It's easy to derive an amateur or semi-professional league as nothing special.

However, even a small league such as the Greater LA Soccer League can have a huge impact in local soccer that can make waves on the national stage.

Teams from the Greater LA Soccer League made historic runs in the US Open Cup, a national tournament that features teams from every level of the US soccer pyramid since its founding in 1913.

Many other foreign teams were routinely invited to compete against teams in the Greater LA Soccer League for friendly games.

The league brought international teams and fans before the World Cup did many years later.

[music] If I threw out the name Greater Los Angeles Soccer League, does that sound familiar?

-No.

-No.

-A little bit, yes.

-Really?

Yes.

I'm trying to learn as much as I can from back in the day.

You're going to learn a lot when you watch the documentary.

Yes.

The US Open Cup is the longest-running soccer tournament here in the US.

Founded in 1913, it has operated continuously, with a two-year exception for the COVID pandemic, and features teams from nearly every segment of the US soccer pyramid.

It's the perfect setting for an underdog story, with amateur and semi-professional teams taking on the big professional teams from the major leagues.

After the League, Greater LA Soccer League, was actually founded as its own independent league, split off from the San Francisco chapter, which was part of the California Football Association, that was 1951.

Up until that point, no team from west of the Mississippi River had ever won the US Open Cup, which was the big amateur semi-pro championship.

The first team to even play in that championship game from west of Mississippi was a team called the LA Danes, and they played and lost in the final in 1955.

By then, the Greater LA Soccer League had begun to enter a new stage.

There was a guy by the name of Albert Ebert, and he came and founded a German-American team in Los Angeles, but took it really seriously, maybe more seriously than some of the other teams.

He started to bring players from around the country, German-American players, primarily players who had been born and learned to play in Germany.

He began bringing them to Los Angeles to play for his team.

That team was called the LA Kickers, and that became the very first super club in Los Angeles soccer history.

One player for the LA Kickers, Hans Stierle, went on to co-found AYSO, the American Youth Soccer Organization, in the city of Torrance.

AYSO is one of the oldest national youth programs in the country.

The LA Kickers eventually rebranded to the Los Angeles Soccer Club, LASC, still around today.

The next super team was a team called Maccabee, Los Angeles.

This was a team that was made up largely of Jewish immigrants.

Some of them had played professionally in Israel, and they won the US Open Cup five times during an 11-year span.

No team in history has won the US Open Cup more.

If you were the US Open Cup champion, you were the American champion.

You were the best team.

That was the foundation of championship soccer.

Benny Binstock remembers those days.

He joined Maccabee, Los Angeles in the 1970s as a striker and was an important and instrumental part of the team that dominated the Greater LA Soccer League and the US Open Cup.

Benny helped the team win four of its five US Open Cup titles, a record shared by only one other team, Bethlehem Steel Football Club of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

I'm sitting here at Daniels Field in San Pedro with Mr.

Benny Binstock, the living legend of the Maccabees.

I'm so grateful to have you here with us.

Thank you very much.

It's my pleasure.

Tell me one, well, I'm sure you have a lot of good memories from Daniels Field, but what's the first one that comes to mind for you here?

We had a game against the Montebello Armenians, and it was a very tough game.

I scored a very pivotal goal that advanced us to the US semi-final because we needed to win Southern California first.

All the games we played against those ethnic teams, as you know.

The Montebello Armenians, the United Armenians, the Gauchos, they were all tough.

The players were very good players.

There are many good memories in Daniels Field.

One bad one, which I tore my Achilles tendon over there.

Oof, when I was researching the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League and the Maccabees name came up, your name came up a lot, many times.

Why is that?

[chuckles] Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm very glad.

I'm looking at the soccer field.

It looks there's a lot more grass when I played on it.

[laughs] Oh, okay.

There's some silent improvement now today.

Okay, that's good.

How many years did you play with the Maccabees?

I came to play professionally in the United States, but then, when in '68, the professional teams folded.

I was supposed to play for Atlanta, Georgia, the team called the Chiefs.

When I came to the United States, the team folded.

There was a team in Los Angeles called the Toros.

I got in touch with them, and they said they want me.

I came to Los Angeles, and then all the professional soccer league collapsed.

I met some friends, and they asked me to join the Maccabees Los Angeles.

What did it mean for you personally to be able to play with the Maccabees?

Well, I got offers from other teams to play for them, but me being Jewish, I could not betray the Maccabees and not play for them.

They didn't pay much.

If I can say they pay $50 a game, [?].

Oh, you got paid.

Okay.

Not everybody got paid, from what I've heard.

Being a Jewish team, we were very proud that we have players from different countries who are not Jewish.

We had a player from Ethiopia.

We had a player from El Salvador.

We had a player from Mexico.

We had Argentina.

The team was very mixed.

