The short-lived Monterrey Flash of Monterrey, Mexico, were an indoor professional soccer team. Despite changes in location and talent, the team went on to accomplish one of the most impressive records in Major Arena Soccer League history.
Foreign teams participating in major professional sports leagues in the U.S. are not uncommon, with Major League Soccer (MLS) alone including three Canadian professional clubs in its roster: the Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact, and Toronto FC. Nonetheless, achieving important milestones (i.e. winning titles) is still a pending task for many of these clubs.
In spite of their non-successes in the MLS, an outsider soccer club managed to grab the gold on one occasion—that team was the Monterrey Flash who for a short period of time dominated in the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) back in 2015.
The Mexican-based team, founded in 2011, was the spiritual successor to the Monterrey La Raza. In its two different iterations (one that lived from 1992-2001 and from 2007-2010), it was a team that shined during the now-defunct Continental Indoor Soccer League and World Indoor Soccer League. Both leagues were notable in that they actively encouraged foreign participation on American soil.
A year after the dissolution of La Raza in 2010, the city of Monterrey (which is the capital of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León) decided to reincarnate a team and thus came to being the Monterrey Flash. The Flash was created to participate in the Mexican Indoor Soccer Professional League, with the intent of crossing the border to compete in the then-recently formed Premier Arena Soccer League (PASL), a semi-pro organization with four divisions in the U.S. Today, the PASL additionally serves as a development stage for the MASL. A few murky business decisions led the franchise to be relocated to Texas, prompting the owner of the brand, Gerardo Guerra Lozano, to create an entirely brand new Flash team.
All changes withstanding, on the opening day of the 2013-2014 season, the Monterrey Flash boasted an impressive attendance record with 9,626 fans showing up for a match against, ironically, the ex-Flash team, now renamed Hidalgo La Fiera. (This attendance milestone still stands, with a close attempt by the Baltimore Blast who registered an all-time personal attendance of 9,442 supporters in their 2015-2016 season).
In the following season, the Flash competed in the MASL, and proceeded to completely dominate the competition, boasting an impressive record of 18 wins and only two losses. The team made it all the way from the Conference Finals to the big stage against Baltimore Blast, where Monterrey clinched the championship and marked its territory as one of the conquerors of American indoor soccer.
Sadly, the constant morphing of the organizations and instability of professional indoor soccer in the United States, pushed the Monterrey Flash to abandon ship, citing said conditions bore a costly toll that was no longer profitable for the owners. The team withdrew from the MASL before being able to prove they might dominate for seasons to come.
For more information about the Monterrey Flash, visit their web site.
