News

Detroit City FC season tickets for 2018 are now sold out. 

Individual tickets for each match at Keyworth Stadium can still be purchased at tickets.https://www.detcityfc.com. 

This season, Detroit City FC will stream all six of its National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) regular season home matches, its April 28th friendly vs. Chattanooga FC and its July 10th international friendly vs. Club Necaxa on foxsportsdetroit.com and Facebook Live.

Detroit’s May 19th international friendly vs. German club FC St. Pauli will be televised live on FOX Sports Detroit. The International Series match, which is presented by Strategic Staffing Solutions, will be DCFC’s first-ever televised match.

This season, DCFC play-by-play commentator Neal Ruhl and color analyst John Kreger will return to the broadcasts.

Ruhl, who joined Le Rouge’s broadcast team in 2015, is the Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations at Oakland University, where he also serves as the lead play-by-play announcer for Oakland men’s basketball on TV20- Detroit and WDFN 1130-AM, Oakland’s flagship station. He is also the lead play-by-play announcer for all Oakland sports on ESPN3 and the newly formed ESPN+. Ruhl has also served as the play-by-announcer on the Pistons Radio Network with NBA Champion Rick Mahorn and will also be the “Voice of the USPBL” at Jimmy John’s Field on ESPN3 this summer.

Kreger, who is also the play-by-play voice for Michigan State University Volleyball and several sports on the Michigan High School Athletic Association Network, has served as a host and correspondent covering soccer for talkSPORT radio in the United Kingdom. A former afternoon drive host and producer at WDFN-AM in Detroit, he is the Assistant Station Manager at WSDP-FM in Canton.  

DCFC is proud to extend its partnership with FOX Sports Detroit again this year. FSD – home of the Detroit Tigers, Pistons, Red Wings and Lions – delivers more than 350 live local events to over 3.2 million households in Michigan and the surrounding region.

City’s first streamed match is Saturday, April 28, when DCFC hosts Chattanooga FC in its highly anticipated preseason friendly match. Kickoff is at 7:30 PM ET at Keyworth Stadium. Watch at foxsportsdetroit.com or facebook.com/detroitcityfc. 

The 2018 season kicks off this Saturday, April 14 at Keyworth against Western Michigan University. Tickets are available at tickets.https://www.detcityfc.com.

Detroit City FC is back in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and will host Michigan Bucks on Wednesday, May 9 at Keyworth Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 PM.

Tickets for the first-round match will go on sale to the public at tickets.https://www.detcityfc.com on Friday, April 6 at 10 AM ET.

2018 season ticket holders will receive priority access to tickets. If you’re a season ticket holder, we’ll be sending you priority access information shortly.

Admission for the May 9th match is free for Gold Card season ticket holders. 

This will be DCFC’s first U.S. Open Cup match at Keyworth Stadium and its fourth Open Cup appearance. Its last appearance was in 2016. Le Rouge defeated the Michigan Bucks in penalty kicks in the first round of the 2016 tournament before falling to USL-side Louisville City in penalty kicks in Kentucky. 

About the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: Entering its 105th year, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, U.S. Soccer’s National Championship, is the only high-profile competition in American team sports where amateur sides have the opportunity to face professionals in meaningful competition. The tournament is conducted on a single-game, knockout basis and open to all professional and amateur teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer and has crowned a champion annually since 1914. In 1999, the competition was renamed to honor United States soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt.

Detroit City FC has begun announcing its roster ahead of its 2018 home opener on Saturday, April 14. 

Among its returners are:

NAME	POSITION
JEFF ADKINS	M
STEPHEN CARROLL	D
DAVE EDWARDSON	M
RODDY GREEN	F
SEB HARRIS	D
GREG JANICKI	D
SHAWN LAWSON	F
FERNANDO PINA	GK
CYRUS SAYDEE	M
OMAR SINCLAIR	D
NATE STEINWASCHER	GK

 

Cyrus Saydee, who was named the 2017 NPSL Player of the Year, has been with City since its first season in 2012. Captain Dave Edwardson and Jeff Adkins are both returning for their sixth seasons.

Omar Sinclair, Seb Harris, Nate Steinwascher and 2017’s leading goalscorer, Shawn Lawson, also return for DCFC.

After their debut season in 2017, Roddy Green, Fernando Piña, Stephen Carroll and Greg Janicki return for their second consecutive season.

Tyler Stephens returns to Le Rouge after playing for Team Taranaki of New Zealand in 2017. Stephens featured for DCFC in 2015 and 2016.

