Innisfails was a U.S.

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 ...

team which competed in the

St. Louis Soccer League The St. Louis Soccer League was based in St. Louis, Missouri and existed from 1915 to 1938. At its founding, it was the only fully professional soccer league in the United States. The league was founded from two teams from the St. Louis Soccer F ...

from 1907 to 1921.

History

Innisfails was a charter member of the newly founded

in 1907. The SLSL was created as a rival to the city’s Association Football League which was established in 1903. Innisfails won the first title, but following the merger of the SLSL and AFL in 1908, Innisfails dropped out and St. Leo's moved into its place in the league. In 1909, Innisfails returned to the SLSL. While they had left as champions, their first year back proved much less successful as they finished fourth out of four teams with a 3-10-2 record. They improved their finish each of the next two seasons, rising to second by the end of the 1911-1912 season when they finished behind St. Leo’s. They finished second again the next year, but in 1913, disagreements about professionalism led the league to split into the Federal Park and Robison Field Leagues. Innisfails joined the Robison Field League which was an amateur league.
/sup> While St. Leo’s, their nemesis for the previous two SLSL seasons, were now in the Federal Park League, Innisfails was still unable to top the standings, finishing second to the Columbus Club in 1913-1914. In addition to its league games, Innisfails also went on exhibition tours against other top U.S. team. In 1913, Innisfails traveled east for five games against Paterson True Blues. They finished 0-4-1 against the Blues.
/sup> The next year saw them win their first league title since 1908, as they took first in the Robison Field League. By 1915, the two leagues were looking to merge. As part of this process, the top teams from each league played for the St. Louis city championship. As the Robison Field League champion, Innisfails played St. Leo’s, the Federal Park League champion. Innisfails finally topped their longtime rivals to win the combined league championship. Soon after the two leagues merged to reform the St. Louis Soccer League. This merger brought Ben Millers into the league and both Innisfails and St. Leo’s found themselves battling for second behind the new team. In 1920, Innisfails lost to eventual champion Ben Millers in the second round of the

National Challenge Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. The 2023 U.S. O ...

.
/sup> By 1920, Innisfails had begun to fade and after finishing fourth, withdrew from the league in 1921. In 1916, the United States men's national soccer team, U.S. national team played its first official games. Matt Diedrichsen of Innisfails was the only player outside of the northeast U.S. called into the team for its tour of Scandinavia.

Record

{, class="wikitable" , - ! Year !! Record !! League !! Open Cup , - , 1907–1908 , , 9-2-6 , , bgcolor="B3B7FF", Champion , , ''N/A'' , - , 1908–1909 , , * , , , , ''N/A'' , - , 1909–1910 , , 3-10-2 , , 4th , , ''N/A'' , - , 1910–1911 , , 7-9-1 , , 3rd , , ''N/A'' , - , 1911–1912 , , 8-4-3 , , 2nd , , ''N/A'' , - , 1912–1913 , , 6-3-2 , , 2nd , , ''N/A'' , - , 1913–1914 , , 9-6-5 , , 2nd , , ''Did not enter'' , - , 1914–1915 , , 10-2-2 , , bgcolor="B3B7FF", Champion , , ''Did not enter'' , - , 1915–1916 , , 7-6-6 , , 2nd , , ''Did not enter'' , - , 1916–1917 , , 9-8-3 , , 2nd , , ''Did not enter'' , - , 1917–1918 , , 5-6-6 , , 3rd , , , - , 1918–1919 , , 9-8-4 , , 2nd , , , - , 1919–1920 , , 10-8-3 , , 2nd , , Second Round , - , 1920–1921 , , 6-9-7 , , 4th , , Third Round * Sat out this season.

External links

St. Louis Soccer League standings
Association football clubs established in 1907 Defunct soccer clubs in Missouri Soccer clubs in St. Louis St. Louis Soccer League teams