What Happened to the San Francisco Soccer Startup?

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This is the story of the San Francisco Deltas, Northern California’s Most Mercurial Soccer Team.

The San Francisco Deltas will forever be in the record books as the last champion of the second incarnation of the Northern American Soccer League and probably as the NASL as a whole. Their appearance in the Soccer Bowl was surprising. Not much was expected from an expansion club which arrived on the scene as the league was checking out.

Out of the dying embers of the NASL emerged a soccer Icarus who flew high, won it all, and then sank to the bottom of the sea due to a combination of cluelessness and Silicon Valley hubris. They could have given the Bay Area a true alternative to the San Jose Earthquakes. A team for San Francisco proper. Instead, they got a confusing name and logo that adorns a championship banner which has nowhere to hang and may not actually exist.

It took some time but everything came into place for the team. The Deltas had filled out their playing squad, featuring a lot of players either from Canada or having played there. Additionally, the NASL had cobbled things together to get a season up and running. All that was left to do was play some games.

Unfortunately, things did not go well for San Francisco's soccer startup. Attendance was poor, and no one knew the team existed. The ownership was clueless what it was doing and blamed the fans.

There was one thing the franchise had going for it...winning. The Deltas were actually pretty good. They won the regular and would advance to the NASL Playoffs.

All this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the San Francisco Deltas. Their story is so wild that it could only be true.

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