Siegfried Stritzl (April 12, 1944 – November 3, 2022) was an American soccer player who was the 1969 North American Soccer League Rookie of the Year. He also earned eleven

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

, scoring two goals, with the U.S. national team between 1968 and 1973. The Sigi Stritzl Award, given to exceptional high school and college students, is named in his honor.

Professional career

Stritzl was born in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. He spent six seasons with Blau-Weiss Gottschee of the German American Soccer League (GASL) between 1961 and 1968. In 1961, he was a member of the GASL Junior All Stars on a tour of Germany.
/sup> In 1963, Blau Weiss-Gottschee won the GASL championship. In 1969, the

Baltimore Bays The Baltimore Bays were a professional soccer team based in Baltimore, Maryland founded in 1967 as one of the ten charter members of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). When the NPSL and the rival United Soccer Association (USA) me ...

of the North American Soccer League (NASL) signed Stritzl. While the Bays finished the season with the league's worst record and folded at the end of the season, Stritzl was named the NASL Rookie of the Year. With the collapse of the Bays, Stritzl returned to the Blau Weiss-Gottschee for the 1970 GASL season. However, in 1971, the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...

of NASL signed Stritzl. He was named as a First Team NASL All Star that season as the Cosmos lost to the Atlanta Chiefs in the playoff semifinals. In 1972, Stritzl was a Second Team All Star, but this year the Cosmos won the league title, defeating the St. Louis Stars. In 1973, Stritzl played his last season in the NASL. Stritzl played forty-seven NASL regular-season and four post-season games. In 1971, he scored three goals in twenty-one games, several on free kicks where he bent the ball around defensive wall formations. Stritzl dubbed this technique his "banana kick".

International career

Stritzl earned eleven

with the U.S. national team. His first game with the national team came in a 4–0 loss to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

on September 25, 1968. A month later, his second cap came in a world cup qualifying loss to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Stritzl scored his first of two goals with the national team in the 4–2 loss. Stritzl continued to play for each U.S. national team games in 1968 and 1969. His second goal came in a 5–2 loss to Haiti on October 21, 1968. After the U.S. failed to qualify for the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Stritzl was not called into the national team again until a March 20, 1973 loss to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

when he came on for

Manfred Seissler Manfred "Manny" Seissler ''(German: Manfred Seißler)'' (born August 8, 1939) is a former soccer player who began his career in the lower German divisions before moving to the United States. He played one season in the National Professional Soc ...

. That was his last game with the national team.

Personal life and death

Stritzl died on November 3, 2022, at the age of 78.

References

External links

*
Blau-Weiss Gottschee

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stritzl, Siegfried 1944 births 2022 deaths American soccer players Association football midfielders Baltimore Bays players Blau-Weiss Gottschee players German-American Soccer League players New York Cosmos players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players United States men's international soccer players Yugoslav emigrants to the United States