As the book closes on the second World Cup tournament held in the United States over the next few days it gives the nation a moment to reflect on how the sport has come along even if that history is sometimes not clear or never discussed at all.

Here in Columbiana County the sport we know as soccer emerged in 1895 with the birth of the first known organized soccer club called the Rovers Association Football Club in East Liverpool. Pottery workers with links to Great Britain, where soccer’s rules were established, drove this trend. The club elected its officers on Nov. 18, 1895 although there had been initial discussions with it becoming a rugby style club.

The timeline aligns nationally with the development of the game as first national governing body of the sport — the American Football Association — was launched in 1884 in an attempt to standardize rules and procedures.

The first known organized soccer game in Columbiana County came on Nov. 30, 1895 in the East End as a team from Youngstown beat the Rovers 3-2 in front of about 300.

The team remained a draw into the dawn of the new century and even claimed a league championship in 1899.

In 1902, the Rovers were charging 25 cents (around $10 in today’s money) for admission to games played at Rock Springs Park in Chester, W.Va.

The Rovers, however, met their end as a soccer club at the end of 1902. The team’s key defensive player, a fullback named William Pope, broke his ankle in two places in a particularly rough game against Swissvale (Pa.) on Dec. 26, 1902. The Rovers did play one more game in McDonald, Pa. on New Years Day 1903, but it was tough going after that.

A benefit game was planned for Pope on March 13, 1903 between the Rovers and the Buckeyes, the two soccer clubs in East Liverpool at that time.

Pope’s injury, however, was career ending and several of the Rovers players relocated. By August 1903, there was talks to merge the remaining Buckeyes and Rovers players on to one soccer team, but the Rovers instead transitioned into an American football team, even buying new rule books to study.

The end of the Rovers as a soccer club didn’t mean the end of soccer in East Liverpool, though.

A league called the Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania Association Football League was formed in East Liverpool in 1904. The governing body said that the league would be eight to 12 teams. It could get rather expensive for teams operating in the league as any club who could not play a scheduled game would be fined $10 (or $376 in today’s money). A deposit of $20 ($753 in today’s money) was required at the beginning of the season to assure teams fulfilled their obligations and they did just that as all games scheduled were played.

East Liverpool finished fourth out of six teams in that league in the opening season which was 10 games long.

Like in Great Britain many teams associated with industry were introduced in the first decade of the 1900s and there was active clubs all around the eastern part of Columbiana County tied to the pottery industry.

In newspaper articles from everywhere from Youngstown to Pittsburgh, East Palestine was said to have one of the more formidable clubs around. The team’s manager Robert Heads was particularly aggressive in rounding up opponents as he would contact newspapers all over the region welcoming challenges from any team. Many times Heads would want to play games where the winner would get all of the gate.

Heads, a pottery worker, came to the United States from England at the age of 13 in 1892. His soccer team came on the scene around 1910 and lasted for four or five years.

On the other side of the county there wasn’t as much talk about soccer although the first mention of the sport in a county newspaper came in 1889 in an article about field hockey.

While Salem can’t really claim any ground with men’s soccer, it was a pioneer on the female side of the sport.

The first high school girls soccer game at Reilly Stadium (now Sebo Stadium) was played on Nov. 8, 1929 during halftime of the Salem-Youngstown East football game. It featured “all-stars” from Salem school teams who played games at Centennial Park. The first mention of these games was in 1928.

There was also an early attempt to get Salem High School boys interested in the sport.

On Nov. 11, 1911, Salem’s high school football team was presented with a soccer exhibition while it was in Warren for a game. The Republic Rubber Works of Youngstown beat the Concrete Works of Youngstown 2-1 and that seemed to grease the gears for another exhibition in Salem between those two teams on Nov. 25 at the Independent Amusement Park (the current site of Sebo Stadium). The Youngstown teams, however, wanted Salem to pay half of its expenses and attach the soccer exhibition to a high school football game against Niles. Salem expressed no interest in doing so, though, and the exhibition was canceled.

Even though soccer caught on in Cincinnati high schools during the early days of the sport, the Ohio High School Athletic Association did not sponsor a state championship until 1976. The first girls state championship tournament was played in 1985.