On June 12, 2010, the United States and England will meet in a highly anticipated World Cup match in South Africa. The two teams last played in June of 1950, when the U.S. defeated the English club in one of the great upsets in sports history. Five of the starters on that championship team hailed from the working-class - and predominantly Roman Catholic - neighborhoods of St. Louis. A TIME FOR CHAMPIONS charts the influence of St. Louis' immigrant community, amateur leagues and college teams on the development and increased popularity of soccer in the United States. The story is told through archival footage, still photos and interviews with baseball legend Yogi Berra, NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, U.S. Soccer Federation president Dan Flynn, Michigan State coach Joe Baum, Indiana University coach Jerry Yeagley, former players of St. Louis University and members from the 1950 World Cup championship team. Between 1959 and 1973, St. Louis University won 10 NCAA titles in the first 15 years of the program, an unprecedented string of victories, establishing it as the nation's first college soccer dynasty. These teams consisted almost exclusively of homegrown talent who had been playing together since their days in Catholic Youth Council's soccer league. Bringing a fierce pride of neighborhood and parish, they came together at the university level and put old rivalries aside to compete against the best teams in the country, which consisted largely of foreign-born players. Their aggressive, fast and tough style would set the standard for the way soccer would be played at the national level.