DCFC also began announcing its newest roster additions. Among the players joining City are: 

NAME	POSITION	UNIVERSITY
BRANDON BARTEL	M	UNIV. OF PENNSYLVANIA
BRAD CENTALA	M	MICHIGAN STATE
JIMMY FISCUS	D	MICHIGAN STATE
ADAN GARCIA	M	VALPARAISO
RAFAEL MENTZINGEN	F	VALPARAISO
BROGAN SHRIMPTON	F	DAVENPORT
MATTIAS TOMASINO	D	NORTHWESTERN

 

DCFC will be announcing additional roster news throughout the coming days. Follow the team on Twitter to stay up-to-date.

Secure your spot at City’s home opener on Saturday, April 14 against Western Michigan University at 7:30 PM. General admission tickets are just $10 here. 

SPINNING SOCCER STRAW INTO (ROUGE AND) GOLD

Detroit City FC’s open tryout subverts a cash-grab standard to grow club’s community, talent base | By SEAN SPENCE

If you’re around soccer in America for long – say, long enough for Google to sniff this interest out of your search profile – you’ll become familiar with a certain kind of advertisement that creeps in the margins, ghosting in on the side, always in your peripheral vision:

SOCCER PLAYERS – FUTBOL ARTISTS – GET SEEN

The details usually involve Professional! Coaches! and a fee, which – this being the world it is – is generally the point. Show up ready to play with $150 and we promise, really promise, to watch you play. Maybe. But bring the money. At the end, the player gets a clap on the back and a vaguely-worded assessment; the coaches melt into the dark of night, never to be seen again, while the ads continue to haunt the player, just off the edge of the page – hope, dangling just out of reach, asking for just another $150: GET SEEN.

Sometimes it seems that Detroit City Football Club exists just to throw the long and short cons of American soccer into sharp relief. Take Le Rouge’s approach to open tryouts: For your $50, you get a limited-edition t-shirt and a DCFC season ticket. “The perception is oftentimes with high-level or minor-league [professional] teams that it’s kind of a money grab, and we really want to avoid that,” DCFC co-owner David Dwaihy said. “By offering a season ticket, a good opportunity to play some nice competitive soccer and a nice t-shirt, we feel like, if nothing else … at least you’ve got some tangible things that will allow you to remain connected to the club.”

For City manager Ben Pirmann, the open tryout is a drawing-together of several strands of the club’s scouting effort. “Every year we pull four, five, maybe up to 10 players out from the tryout and ask them back for an extended trial,” Pirmann said. “We’ve got maybe 12 to 15 players we’ve specifically asked to come out; maybe half a dozen or so are flying in for this.” The tireless networking of technical director Klaas de Boer provides the raw material which the staff will pore over for the three hours of tryouts, including players from as far away as Seattle and New Jersey who had flown in specifically for the outing. “We structure it so the guys can showcase themselves,” Pirmann said. “It comes at you fast, and guys have to be aggressive with their chances. We are looking for guys who can seize the opportunity.”

The most striking difference between the usual open-tryout dynamic and that enjoyed by Le Rouge could be best illustrated with an audio recording – most tryouts take place in a weird ear-space, with the shouts of the keepers and the thwack of balls well-struck echoing about a concrete-and-plastic space, the bouncing sound communicating emptiness and isolation. Not so Detroit City’s – the 50-plus players were dwarfed in attendance by members of the Northern Guard, who hung banners on the nets protecting the off-field areas before launching into songs praising City, their drums filling the canyon spaces of the soccer dome with messages of praise and belief and welcome.

At long last, the mirage-invocations of those advertisements is made real: GET SEEN, truly.

It works. “I just feel a calling to do this,” Drew Chattaway said. “It’s just an opportunity to … feel as close as I can to what it would feel like to play in front of the Northern Guard.

“I don’t have the time or the ability at this stage of my life to really give it a good go, so this the closest it’s ever going to feel for me. So that’s all I want, is just to feel what it’s like.”

He wasn’t alone. Andre Carrizales, recently transplanted from Dewitt to Novi, showed up nearly 90 minutes early for a chance to play in the Rouge and Gold, warming up slowly on his own as the other players trickled in. After an impressive couple of shifts, Carrizales emphasized that he’d come to show up, not show off: “I just want to show that I’m here to work hard, show what I can do on and off the field,” the 23-year-old said. “I want to be a good teammate. A hard worker is what I’d like to be known as.”

Even those unfortunates on whom fate frowns don’t leave the evening empty-handed. Take Barbaros Serter, whose hopes of playing for City in 2018 were scuttled by an ankle injury in the first 40 minutes of tryouts. “It’s not what I wanted, but it’s an experience, it’s a good story to tell at least,” Serter said, shifting two ice-packs around his ankle. “Would I do it again? Sure, why not?”

Sean Spence writes about soccer and everything connected to it (which means everything). He and his wife Sarah have been Detroit City season-ticket holders since 2015, and live in Flint, Michigan. Follow Sean on Twitter here.

Detroit City FC will hold a 2018 job fair at its official club shop (2750 Yemans Street) on Saturday, March 24. 

