USL News Release

Friday, November 14, 2008

TAMPA – With seven of the club’s 10 Super Y-League teams heading to the postseason tournament in Tampa, the Kalamazoo Kingdom has the best chance of taking home hardware from next week’s 10th Annual North American Finals. The best team in Kalamazoo’s fleet is their U16 Boys, who finished second in the Midwest Division behind the Fort Wayne Fever despite losing only one match this season. In last season’s U15 North American Finals this same Kalamazoo side fought their way to the semifinals where they fell 4-2 to the eventual champion, Arsenal FC.

Mid Atlantic
TSF Academy finished the Super Y-League regular season in second place of the Mid Atlantic Division, scoring 27 goals and allowing only 12. The side is one of the most-improved teams in the league, going from a record of 6-5-2 in 2007 to a qualification position this time around. Against possible Mid Atlantic combatants in this tournament (SuperNova, South Jersey, the NJ Stallions and the Westchester Flames), TSF is 2-0-2.

SuperNova is the second highest seeded team headed to the North American Finals from the Mid Atlantic region. A very balanced side, the Pennsylvanians conceded 19 goals in 12 matches. In that same period of time the team scored 30 goals, an average of 2.5 per match. The team played two matches in May, both wins, before falling 2-0 to TSF. Following the loss the team won four in a row. During that second winning streak SuperNova outscored their opponents 15-6. The first team SuperNova will face at the North American Finals is Schulz Academy. That match is set to kick off on Friday November 21 at 3:00 PM.

The South Jersey Barons finished two points behind SuperNova in the Mid Atlantic standings with a record of 5-3-4. Head-to-head with SuperNova, South Jersey lost a 3-1 decision in the middle of the season. Like SuperNova, South Jersey was a balanced side that scored six more goals than they surrendered. Their first adversary at the 10th Annual North American Finals will be the representatives out of the Super Y-League’s Southern California Division, the Coast Soccer League. That match is set for 1 PM in Land O’Lakes on Friday, November 21.

Almost a mirror image of both SuperNova and South Jersey, the New Jersey Junior Stallions finished tied with the ladder squad with 19 points. Their record of 6-5-1 represents the adversity the club faced throughout the Super Y-League regular season, a formidable growth period that will serve the Stallions well when times get tough in Tampa.

Their first match will be against the Fort Wayne Fever at 11 PM Friday, November 21. Fort Wayne won the Midwest with a record of 8-1-1. A tough group draw being the norm at the North American Finals, the last day of group play will not be any easier as the Stallions will face their second regional champion in three days, the 12-1-2 champion of the league’s Southeast Division, Kendall SC.

Midwest Division
The Midwest Division’s Kalamazoo Kingdom finished the regular season with a record of 6-1-3. This is the third straight season the Kingdom has reached the North American Finals. Kalamazoo’s strength is their offense. In 10 league matches this season the side scored 41 goals, including a 6-0 beating the side laid on Mequon United to distance themselves from the remainder of the Midwest Division pack.

The side’s three draws were to the fourth-place Toronto Lynx 0-0, on Sunday, July 13, third place Mequon United 1-1 on Saturday, June 28 and 3-3 to the first place Fort Wayne Fever on Friday, July 25. Their only loss of the season was also to the Fever, 1-0 on Wednesday, July 9. In the North American Finals the past two seasons the side has a record of 3-3-1.

The Fort Wayne Fever found the back of the net 36 times this season, the second best mark in the Midwest Division. They also allowed the second-fewest goals in the six-team division to claim the title via a 3-3 draw and 1-0 win over the second place Kalamazoo Kingdom. The squad’s only loss on the year came in a 6-3 shootout loss to the Toronto Lynx. Vindication came in the form of a 2-1 win over the Lynx less than a week later. Coached by Bobby Poursanidis and Rob Berkley, the toughest test of Fort Wayne’s season will be at the North American Finals against fellow regional champion, Kendall SC.

New England Division 
Coached by Justin Capell, the MPS Boston U16 boys have made significant developmental strides since they came together as a group at the U13 level. Each season they have made huge progress, culminating in the 2008 season where, as well as qualifying for the Super Y-League North American Finals, they won the Needham Showcase, the U.S. Club Regional Championship and narrowly lost out on penalty kicks in the U.S. Club National Final.

During the Super Y-League regular season the side lost only one match, an unusual 6-1 defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Fury. Aside from that match the Bulldogs gave up only seven goals all season. They finished second in the New England Division behind Black Watch SC, who they tied twice this season. The first match finished 0-0. The second was 1-1. MPS Boston U16 boys’ final record was 8-1-3.

