Full name | Houston Leones | ||
---|---|---|---|
Nickname(s) | Leones | ||
Founded | 2007 | ||
Dissolved | 2010 | ||
Stadium | Soccer World Center Richmond, Texas | ||
Capacity | 4,500 | ||
Owner | |||
Head Coach | |||
League | USL Premier Development League | ||
2010 | 2nd, Mid South Playoffs: Conference Finals | ||
Houston Leones was an American soccer team based in Houston, Texas, United States. Founded in 2007, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Mid South Division of the Southern Conference. The franchise folded at the end of the 2010 season and left the league thereafter.
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played with a spherical ball between two teams of eleven players. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field called a pitch with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by moving the ball beyond the goal line into the opposing goal.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
The team played its home games at the soccer-specific Soccer World Center in nearby Richmond, Texas. The team's colors were blue and white.
Richmond is a city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States. It is the county seat, and is located within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the city population was 11,679.
The Leones were an official minor league affiliate of Mexican Premier League team Cruz Azul.
The Leones' first season in competition began on a hugely positive note, with a 3–0 opening day victory at home to the New Orleans Shell Shockers in front of 500 fans, and with a squad featuring several junior players from Mexican side Cruz Azul, who were spending time with their new Texan affiliate for match experience; unfortunately, this was something of a false dawn as the men from Richmond lost their next three games on the trot, conceding five goals with no reply. Two more victories in late May, 3–0 over Mississippi Brilla and 2–1 over El Paso Patriots looked to have righted the ship, but this proved to be the last hurrah, as they failed to win another game all season. As June turned into July, the Leones' on-field performances got progressively worse and worse: they lost four close games on the bounce and then, as some of players returned to the Cruz Azul junior team for the beginning of the 2008/09 Mexican Clausura, the second string defence absolutely fell apart.
Cruz Azul is a Mexican football club that plays in the top division of Mexican football, Liga MX.
Mississippi Brilla is an amateur American soccer club based in Clinton, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 2006, the team plays in USL League Two. The team's colors are sky blue, navy and white.
El Paso Patriots was an American soccer team based in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1989, the team played in the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Mid South Division of the Southern Conference.
This list of notable former players comprises players who went on to play professional soccer after playing for the team in the Premier Development League, or those who previously played professionally before joining the team.
Year | Division | League | Regular Season | Playoffs | Open Cup |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | 4 | USL PDL | 8th, Mid South | Did not qualify | Did not qualify |
2009 | 4 | USL PDL | 7th, Mid South | Did not qualify | Did not qualify |
2010 | 4 | USL PDL | 2nd, Mid South | Conference Finals | Did not qualify |
The Soccer World Center is a 17-acre (69,000 m2) soccer-specific facility which comprises three fields (including a 4,500-seat stadium field that is expandable to 8,000–10,000), and was built by team owner Juan Carlos Hernández.
Attendance stats are calculated by averaging each team's self-reported home attendances from the historical match archive at https://web.archive.org/web/20100105175057/http://www.uslsoccer.com/history/index_E.html.
Northern Virginia Royals were an American soccer team based in Woodbridge, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1998, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the South Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.
Toronto Lynx was a Canadian soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1997, the team last played in the 2014 season of the Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Great Lakes Division of the Central Conference. The team played its home games at Centennial Park Stadium, where they had played since 2003. The team's colours were white, gold and black. The team had a sister organization, the Toronto Lady Lynx, who played in the women's USL W-League, and also fielded a team in the USL's Super-20 League, a league for players 17 to 20 years of age run under the United Soccer Leagues umbrella.
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The New Orleans Jesters are an American soccer team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 2003, the team plays in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. Nicknamed 'The Jesters', they are coached by Kenny Farrell, play home games at Pan American Stadium, and their colors are purple, green, and white.
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