Al Trost

Al Trost was one of the most important contributions of the soccer hotbed of St. Louis to the North American Soccer League. Trost, who spent the largest part of his pro career in his hometown, was one of the most outstanding American players in the NASL, as well as reaching significant accomplishments at other levels.

    Trost, a midfielder, played seven seasons in the NASL, the first five of them with the St. Louis Stars, who specialized in fielding home-grown players rather than scouting for foreign stars. In all, Trost played 151 NASL games (147 regular-season and four playoff) and scored 38 NASL goals. After playing from 1973 to 1977 for St. Louis, he was with the California Surf in 1978 and the Seattle Sounders in 1979. The most productive of those seasons was 1976, when he scored 12 goals for the Stars in 24 games.

Trost was named an NASL all-star three times, receiving second-team recognition in 1976 and honorable mention in 1973 and 1977, as well as being named to the NASL North American all-star team in 1978. He played one season in the Major Indoor Soccer League after retiring from the NASL, appearing in 27 games for the New York Arrows in the 1979-80 MISL season.

Trost played 14 games in the U.S. national team, the first against Poland in New Britain, Conn., on Aug. 12, 1973, and the last against Portugal in Lisbon on Sept. 20, 1978. In between those, he captained the United States throughout the five games of its World Cup qualifying series against Mexico and Canada in 1976. His only full-international goal came in his first game with the national team, and resulted in a 1-0 upset over Poland, which finished third in the World Cup less than a year later.

At. St Louis University, Trost won the Hermann Trophy as the nation's outstanding collegiate player in both 1969 and 1970, and led the Bilikens to the NCAA championship in both of those years. However, he didn't turn pro for two years after that, until after the 1972 Olympic Games. Trost was a member of the U.S. team at those Olympics in Munich, playing in two of the United States'  three games, against Morocco and West Germany. He also had played in eight of the United States' 11 Olympic qualifying games in 1971 and 1972, and scored a pair of goals, against Barbados and El Salvador.