Last month, St. Louis Steamers' superstar goalie Slobo Ilijevski died while playing in a men's over 55 soccer tournament in Bellingham, WA, an hour north of Seattle. Slobo was playing in the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA) Veteran's Cup for the Kutis team, which represented Missouri in the tournament. Slobo began to suffer pain after making a save and doctors discovered he had ruptured the wall of his aorta. He died several hours later.
I have many fond memories of the Steamers, St. Louis' franchise in the MISL (Major Indoor Soccer League), as do many, many people from St. Louis. With Slobo as goalie, the Steamers reached the MISL finals three times ('81, '82, and '84) and were consistent fan favorites. I am sure Slobo will be sorely missed by his numerous family members, friends, and fans.
One disturbing aspect of this sad event, however, is that it received absolutely no mention outside of the St. Louis media (for an article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, click here : http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/othersports/story/1D15C6881E34DEB38625748700558F82?OpenDocument.) Neither of the daily Seattle newspapers (the Times and the Post-Intelligencer) nor the Bellingham Herald mentioned the event, and, perhaps most bizarrely of all, the official website of the United States Adult Soccer Association made no mention at all of the fact that a player in one of their tournaments (who was also an MISL superstar!) had died while playing in a match.
Even if many choose not to acknowledge the untimely death of this outstanding goalie, we here at Ape Canyon News Service would like to take a moment to recognize the passing of a St. Louis sports legend.
2 comments:
You should know this did not pass unnoticed here - on the contrary it became the conversation of the morning in my office among the 35+ year old men. Very sad. The last time I saw Slobo he was dangling off a 20' extension ladder painting the rake board of an apartment building he owned. He will be missed.
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