The Western Soccer League is a defunct United States professional soccer league. The league began in 1984 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1985, it became the Western Soccer Alliance. In 1989, it existed for a single year as the Western Soccer League before merging with the American Soccer League to form the American Professional Soccer League in 1990.
Origins:
After the demise of the North American Soccer League in 1984 and the United Soccer League in 1985, four independent teams on the West Coast (F.C. Portland, F. C. Seattle, San Jose Earthquakes and Victoria Riptides) created the Western Alliance Challenge Series in the summer of 1985. They did so in order to fill the outdoor soccer void created by the failure of the NASL and USL.
Many top outdoor players now languished in local semi-pro or recreational leagues. These players, along with local soccer officials, began parallel, but independent efforts to create local "super clubs". These "super clubs" then challenged other independent teams to games for little more than bragging rights.
For example, in 1984 F. C. Seattle hosted the Seattle Challenge Series against the Vancouver Whitecaps, Minnesota Strikers, New York Cosmos and U.S. Olympic Team. Other teams held similar challenge series and it was from these efforts that the The Western Alliance Challenge Series was born.
1990: Merger with the ASL:
In 1990, the WSL formally merged with the American Soccer League (ASL) to form the American Professional Soccer League which would itself one day become known as the A-League. Despite the hopes of the WSL leadership, USSF did not designate the new APSL as the top U.S. league.
That honor would eventually go Major League Soccer which began play in 1996. Instead, the WSL had a much less dignified end. It would join the NASL as yet another soccer league destroyed by overexpansion and high hopes. At the end of the 1990 APSL season, nearly all of the 1989 WSL teams folded, leaving only the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks to carry on as the lone WSA/WSL survivor in the APSL.
Teams:
Origins:
After the demise of the North American Soccer League in 1984 and the United Soccer League in 1985, four independent teams on the West Coast (F.C. Portland, F. C. Seattle, San Jose Earthquakes and Victoria Riptides) created the Western Alliance Challenge Series in the summer of 1985. They did so in order to fill the outdoor soccer void created by the failure of the NASL and USL.
Many top outdoor players now languished in local semi-pro or recreational leagues. These players, along with local soccer officials, began parallel, but independent efforts to create local "super clubs". These "super clubs" then challenged other independent teams to games for little more than bragging rights.
For example, in 1984 F. C. Seattle hosted the Seattle Challenge Series against the Vancouver Whitecaps, Minnesota Strikers, New York Cosmos and U.S. Olympic Team. Other teams held similar challenge series and it was from these efforts that the The Western Alliance Challenge Series was born.
1990: Merger with the ASL:
In 1990, the WSL formally merged with the American Soccer League (ASL) to form the American Professional Soccer League which would itself one day become known as the A-League. Despite the hopes of the WSL leadership, USSF did not designate the new APSL as the top U.S. league.
That honor would eventually go Major League Soccer which began play in 1996. Instead, the WSL had a much less dignified end. It would join the NASL as yet another soccer league destroyed by overexpansion and high hopes. At the end of the 1990 APSL season, nearly all of the 1989 WSL teams folded, leaving only the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks to carry on as the lone WSA/WSL survivor in the APSL.
Teams:
- Arizona Condors (1989)
- California Kickers (1987-89); Hollywood Kickers (1986)
- Edmonton Brickmen (1986)
- Los Angeles Heat (1986-89)
- F.C. Portland (1985-88); Portland Timbers (1989)
- Real Santa Barbara (1989-1990)
- Sacramento Senators (1989)
- San Diego Nomads (1986-89)
- San Francisco Bay Blackhawks (1989)
- San Jose Earthquakes (1985-88)
- F.C. Seattle (1985-87); Seattle Storm (1988-89)
- Victoria Riptides (1985)
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