by Rachel O’Connor GUISELEY AFC are to kick-off their Centenary celebrations with a match against the 2008 American MLS Champions Columbus Crew.

This will take place at Nethermoor Park, Guiseley, next Tuesday, March 3, with a 7.45pm kick-off.

It will be a great footballing occasion with the old-established English club taking on the talent of the ‘new world’ soccer club who are current chanpions of the league in which David Beckham's LA Galaxy play.

Guiseley will give a debut in this game to midfielder Jordan Barnes, son of former Liverpool and England legend John Barnes. The former Chester City youngster’s arrival emphasises the links the Guiseley club has made with the university, as he is the third of their players to join the club this season.

Among the Columbus Crew players with international recognition is forward Alejandro Moreno, who played for Venezuela in their friendly against Guatemala earlier this month.

Crew have five players in the current USA squad in midfielders Brian Carroll, Eddie Gaven and Robbie Rogers, goalkeeper William Hesmer and defender and three-times World Cup veteran Frankie Hejduk.

Columbus Crew are coming to England to prepare for their next league campaign which kicks-off on March 21 at Houston Dynamo.

They must wait until May for the big clash with David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy.

Whilst in England the game against Guiseley will be sandwiched between games played against Everton and Liverpool Reserve teams at the Premiership clubs’ training grounds.

The connection between the clubs comes through Guiseley AFC coach Mark Ellis. The former Bradford City winger and current City youth coach spends his summers in the USA coaching.

Ellis said: “It is a very prestigious game for us. All our players will want to be involved in this one, it is something everyone at our club is looking forward to. I have been told that all of the Columbus first team squad players will be involved in their games over here. I’m sure there will be a lot of people who want to watch.”

Ellis added: “I have never coached any of their players or at their club but I have coached in that area in the States. I was based just a few miles from them and have some contacts there. They are one of the best sides in the MLS.”

A number of former Guiseley youth team players have experience of training with an MLS club with a number of them figuring in trials with LA Galaxy in the last two years - current Guiseley first team squad member Danny Husband being one of them.

The Crew’s stadium hosted the USA’s recent World Cup qualifying game against Mexico, which they won 2-0 to continue the USA’s dominance in the Crew Stadium.

Fans from 43 states, and the District of Columbia, Canada and Mexico purchased tickets for this match, which was the sixth World Cup qualifier hosted by Crew Stadium On June 15, 1994, Columbus, Ohio was introduced as the first of the ten inaugural Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs. With more than 11,500 season ticket deposits and plans to build a soccer-specific stadium, the decision to award a team to Ohio’s capital city was an easy one.

Exactly four years and 11 months later on May 15, 1999, The Crew forever etched its place in American Sports History by christening Columbus Crew Stadium, the country’s first major league stadium built specifically for soccer, with a 2-0 win over the New England Revolution. A standing-room only crowd of 24,741 witnessed the event, which was hailed by then MLS Commissioner Doug Logan as a ‘relaunching of the league’.

The road to Crew Stadium’s inception has also seen ‘America's Hardest Working Team’ leave a legacy of firsts behind, as the Black and Gold established itself as one of the top organisations in Major League Soccer both on and off the field.

Born from the legacy of the 1994 World Cup held in the United States, Major League Soccer has harnessed the momentum from what most consider to be the most successful World Cup in soccer history.

Not only is MLS establishing itself as the fifth major professional sports league in America, but it also strives to create and sustain a type of soccer that is entertaining and competitive on an international level.