If you’re like MOST American soccer fans, when the USOC draw was announced, you didn’t know who the heck Vereinigung Erzgebirge was. That isn’t because they haven’t been around a long time or because they haven’t been generating polished soccer talent. The real reason is that, in the fractured map of American soccer, what happens in a small area in southeastern Pennsylvania simply doesn’t get national coverage. Well today, we make an effort to right that wrong with a Spotlight on the endearing and long-time successful Vereinigung Erzgebirge (and yeah, we copied and pasted that name. Not the easiest to spell).

So tell us about your club, where and who are you?

VE is located in beautiful Bucks county PA, This is Suburban Philadelphia. The club was started by German immigrants in 1931. (We have a lot of info on VEclub.org and vesoccer.org.) The logo of the club, three pine trees on three little hills with the letters V.E. in white under the trees, was taken from the logo of the town of Thalheim /Erzgebirge. (see below). In 1992 I was a member of a VE youth team, one of the first to visit Thalheim after the Berlin Wall came down and Germany was reunited. We have been sending youth teams back to Germany and Europe for 50 years now and have two more teams going over this summer.

The founders of the club wanted a place to build their social club and wanted it to look like home. Erzgebirge is a wooded mountain range, a beautiful region of Germany. The site was selected because of that and we are set on 68 acres of woods. The club house, swim club and soccer fields have been cut out into those woods but the rest remains forest. The Qtr mile entrance is a driveway lined with 3 trees on each side. It’s common to pull in and drive past deer grazing. In the early days the members worked and lived in Philadelphia (many in Germantown that goes back to the days of Independence) and came out and spent their weekends at the club. Our club house has a banquet facility that hosts parties, weddings etc. We have full bar, The Ratskeller down stairs that hosts most of our teams post-game celebrations. Our Beer Garden, (Picnic grove 500 picnic tables) hosts our Oktoberfest each fall. We had over 5000 people on site this year to kick off our season. It’s always the first Saturday after Labor day

They started playing soccer at the club in the 30’s. The men’s teams played other area clubs and later youth teams were added. In 1959 the German clubs got together and founded the United Soccer League of Pennsylvania where the Adult teams still play to this day. This year is the 60th year of the league. The League has been one of the top amateur Leagues in the county. It now hosts more than just German Clubs and is a true melting pot. USL hosts some historic clubs like the Ukrainian Nationals, Lighthouse S.C. , UGH United German Hungarians, Phoenix S.C. and new local power house clubs like West Chester and Colonial S.C.

So where does the name Vereinigung Erzgebirge come from?

VE translates loosely to Home among those woods or home among that region of Erzgebirge. Vereinigung means association or Union so the formal translation would mean Association of Erzgebirge. Set in a garden in front of our clubhouse is the largest piece of the Berlin Wall in North America. People come from all over to take their picture in front of it. It has come to represent freedom and I have personally witnessed people break down in tears while viewing it. On a lighter note, In other interviews I have told people if you pick up a nutcracker during the holidays, flip it over. If it says Made in Erzgebirge then it’s worth something.

For those unfamiliar with your club a. how do you pronounce your name? b. what should they expect in round one c. How would you describe your club tactically?

Vereinigung Erzgebirge – Ver-un-in-gung / Erz-ge-birge – Not easy to say and not sure if anyone gets it right without speaking German. So don’t worry if you get it wrong. VE is widely accepted. Of course, we are excited to be in but disappointed to draw the same club again. The big prize will be a trip to Pittsburgh if we advance. We know the NPSL club are without college players so they have had to scramble to bring in additional players. Not sure who that helps but we are mostly unchanged. Our strength is we don’t sign players for a season we sign them for life. Our model depends on former players coming back to coach and bringing their kids to the club to have the same great experience they had. We will have 5 players on our roster that grew up playing at VE. I think that is pretty cool. C. We are strong defensively and dynamic in attack. We are very good on the ball and very dangerous from set pieces. We think that gives us a good chance in these early rounds.

So you drew West Chester in your USOC draw, what approach will you take against this club?

We played West Chester 3 times this fall (1-0 League win, 2-1 to Qualify for Lamar and 2-0 in the State EPSA Open Cup Final) and will open with them on 3/8 in the state amateur cup Semi-final. Waiting for us if we win on 3/15 is their reserves who have already advanced. So we are very familiar with West Chester and will be seeing much more of them. We have been runners up to WC the past two USL seasons. Blasé is a friend and we see the value for both our clubs in having such good local competition. Of course I want to beat them again.

Do you modify your style of play in the USOC or stick with what you're good at?

No, We know what works for us and keep it pretty simple. We defend very well and limit our opponents to a handful of chances and on the other end, we just need to finish what we create.

What priority does your club place on the USOC?

Every year our goals are 1. Win the League 2. Get into the state finals (EPSA Open and Amateur Cup) 3. Qualify for Lamar. We last qualified in 2002. It was a much different qualification system. We had to win the Region I championship to qualify that year. Since the new qualification (4 years) we have actually been a little unlucky. We got it right this year and It’s a big deal for us. We are getting a lot of national attention.

How could USOC support smaller clubs like VE?

We know the more we win the more it’s going to cost. For now we are equipped to handle the cost of our travel because of our set up. We have the support of our club and sports program. Sports is made up of 23 youth teams Boys and girls U-8 to U19, 185 Might Mites 4-7 year old’s that play on Friday nights in the fall. Our Adult program is Majors, Reserves, Over 30, Over 40, Under 23 and Senior Women. We have about 1200 families that are members. We run a week of summer soccer camp that funds most of our adult program but additional travel will force us to fundraise or appeal to our membership for help.

Anything else people should know about VE?

When I describe the club I describe it as a family club first and then we play soccer. This is my 20th season in charge of the Majors. I was a young player coach the last time we qualified. So much has changed since then but we continue to have great success and attract some of the area’s best talent. In the last few years I’ve been appointed Director of Coaching at the club. I tell everyone the only coach being judged on wins and losses at the club is me as coach of the majors. Everyone else is here to develop our players and have fun playing soccer. My son is now a 5 year old in his second season at the club. Our set up makes us very unique but one thing we do better than anyone else in the country is tie our adult program to our youth program. When the Majors play the kids can watch the same guys coming out to help at practice. The youth players know them by name and my players know those kids by name. They are all available and approachable. We want them to be role models to the youth of the club. The bulk of my team is guys just out of college. We boast having 9 former Division I captains on our squad. We are a great home for guys like that who use soccer to get a great education, land a great job and still want to play soccer and be apart of something like what I offer at VE. These guys are chemical engineers, finance guys, consultants, bankers, lawyers, sales guys, A pharmacist, a civil engineer, college coaches, a landscaper, grad students etc. Guys with real jobs during the week. Our teams have a great reputation for always showing up giving opponents a good game and we come to rival clubs with great numbers. After games everyone comes back inside home or away. They can stay for one beer or one water, It’s ok if they have to leave but they have to come in just in case one of the older members wants to tell them they played great or they played like shit. Most of the time even the latter is followed with a beer.