The job fair, which will run from 11 AM until 5 PM, is open to anyone interested in working with Detroit’s soccer team during the 2018 season. 

DCFC is looking to hire matchday staff (ushers, ticket takers and parking attendants) and retail assistants ahead of the club’s seventh season.

View the DCFC matchday staff job posting here. 

View the DCFC retail assistant job posting here. 

What: Open interviews for all available 2018 positions 

When: Saturday, March 24 from 11 AM–5 PM

Where: DCFC club shop (2750 Yemans, Hamtramck, MI 48212)

If you have questions, please contact DCFC Operations Coordinator Kevin Brehmer at kevin.brehmer@https://www.detcityfc.com. 

Detroit City FC is back in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup!

Le Rouge is one of 19 National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) teams to qualify for the 105th edition of the U.S. Open Cup tournament. City’s first-round opponent and match information will be announced Wednesday, April 4. The match is scheduled for Wednesday, May 9.

This will be DCFC’s fourth U.S. Open Cup appearance, with its last appearance in 2016. In the first round of the 2016 U.S. Open Cup, Le Rouge defeated the Michigan Bucks in penalty kicks before falling to USL-side Louisville City in penalty kicks in Kentucky. 

Learn more about the 2018 U.S. Open Cup here. 

About the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: Entering its 105th year, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, U.S. Soccer’s National Championship, is the only high-profile competition in American team sports where amateur sides have the opportunity to face professionals in meaningful competition. The tournament is conducted on a single-game, knockout basis and open to all professional and amateur teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer and has crowned a champion annually since 1914. In 1999, the competition was renamed to honor United States soccer pioneer Lamar Hunt.

Detroit City FC will welcome FC St. Pauli of Hamburg, Germany, for an international friendly match at Keyworth Stadium on Saturday, May 19th at 6 PM.

The international match marks FC St. Pauli’s first-ever match in the United States.

Founded in 1907 and currently playing in the second tier of German soccer, FC St. Pauli is one of Germany’s most well-known clubs – and a cult favorite within the international soccer community – popular for its progressive stance, raucous support and community-based identity.

“We’re honored to host an internationally renowned club like St. Pauli,” Sean Mann, co-owner of Detroit City FC, said. “St. Pauli is a club that stands for important values that play a role in their community beyond sports. In many ways, they are one of the clubs we’ve always looked up to as we’ve tried to build our club into something special in our own community and beyond.”

FC St. Pauli was one of the first European soccer clubs to make active and public anti-racism, anti-fascism, anti-homophobia and anti-discrimination demonstrations.

Similarly, Detroit City FC was the first American sports team to wear an LGBTQ inspired jersey in a competitive match, and has held charity matches for Detroit organizations like Freedom House, Ruth Ellis Center and Alternatives For Girls.

“Punk football” is often referred to when describing FC St. Pauli, due in part to its active stance against the commercialism of soccer and the skull-and-crossbones emblem which has come to symbolize the club.

“We’re delighted to be guests in the supporter-built soccer environment of Detroit City FC, which fits very well with the member-driven culture of FC St. Pauli,” said FC St. Pauli President Oke Gottlich.  “This is a real friendly and we’re very excited about it. I hope we can recreate a tiny part of FC St. Pauli’s magnificent support in the States.”

For the first time in DCFC history, the international match will be televised live on FOX Sports Detroit.

The move builds on Le Rouge’s partnership with FOX Sports Detroit. Since 2016, DCFC home matches have been streamed live on the FOX Sports GO app and on foxsportsdetroit.com.

“We are thrilled to provide the first-ever televised Detroit City FC game on FOX Sports Detroit on May 19th,” said Greg Hammaren, senior vice president and general manager of FOX Sports Detroit. “We will also continue to stream DCFC matches on our digital platforms for a third straight year. The excitement around this team has continued to grow and we’re proud to be part of it and help expose more people to such a great sport.”

Tickets for DCFC vs. FC St. Pauli will start at $20 and will be available to the general public at tickets.https://www.detcityfc.com on Tuesday, March 13 at 10 AM. Admission to the May 19th match is free for all Detroit City FC season ticket holders.

FC St. Pauli’s visit will be a weekend celebration of football culture on both sides of the Atlantic, with a series of events for supporters to be held around the match. Details for supporter events will be announced at a later date.

The match is a continuation of the annual Strategic Staffing Solutions International Series. Thanks to the support of Detroit-based Strategic Staffing Solutions, Detroit City FC has brought FC United of Manchester and Glentoran FC, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Keyworth Stadium the past two seasons, and reached tens of thousands across the globe through the livestreams of the matches.

“This match is one of our favorite events to be a part of and at S3 we are proud to continue the tradition of bringing international football (soccer) to our great city for a third season,” said Cynthia J. Pasky, president and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions, which has offices in 11 countries worldwide. “It celebrates Detroit, the world’s most popular game and both clubs’ continued commitment to inclusion. We look forward to seeing Detroit City FC and FC St. Pauli playing on the same field in Detroit.”

