Up the U’s – Get to Know: Cambridge United

Meet Sounders FC’s sister in football, from one of England’s oldest footballing cities, Cambridge United.

Cambridge United supporter Tom Sewell checks in to write a piece about Sounders FC’s sister club (both teams are partially owned by Sounders GM Adrian Hanauer). Curious Sounders fans may have known the connection for years. Arsenal fans might’ve heard about them through Nick Hornby’s book Fever Pitch. Regardless how they found the club, since finding out the connection many a Sounders fan has developed a soft spot for this storied club.

In what we hope will be an ongoing series Tom will introduce us to the team, what match day is like in England, what away days are like and hopefully much more! So, without further ado here’s what Tom had to say about his club:

Cambridge United is a team from a city far more famous for it’s intellectual students than its football. They rose from the 4th tier to the 2nd tier of English football in 3 consecutive years in the early 90’s, including winning the first playoff final played at Wembley in 1990. A team that enthralled the nation and were 2 games away from the Premier League in 1992, and reached the FA Cup quarter finals two years in a row, losing 2-1 away to Arsenal in front of the largest ever travelling support to grace Highbury in 1991.

However they then fell from grace dramatically, sold Premiership-bound Dave Kitson for a pittance to Reading, lost their ground, eventually leading them to relegation from the Football League after 35 years in 2005. Since then they very nearly got back but lost in the playoff final to Exeter City last May, and are currently sitting in 5th position in the 5th tier of English football, more commonly known as the Conference.

So why should this team be of any interest to you? Well we have a connection off the field, mainly through Sounders GM Adrian Hanauer, who whilst you know best for helping bring MLS to Seattle, as well as Kasey Keller and Freddie Ljungberg, is one of 2 Seattle residents (the other being Paul Barry, co-owner of the USL-1 Seattle Sounders) who have owned a large percentage of Cambridge United for the past 3 years.

This is how I came across the Sounders.

Once we made the playoffs last season I stumbled across the ECS site and began informing them of our progress, and from browsing the rest of the site in the weeks during our playoff run, became hooked on the Sounders, and ever since have followed the progress of Seattle (which included many late nights watching games online!) whilst continuing to update those who interested on Cambridge United.

Over the coming months I hope to continue this, keeping you up to date on the playing side of lower league English football, as well as what goes in to a day traveling to follow your team in England, in particular what it’s like to be a Cambridge fan who lives away from the city like I do. We have 4 months of the season to go and are well in the hunt to win promotion to the Football League, and hopefully come May the Sounders will be successfully underway in the MLS, and I’ll be able to tell you that Cambridge United are once again on their way to reaching the sort of levels they did in the early 90’s, as a Football League club again.

For more on the U’s check them out online here.