Tom Poltl (born September 21, 1977) is a retired

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who was a member of the

United States U-20 men's national soccer team The United States U-20 men's national soccer team is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation. The highest level of competition in which the team competes is the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which is held every two years. The United States' b ...

at the

1997 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1997 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 11th staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship. It was held from 16 June to 5 July 1997 in Malaysia. It was th ...

Career

Youth

Poltl attended San Marcos High School, and played

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UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

from 1995 to 1998. In 1997, Poltl was part of the Bruins team which won the

NCAA Men's Soccer Championship The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I men's national champ ...

over the

Virginia Cavaliers The Virginia Cavaliers, also known as ''Wahoos'' or ''Hoos'', are the athletic teams representing the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers compete at the NCAA Division I level ( FBS for football), in the Atlantic C ...

Professional

In February 1999, the

Colorado Rapids The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver metropolitan area. The Rapids compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 1995, as part of the Anschutz Corporation, la ...

selected Poltl in the second round (20th overall) of the

MLS College Draft The MLS SuperDraft is an annual Draft (sports), college draft for teams of Major League Soccer in the United States and Canada. It takes place in January and is used by teams to select players who have graduated from college or otherwise been s ...

. Soon after, the San Francisco Bay Seals of the

USL A-League 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 ...

selected Poltl in the second round (forty-ninth overall) in the A-League draft. The Rapids did not sign him, and the Seals traded his rights to the Boston Bulldogs of the A-League, with whom he spent the 1999 and 2000 seasons. In 2002 Poltl signed as a player-coach with the

Orange County Blue Star Orange County Blue Star was an American soccer team based in Irvine, California. Founded in 1997, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Southwest Division of the Weste ...

of the fourth division

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

. On April 20, 2005, he moved to the

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional men's soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The Timbers have played their home games at P ...

of the

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system b ...

. He played over 100 games for Portland in his five years with club, leading his team to the 2009 USL First Division championship, before being released on December 7, 2009.

International

Between 1995 and 1997, Poltl earned eleven

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with the U.S. U-20 national team. In 1997, he was a member of the U.S. team at the

. He played one game, a 3-0 loss to Uruguay in the Round of 16.FIFA
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References

External links

UCLA Bruins stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poltl, Tom 1977 births American soccer coaches American soccer players Boston Bulldogs (soccer) players Cape Cod Crusaders players Colorado Rapids draft picks Association football midfielders Living people Orange County Blue Star players People from San Marcos, California Portland Timbers (2001–2010) players Soccer players from California UCLA Bruins men's soccer players A-League (1995–2004) players USL Second Division players USL First Division players USL League Two players United States men's under-20 international soccer players