TO BE THE MAN! CRUNCH READY TO DEFEND THE CUP!!!

The Great Ric Flair once said... " To be the man, You gotta beat the man!", and right now the Reigning 2021 Major Arena Soccer League 2 champion Cleveland Crunch are the man!

The Cleveland Crunch are ready to defend their Major Arena Soccer League 2 cup in 2022, but before that they held an open tryout to see if they could add some pieces to an already complete puzzle.

The Crunch were clearly the best team in the MASL 2 all last season. They were the highest scoring team averaging 12 goals a game as well as having the best Goal keeper in the league in the "Magician" Marijo Musa. This year will be a little different as Most of the team comes back intact, but the season will look much different as there will be division only play. We were at the open tryout and spoke with Crunch head coach Lou Kastelic on what he expects this season.


" We expect to come out and defend the championship. That's the goal. We are looking for some good guys that can compliment the great players we have returning and we want to make sure everyone gels together and play together."


We also spoke with one of the owners Eric Davis and got his thoughts about the open tryout.


Energy! We want guys with energy and we have a good turnout and I see a lot of potential. We just want the right group of guys that can come in and play with the ones we have now. We will have some new faces and we just want to make sure that they work in unison with the faces we already have now. Lou is a great coach and does a great job at getting to know his players strengths and weaknesses and putting the good together to make a great team. We expect nothing different this year. Nothing less than another championship."

Of course there will be some very familiar faces from the 2021 championship team. Macain "Big Mac" Spragling, Sammy Mutemwa, Kevin Blackwood, and the "Silent Assassin" Mike Derezic will be some of the faces returning this season which will give the Crunch veteran leadership and  potentially some of the leagues leading scorers.

As stated earlier, the Crunch will be set in divisional play for the season. Games with rival Chicago, and Muskegon are slated as well as new in state divisional rival Cincinnati in what may be already dubbed as the "Ohio Cup". The Crunch will also return home to the Soccerplex in North Olmstead , Ohio. Capacity for the Soccerplex has been increased for this season so there will be more tickets to each home game. The excitement is already building for January and you can follow "THE DRIVE FOR FIVE" here with us and the Crunch on all social media platforms. The schedule is below and ticket information will be released as it comes.


~ IT'S CRUNCH TIME!!~

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