For the first time, the best of St. Louis meets the best of the East in a much-anticipated soccer showdown at Athletic Park, Garrison and North Market Streets. The result is an unsatisfactory 4-4 draw between St. Leo’s of St. Louis and Tacony of Philadelphia on a rain-soaked field where “the mud, in some places ankle deep,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, spoils the match (headline pictured)..

In his first game in six weeks after suffering a kidney injury, goalkeeper Slobo Ilijevski (pictured) is in indoor soccer hall-of-fame form in the Steamers’ 4-1 win over the New York Arrows before 12,130 at the Arena.

St. Louis native Jim Pollihan (pictured) scores the first goal in Major Indoor Soccer League history while playing for the New York Arrows against the Cincinnati Kids in the new league’s first-ever match.

Josh Sargent is named the U.S. Young Male Player of the Year.

With the 20th century about to dawn, Dick Jarrett (pictured), one of the greatest players in the early years of St. Louis soccer, tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch what is needed for the sport to grow in the United States.

In an indoor soccer game that has almost everything — a combined 116 shots and 17 goals, a bench-clearing fight, two player ejections and sudden-death overtime — the only thing the St. Louis Steamers lack is a victory. Joe Fink’s shot deflects off Steamers’ defender Sam Bick into the net at 11:45 of overtime as the Philadelphia Fever escape the Checkerdome with a 9-8 victory. Philadelphia’s Bobby Smith and Steamers defender Steve Pecher (pictured) are ejected.

The two top teams in the St. Louis Football Association, the premier league in the city, collide —literally — at Sportsman’s Park. Separated by a single point in the standings, the Shamrocks top St. Teresa’s, 3-1, in a muddy, fight-marred match (league standings pictured).

A crowd of 6,200 sees what is believed to be a first in St. Louis: indoor soccer. The Arena, which opened on Sept. 23, 1929, plays host to the match. A squad of all-stars from the professional St. Louis League defeats an aggregation of foreign-born players from southern Illinois, 1-0 (lineups pictured).

The disintegration of one of the greatest teams in St. Louis soccer history accelerates when Alex McNab (pictured) asks the U.S. Football Association (today’s U.S. Soccer Federation) to declare him a free agent. McNab is one of several future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famers who helped the Stix/Central Brewers/Shamrocks team reach six consecutive finals (1932-37) and three straight championships (1933-35) of the National Challenge Cup (today’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup).

The professional St. Louis Soccer League says it probably will call Chicago’s bluff in a dispute over gate receipts and cancel negotiations to have the Hyde Park Blues, one of Chicago’s top teams, play two matches at Athletic Park in St. Louis on Sunday, Jan. 1, and Monday, Jan. 2.

The St. Louis Steamers play their first-ever Major Indoor Soccer League home game and sell out the Checkerdome. A crowd of 18,005 sees the Steamers lose, 5-4, to the Hartford Hellions. Emilio Romero (pictured) scores twice for the Steamers.

In a replay of the previous season’s city championship game, St. Teresa’s (pictured during the 1894-95 season) defeats Diels, 1-0, in a St. Louis Association Foot Ball League match before “one of the largest crowds that ever attended a game in this city,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A decade after bringing a team of British all-stars to St. Louis who profoundly affected the game here, Fred Milnes (pictured in 1909) returns and assesses the progress of the sport in St. Louis since his last visit.

The North American Soccer League’s premier team, the New York Cosmos, selects Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville forward Don Ebert as the overall No. 1 pick in the NASL draft.

Boys’ high school soccer in St. Louis gains momentum. The winter of 1930-31 will see six St. Louis high schools fielding soccer teams, according to a column by future U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame journalist Dent McSkimming in the Dec. 10, 1930, issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. (Image shows McSkimming’s column logo.)

Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville wins the first-ever NCAA College Division championship in 1972 and the last NCAA Division I championship by a St. Louis team in 1979.

St. Louis University wins its fourth NCAA championship with a 3-0 defeat of Navy at New Brunswick, N.J.

After what head coach Harry Keough calls “a little get-together at the half,” St. Louis University scores four times in the second half to defeat San Francisco, 4-0, at San Jose, Calif., for the Billikens’ seventh NCAA soccer championship.

St. Louis University wins its eighth NCAA championship by defeating UCLA, 1-0, in the final before 8,000 fans at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

St. Louis University wins its fifth NCAA soccer championship with a bitterly fought 1-0 win over Michigan State before 10,000 fans at Francis Field.