Wisconsin Soccer Central

The Croatian Eagles and Milwaukee Sport Club already have punched their tickets to next month's U.S. Adult Soccer Association Region II Amateur Cup competition, but first they'll battle for state honors today.

The Wisconsin Amateur Cup final is set for 3 p.m. at Croatian Park in Franklin – the Croatians earned the right to play host to the final as the defending state champions.

Both teams won semifinals last Saturday, with the Eagles (11-1-1 in all competitions) holding off Bavarian SC 2-1 at UW-Milwaukee's Engelmann Stadium and Sport Club (9-4-0) posting a 3-0 home victory over North Shore United at Schwabenhof in Menomonee Falls.

Sport Club surprised the Croatians 6-4 in a Wisconsin Soccer League Major League semifinal last June and went on to win its first Major title since 1998. This season, the Eagles have won both league meetings between the teams without allowing a goal, winning 2-0 in the season opener back on Sept. 15 and 1-0 on April 27.

Both state finalists earned spots in the Region II tournament, which is June 13 to 15 in Westfield, Ind. The regional champion earns a spot in the USASA National Cup Finals from July 24 to 27 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Here are the 22-man rosters for today's state final – Croatians manager Alex Toth and Sport Club manager Dave Scherer will have to select 18 players for the game-day rosters.

CROATIAN EAGLES: Joe Anderson, Bryce Boyd (GK), Ante Cop (GK), Edison Crespo, Cheikh Drame, Kevin Ferron, Luke Goodnetter, Andy Huftalin, Greg Jones, Ilya Ksenidi, Chris Kurth, Aaron Lauber, Tom Lynn, Adam Lysak, Gustavo Mena, Mike Narciso, Luan Oliveira, Tony Patterson, Scott Raymonds, Aaron Schroeder, Scott Widule, Jason Willan.

MILWAUKEE SPORT CLUB: Ryan Bailey, Oliver Bell, Hans Borosch, Tony Colvin, Joe Cuda, Matt Eisold (GK), Alex Gibas, Patrick Gilbertson, Brian Gottschlich, Kyle Gottschlich, Andrew Hicks, Jake Jankowski, Andrew Krenzien, Sam Krenzien, Dylan Leeper, Ryan Moylan, James Pike (GK), David Scherer, Michael Scherer, Paul Sikinger, Steve Sperl, Nick Unger.

• Aris FC will open its sixth season in the National Premier Soccer League against newcomer Minnesota United Reserves in a Midwest Region Central Conference match at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Viterbo University field in La Crosse. After playing games in Eau Claire and La Crosse last year, all five of the team's home matches this season are at the Viterbo facility – Aris owner and manager Greg Saliaras is the V-Hawks men's coach.

EAU CLAIRE ARIS ROSTER: Devin Bathke, Tyler Byars, Jonathan Carli, Mark Carrk, Aaron Cicchese, Jared Ewings, Charles Gibbons, Lucas Henderson, Nick Hendrickson, Cory Jacobson, Ken Johnson, Tye Krentzfeldt, Jamie Mairs, Garet Peplinski, Daniel Quast, Sam Renstrom, John Richards, Logan Scheppke, James Setzer, Jesus Soto, Sam Vandehaar, Aaron Wagner.

• Minnesota United Reserves, the reserve team for the North American Soccer League club, has several players with state ties. Midfielder Andrew Wiedabach (Mequon Homestead/UW-Milwaukee) and defenders Peter Xiong (Fond du Lac/Marian) and Matt Balshaw – he played the past two years with the Madison 56ers – are on the roster, as is player-assistant coach Craig Mallace (UW-Milwaukee).
• One of the new teams in the NPSL Midwest got a new name before playing its first match. Westfield Select was re-named the Indiana Fire after the club announced recently a partnership with Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire. The Indiana Fire and fellow newcomer Lansing United played a 0-0 draw to open Great Lakes West Conference play Friday.