OFFICIAL: The club will place three age groups: the 2005, 2002 and 2001 teams to compete in the newly announced North Atlantic Conference EDP Conference of the USYS National League this upcoming Fall 2019 season.
The US Youth Soccer National League competition is for the nation's top teams in the 14U, 15U, 16U, 17U, 18U and 19U boys and girls age groups. The 14U through 18U divisions consist of up to 32 teams per gender age group, while the 19U age group features up to 16 teams for each gender. The National League offers additional exposure to collegiate, professional and U.S. National Team coaches and offers the highest level of competition in the country as each team must earn their place in the league.
The top teams from each division advance to the US Youth Soccer National Championships, the oldest and most prestigious youth soccer national championship in the country. The four National League representatives will join the four Regional Champions in the 14U through 19U age groups to play for the National Championship. The top teams in each 14U through 18U division also secure a spot to return to National League play the following season.
The National League’s alumni have gone on to prove themselves at the collegiate and professional levels, with former players competing in NCAA Division I, II and III, Major League Soccer, National Women’s Soccer League, the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The National League, which held its inaugural season in 2007-08, is the national tier and highest level of competition in the US Youth Soccer National Leagues program. Following a restructuring of the National Leagues program in 2018, the program also features 13 Conferences (formerly Regional Leagues) that offer multi-state competition across the various geographical areas of the country.
Tryouts for all three age groups will be announced online and on FA Euro's social media platforms imminently. For more information, email marco.balsamo@faeuro.com
“It’s incredibly exciting to be in such a prestigious league for the 2019/20 season. The teams we will face are all of the highest quality and they will force us to be at our very best. Our boys have proven time and time again that they are up for any challenge, and I have great faith and expectation that they will, once again, rise to meet this one. The improved league competition will also provide our younger players, playing up with the 2005s, a new and more developed environment in which to continue building and improving their games. Our goal for the fall is simple—to learn and compete—but the boys will be playing to win, as they always do, and giving it 110%. As a coach I am excited for the opportunity for our boys to test themselves against the best competition around, but even more excited to see how our kids respond and react to the new gauntlet that has been thrown down for them. I want to see: who can be mature? Who can be mentally tough? Who is going to compete, in games and in training? Who is able to be confident and express themselves on the field when the speed of play increases? Who is able to positively respond to adversity and learn from it? Equally, this new challenge motivates me to keep pushing our boys in training and to continue to raise my expectations for them. In the grand scheme of things, we are still at the beginning of a long road in their development as players and as people and, as with most things in life, far more uncertainty than certainty lies ahead. So we choose to focus on the present—what we can accomplish in the here and now—and not look too far into the future. So this new challenge is what’s next for our boys. And I’m excited to see them attack it without hesitation.”- Adam Marcu