Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[sounderfan]

http://oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3270809

AMPA, FL - United Soccer Leagues announced today the creation of the USL Super-20 League, a new league designed as a graduating youth league for elite players from 17-20 as they advance beyond the traditional youth bracket to the senior professional and amateur development leagues. The league will debut this summer with teams representing all levels of US and Canadian soccer from elite youth clubs to first division professional teams in the US and Canada. Teams such as Ironbound SC (Super Y-League), Brooklyn Knights (Premier Development League), Cleveland Internationals (W-League), Harrisburg City Islanders (USL Second Division), Toronto Lynx (USL First Division) and the MetroStars (MLS) will be fielding USL Super-20 League teams.

"The MetroStars directly support the USL efforts with youth development, and the U20's will further connect our players to our senior team at the MLS level," said MetroStars Director of Soccer and Youth Development Systems Giovanni Savarese, a former USL and MLS star. "This will also provide the club with opportunities to further develop a larger pool of players within the club that also play within the collegiate ranks, so we can monitor and prepare their development for higher levels of the game."

The Super-20 League, for men and women, will replace the U19 age bracket of the Super Y-League, which will now range from U13-U17 for boys and girls. The date for the birth year has been changed to the international standard of January 1 from the previous date of August 1, which now provides an additional six months of eligible players on teams' roster, extending the bracket into the range of 20 year olds. The league will, ultimately, contain the top 80 teams in each of the men's and women's divisions across the US and Canada.

"Shifting our U19 team to a U20 team will provide our club more depth and opportunities for our players," said Albert Coutinho, President of Ironbound SC from Newark, NJ. "As a club we intend to add a PDL team in 2007, and the U20 team would provide the right resources for a true reserve team."

The league was designed to cater to the top of the youth ranks in the US and Canada for players aspiring to play professionally and to serve as a reserve division for USL's Premier Development League and W-League teams, who have increasingly taken youth development of this age range under their auspices the past few years on a smaller scale. PDL and W-League teams will now be able to add USL Super-20 teams to expand their development goals as well as their player pool for the senior team.

"The creation of the USL Super-20 League, as the sixth North American league under the USL umbrella, comes from the recognition of an immediate need for a meaningful elite-level, league-based competition for male and female U20 players," said USL Vice President Tim Holt. "Outgrowing the defining age groups (U13-U17) of the Super Y-League and often squeezed out for significant playing opportunities at the PDL and W-League levels by more experienced U23 players, the U20 age bracket has been one of the most underserved within our structure and often the period during which other elite countries around the world distance themselves from the United States and Canada in terms of player development. We expect the USL Super 20 League not only become a catalyst for traditional youth soccer clubs to make the foray into senior level competition, but also as an immediate destination spot for the less seasoned college players prior to their emergence into the highly competitive PDL and W-League."