Originally named Crystal Palace FC USA, Crystal Palace Baltimore was founded in 2006 and is the sister organization of the world-renowned Crystal Palace Football Club in the UK. It was the first professional soccer team in the United States with a direct link to a professional English football (soccer) team.  Crystal Palace UK chairman, Simon Jordan, saw an opportunity not only to develop the footprint of Crystal Palace worldwide, but more specifically to tap into the under-appreciated pool of American soccer talent.  His brother, vice chairman Dominic Jordan, oversees the relationship with the American club, including the movement of players between the two clubs.  In 2007, two promising young players from the English club’s reserve team were sent over during their off-season to gain valuable playing experience with the Baltimore team.  Several senior and youth players from Crystal Palace Baltimore have also spent time training in London with the English team.

As Baltimore’s sole, professional, outdoor soccer team, the club competed from 2007 to 2009 in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) Second Division, the third tier of US professional soccer.  At the end of 2009, the club left USL to become a founding member of the new North American Soccer League.  For the 2010 season, Crystal Palace Baltimore will compete in the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) 2nd Division along with eight fellow NASL clubs and the three remaining USL First Division clubs.  This interim league will feature two conferences (NASL and USL) of six teams each, with three NASL teams playing in the USL conference.

The club also competes for the US Open cup, a 100-year old, single-elimination competition open to professional and amateur teams alike.  Every year, the later rounds of the US Open Cup feature USL teams playing against Major League Soccer teams like DC United and the L.A. Galaxy.

The club’s Professional Development Academy develops young players at age levels U-10 through U-18, providing a positive training environment in order to foster true, long-term passion and respect for the game. The Academy is headed by two renowned former college head coaches, Matt Smith (Johns Hopkins) and Keith Tabatznik (Georgetown). The Academy program is sponsored by Crystal Palace UK and therefore follows the European practice of providing the service at low cost to the young players - an innovative concept in youth soccer development in the USA.

Crystal Palace Baltimore is committed not only to providing the best soccer experience possible but also to developing a strong relationship with the local community, offering activities and mentoring to young people of all backgrounds, based around teamwork and a healthy, active lifestyle.  Since the fall of 2007, well over 10,000 area children have attended nearly 200 free or low-cost soccer clinics given by Crystal Palace Baltimore coaches and players.

Crystal Palace is a neighborhood in London, named for the palatial glass building that once stood there.  The Crystal Palace was built to house The Great Exhibition, an international exhibition held in Hyde Park, central London, from 1 May to 15 October 1851.  That building was moved and re-erected three years later in an enlarged form at Sydenham in southeast London, an area that would soon adopt the name Crystal Palace.  Crystal Palace Football Club was formed in 1905 by workers at The Crystal Palace.  The building was eventually destroyed by fire on November 30th 1936.

As the club continues to identify the ideal location to build a permanent home, it spent its inaugural season (2007) playing at Navy-Marine Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.  For the 2008 and 2009 seasons, the club played its home games at UMBC (the University of Maryland Baltimore County).

2007 was the club’s inaugural season.  After a poor start, the team steadily climbed the table, losing only two of its final sixteen matches, ending the season in fifth spot, just one win from making the playoffs.

The club’s biggest achievement in their second season, 2008, was the 2-0 upset of Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls in the US Open Cup third round (the Red Bulls were MLS Cup Finalists in the same season). In the quarter-finals Palace lost narrowly to MLS’s New England Revolution in a penalty shoot-out. In the league, the team improved on its inaugural season effort with a fourth-place finish, bowing out in the semi-finals of the playoffs at Charlotte.

The 2009 season was a success on the defensive front, with the back line and goalkeeper Brian Rowland allowing the second fewest goals in the league.  However goal scoring was a disappointment and the team missed the playoffs, finishing in sixth spot.

Since the US club’s inception, the American and English teams began a tradition of playing against each other for the Medd Cup.  In 2006, the London-based side won 3-1 in Annapolis and in 2007, the English were victorious again, but this time by a 1-0 margin in a closely contested match at Selhurst Park Stadium in London. After a hiatus in 2008, the third match of the series took place in Maryland in 2009, with the British side topping their hosts 5–2.