The Walsh Cup

(by Michael Lewis cnnsi.com 1-5-01)

Breaking Walsh Cup news

The Walsh Cup, a Christmastime tournament that has been held in the backyard of the home of MetroStars midfielder Billy Walsh the past 10 years, probably will move. No, not from the Walsh "estate," but to another time during the year. Walsh will move the date to the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
"It was too damn cold, man," Walsh said. "Usually at Christmas time in New Jersey it's usually warm. I don't know why. This year it was just too cold."

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(by Michael Lewis bigapplesoccer.com 12-18-05)

End of an era: The Walsh Cup is no more

At one time it was an annual rite of soccer during the Christmas, er, holiday season, in the metropolitan area.

Just about every weekend, usually Saturday, before Dec. 25, the Walsh family of Chatham Township, N.J. would invite some of their closest friends and soccer colleagues for a nice a little soccer tournament in their backyard.

The Olsen family, Ben's, not Kate and Ashley, would become regulars, so did the Bradleys, Bob and Michael as well as Alexi Lalas, Tony Meola and Zach Thornton.

They all wanted to compete in the Walsh Cup.

But the yearly competition has run its course.

After 13 years, the Walsh Cup is no more.

There's a good reason.

Billy Walsh's parents have sold their house and moved to Bernardsville, N.J.

"That's too bad," Walsh said in a recent interview. "All the good players came there."

And there's another reason.

"Not many Walshes are left in soccer," he said of his five brothers.

The Walsh Cup cut across sex, age and playing ability. There were 12-year-old girls, veteran college coaches, professional coaches, current players and a couple of former ones as well. Sometimes a few college players who had desk jobs would become the tournament’s star.

A number of other former MetroStars participated at one time or another -- Tim Howard, Mike Ammann, Mike Petke, Miles Joseph, Mark Semioli, Brian Kelly and Damian Silvera certainly come to mind. So did some other MLS players, including 2004 MLS Cup MVP Aleck Eskandarian, Chris Armas and actor Andrew Shue, who played a season (1996) with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Add current Chatham High School players and graduates and a sprinkling of college players and even college coaches (Seton Hall men's coach Manfred Schellscheidt) and the Walsh backyard became the place to be the weekend prior to Christmas, when many of the participants probably should have been shopping for gifts instead of goals.

"You could go watch a professional game, but you don't get to watch them against all these different types of people," Walsh told me several years ago. "You've got your high school players, your youth players, your college players. You can see that [the pros] are people, too. Their personalities come out when they're walking around.

"It makes it possible for guys who are superstars to have a chance. So, everyone is the same in the mud. At the end of the day, it's luck."

More than 500 spectators showed up and sometimes withstood wintry conditions (snow and cold temperatures) during the full-day event.

"You could see the difference between Clint Mathis and the best kid in college," Walsh said. "It was always neat to see how teams adjusted to crappy players."

Asked recently if he has a favorite moment or cup, Walsh replied, "There were just so may of them. They kind of merge right into one thing for me."

Walsh remembered Michael Bradley playing in the competition when he was just a tyke of 10 (Michael is now an old man of 18).

"He never won a game at the Walsh Cup," Walsh said. "Michael was very, very young and he left very, very sad.

"They had a real sweet team. Olsen's brother or Zach Thornton didn't show up. It ruined his Christmas."

Well, maybe for a day or several hours.

The big thing about the competition was to have fun. OK, OK and be competitive and win bragging rights for the next 12 months.

It seemed every other team that had a Walsh on it (well, there were five brothers) or the Olsen's would win it.

"We were around the middle of the pack," Walsh said. "Some people thought I cheated."

The Walsh Cup turned into a big deal during the time of the year in which there was no outdoor soccer (the NCAA championship were completed the week prior and MLS training camp was a good month away). Don DiFrancesco, then the acting governor of the state showed up to flip hamburgers in 2001. FIFA Magazine profiled the one-day tournament, as did FourFourTwo, among other media outlets.

"Alexi Lalas would fly in from where he was at the time just for the cup and then he would fly out afterwards," Walsh said.

"It was fun to watch MLS players lose to high school kids," Walsh said. "It could happen in a two-goal game."

That's because of the unique rules.

It is part outdoor soccer, part indoor soccer, as the teams play in a field that is 20 yards long by 40 yards wide, which is surrounded by a fence. Eight teams play a 5 vs. 5 set-up in games -- without referees.

"It's kind of like MLS. You have no idea what's going on," Lalas once said about the cup. "The rules change as we go along. There are trades and rule changes during the game and after the game. It perfectly approximates MLS."

Because the early round-robin matches were decided by the first team that scored, Walsh remembered when Lalas' team lost only seconds into one match.

"Those are the things you laughed about," he said.

My favorite moments? Well, besides all of the fun stuff that was said off the field, it had to be in the championship games.

In 1998, 12-year-old Pat (Patistuta) Walsh beat Thornton, then MLS goalkeeper of the year for the league champions, for the game-winning goal in the championship match. In 1999 it was Darah Ross, a former University of Pennsylvania player, who scored the vital goal in a 1-0 victory over Ebony and Ivory (that's Semioli's and Thornton's team) in the final.

After Ebony final prevailed, they received the elusive, grand prize, a Walsh Cup champions shirt that proclaimed:

Walsh Cup 10 Champs

The back of the shirt said it all:

Everybody else stinks

These days Walsh is out of professional soccer and has moved into the coaching ranks.

He directed Manhattan College for several years before moving on to Chatham High School.

He plays soccer on Monday nights and runs a bar -- Darkhorse -- in Morristown, N.J. Some current Metros sometimes stop by and talk to Walsh about their favorite sport.

That could be fun. But it is nowhere near the pure unabashed fun and joy of the Walsh Cup.