Detroit City FC would like to thank Match IQ GmbH of Hamburg, Germany for connecting the clubs and making the match a reality.

About Detroit City FC: Detroit City FC is a grassroots football club representing the city in a positive light, and building community through the beautiful game. A member of the National Premier Soccer League since 2012, Detroit City has established itself as one of the most talked about soccer teams in North America. Learn more about the club at https://www.detcityfc.com.

Join Detroit City FC at our fourth annual Soccer Prom!

Soccer Prom 2018 will be held Wednesday, April 11 at Small’s Bar in Hamtramck (10339 Conant St) at 6:30 PM.

It will be a night to remember as we celebrate the new season and unveil our 2018 kits, so dust off your dancing shoes and get ready to party. Tuxedo and corsage optional.

What: Detroit City FC’s fourth annual Soccer Prom

When: Wednesday, April 11 at 6:30 PM

Where: Small’s Bar (10339 Conant St)

Cost: Free

View our official Facebook event here. 

Single match tickets for Detroit City FC’s 2018 home campaign are now on sale at tickets.https://www.detcityfc.com.

General admission tickets start at $10. 

Fans may purchase premium midfield seats for $15. Tickets for DCFC’s VIP section, which includes on-field seating and complimentary food and drinks, are $50 per person.

General admission tickets are $8 for groups of 15 or more.

DCFC is also offering a new 4-match plan for $30. When fans purchase tickets for three home matches of their choosing, they’ll receive a free ticket to City’s home opener on April 14. International friendlies are not included in the 4-match plan.

In total, DCFC will host six NPSL regular season matches and six friendly matches at Keyworth Stadium this summer.

The 2018 home opener kicks off against Western Michigan University on Saturday, April 14 at 7:30 PM.

Le Rouge’s long-awaited home-and-home series with Chattanooga FC will wrap up at Keyworth on Saturday, April 28.

DCFC will then host Harpos FC to finish its preseason on Saturday, May 5. Founded in 1997, Harpos FC is an elite amateur team based in Boulder, Colorado. The club reached the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in 2015 and 2016.

Detroit’s seventh NPSL regular season will begin with an away match against AFC Ann Arbor on Sunday, May 13 before its NPSL home opener on Friday, May 25 against expansion side FC Columbus.

The club has announced it will host two international friendly matches. Club Necaxa of Liga MX will visit Keyworth on Tuesday, July 10 at 7:30 PM. Tickets for the marquee match start at $15. 

Details on DCFC’s other international friendly on Saturday, May 19 will be released at a later date. 

2018 DETROIT CITY FC HOME SCHEDULE

DATE	TIME		TEAM
SATURDAY, APRIL 14	7:30 PM ET	vs	WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY **
SATURDAY, APRIL 28	7:30 PM ET	vs	CHATTANOOGA FC **
SATURDAY, MAY 5	7:30 PM ET	vs	HARPOS FC **
SATURDAY, MAY 19	6 PM ET	vs	INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY **
FRIDAY, MAY 25	7:30 PM ET	vs	FC COLUMBUS
FRIDAY, JUNE 1	7:30 PM ET	vs	FC INDIANA
SUNDAY, JUNE 10	5 PM ET	vs	AFC ANN ARBOR
SUNDAY, JUNE 17	5 PM ET	vs	GRAND RAPIDS FC
SATURDAY, JUNE 23	7:30 PM ET	vs	KALAMAZOO FC
SUNDAY, JULY 1	5 PM ET	vs	MILWAUKEE TORRENT
TUESDAY, JULY 10	7:30 PM ET	vs	CLUB NECAXA **
TUESDAY, JULY 24	7:30 PM ET	vs	WINDSOR TFC **

** DENOTES 2018 FRIENDLY MATCH

Supporters can still take advantage of the best deal in Detroit by securing their 2018 season tickets. The City Card season ticket starts at $80 and guarantees general admission entry to all 12 of DCFC’s home matches. It does not grant entry for 2018 playoff or U.S. Open Cup matches.

Additional season ticket holder benefits include: 

• Admission to all 12 regular season home matches and friendlies
• Priority access to future playoff match tickets
• DCFC ticket exchange: Email tickets@https://www.detcityfc.com up to 48 hours before a City home match to receive a digital or paper ticket that can be used at the gate on matchday
• 5% off all in-store purchases at the City club shop through the 2018 season
• Father’s Day Match: Bring your dads to Keyworth Stadium! Receive one free ticket for our June 17th match vs. Grand Rapids FC
• Season Ticket Holder Appreciation Night: Receive one free ticket for our July 24th match vs. Windsor TFC