2024/25 USL Super League

With a fall schedule out now, I figure it's time to spin off its own thread. It's happening. (Still TBD on the spring schedule, but that's certainly a ways out so far.)

https://www.uslsuperleague.com/league-schedule/
Somewhat uneven schedule until the final weekend. Poor FTL doesn't even get a home game until week 7. But each half-season will be a full home-and-away setup.

Apparel sponsor for the inaugural season and beyond is Capelli Sport, which I haven't heard of before, so not a big name in the business.
https://www.uslsuperleague.com/news...ces-long-term-partnership-with-capelli-sport/

https://www.uslsuperleague.com/news/2024/05/30/usl-super-league-player-signing-tracker/
Only five of the eight teams have signed any players yet, and none of them yet have more than nine players total. There are some interesting players here, including a fair number of lower-level rank-and-rile NWSL players, (lots of national team replacement contract players,) but only one or two upper-level rank-and-file players and no really "big" names:

CAR: Jill Aguilera, PUR NT 9c, NWSL CHI 28c/2y
CAR: Rylee Baisden, NWSL NC 12c/3y, 2 stints in AUS
CAR: Taylor Porter, NWSL POR 19c/3y, some UEFA clubs
CAR: Mia Corbin, CRC league golden boot 2022, since played in ITA and AUS
DAL: Amber Brooks, probably the second-"biggest" name in the league so far, over 12,000 NWSL minutes from over 160 games between five teams
FTL: Addie McCain, NWSL KC 25c/2y
SPK: Taylor Aylmer, 3 NWSL teams over 3y but only semi-significant minutes with WAS
TMP: Domi Richardson, longtime backup NWSL NJY player 42c/7y
TMP: Erica Tymrak, NWSL legend with FCKC, also long stints with UTA and ORL, "biggest" name in the league with even more games and minutes than Amber Brooks
TMP: Natasha Flint, ENG league player, 9 teams over 10+ years

Unless another team starts being aggressive & impressive with signings, I'm betting that either CAR or TMP will win the 2024/25 season

 

Definitely the biggest boon they've gotten yet. Leveraging the existing USL structure is the main reason they'll stick around, and it'll be the only way they could partially challenge NWSL.

 

Updates on player signings for this year:

Nothing much of note in the June 10-14 round-up, but last week's signings included some interesting pedigrees that included some actually-notable international clubs, which Chelsea, BK Hacken, Potsdam, and Duisburg mentioned.

 

I do like the large local flavor, but calling it "solid" depends highly on what you're comparing too.

 

New post from The Athletic about USL-SL:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5634170/2024/07/16/usl-super-league-nwsl-roster-rules/

Honestly if feels a bit like a puff piece to me, as they mostly just interviewed Vandervort and didn't add much analysis/critique to it. There's a lot of good info in there, but not a ton we haven't heard before. I do agree with V that there just aren't enough ProWoSo teams out there for the massive player pool the US has, but that's about the only thing I fully believe her on. She also says "oh, we're not competing with NWSL" - but other commentors point out that coming in at D2 instead of D1 would lower the barrier for entry and thus create more pro teams for players to join, so there has to be some competition there. So too she implies that salaries would be competitive with NWSL - which is direct competition as well - but to be fair, I kinda get the vibe from her that the "we're not competing" might actually be a subtle acknowledgment that they *aren't* going to be competitive in that sense.