Goalkeeper Piotr Sliwa finds a summer soccer home with Cedar Rapids Rampage United

CEDAR RAPIDS — For the Cedar Rapids Rampage United, a former foe has become a summer comrade.

After competing against Cedar Rapids in two Major Arena Soccer League seasons and last summer's inaugural Premier League of America outdoor campaign, veteran goalkeeper Piotr Sliwa decided Eastern Iowa would be the perfect landing spot for the 2017 PLA season.

'I think the set-up here with just the living and how the team is run, I think it's one of the better teams in the league,' said Sliwa, who will be in goal as the first-place Rampage United host the Croatian Eagles Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Kingston Stadium. 'I think it showed last year when they improved from five (MASL) wins the first year to almost making the playoffs with 12 wins. They brought in some really good guys and they made really good moves this year, too. I think it is going to help them improve. I think they will be even better next year (in the MASL).'

Admission to Saturday's game is free for all attendees.

While Sliwa, 31, will return to the Florida Tropics for another MASL season this winter, the summer will be spent chasing a PLA championship with the Rampage United.

As a member of RWB Adria last season, Sliwa helped eliminate the Rampage United from the PLA championship tournament. This season, Sliwa has allowed just one goal in five games and Cedar Rapids (6-0-0, 18 points) has already clinched a berth in the PLA postseason tournament for the second year in a row.

'He's a very experienced goalkeeper,' Rampage United Coach Hewerton Moreira said. 'He's very calm in goal. ... He plays really well with his feet, so it allows us to build from the back. That has been our philosophy from day one. Allow us to build from the back, so it makes him very good for the team.'

Sliwa emigrated to Chicago from his native Poland at the age of 10 so his father, Arkadiusz Sliwa, could play professional soccer. Following a successful collegiate career at Dominican University (Ill.), Piotr played for a variety of Chicago-area clubs with current Rampage United forward Gordy Gurson, and the pair were also teammates with Seattle and St. Louis in the MASL. This fall, Sliwa will begin his sixth season as head coach at Triton College, a junior-college men's soccer power located in the Chicago suburbs. Moreira — who also coaches the men's team at Milwaukee Area Technical College — has matched wits with Sliwa in the junior-college coaching box and as MASL players. With the Rampage United, Moreira is coach and Sliwa is the player.

'It makes it interesting because then he starts to understand the coach's mind,' Moreira said with a laugh.

Sliwa credits the ability of Rampage United midfielders like Jacob Johnson, Alejandro Pacheco and Fernando Pacheco with minimizing the scoring chances for the opposition by controlling the ball and pushing the offensive attack. The formula has resulted in a lopsided 23-3 Cedar Rapids scoring advantage through six games.

'I think our guys are really hungry to go undefeated,' Sliwa said. 'I think there is going to be no letdown.'

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com