Bethlehem Steel F.C.
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| Full name | Bethlehem Steel Football Club |
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| Founded | 2015 |
| Stadium |
Goodman Stadium Bethlehem, Pennsylvania |
| Capacity | 16,000 |
| Owner | Keystone S&E |
| Head Coach | Brendan Burke |
| League | USL |
| 2016 | 11th, Eastern Conference Playoffs: DNQ |
| Website | Club home page |
| Active teams of the Philadelphia Union | |||
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| MLS | USL | PDL | |
Bethlehem Steel FC is an American professional soccer team based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, part of the Lehigh Valley region. Founded in 2015, the team plays in the United Soccer League, the team is the official affiliate of the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer. Its colors are navy blue, gold, and red. Brendan Burke is the head coach.
Since the formalized partnership between United Soccer League and Major League Soccer in 2013, MLS teams had begun to form and field their own teams on the third tier. This endeavor was largely driven to fill in the missing piece of player development between high school/college players and professional soccer players. In June 2015, the Philadelphia Union sent out a survey to fans gauging interest in fielding their own USL team. The survey input and directives from the Union front office eventually led to the creation of a team that would play in the Lehigh Valley, officially announced on August 19, 2015. This announcement made the Union the ninth MLS team to independently own and operate a USL club. The announcement also coincided with dissolving the previous affiliation with USL side Harrisburg City Islanders, originally established in 2010. After surveying fans for a name of the team, the results ended overwhelmingly in favor of “Bethlehem Steel FC” honoring the previous incarnation of the team in the early twentieth century. Bethlehem Steel FC would become the “missing link” of player development between the YSC Academy and first team for the Philadelphia Union. The club began to take shape hiring former Union assistant coach, Brendan Burke as the first head coach of the team’s history on October 29, 2015. On December 3, 2015, Burke made his first signing to the team in Derrick Jones, who was a player developing in the Union Academy.
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