I played with them.

I came here at the age of 20, and I believe I finished the last game when we won the cup was in Shea Stadium in New York.

We won it 2-0.

I was the captain of the team all those years, and I came to the dressing room, and I said, this was my last game.

[chuckles] When Andy Fusasi was young, he watched his father coach the LA Hungarians, which allowed him and his family to maintain their Hungarian roots while also assimilating into life here in the US.

Andy's father was selected to coach the Greater LA Soccer League all-star team to face the 1961 European Cup champions, Real Madrid, at the Expo Coliseum.

The Spanish powerhouse arrived with its star-studded lineup of players like Alfredo Stefano and Ferenc Puskas.

When you all moved to Los Angeles, was the Greater LA Soccer League the first thing that he found and said, that's what I'm going to join?

I think so.

It was obviously, he was always in his life.

He first started playing, and then he started coaching as well.

Do you recall which teams that he played on first in those days?

No.

I think it was the Magyars, the Hungarians.

That would be the natural thing that he gravitated to since he was Hungarian.

Hungarians had a club and social group.

How tight-knit was that community of the Hungarian diaspora here in Los Angeles during that time?

At that time, it was pretty tight.

They had a clubhouse.

It wasn't simply just playing soccer.

It was all the other cultural activities that they would gather.

They sponsored the soccer team as part of their whole trip.

What do you recall from seeing your dad play and coach during those years?

It was wonderful times because I was there when they practiced on the weekdays.

Sundays, I was here watching them.

This field right here.

This field right here.

It was serious competition.

Some of the players were paid.

They weren't making a living at it, but they were paid on the side.

These were serious amateur players.

There's all these layers of history just stacked on top of each other.

Sometimes, it's forgotten history that we want to bring to light, which is one reason we were so excited to have you join us and talk about the history of the Greater LA Soccer League and the Hungarian teams and the other athletic clubs as well.

How many teams did your dad coach after playing?

I think it was three.

He coached the Hungarians.

He also coached the LA Soccer Club.

Then, a year or two, he also coached the Maccabees.

Those three different teams.

He would also do international games, they would sponsor.

They would put together an all-star team.

He was the coach for it.

Then, he would gather players from the Greater LA to play.

The most famous one or infamous one was against Real Madrid in 1961.

Yes, I recall that one.

I believe, he sent us the photos of even, I think, the LA Times, Los Angeles Magazine covered the game, and I thought, wait, DiStefano was in LA?

If you look at the lineup, it was incredible.

It was their full team.

Yes, DiStefano, Puskas, all these guys.

I'm like, oh, they were at the LA Coliseum, which, again, just more layers of history.

It was part of a tour that they were doing, and LA is one of the stops.

LA was the only time they actually played an all-star of local players.

[laughs] Did you know, sitting there watching LA United versus Real Madrid, that this is history in the making, or was it just like, oh, cool?

I don't think I understood the full gravity of it as a 10-year-old, but I knew this was a big team and big players and that sort of thing.

Hungary's a small country.

All the players know each other.

What are some of your fond memories of playing with all these teams in the Greater LA Soccer League?

I think my greatest overall memory is just the intensity and the seriousness and the camaraderie of all the different teams and their ethnic groups playing here.

There was a lot of intensity in the league.

Oh, wow.

There were a lot of the old nationalist tensions.

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

I think each of the team was representing their country and their culture, and the way they play.

We caught up with some of the kids playing soccer today to ask them a few questions like, what do you like about playing soccer?

Soccer is really engaging.

You can make really good friends for a lifetime.

I usually get on a team with a lot of my friends.

You can work with a team, and you run around and play, and you can be active.

Teams from all over the world routinely play friendly games during their off-seasons here in the United States.

Sometimes, you as soccer fans get the opportunity to watch some of the world's best and exciting teams compete in official competitions here at home.

Many club and national teams have competed in friendly competitions and international tournaments at the Memorial Coliseum and BMO Stadium in Exposition Park, Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, right over that way, and other stadiums throughout LA County.

In 2025, soccer fans fill the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, the home of the men's 1994 World Cup Final and the 1999 Women's World Cup Final, to watch teams from Spain, France, Mexico, Japan, and Brazil compete in the Club World Cup.

In the summer of 2026, fans will flock to Inglewood's SoFi Stadium for the next World Cup.

Are you excited for the World Cup?

-Yes.

-So excited.

-More than excited.

-Oh, absolutely.

Oh, yeah.

-Yes.

Yes, for sure.

100%.

We were looking at tickets early on, but I have three kids, and I could do that, or I could send one of them to college.

[laughter] I got tickets for the third USA game.

Do you want to say how much you spent?

11.

Yes, we'll see how that goes.

If you want to see more about Southern California soccer, let us know in the comments, and be sure to like and subscribe.