The Coastal Cup is a trophy and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

competition among the USL Championship (USL) teams based in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Established in 2010, the trophy was originally awarded to the best team in regular season play among Florida-based franchises. Head-to-head playoff games, U.S. Open Cup matches and friendlies have no bearing on the outcome of this competition. The

Fort Lauderdale Strikers Fort Lauderdale Strikers may refer to: *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1977–1983), member of North American Soccer League from 1977 to 1983 *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1988–1994), member of American Soccer League from 1988 to 1989 and American Profes ...

did not field a team in 2017 and were later dissolved. The

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Champions ...

also participated in this cup from 2010 though 2016, before leaving the NASL for the USL. With Miami FC joining the USL, the competition restarted in 2020.

Pre-history

The idea of an all-Florida Cup in soccer goes back to the

Tang Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...

sponsored, Florida Cup in the American Soccer League. It was contested in the 1988 ASL season between the second incarnation of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, the

Miami Sharks The Miami Sharks were an inaugural franchise of the third incarnation of the American Soccer League in 1988. The team was renamed the Miami Freedom and joined the American Professional Soccer League in 1990 when the ASL merged with the Western Soc ...

, the

Orlando Lions The Orlando Lions were an American soccer team from Orlando, Florida which existed from 1985 to 1996. Over the years, the Lions competed at both the amateur and professional levels including some seasons as an independent team. The Lions is a ni ...

, and the original Tampa Bay Rowdies. In a runaway, Fort Lauderdale won the title with a total of 24 point

outpacing Orlando and Tampa Bay by 12 points and Miami by 18. They clinched the title with a month left to play in the season. They were awarded the Tang trophy on August 3 at

Lockhart Stadium Lockhart Stadium was a stadium used mostly for soccer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States. It was used in a variety of sports, particularly soccer and American football. Originally designed in 1959 for high school sports, the stadium's l ...

during halftime of their match versus Miami. Although there were at least two Florida-based clubs in the ASL (and its successor, the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. It ...

) through the

1993 season File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, the 1988 edition was the only time in that era of Florida professional club soccer that a trophy competition of this nature was contested.

History

The Coastal Cup was first contested in 2010 as part of the fifth incarnation of the

Florida Derby The Florida Derby is an American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old horses held annually at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Since 2005, it has been run five weeks before the Kentucky Derby, which is held on the first Saturd ...

, between

FC Tampa Bay The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Champions ...

and the original

Miami FC Blues Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the ...

, while both were members of the

D2 Pro League The USSF Division 2 Professional League (D2 Pro League) was a temporary professional soccer league created by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) for the 2010 season. The twelve-team league was formed as a compromise between the feuding Un ...

. Within two years time both teams would re-brand using the names of the historic NASL clubs from the two regions of Florida and were themselves part of the new NASL. Tampa Bay won the first four Coastal Cups, with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers finally breaking through in 2014. The addition of the

Jacksonville Armada Jacksonville Armada FC is an American professional soccer team based in Jacksonville, Florida. They most recently played in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), the fourth tier of the American soccer pyramid, during the 2018 season while ...

to the NASL for the 2015 season made the Coastal Cup a triangular competition. The Strikers retained the trophy in 2015 with one match to spare by virtue of Jacksonville's 2–0 upset victory over the Rowdies on September 26. In the 2016 season the new

Miami FC The Miami FC is an American professional soccer team based in Miami, Florida that competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The club began play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 2016 se ...

squad joined the NASL to make the competition a four-team affair. Shortly after Tampa Bay secured its fifth cup title, the franchise announced it would be leaving the NASL for the

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...

beginning in 2017. Although Jacksonville and Miami both participated in the

2017 NASL season The 2017 North American Soccer League season was the 50th season of Division II soccer in the United States and Canada, and the 7th season of the modern North American Soccer League. The defending champions are the New York Cosmos who defeated I ...

, with Miami FC sweeping all five head-to-head matches, the Coastal Cup trophy was not presented to them. Miami FC joined Tampa Bay in the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

in 2020 to revive this all-Florida in-league rivalry, but the trophy still has not resurfaced.

Most recent

''Tiebreaker sequence: 1. Goal Differential - 2. Total Goals - 3. Head-To-Head Record - 4. Away Goal Difference - 5. Away Goals Scored''

By season

''*Although these were NASL regular season games the Coastal Cup was not presented in 2017, or since in the USL Championship'' ''#Tampa Bay wins on away goals, 2-1.''

All-time

''*totals through 2021 season''

References

{{Tampa Bay Rowdies Soccer cup competitions in the United States Soccer rivalries in the United States Soccer clubs in Florida Sports in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Sports competitions in Jacksonville, Florida Sports in St. Petersburg, Florida Fort Lauderdale Strikers Jacksonville Armada FC Tampa Bay Rowdies 2010 establishments in Florida Miami FC Sports in Miami Sports rivalries in Florida