the Major Indoor Soccer League, American Soccer League and others before retiring in 1997.
Johnny Torres is a Colombian-American soccer midfielder and coach who is currently the head coach of his alma mater, Creighton University. Torres has played in Major League Soccer, USL-1, and also played for the Omaha Vipers of the Major Indoor Soccer League. He has also earned caps with the U.S. Futsal team.
Paul Dougherty is an English former professional soccer player and soccer coach who began his career with Wolverhampton Wanderers in England. He then moved to the United States where he became a journeyman player, bouncing through sixteen teams in multiple indoor and outdoor leagues.
The Fort Lauderdale Strikers were an American soccer team established in 1988 as part of the third American Soccer League. In 1990, it moved to the American Professional Soccer League where it spent five seasons before folding in 1994. The Strikers won the 1989 ASL championship, as well as the 1989 National Pro Soccer Championship.
This list comprises all players who have participated in at least one league match for Miami Fusion from the team's first Major League Soccer season which took place in 1998, until its final season in 2001. Players who were on the roster but never played a first team game are not listed; players who appeared for the team in other competitions but never actually made an MLS appearance are noted at the bottom of the page.
Jason Boyce is a retired professional American soccer forward who played professionally in Major League Soccer and the USL A-League. He has four children, Jayson, Melia, Grace and Samuel Boyce. He coaches youth soccer for Pateadores, Newport/Costa Mesa 04 and 03. As well as the Women's Varsity soccer coach at Costa Mesa High School.
The Fort Lauderdale–Tampa Bay rivalry, also known as the Florida Derby, refers to the suspended soccer rivalry that most recently involved the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and the Tampa Bay Rowdies, both of whom played in the North American Soccer League through the 2016 season. Over the years the rivalry has spanned more than one hundred matches across eight soccer leagues and several tournaments, and involved nine different teams from the two regions of Florida. At times it has involved players, coaches, management and fans. Even the press has fanned the rivalry's flames at times. From 2010 through 2014, the winner of the regular season series automatically won the Coastal Cup as well. The status of the rivalry beyond 2016 remains unclear because the Rowdies have since joined the United Soccer League, while the Strikers ongoing ownership and legal battles of 2016 and 2017 have left them defunct.
The history of professional soccer in Houston spans half a century, and includes clubs playing in numerous different leagues such as the North American Soccer League, the United Soccer League, Major League Soccer and the National Women's Soccer League.
Soccer has enjoyed longstanding popularity in Los Angeles. As of 2023, Los Angeles County has three top-level professional teams. The LA Galaxy and Los Angeles FC play in Major League Soccer, and Angel City FC plays in the National Women's Soccer League. The Greater Los Angeles area is also home to one 2nd division professional team, Orange County SC, of the USL Championship, and four 3rd division professional teams, LAFC2 and LA Galaxy II, of MLS Next Pro, and Los Angeles Force and California United Strikers FC of the National Independent Soccer Association. There are also many semi-professional clubs and leagues including the United Premier Soccer League, SoCal Premier League and National Premier Soccer League, among others. In 2019, two more professional teams, Cal FC and California United Strikers FC joined a new, unsanctioned, professional league called the NPSL Founders Cup They both later left, with Cal FC joining the United Premier Soccer League.
The 1998 Chicago Fire season was the Chicago Fire Soccer Club's inaugural season of existence, and their first season in Major League Soccer, the top tier of American soccer.
Bill Manning is a sports executive. He has worked in the front office of the Houston Rockets of the NBA and the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL, Toronto FC, Real Salt Lake, and the Tampa Bay Mutiny in Major League Soccer and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. He previously was a professional soccer player. Born in the United States, he represented the Puerto Rico national team.
