On Saturday, it will be 16,646 days from when St. Louis hosted a first division professional game. That was on Aug. 7, 1977, in the opening round of the North American Soccer League playoffs. On Saturday, March 4, St. Louis City will welcome Charlotte FC to its franchise opener.

Want to know what happened the last time a St. Louis side played at home? Here is the story from Michael Lewis’ ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is used with permission by the FrontRowSoccer.com Editor Michael Lewis.

After they were blanked by the Toronto Metros-Croatia on Sunday night, Aug. 7, the Rochester Lancers also were nearly shut out at the U.S.-Canada border on their trip home. The custom officials at the Queenston-Lewiston border, near Niagara Falls, almost refused to allow the soccer team to re-enter the states early Monday morning, because of several visa issues.

Forwards Jose Costa, a Portuguese native, and George Kolonic, a Yugoslavian, were stopped by U.S. customs officials for not having proper visas. After filing the proper papers with the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, Kolonic, and Costa and goalkeeper Jim May, who might have made his most important save of the season to help out, returned home to Rochester Monday night, along with team president Pat Dinolfo. Costa’s and Kolonic’s problems began because they didn’t have the required H-2 visa. They were in the US. on B-1 visas, granted for tryouts.

“I always expect the worst to happen,” general manager Dick Kraft said. “I figured all our problems were getting into Canada. I never dreamed we’d have problems with the U.S. government. … I guess the last mile is always the longest and the toughest.”

Then there was Mike Stojanovic’s latest headache. He somehow neglected to renew his passport, which expired July 28. He was in his Toronto home from July 24-29, recovering from an apparent broken bone, under his left collarbone before it was diagnosed as pulled shoulder ligaments.

The logical question was why didn’t the striker get a renewal?

“The story I got was that he knew all along he wouldn’t get a renewal,” Kraft said.

Lancers head coach Dragan Popovic claimed that Stojanovic was quoted in a Rochester newspaper in 1976 making derogatory remarks about Communists, Kraft said. The Yugoslavian consulate in Toronto apparently rejected Stollie’s renewal attempt because of the story. At the time, Yugoslavia was a Communist country. Neither Rochester paper had printed a story concerning Stojanovic’s feelings about Communists.

If Stojanovic couldn’t get at least a temporary extension, Kraft said earlier Monday, he would try to drive the forward through customs without a passport. “It’s our only alternative — to come through with an expired passport,” he said.

Kraft didn’t have to resort to Plan B, as the Lancers managed to get Stojanovic’s paperwork in order. “It’s no problem,” Stollie said late Monday night. “I was at the consulate today, and everything is all right. My passport is okay.”

Stojanovic flew into St. Louis on Tuesday, a day prior to the playoff encounter against the Stars. Broadcaster Wayne Fuller, dispatched to the airport to pick up the striker, waited at least an hour.

“As it turned out, he was getting a shave and shampoo,” he said. “I couldn’t find him anywhere until he spotted me. He sent a girl out after me. And then I knew it had to be him.”

And in typical Stollie fashion, he made news again, telling a writer that he was not going retire after the season, but it definitely wouldn’t be with the Lancers. He said he would return if he was traded to a team of his liking. “If I want to go somewhere, there is one team that might buy my release,” the Serbian striker said. “Right now, they’re feeling me out. It’s just been talk. It all depends on what they offer me. I can’t say anything more because the season isn’t finished.”

Even with the entire team together, the Lancers realized they faced an uphill battle; after all, they were abysmal on the road that season, and dropped a 1-0 decision to the Stars on April 24 in their previous appearance there.

Lo and behold, they shocked the experts, the media and some of their fans, by surviving to play another day, outlasting the Stars in a shootout, 4-2, after a scoreless tie before 7,137 fans at Washington University’s water-logged Francis Field. The field was in poor shape after two consecutive days of thunderstorms. “It was like a swamp,” Craig Reynolds said.

Stojanovic connected for the game-winning shootout goal. Jim Pollihan, Reynolds, and John Pedro also converted their attempts, with Ibraim Silva the lone Lancers’ miss against goalkeeper John Jackson. Jack Brand, on the other hand, blocked attempts by Roy Evans and Fred Binney after Dennis Burnett and Bob Matheson had solved him.

“We proved we could win on the road,” Franciso Escos said. “No one believed in us. Only we did.”

Two Americans came off the bench — Reynolds, who replaced Mike Bakic at 59:30 and Nelson Cupello, who took over for the injured Miralem Fazlic (kicked in the knee by Danny Vaninger) at 22:13. The backline did not miss a beat with Cupello in central defense.

“If we play more like this more of the time, there’s no telling where we could wind up,” he said. Reynolds, who had performed 409 minutes that season before he got the call, was asked to take a shootout attempt for the first time. “I practice it occasionally, but I never think [that] I would have to use it in a game,” he said. “The coach asked me and sure, why not?”

While he never will be confused with Knute Rockne, Stojanovic of all people with his heavy accent, gave a surprising halftime speech to inspire the team: “Listen, it doesn’t matter who’s talking, but please listen. This is our last chance. You can see after the first half that we’re the better team. We must win the game. So, let’s keep trying.”

Brand was among the shocked. “He usually keeps to himself,” he said. “So, when he spoke to the team, it affected some of the players.”

The win would not have been complete without some 11th-hour drama. With 33 seconds left, Escos had knocked down Terry Daly just outside the penalty area. The Stars argued that it should have been a penalty kick, but referee Gino D’Ippolito ruled it a free kick. “It was just this much from the penalty line,” said Escos, holding his hands about six inches apart.

“If we had lost today like last year, My God.”

Escos then shook his head. He was referring to the 1976 playoff elimination in Toronto, when Gene Strenicer scored with one second remaining in regulation.

In a few days, Escos and his teammates were going to have an opportunity to avenge that loss to the Metros-Croatia in the Northern Division finals. But first, yet another distraction and controversy were brewing. After the game, Brand was quoted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, saying that he would be wearinganother team’s colors in 1978.

“I think I’ll be playing for the Cosmos next season,” he told the newspaper. “I’ve talked to them. It was going to cost me $6,000 to buy up my contract to get free, but I understand it just came back from the league commissioner, and he said there were no strings attached to me. So, I don’t know what the situation is now. I’m just going to have to wait and see.”

Speaking to this Rochester reporter the next day, Brand denied he said anything about playing for another NASL club. “It’s a rumor that’s not all substantiated by fact,” he said. “It would be premature at this stage of the season to talk about it. I would like to get this year’s job done with the Lancers first. I’m not dreaming about next year right now. … Right now, I want to win, play to the best of my ability and make a contribution to this team.”

His next contribution would be against his former team, Toronto, which also was Popovic’s former city, where he directed the Serbian White Eagles against Toronto Croatia in the National Soccer League. The defending NASL champion Metros-Croatia appeared to have the home-field advantage. The first game was set for Holleder on Saturday, Aug. 13, with a second game and possible 30-minute mini-game at Varsity Stadium on Tuesday, Aug. 16.

“The game is very important, because we must put pressure on Toronto,” Popovic said. “If we win this game, the best the Metros can do on their field is beat us to get even, and send the series
into [a mini-game].”

To find out how the Lancers fared in the 1977 playoffs and read more about them, the NASL, you might be interested in reading this book:

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.