Gate City FC in action on Tuesday night at Guilford College:Bringing back the “Soccer City”

Was up at the Guilford College campus on Tuesday night getting some workout work done and could hear some music blarring over the campus corridor and I was wondering who could be having a game on a Summer night, with school over and just a few Summer School students around for Quaker class or two, during the break in class sessions.

Maybe there was a baseball game on hand and they had added pre-game music to their agenda…Could be the Greensboro Adult Baseball League with Enad Haddad at the helm was taking advantage of a sunny Tuesday, with a game or two before dark….

Knowing that all of the Guilford College Quaker teams were off for the Summer months, I knew that there couldn’t be anything going on in the Armfield Athletic Center, on the Herb Appenzeller Field, but hey maybe there was a cheerleading camp taking place at Guilford and the cheerleaders were working out on the turf field, or it could be that the Nan’s Dance School had moved one of their performances outside from the Dana Auditorium, to the football stadium…

Wrong on all counts…Last night the Gate FC Soccer team was meeting the Carolina Railhawks under 23 year-old team in soccer action, at the Armfield Athletic Center…..

The Gate City FC, as in Gate City football team/soccer team coached by Brian Japp, the former defender for the Greenboro Dynamo, your 1994 National Champions…

Japp scored the winning goal in the National Championship Game at UNCG on an overcast Monday night, in August of ’94 and Japp’s game-winning kick/score came in a shootout, as the Greensboro Dyanamo were battling the Minnesota Thunder for the title.

Japp had to shoot in the shootout as a fullback/defender, because the teams had just about gone through all of their players, during the shootout elimination process…Who would have ever thought that a fullback would score your game-winning goal in the Overtime shootout, but Japp got it done and the Dynamo were National Champions and they won the game in front of packed house at UNCG’s soccer stadium….

What a night and for that matter, what a year it was back in 1994….

The Dynamo won the National Championship on that Monday night, the day before our local American Postal Workers Union Palomino Baseball team, coached by Alan Ashkinazy, won the Palomino Baseball World Series at Stoner-White Stadium here in Greensboro and that same year, 1994, the World Cup of Soccer was being played in the United States….

Lexi Lalas, Tony Meola from Virginia, Cobi Jones, and the list of US soccer players from that year and that era goes on….

But, maybe the real star that year and one of the most important names in the history of successful soccer in our city was and maybe it still is, Brian Japp…

Japp was ‘The Man’ on that Monday night at UNCG and maybe he still is….He is the coach of our Gate FC team and they are playing all of their home games at Guilford College this season….

Maybe Japp can bring back some of that old UNCG Spartan and Greensboro Dynamo magic and energy….

Japp had his team facing the Carolina Railhawks last night at Guilford College and the Gate FC has made Guilford their home…Funny, but going back to 1994, the Greensboro Dynamo played one game in the National Championship Tournament of the NASAL, maybe it was the North American Soccer Association/League, or it might have been the USISL/United States Independent Soccer League and I think USISL may have been closer to our actual league, but still the little known fact is that the Greensboro Dynamo played a tournament game at Guilford that year, back in ’94 and they met the Birmingham Grasshoppers of all people and that team as you might expect, was out of Birmingham, Alabama…They played that game right there on the Guilford field and it was a lot different stadium back then, 20 years ago, from what it is now…

Now back to the future, 20 years removed from 1994 and Japp’s team is up at Guilford College and they took on the Carolina Railhawks’ Under 23 team on Tuesday night….Was looking for, but can’t find a final yet on that game…I would like to keep up with and follow Japp’s team and see how they do…

The Gate City FC has their own team bus and they had it parked out at Guilford last night and they are doing kids’ soccer clinics before many of their home games this season….The crowd did not appear too large at all last night, but according to the gate-keeper, Richard, the gathering for the first home game was very large and enthusiastic….Richard keeps the gate down by the Quaker baseball field and he also works for the Grasshoppers, as their main baseball retreiver during batting practice before the games at NewBridge Bank Park…Richard will give you a good day’s work/night’s work and a good report, at a fair price….

Guilford College is a great place to watch a game of any type and it is good to see the Gate City FC calling the Quaker campus their home…Brian Japp brings a large slice of soccer history to our city and maybe he and his Gate City boys/men can re-capture that feeling we had back in 1994 and this is the year of the World Cup of soccer and that might help matters too, although this year the Cup is being hosted by Brazil, I do believe…

Good to see the Gate City FC on the Greensboro professional sports map and maybe at the end of the Summer we can organize a matchup with the Gate City FC versus the Carolina Dynamo….

Bring it back as they might say and let’s play on that day at UNCG or even at Guilford College….Dynamo vs. Gate City FC and this might be a great event for soccer in our city and who knows, it might be time to award the Greensboro Cup, to the top soccer club in our city….

Carolina Dynamo vs. the Gate City FC and they could bring back and honor all of the players from that 1994 Champioship Season that they could find and maybe they could suit up and play a little exhibition game prior to the Gate City FC-Dynamo clash….

Let’s seem if we’re bringing back Eddie Radwanski, Jason Haupt, Mike Gailey, Jimmy Glenn, Gabe Garcia, Carlos Garcia, Aiden Heany, Eddie Mitchell, Aiden Murphy and of course Brian Japp and there may have been a Tom Misarauca too….And don’t forget our main man, Maher Atta….

As Jennie McCarthey’s brother Big John or Big Ed, says,
“Let’s Get It On”…..The Carolina Dynamo vs. the Gate City FC for the Greensboro/Gate City Cup….For competition purposes, wouldn’t the Dynamo love to steal or take the Gate City’s Cup????

“Let’s Get It On”

Gate City FC vs. the Carolina Dynamo and a portion of the proceeds could go to the Greensboro Soccer Scholarship Fund….

*****Anyone remember the “Soccer City” T-shirts from years ago?
*****

+++++Here is your link to the Gate City FC web site,
CLICK HERE.+++++