When Two Nuclear Submarines Tried to Play Soccer

Back in 2004, two nuclear submarines surfaced at the North Pole with one strange mission: play a game of soccer at the top of the world. This week, we look back at this intriguing challenge between the USS Hampton and HMS Tireless. Plus, we visit the Soccer Hall of Fame for a tour of a lifetime, examine a soccer field in the middle of an American F1 Circuit, revisit the story of the “Fantastic Armadillo,” and much more.

This week’s stories:

• 🏆 A Special Visit to the Soccer Hall of Fame

• 🤠 Austin Plans

• 💥 When Two Nuclear Submarines Tried to Play Soccer

• 🏎️ The Soccer Field Inside an F1 Circuit

• 🗳️ Poll + Last Week’s Answers

• ➡️ And More

TOURISM
A Special Visit to the Soccer Hall of Fame

Our visit to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco, Texas, this weekend was everything we could’ve dreamed of and more.

A promised land of sorts after eight long years of working in the American soccer space. For a long time, we always believed that someday we’d get to visit “once the time was right.”

After an arduous year of chasing every round of the 2025 Open Cup on a school-bus-turned-mobile-American-soccer-museum, we finally got our chance while driving down to Austin for the Final.

Check out our tour of this incredible museum and the holy grail hidden behind those doors. See it here. 

CLUBELEVEN
Austin Plans

It’s Open Cup Final Week, and we’ve got fun plans to celebrate the occasion!

Drop by Auditorium Shores today from 4PM - 8PM for a casual kickabout the day before the U.S. Open Cup Final. There’s no better way to celebrate than by playing with friends. Bring your boots — everyone’s welcome!

Then, we’re planning to be at Hopsquad Brewing Co. tomorrow, starting at around 3PM, to open the Soccer Bus for everyone pre-gaming and getting ready for the Final. Come join us!

For all programming updates, stay tuned here. 

COVER STORY
When Two Nuclear Submarines Tried to Play Soccer

Back in 2004, the USS Hampton—an American nuclear-powered submarine—embarked on one of it’s biggest missions ever: playing soccer against a British submarine near the North Pole.

The two subs were completing a joint underwater exercise, when they decided to surface through two naturally occurring gaps in the ice and see if they could play soccer on the surface.

In an interview with Reuters, soon after surfacing, British Commander John Parris said:

“The crews of HMS Tireless and USS Hampton are gearing up for a game of football. It will probably be English football (soccer) since I doubt our lot know much about playing American football. I expect there will also be the mother of all snowball fights.”

Once they met out on the ice, though, their attempts to play a full game of soccer were unfortunately cut short.

Ultimately, the match was called off due to "conditions on the pitch" that had several feet of snow on the ice. Props to them for at least trying!

I’m proud to know that an American submarine crew was crazy enough to agree to a game of soccer in the arctic.

Although, I guess now I don’t have an excuse to sit out from joining a winter league back home in Boston 😅

*Cool history fact: The world’s first nuclear submarine was commissioned on a day like today (Sept. 30) in 1954.

GEOGRAPHY
The Soccer Field Inside an F1 Circuit

It’s one of the most unexpected crossovers in sports, and I’m kind of disappointed to only be learning about this now.

Turns out, there’s a soccer stadium inside the F1 Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

Austin Bold (a former team of the USL) used to play there, but now it seems like the stadium is permanently closed.

The Circuit of the Americas website is still taking bookings to use the stadium, but I’ve heard that most of the stands have already been taken out since they were mostly temp ones. I’d trade anything for them to put it back together and let a team play a match during an F1 race, even if it’s just a friendly.

Anyways, that’s my cool stadium fun fact of the week 😄

CLUBELEVEN
The Supporters Section

Let us know! We’ll highlight your best answers next week.

CLUBELEVEN
Aggregates

World Cup Mascots: Last week, FIFA announced the official mascots for the 2026 World Cup. Read the background behind each one right here.

Expansion: There’s a new USL club brewing. What do you think of the location?

12 Pentagons: Our favorite soccer ball makers are dropping something special today. Keep an eye out here!

Hating Mix Diskerud: A beef we never knew existed. Shocking but funny.

Free World Cup Tickets: You read that right. Verizon is giving away tickets to the World Cup starting this week. This could be your chance to snag some. Here’s how.

OUR HISTORY
The Fantastic Armadillo

As we drove through Texas this week, we heard a lot about Tatu, a legend of the indoor soccer scene in the Lone Star State and our country.

Tatu (affectionately known as the “Fantastic Armadillo”) scored an astonishing 881 goals and recorded 738 assists in his 693-game career with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Dallas Sidekicks and Wichita Wings. Absolutely ridiculous statistics.

This iconic forward won four titles with the Sidekicks—where he’s an undisputed club legend—and he’s third on the all-time MISL scoring list and second in the history of indoor soccer in points.

Shoutout to all those we met on our trek to Austin who put him on our radar!

RECORDS
The Fastest Hat-Trick in NWSL History

Another week, another record broken.

Gift Monday helped the Spirit book their ticket to the NWSL playoffs with an incredible hat-trick.

One that will go in the history books as the fastest from kick-off in league history. Absolutely incredible!

CLUBELEVEN
Your Takes 🗯️ 

Last week, we asked you: What is the best World Cup mascot of all time? Here are some of your answers:

• “Naranjitooooo 🍊. This is a absolutely objective take and is by no means influenced by the fact that I'm Spaniard 🇪🇸.” - Dario

• “Striker. (Moxie the Moose!)” - Pat O.

In the poll, “Striker” won with about 58% of the vote, while “Naranjito” followed with 29% and “Footix” with 7%.

UP NEXT
The End of the Yellow Brick Road

All good things must come to an end, and what a journey it’s been on this Open Cup road trip.

It’ll be a bittersweet day tomorrow, but this year-long Open Cup exploration on the bus leaves us with plenty of lessons and memories to last a lifetime.

As always, thank you for all your support in person and on this channel — it’s kept us going every single mile!

Enjoying This?

Make sure to forward this email to a friend and help us spread the soccer gospel far and wide! We’ll see you next week with even more untold stories of soccer.

Have a great Tuesday!

Pablo