Staten Island Vipers

USL A-League (1998-1999)

Background

The Staten Island Vipers were a short-lived 2nd Division pro soccer club that served as an affiliate of the 1st Division New York/New Jersey MetroStars of Major League Soccer. The team lasted just two seasons on Staten Island.

Finest Hour

With the formation of Major League Soccer in 1996, American had a proper 1st Division pro league for the first time in twelve years.  MLS embraced the U.S. Open Cup (unlike the NASL of the 1960’s – 1980’s, whose clubs never took part).  The Open Cup is America’s oldest soccer tournament, contested since 1914 and open to both pro and amateur sanctioned men’s teams. From 1996 through 2019, a Major League Soccer club has won every U.S. Open Cup tournament save for one. In 1999, the Vipers’ 2nd Division rival, the Rochester Raging Rhinos, won the Cup, upsetting four MLS teams along the way.

The Rhinos’ run was one of a number of MLS upsets in the tournament that summer. On July 13, 1999, the Vipers drew a 3rd Round Cup match up against their parent club, the MetroStars. The Metros were Open Cup semi-finalists in 1997 and 1998. But MLS side was 5-12 in league play at the time and slogging through a horrid season under manager Bora Milutinovic that would ultimately end with a league-worst 7-25 record.  The Vipers, by contrast, were playing well in the 2nd Division with a 10-4 record at the time, 2nd place to the Rhinos is the A-League’s Northeast Division.

The match was technically a home game for the New Jersey-based Metros. But the modest ticket sales for Open Cup matches didn’t justify opening the club’s normal home at 76,000-seat Giants Stadium in East Rutherford.  Instead, the MetroStars rented 5,000-seat Yurcak Field in Piscataway.  Only 1,077 die hards showed up.

The Vipers seized the initiative early. Ernest Inneh scored off a corner kick in the 32nd minute to stake the underdogs to a 1-0 lead.  Staten Island gained a further advantage when MetroStars forward Eduardo Hurtado was sent off for a flagrant elbow in the 53rd minute.  But Metros midfielder Billy Walsh, a former Rutgers star playing on his old collegiate field, scored in the 69th minute and against in the 81st to put NY/NJ up 2-1.

Then the MetroStars imploded in typical fashion. Minor league war horse Lee Tschantret equalized for the Vipers in the 85th minute to send the match into overtime. Five minutes into the extra period, Staten Island’s Kevin Wilson scored on a breakaway goal to bounce the Metros and send the Vipers on to the quarterfinals.

Extinction

The Open Cup upset was the high point of the short, obscure history of the Staten Island Vipers.  They would lose their next Open Cup match in the quarterfinal round to another 2nd Division side, the Charleston (SC) Battery.

At the end of the 1999 season, the Vipers’ owners folded the team after only two seasons of play.

Trivia

Staten Island’s mascot was named the Hyper Viper.

In Memoriam

Vipers co-owner Joe Manfredi, a local auto dealer, died of a heart attack on March 28, 2015 at age 77. Staten Island Advance obituary.

Downloads

7-13-1999 Vipers vs. New York/New Jersey MetroStars U.S. Open Cup Game Notes

Links

United Soccer Leagues Media Guides

United Soccer Leagues Programs

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