St. Louis has a very odd relationship with soccer. Sometimes it seems strong, like on fall days when every single minivan in town is shipping a load of kids and a bucket of orange slices to one of the hundreds of soccer fields. Other times, like when we have soccer times just die on the vine because no one gives a damn you think, wait aren’t we supposed to be some kind of an oasis in the universal malaise of soccer that shrouds the vast majority of the United States?

St. Louis’ professional women’s soccer team closed up shop seemingly out of nowhere Thursday.

English brothers Heemal and Sanjeev Vaid, the money men behind both teams, abruptly yanked their backing in recent weeks although contracted to fund the clubs through the 2011 season.

Athletica players were told Thursday that will be on their own as free agents effective June 1.

Be honest. How many of you reading this even knew this team existed? 40? 4? It doesn’t matter. It’s the United States, soccer teams fold. It’s just the way it is here. In fact you can always look to the league as a whole and see how their react to find out if this is really a big deal.