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New Jersey Ironmen kick off XLS season today

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The New Jersey Ironmen begin their second year of existence and first in the newly-formed Xtreme Soccer League when they take on the Chicago Storm today at the Prudential Center in Newark at 4pm.

The four-team XSL began its first season of existence on Saturday, with the Milwaukee Wave beating the Detroit Ignition, 11-4, on Saturday night.

Here are some stories previewing the Ironmen and the Storm.

Will you be taking in XSL action this season? Will you be attending the Ironmen opener today? I will be doing a piece in the fledgling league on Monday so keep an eye out for that.

For more information on the Ironmen, visit the team's website.

Share your thoughts on the new league, and indoor soccer in general, in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. I am a former old-time MISL fan. I was at last night’s Ironmen game in Newark and counted the crowd at about 2,100, give or take about 200 in the bathrooms, on the concourse, whatever. This is very troubling.

    Reply
  2. I refuse to attend a game until they have a Cleveland franchise called the “Cleveland Steamers.” I guarantee attendance would be boosted by at least a thousand at every match then.

    Reply
  3. I would rather watch Indoor Soccer than Futsal. I was watching that on ESPN, the Futsal world cup I believe it was, and that was the most annoying soccer game I have ever watched. Though in DC when we had the Warthogs I was all about going and I used to have seats on the glass, Good Stuff.

    I need to go to some Blast games.

    Reply
  4. Growing up a KC Comets fan and going to a lot of games and playing the indoor game all through my childhood… I hold a bit of a special place for the sport…that being said… if you really want it to reclaim its so called glory years of the late 80’s… get at least 12 teams and make the tickets $10 per and get rid of the funky rules like the 3 pointer… you can have 1pts be 2pts if it is scored on a full volley or a header… no dangerous play or high boots (need something different)

    Bring back this… under MISL

    Dallas Sidekicks

    KC Comets

    Cleveland Crunch/Force

    Baltimore Blast

    Tacoma Stars

    Wichita Wingers

    San Diego Sockers

    St Louis Steamers

    Milwaukee Wave

    Philadelphia Kixx

    Los Angeles Lazers

    New York Arrows/Ironmen

    2 conference of 6 teams… top two in each conference make the playoffs in 3 game series and a 5 games series for the title…

    If the morons would spend the money to do it right and hire a halfway decent marketing team that knows soccer (LIKE ME)… then this could actaully work…

    There is a market for this in the winter from Novemeber to March…15 game regular season schedule (home away in your conference and play the other conference teams once) only Friday, Saturday and Sunday matches so the guys could work @ Target during the week to feed themselves…

    If by chance an investor wants to talk to me about this plan further… send me a note because I have always wanted to see the MISL run correctly and in the right markets it could do well enough and average about 5000 fans a night in those cities.

    Ok off my glory days of the MISL soapbox…

    Reply
  5. Growing up a KC Comets fan and going to a lot of games and playing the indoor game all through my childhood… I hold a bit of a special place for the sport…that being said… if you really want it to reclaim its so called glory years of the late 80’s… get at least 12 teams and make the tickets $10 per and get rid of the funky rules like the 3 pointer… you can have 1pts be 2pts if it is scored on a full volley or a header… no dangerous play or high boots (need something different)

    Bring back this… under MISL

    Dallas Sidekicks

    KC Comets

    Cleveland Crunch/Force

    Baltimore Blast

    Tacoma Stars

    Wichita Wingers

    San Diego Sockers

    St Louis Steamers

    Milwaukee Wave

    Philadelphia Kixx

    Los Angeles Lazers

    New York Arrows/Ironmen

    2 conference of 6 teams… top two in each conference make the playoffs in 3 game series and a 5 games series for the title…

    If the morons would spend the money to do it right and hire a halfway decent marketing team that knows soccer (LIKE ME)… then this could actaully work…

    There is a market for this in the winter from Novemeber to March…15 game regular season schedule (home away in your conference and play the other conference teams once) only Friday, Saturday and Sunday matches so the guys could work @ Target during the week to feed themselves…

    If by chance an investor wants to talk to me about this plan further… send me a note because I have always wanted to see the MISL run correctly and in the right markets it could do well enough and average about 5000 fans a night in those cities.

    Ok off my glory days of the MISL soapbox…

    Reply
  6. Indoor soccer should be allowed to fade away. It *may* have had some reason for being when Americans needed to have their soccer appetites whetted by a strange version of the game that could build interest in real soccer. But that is clearly no longer the case, if it ever was. It’s a bit like watching Slamball, or whatever they call that weird basketball game with the trampolines and no out-of-bounds — it calls for only a few real soccer skills, and a variety of other skills that really have nothing to do with soccer.

    Reply
  7. Thanks for gracing the ESC with your presence last night, Ives. 😉

    The game, on the other hand, was lame to say the least. I caught most of the Irons games last year, and this game was a huge drop-off from last year’s “quality” of play.

    Reply
  8. You’d think soccer’s joke-like presence in professional sports, complete with silly team names, would humble soccer enthusiasts to give indoor soccer a chance – or, at least, respect it enough to realize the last thing it needs are a bunch of Jim Rome quality ad hominem attacks.

    Reply
  9. Why can’t we just put the resources of the XSL and WPS into the MLS and USL leagues? We can’t divide the market when the market and much of America’s passion are struggling.

    Reply
  10. This team is about as cool as aides

    Posted by: AltiCooper | December 14, 2008 at 06:45 PM
    _____________________________________________

    Man, aides really get my goat…always helping me get stuff done and lightening my workload and the like. I can’t think of anything less cool.

    Reply
  11. Sorry, there is no such thing as a 4 team “league”. Its just a few teams getting together to play some games.
    Once you get up to 8 teams at least, pay your players more than any other league can, and get rid of 2 and three point goals, call me.
    Until then, I won’t be paying attention, sorry.

    Reply
  12. Human pinball, no vision, no ebb and flow, no shape, no beauty. Indoor is to soccer what Lawrence welk is to music, or the readers Digest is to literature.

    Reply
  13. Indoor soccer has lost me as a fan with the splintering of MLS. There are now what, three top-level indoor soccer leagues? Each with members of MISL in them. Yeah, indoor soccer is dead to me until they can get their act together.

    Reply
  14. Am I seeing this right? There’s only 4 teams in the whole league? What’s the point of the regular season? Just start the playoffs now. LOL. Team names like Ignition, Wave and Storm?? “Xtreme” Soccer League? No thanks.

    I might have actually watched this if it wasn’t marketed so epically poorly.

    Reply
  15. Look, the beautiful game totally loses its beauty when played in a hockey rink. Indoor soccer isn’t real soccer and never will be. I just ignore all of the indoor leagues.

    Reply
  16. So what makes it extreme….uh, I mean “xtreme”? And does going to games necessitate sitting with a bunch xtreme skateboarderzz?

    Reply

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