Established in 2006, Crystal Palace Baltimore was a trailblazer at the time. Baltimore had a phenomenal sporting history: legendary baseball Hall-of-Famer Babe Ruth and 23-time Olympic Gold Medallist Michael Phelps hail from the ‘Charm City’, while the Orioles and the Ravens regularly compete for titles in the MLB and NFL respectively.
But football – or ‘soccer’ – was yet to take off. Palace set out to change that. It was a revolutionary idea: a trans-Atlantic partnership, the first of its kind, between an English Football League club and a US-based franchise.
Not only was it a chance to get Palace’s brand out there, it was also an opportunity to get a first look at emerging talents in the USA – Tim Howard, Brad Friedel and Clint Dempsey were making their impact in the Premier League.
Initially, Palace Baltimore faced their English counterparts in a friendly – on this day (15th July) in 2006, at the US Naval Academy ground, just a couple of roads over from where Palace will play Wolverhampton Wanderers this summer.