The New Cleveland Crunch History Page

Founded in 1989 a year after the original Cleveland Force ceased operations and folded, the Cleveland Crunch came into exsistance, again playing in the Major Indoor Soccer League. In 1992, the team moved to the National Professional Soccer League (the rebranded American Indoor Soccer Association). Thus began one of the most dominating eras in Cleveland sports history with playoff appearances each season (including the final two years in Major Soccer League [rebranded MISL 1]). Of all those appearances in "The Decade Of Dominance", three resulted in championships (1993-94, 1995-96, 1998-99) with the 1993-94 championship being the first championship for a Cleveland team since the 1964 Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Barons.

Three more playoff appearances followed in the early 2000s. In March of 2005, owner Richard Deitrich announced the team (since rebranded Cleveland Force) was for sale. May 21, 2005, the Force met the Miwaukee Wave in game two of the 2 game of the NPSL championship series eventually losing 10-9 in double overtime. At the time, noone suspected that that would be the final game in franchise history. In June of 2005, Deitrich, having no takers to buy the team, finally gave up and folded the franchise.

It seemed that the legacy of the most dominating Cleveland team of the 1990s would merely become a footnote in the sports pages. Two brief forays into indoor soccer later went nowhere and it seemed that the final chapter had been written in stone. But a new ownership group came forward and revived the franchise in 2020. The team, under the old Crunch moniker, began play in the Major Arena Soccer League 2 for the 2020-21 season. After two years (and one championship) in MASL2, the team jumped to the fledgling Major League Indoor Soccer League where their success continues.

Please come in and have a look around, after all this page is for YOU.

The legacy Cleveland Force and Cleveland Crunch page is HERE

The Major Arena Soccer League 2 is HERE

The Official Cleveland Crunch MLIS page is HERE

The official MLIS page is HERE

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Coding and layout is © 2025 M. A. Sopko. All other material here is © by various other entities and used here under "Fair Use" provision of copyright law. This is a FAN run site. I have no connection to either the old Cleveland Force, Cleveland Crunch, the New Cleveland Crunch, MLIS or MASL2.