Cleveland_Crunch

Cleveland Crunch
	Team logo (1989–95; 2000–02)
Founded	1989
Owner	Richard Dietrich (2001–2005); George S. Hoffman (1989–2001)
League	Major Indoor Soccer League (1989–1992); National Professional Soccer League (1992–2001); Major Indoor Soccer League (2001–2005);
	Current season

Cleveland Crunch

Soccer club

The Cleveland Crunch was an American professional indoor soccer club located in Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in 1989 as an expansion team in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), the Crunch played a total of 16 seasons in three separate leagues under two different names. The team played three seasons in the original MISL, later known as the Major Soccer League (MSL), before joining the rival National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1992. After nine seasons in the NPSL, the team joined a second incarnation of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) in 2001. In 2002, the team was rebranded the Cleveland Force in honor of the former team of the same name. After four seasons in the second MISL, the team folded in 2005.

Quick Facts Founded, Owner ...

A new team bearing the Cleveland Crunch name joined Major Arena Soccer League 2 for the 2021 season.

History

The original Cleveland Force team had folded on July 22, 1988. Akron businessmen George S. Hoffman and Stuart Lichter formed an ownership group; named Al Miller general manager; and named former Force star Kai Haaskivi player-coach. Miller and Haaskivi brought back many players who had been fan favorites during the Force's height of popularity in the mid-1980s. The Crunch's home arena was originally the Richfield Coliseum.

Near the end of the Crunch's first season, Miller engineered a trade that would help Cleveland make the championship finals in seven of the next 10 years. He sent veteran forward Paul Wright to the San Diego Sockers for Zoran Karic, a feisty forward who immediately hit it off with Cleveland star Hector Marinaro. Within weeks, they were dubbed the "Dynamic Duo" and together rewrote the scoring record books for the next decade.

Updated Crunch logo (1995–97)

Another updated logo (1997–2000)

When the original MISL ceased operation in the summer of 1992, the Crunch, Baltimore and Wichita joined the rival NPSL as "expansion teams". All were permitted to keep only six players, then fill the rest of their rosters in an expansion draft of players made available by other NPSL teams. The NPSL, in an effort to promote the sport in the United States, had a cap of two non-Americans allowed on a roster. Canadian-born Marinaro and Serbia native Karic filled that quota immediately. Besides Marinaro and Karic, holdovers from the MISL Crunch were midfielders Tommy Tanner and Andy Schmetzer, defender George Fernandez and young goalkeeper Otto Orf.

Orf had only a 14–32 record the previous three years with the club as backup to P.J. Johns. Before switching leagues, Miller had signed four-time NPSL goalkeeper of the year Jamie Swanner from the Canton Invaders. That contract was voided when the Crunch entered the NPSL. Swanner and several ex-Invaders signed as free agents with another expansion team, the Buffalo Blizzard. New Crunch coach Gary Hindley wanted Orf as his starter, citing the big keeper's strong throwing arm as an offensive weapon. He wanted Orf getting the ball to Marinaro and Karic with outlet passes at the team's new home, the CSU Convocation Center, where the playing surface was considerably smaller than at the Richfield Coliseum.

Team logo as Force (2002–05)

Orf became a 25-game winner, Marinaro and Karic shattered all scoring records, and Cleveland advanced to the league finals, where it lost to the Kansas City Attack, three games to two. A year later, the Crunch finally broke through to win Cleveland's first championship in any pro sport in 30 years. Marinaro scored the dramatic game-winner in double overtime as Cleveland overcame a 15–10 deficit to defeat the visiting St. Louis Ambush, 17–15, to take the series, three games to one.^[1]

Lichter faded from view when the MISL folded and Hoffman became even more active as owner during the Crunch's almost yearly run to the finals. Hoffman eventually sold his interest to a Cleveland group headed by Richard Dietrich. Soon after, the NPSL reorganized itself as the new Major Indoor Soccer League in 2001. The team took on the old Cleveland Force name in 2002.^[2]

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This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Cleveland_Crunch, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] [1]
Keh, Andrew (June 7, 2015). "Cleveland, City of Champions (at Least in Indoor Soccer of the '90s)". The New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2016.

[2] [2]
"Cleveland Crunch ex-President Paul Garofolo charged with tax fraud". 8 September 2010.

[1]

[2]

Year	League	Reg. season	Playoffs	Avg. attendance
1989–90	MISL	4th East, 20–32	did not qualify	5,543
1990–91	MSL	1st East, 29–23	Runners-up	4,640
1991–92	MSL	3rd MISL, 20–20	Lost Semifinal	7,056
1992–93	NPSL	2nd American, 25–15	Runners-up	6,483
1993–94	NPSL	2nd American, 23–17	Won Championship	6,677
1994–95	NPSL	1st American, 30–10	Lost Semifinal	7,579
1995–96	NPSL	1st American, 31–9	Won Championship	7,647
1996–97	NPSL	1st Central, 29–11	Runners-up	8,044
1997–98	NPSL	2nd Central, 21–19	Lost Conference Semifinal	8,265
1998–99	NPSL	1st Central, 26–14	Won Championship	8,034
1999–00	NPSL	1st Central, 27–17	Runners-up	6,290
2000–01	NPSL	5th American, 18–22	did not qualify	6,317
2001–02	MISL	5th MISL, 16–28	did not qualify	4,688
2002–03	MISL	2nd East, 19–17	Lost Conference Semifinal	5,381
2003–04	MISL	3rd East, 15–21	Lost Quarterfinal	4,955
2004–05	MISL	2nd MISL, 23–16	Runners-up	3,639

Cleveland_Crunch

Cleveland Crunch

History

Team honors

Individual honors

Head coaches

Arenas

Year-by-year

Playoffs

References

External links

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