DeKalb County United to host USASA National Amatuer Cup
With women fresh off state cup title, president John Hall hopes to increase local awareness about club
Since its founding in 2017, the DeKalb County United soccer club has been looking to elevate itself in the community.
This week, president John Hall said the club is making a big splash in that department, hosting the 100th United States Adult Soccer Association National Amateur Cup at Northern Illinois University’s soccer stadium in DeKalb.
“For us, since we started the club, it’s been hard to put ourselves in the forefront of the community,” Hall said. “There’s still a lot of people who don’t know we exist. So this was a way, through some extra marketing and extra attention, maybe people realize we’re here.”
FC Arizona and FC Milwaukee Torrent will play one men’s semifinal Thursday and New York Pancyprian Freedoms and Tobacco Road FC will play in the other, with the title game at 7 p.m. Sunday.
On the women’s side, the Rochester Lazers will face Winger FC in one semifinal while Pan World Women and Edgewater Castle FC will meet in the other. The title game will be Sunday.
Before the men’s final Saturday, United will face Steel City at 4:30 p.m. in its season finale.
“We’re proud of our community, and we’re proud of our club,” Hall said. “This was a way to showcase it on a little bigger stage than just the Midwest Premier Leagues or women’s leagues or state cup. It was our first opportunity to do something bigger, and we jumped all over it.”
Hall said memorabilia from 100 years of the event will be displayed throughout the weekend.
Back in November, Hall said he started talking with USASA president Bruce Bode about hosting the event. What started as informal talks snowballed quickly into DeKalb hosting the event.
“I’ve known him for a few years through this soccer journey, and I just kind of mentioned off-the-cuff actually how it would be really cool to bring to DeKalb,” Hall said. “We could help with marketing and bring attention to it. I think a light bulb went off through a series of phone calls and emails. We put a proposal together and made the official bid. Fortunately, they decided to go with us.”
While Hall said that hosting the tournament helps put the team in the national spotlight, he’s really hoping it helps make an impact locally.
“Certainly it’s nice for people around the country to understand we’re a club and what we’re about,” Hall said. “Everybody loves our logo and all that. But national attention doesn’t really move the needle as far as we’re concerned with community impact and sustainability.”
The women’s team is fresh off winning the Illinois State Cup with a 7-0 victory over Rockford on Saturday and the men’s team hasn’t lost a league game since June 26.
But Hall said putting on an event the scale of the Cup and bringing in eight teams to the community and the tourism revenue that comes with that is a whole different ballgame.
“It’s an exciting opportunity to bring a bigger event to town,” Hall said. “It will put us on the map a little bit.”