A German club on South Broadway

The club was founded in 1951 by Los Angeles residents of German descent and named the L.A. Kickers after the Stuttgarter Kickers. It opened its first clubhouse that year at 5255 South Broadway.⁵ The team played in the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League and soon became one of the strongest in Southern California.^1,4

In 1954 the Kickers brought Borussia Dortmund and Plymouth Argyle to Los Angeles, and Dortmund won their game 3–1. The club won its first state cup in the mid-1950s.^1,5

Carson in Baltimore

Willie Carson was born in Scotland and had been one of the top scorers in Toronto before he moved to Southern California. He scored 54 goals for the Los Angeles Danes in 1956–57 and then joined the Kickers, where the captain was Al Zerhusen.^4,7

The 1958 final was played at Kirk Field in Baltimore, the home ground of Pompei, in front of 4,500. Carson scored in the eighth minute and was hurt soon after. JoJo Defonso equalized with an overhead kick, and the two goalkeepers made 37 saves between them to take the game to extra time. Carson asked to go back on, and with less than ten minutes left he scored the winner from a rebound. His teammates carried him off.^2,4

It was the first national soccer title for Los Angeles and for the West Coast. The city's newspapers barely noticed. The Dodgers drew about 150,000 to three home games that weekend.⁴

Philadelphia, twice

The Kickers were back in the final in 1960 and lost 5–3 after two periods of extra time to the Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals, with Mike Noha scoring five.⁶ In 1963 the club merged with Los Angeles Victoria and sent its first team on a world tour that included Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia, Iran and Germany.^1,5

The 1964 final was a rematch with the Ukrainians, played over two games.³

• 2–2June 1, Cambria Field, PhiladelphiaAfter extra time, in front of 5,000.³
• 2–0June 21, Wrigley Field, Los AngelesZerhusen scored in the 77th minute and Helmut Weiss in the 83rd. About 3,000 watched.^3,6

Zerhusen was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Germany, and captained the Kickers for ten years. He played for the United States at the 1956 Olympics, won 10 caps, and entered the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1978. He died in Los Angeles in 2018.⁷

Becoming Los Angeles SC

More mergers followed, with Germania in 1966, Hollywood in 1972 and, by some accounts, Alemania in 1975.¹ The club moved to its current clubhouse on Chandler Boulevard in 1974, reached the national final four again in 1997 and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2001.⁵

Under the Los Angeles SC name, it started a youth program in 2020 that now fields more than 60 teams across Los Angeles County, alongside adult teams in the UPSL and women's leagues.⁵ Before the 2024 Open Cup final at BMO Stadium, surviving players from the 1958 and 1964 teams were honored at midfield.⁴ The current club page is Los Angeles SC.