4:30-6:30 on a Thursday afternoon for supporters? That is very strange. Media or sponsors? Sure, but supporters? I guess college kids might be free in the afternoon. I'm hoping I can get over to Bryan for a game next year.
BV Cavalry FC @BVCavalryFC 20m20 minutes ago Food & Drinks = $0 Entering for a chance to win prizes = $0 Supporting the Cavalry FC = Still Priceless! RSVP http://bit.ly/2yNGmQO
Laredo Heat Soccer Club Joins the NPSL NPSL is proud to announce that Laredo Heat Soccer Club (Laredo, TX) has joined the league as an expansion team. The club will compete in the South Region’s Texas Conference. “We are excited to bring a team of Laredo Heat’s caliber into the NPSL family,” NPSL Chairman Joe Barone said. “They are a tremendous organization that has a storied tradition of winning on a national stage. Fans and supporters in Texas should look forward to this addition with great enthusiasm.” Heat SC is led by Owners Shashi and Priya Vaswani, front office members Mrinali and Rishi Vaswani, Marketing Specialist Edith Ortiz, and General Manager J.J. Vela. The team’s coaching staff will be announced at a later date. “We will most definitely bring a high level of professionalism both on and off the field so that we are perceived as an asset to both our conference and the league,” Shashi Vaswani commented. The team will play home games at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, TX. The facility has a grass playing surface that measures at 116 yards x 78 yards with no football lines. The seating capacity is 2,000 and the facility also includes a press box and VIP seating area in close proximity to the playing field. The stadium is also the home to the NCAA Division II Texas A&M International University men’s and women’s soccer programs. “Expectations will always be high for our club when it comes to play on the pitch,” Vela added. “We have been out of the soccer scene for two years now with our senior club and can’t wait to get back to competing with the other quality clubs that play in the NPSL to see how we will fare after our hiatus. At the end of the season, we expect to represent our community with dignity and play well enough to bring it a league championship.” Heat SC was founded in 2004. The club played in the USL PDL for 12 years, competing in the USL PDL title game in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2011. Laredo would win the USL PDL Championship in 2007. Their title sponsor is Falcon Bank. “We chose the NPSL primarily for the competitive structure and the number of teams in the region,” Vela concluded. “It made sense to be financially responsible, because of this, the NPSL as a whole made the decision easier.” More information about the club can be found at www.laredoheatsc.com or by following the club on Facebook (@laredoheatsc), Instagram (@laredoheatsc), and Twitter (@LaredoHeatSC).
I guess that's a step up from nonexistence (hiatus, whatever) but a step down from USL. Whatever happened to ol' Felix?
Laredo was never in the USL. They were in the PDL which is owned by USL but not the same league. NPSL and PDL are pretty much on equal levels.
PDL is in USL. Has been since the beginning. Maybe on paper it's similar. But PDL has been around since I was playing. I wouldn't agree in practice that a USL pyramid league with several MLS and USL "youth teams" as well as long established teams like Carolina equals a league that at best has a sprinkling of NASL affiliates. A high level beer league, or HFA Premier, might not be horribly below Conference North in England or somesuch League soccer. But if you were wise and had aspirations you'd be playing in the pyramid. The list of players emerging from NPSL in MLS is pretty short. In contrast every draft is littered with college players who moonlighted in PDL summers.
OK. Most people mean the pro league when they say "USL" and when they mean the amateur adult league they say "PDL". Yes, they are both part of United Soccer Leagues as are the youth Super Y-League and Super 20-League. It seems to me like the PDL has a lot of college players that are coming out of MLS and other academies. You are correct that they are putting more players into MLS. The NPSL is newer and growing faster. It has about 100 teams compared to the PDL's 72. Their teams seem to have a lot of unattached and older players. Teams have been switching back and forth between the PDL and NPSL lately. Midland-Odessa switched from PDL to NSPL last year along with three other teams. A couple of teams have recently left the NPSL for the PDL. As far as the Laredo situation, these are the current teams in the local divisions of each league: PDL Brazos Valley (Bryan, TX) (Dynamo affiliate) Cleburne Houston FC OKC Energy U23 Texas United (Grand Prairie, TX) NPSL Fort Worth Houston Dutch Lions Midland-Odessa Shreveport Houston Regals Tyler I guess there are slightly more NPSL teams in the area. It may be that Laredo feels like they are out of the academy pipeline like the other teams in that league.
Katy 1895 FC Joins the NPSL NPSL is proud to announce that Katy 1895 FC (Katy, TX) has joined the league as an expansion team. The club will compete in the South Region’s Texas Conference. “We are excited to see continued growth in Texas, one of the great hotbeds of American soccer,” NPSL Chairman Joe Barone commented. “The addition of Katy 1895 FC allows us to bring NPSL soccer to yet another community in the Lone Star State and we know that fans and supporters will be thrilled by this addition.” The leadership of Katy 1895 FC includes Owners Michael and Noel Veith, Head Coach James Krueger, and Technical Director/Goalkeeper Coach Eddie Bloise. Krueger, who played collegiately at Midwestern State University, has been the head coach at Seven Lakes High School for nine years, leading his varsity team to the UIL playoffs each year. Bloise has over 15 years of coaching experience and is currently head boys’ soccer coach at Katy High School. A former professional player, Bloise has United States Soccer Federation (USSF), United Soccer Coaches (USC), and La Liga Methodology coaching credentials. “Katy is a strong soccer community within the fastest growing county in Texas,” Michael Veith added. “The soccer fan base here is vibrant and we believe that Katy 1895 FC games will be a great activity for families in Katy and the surrounding area. We believe that we can grow soccer even more by providing an exciting team of local talent that will connect with the community. We love the fact that the NPSL has such a great reputation and their leadership is fantastic.” Home matches will be played at Saint John XXIII High School. “At Katy 1895 FC our focus will be on providing the best training and experience possible to help our players grow and improve so that they, in turn, help their college teams,” Michael Veith concluded. “We strive to be the team that players will come to for their summer training.” More information about the club can be found at www.Katy1895FC.com or by following the club on Facebook (@Katy1895FC), Instagram (@Katy1895FC), and Twitter (@Katy1895FC).
