Cedar Rapids Inferno Soccer Club having ‘very remarkable’ season

CEDAR RAPIDS — It has been a “very remarkable” season for the Cedar Rapids Inferno.

“We understand that what we’ve done so far is very remarkable and pretty successful for a small team from Cedar Rapids, Iowa,” said Kenan Malicevic, the owner, founder, coach and player for Inferno Soccer Club.

The Inferno is a semipro adult club formed in 2018 that consists of high school and college level athletes and plays in the Midwest Premier Soccer League.

This season, the Inferno has gone undefeated — so far.

“We still understand there are (two) games to go in the season and even though we need one win to win a title, we want to go undefeated,” Malicevic said before clinching the title with a tie against AFC Columbia on Saturday. “So I keep the guys reminded that there’s a goal we set for ourselves at the beginning of the season and that is to not lose a single game.”

Cedar Rapids Inferno (6-0-2) is a part of the eight team Gateway Conference. The conference consists of teams from Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.

The Inferno sits in first place in the conference.

“It’s pretty awesome,” said Gabe Chapa, a former Linn-Mar prep who is a junior on the Western Illinois University team. “I love the environment, it’s all guys I’ve played with pretty much my whole life. You also get some of those older guys that have been there before I was that show great leadership for the team so it’s pretty awesome.”

The Inferno’s environment welcomes new players from all over the world. Malicevic is among those players, coming to Cedar Rapids from Bosnia.

“We have a lot of internationals on our team,” said Callum McKenna, an Inferno player from England who played for Mount Mercy University. “We come from different cultures and different parts of the world, but soccer is like our common connection.”

With only two games left, the team continues to push through its season.

After beating AFC Columbia on Saturday and grabbing its first championship, the team is confident and humble about its last two games. The Inferno play Saturday against Pearl City Soccer Club in Muscatine. They close the season July 27 against Pearl City at Mount Mercy’s Plaster Athletic Complex.

“It took us a few years to collect all of the proper positions and proper attitudes but now that we have it the results are showing for itself,” Malicevic said.