Palace Baltimore

Professional soccer has been growing in popularity in America and many teams have developed strong followings and great performance. One such team is the Crystal Palace Baltimore Soccer. Let’s discuss the team and some important details here.

Crystal Palace Baltimore is a professional US soccer team based in Baltimore, MD. It was founded in 2006 and part of the player development system for Crystal Palace.

The team had an active schedule over that time. However in 2010, the club severed its ties with the English Football League Championship and decided to take a one year hiatus in order to develop a new reorganization as well as a possible new soccer stadium in downtown Baltimore.

It is expected that Crystal Palace Baltimore will re-launch in time for the 2012 North American Soccer League season.

The team began and was established on May 5, 2006 by the Chairman of Crystal Palace, Simon Jordan. This Baltimore based team was initially expected to be part of the USL Premier Development League (PDL). Instead it became part of the USL Second Division.

The original name of the team was Crystal Palace F.C. USA but this was changed to the more popular Crystal Palace Baltimore on January 27, 2010.

The team’s debut match was against its sister club at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility in Annapolis, MD on July 15th. At the time the team was comprised on local Maryland based universities top ranked players including Chris Seitz, AJ DeLaGarza and Maurice Edu. The team played well but ultimately lost 3-1.

Two more matches occurred between the two Crystal teams with the final one held on July 13, 2009 at the Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, MD.

The team participated in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup tournament beginning on June 12, 2007. In its initial appearance it lost to the Ocean City Barons 1-0.

In the 2008 season, it began on June 10th at the Azusa Pacific University with a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Legends. Then two weeks later the team gained another victory in a penalty shootout against the Harrisburg City Islanders.

Unfortunately the team was unable to advance to the semifinals nor was it able to advance past the first round for the next two years.

And in the 2007 playing season, Crystal Palace Baltimore began their USL-2 run with a four game losing streak. They lost 4-1 on the season opener on April 20th along with three straight home game shutouts. They improved with a seven match undefeated stretch. The team eventually finished in fifth place.

At the start of the 2008 series, the team performed much better. It began with five victories with the first four as shutouts.

The team was expected to move up the USL First Division league. However on November 2009, they announced that they would insteaqd join the new North American Soccer League (NASL).

This lead to a number of lawsuits as well as heated press statements between the different leagues. Ultimately the United States Soccer Federation said that they would not sanction either league and ordered both groups to work things out. A compromise was reached in January 2010 with the formation of the USSF Division 2 Professional league which was comprised of teams from both former leagues.

And despite the decision of Crystal Palace Baltimore not to field a team in 2011, it is hoped and expected that the reorganized team will emerge to bigger and better results in 2012.