Sorry, I know you aspire to calm objectivity, where I am supposed to be the argumentative jerk, but in this case the parsed literal argument just ends up misleading. I am old enough to remember the 80s-90s alphabet soup around pre-MLS, and that in some forms continues to this day. There was A-League (which used to be the first division) and USISL. In the 90s USISL split into pro and amateur leagues. The combination of the remnants of A-League (many of whom are now MLS) and USISL pro are what we now understand as USL. The amateur spinoff plus some of the lower division USISL is now known as PDL. For a long time the official name was "United Soccer Leagues Professional Development League." Are we really going to say it's not USL, then? The PDL since the beginning has been part of the USL structure, as verified by all the U-23 or like youth teams for MLS and USL teams. You can try and make some sort of technical, "PDL is PDL" and "USL is USL" argument where it's separate, but at that level of analysis then pretty much every league is. At that point every HFA division would be a kingdom of its own, too, probably. To me it belies the very basic connection between the two from the beginning. The II team argument is similarly misleading. There was a MLS pipeline through the PDL when the structure was either no reserves or a reserve team integrated in the first team roster. The II teams are USL not PDL, and a limited number of MLS and USL teams have U-23s in PDL. The Dynamo just started theirs. So while it may eventually be the future that USL is dominated by MLS II teams and PDL is dominated by their youth squads, the second part is really not yet true. I might buy that PDL players can be people whose HGP rights are controlled but have not signed a deal yet. But we know from Ibeagha and others that in that situation they can actually sign their first pro deal abroad. And then there is a long history of players whose rights aren't dibs-ed coming through PDL as the league of choice for offseason uncommitted college players. Even supposedly unfancied Geoff Cameron was playing PDL for a Rhode Island team. Like a future pro baseball player playing summer league, it's just kind of what the collegians with aspirations do. But the last nail on the "MLS rights" argument is just look at the annual draft. Most of those players by definition are not dibs-ed or they don't hit the draft (I think there are limited exceptions like if you wait a team out all 4 college years). Start going down the draft list. Danladi, Ventura County. Robinson, FC Boston. etc. etc. NPSL was started 2003. They have been around a while and their track record is what it is. The suggestion that there is equality because some franchises move back and forth with PDL -- like Laredo now -- is in search of actual player production. I know there are some fly by night unaffiliated teams in both leagues, the sort who might pop up in either. But PDL has teams that have been around decades. Carolina Dynamo, etc. They also have U-23s for MLS and USL teams that are fairly reliably long term. In reality people look to PDL because that's where the bulk of the unaffiliated draftable high level college talent is. I am sure good people play in NPSL, too, but generally speaking the people already signed or about to be drafted will be in USL and PDL. Some of that is increasingly a control construct, that MLS-controlled players are pretty much going to be pyramid, but that doesn't explain the draft picks generally being USL/PDL too. That's just reality. Number of teams tells me nothing. NASL has very few. These other leagues have very many. MLS is in between. MLS is the best of them. The core of the small original A-League has some of the most successful teams in MLS. The fairly sizeable Old NASL imploded and any revivals of the brands are basically a function of intellectual property transfers as opposed to the team lasted this long (Cosmos, etc.). When people rip on MLS for the cap, schedule, etc., it's like what league has survived at this size with this payroll here for this long....you want to bring back NASL ideas? MLS at this point has a longer life span. I'm all for starting new teams and leagues if people want to, but I also pay heed to the reliable workhorses that get us here. If NPSL wants me to swoon over it build a competitive sporting mousetrap.
There was the Colorado Foxes vs. Atlanta Rukus matches on late night cable for us soccer junkies to get our fix on circa Summer of 1995. That was old A-League action. We witness teams arriving like this in Katy and Laredo and where we are at now in 2017 with soccer development in our sports culture is tremendous.
Houston Hotshots indoor soccer played at the Summit arena during my childhood. Those were good times and great memories.
Being 18 that first season, I would get tickets to our Hotshots and take my lil brother to games there at our St. Summit of Immaculate Houston Coronation and we would both go stand behind the opposing team's goalie and have a shout for our boys! Thus began a Houston pro soccer tradition that is still alive to this very day with our Houston Dynamo in that there is the loud n proud section, having a shout that stands behind the goal at one end. 23 years and this concept is still a Houston soccer tradition! And yes Westie, those indoor games were fun! Would be cool to have a Winter League for indoor. All the MLS clubs with their own indoor teams.
Dutch Lions FC NPSL @HDLFCGamecast 4h4 hours ago Here is how the @NPSLSoccer Lone Star Conference shapes up for the 2018 season!! Welcome to @LaredoHeatSC and @Katy1895FC #NPSL #DLFC #GoLions
Calgary Flames to Houston??? http://calgarysun.com/sports/hockey/francis-150-million-more-reasons-for-flames-owners-to-sell
Houston 50-7 Seattle The attendance last night was about 5,300 which is great for rugby here in the U.S.
I went. It was a lot of fun. The turnout was great. We'll see how it goes. They have 10 more preseason games, basically every Saturday night, until the regular season starts in April. That will probably dampen the numbers. Hopefully it will go back up once the regular season starts.