Black Watch SC won the New England Division with a final record of 8-0-4. One of two undefeated sides in the U16 boys competition, Black Watch has relied on a stellar defense to get them to this point. The side’s goals against average of 0.66 will be tested on day two of group play when the side faces the formidable offense of the league’s Southern California Division representative.

Black Watch’s toughest test to this point was MPS Boston, who tied the Albany-based club 0-0 and 1-1. The New Hampshire Phantoms played evenly with Black Watch to earn a 1-1 draw with the division’s best and the Ottawa Fury matched that result on Sunday, August 10.

Northern California Division
Juventus, a perennial contender in this region, has qualified for the second time in two tries with a 2007-2008 Super Y-League record of 18-4-4. This season the team was able to improve their regional record from 9-3-1 in 2007 to 8-1-1 in 2008. They will be looking to do the same with their 2007 North American Finals record, which was 1-0-2 last season. They finished as the top offensive (18 GF) and defensive (5 GA) team in Northern California.

From last season’s North American Finals team the club returns 14 players including: Patrick Balderramos, Anthony Clay, Jaime Frias, Sandro Haro-Ruiz, Cristian Mendieta, Ricardo Nava, Charles Northrop, Daniel O’Leary, Juan Palacio, Adrian Perez, Mathew Quitugua, Deivys Silvestre, Alex Wiles, and Michael Young.

Northwest Division
The Mountain WFC U16 boys, coached by Les Krivak and Ron Mazzarolo, competed in the Pacific Northwest Division against five teams and ended in the first place with a record of 7-1-2. The team scored a total of 31 goals and only allowed 11. After a successful season the team is looking forward to a very competitive final.

The Abbotsford Mariners finished second in the Northwest’s eldest division with a record of 6-2-2. Coached by Troye Flannery, Terry Klassen and Andy Phillips, the team accounted for one of the division champion’s two losses when they downed Mountain WFC, 3-1 in Abbotsford. After dropping their first match of the season to Mountain on Sunday, June 8, Abbotsford won five of their last six matches and head into the North American Finals having won two in a row. Their first match of group play will be against New England Division Champion Black Watch SC.

South Atlantic Division
The Northern Virginia Royals U16 Super Y-League team secured the South Atlantic Division championship, granting them an automatic berth into the North American Finals. The upstart U16 Royals cruised by a depleted Carolina Dynamo team 5-0 on Wednesday, July 23 to win the division outright. The U16 Royals garnered a season record of 10-0-2 to lock in first place. The U16 Royals scored 37 goals this season and only allowed eight against them in twelve games. Their only blemishes so far this season came at the hands of Alpharetta United, who battled Northern Virginia for a 2-2 draw and the Atlanta Silverbacks who finished 0-0 with the division champions.

Southeast Division
For their part Kendall SC’s U16 boys delivered a dominating performance matched only by Schulz Academy, the other Southeast team that is headed to the North American Finals. Kendall SC won the division by one point with a final record of 12-1-2, but both teams, who split their home and away matches, have an insurmountable lead over third-place Sunrise SC.

Schulz Academy should be considered as great a threat to face in the North American Finals as the Southeast Division Champion Kendall SC. Two of the most talent-rich clubs in the Super Y-League, Kendall and Schulz battled neck-and-neck all summer, with Kendall SC winning the division by a one-point margin. One point was also all that separated the division’s top offense (Schulz – 46 goals for/Kendall – 45 goals for) and defense (Schulz – 14 goals against/Kendall – 15 goals against). The two clubs met in one epic affair, a 3-2 battle that went Schulz’s way at home. But they also met in a lopsided match that seems out of the ordinary, a 6-1 win that ended in favor of Kendall.

Sunrise SC is a team that took shots all season from juggernauts Kendall and Schulz and has remained standing. They come into the North American Finals as one of the most battle-tested sides in the Super Y-League. Coached by Victor Musa, Jose Fernandez-Brito and Arlington Teheran the second-year club finished third in the Southeast with a record of 8-6-2.

Their best match of the season was a 0-0 draw with Schulz Academy. That was the second time this season that Sunrise played Schulz tough as they lost a 2-1 decision to the side earlier in the year. Sunrise also had one good showing against Kendall SC, falling 1-0 in the third match of Sunrise’s campaign.

Southern California Division
CZ Elite Soccer finished second in the Southern California Division to advance to the North American Finals. Their regular season record was 7-1-3. The side’s only loss was their first match of the 2008 season, 3-2 to Slammers FC. CZ Elite has gone unbeaten in their last 10 matches since that loss, including a 2-2 draw with the Coast Soccer League U17 Premier League Champion, Real So Cal White. The team had the second-best offense in the 12-team division, scoring 30 goals in 11 matches.