Semi-Pro Soccer Comes To Union City

USL2, a semi-pro soccer league, has come to Union City.  Ironbound FC, a team based in Newark, is playing games at the Jose Marti STEM Academy field.

The league features college players looking to stay in shape for their college teams’ fall season.  On Saturday night, Ironbound SC out of Newark, hosted a game against the Morristown-based, FC Motown.

               The league stretches across the United States and features a ten game, summer schedule.

The Union city Board of Education rents the Jose Marti field to Ironbound for its games.  Saturday was the second, of a minimum, three games to be played in Union City.  The games are free for fans.

Union City Commissioner Lucio Fernandez says the arrangement has the full support of Mayor Brian Stack and the remaining members of the City Commission.  School officials says the league is a wonderful way for the community to highlight soccer players attending college with aspirations of moving on to become professionals in Major League Soccer (MLS).

It’s also a way for the club and the city to branch out and provide clinics and camps for the recreation soccer program, the numerous travel teams and the high school.  It’s estimated that upwards of 1,000 Union City kids, boys and girls, are involved in some way with the soccer programs provided by the municipality.

Motown won the game 3-0, scoring twice in the final 15 minutes.