Met Oval’s place in youth soccer is historic, and it came close to being extinct.

Over the past few years, the New York City club has struggled to establish its footing in the crowded arena of youth soccer in the United States. Two individuals have set out to change that.

Jeffrey Saunders and Paul Buckle are the new men in charge of New York City’s only club that owns its own facility, which was originally built in 1925.

“My goal is to make Met Oval the very best it can be,” Buckle told TopDrawerSoccer.com last week. “The first thing we are doing is making it feel professional. There are standards – high standards – that we have here.”

Buckle was officially announced as the new technical director at the club on Nov. 3. The former Torquay United manager had been on the job for a short period before that as he got his feet wet with the New York club soccer scene.

“I think the biggest challenge is to keep working hard to make Met Oval the best it can be,” Buckle said. “The biggest thing for me is to get it right. Jeff [Saunders] is highly ambitious and so am I.”

Buckle, an experienced coach with a UEFA Pro License, steps into a situation where the club has recently been demoted within the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, the top league for boys club soccer in the United States. Originally, Met Oval was a full member of the Academy with the teams in the U15/16 and U17/18 age groups. However, U.S. Soccer took away Met Oval’s place in those age groups and made the club only a part of the new U13/14 age group.

“We only have the U14 team for a reason,” Buckle said. “The people before didn’t do a great job. Jeff worked tirelessly to get this ship up and running. I think we have made great strides with the Federation. Our reputation is coming back – slowly and surely.”

Saunders had similar sentiments to convey about the path back to prominence in the elite club soccer league.

“We plan to work our way back to the full Academy status,” Saunders said. “We are in constant contact with the Federation and they have contingencies for us to reach.

“The goal is to get back to full status,” he continued. “It is something we think about day-to-day. If we do it right, it is a byproduct of quality training and curriculum.”

Saunders’ determination to turn the club around is what helped lure the English coach into the technical director position – well, that a bit of a good luck. With a promising managerial career in England, Buckle looked to be on the rise among the ranks for young managers on the touchline.

When NBC landed the television rights to the Barclays Premier League, the path shifted for Buckle and his family. NBC Sports hired Buckle’s then fiancée, Rebecca Lowe, to headline the coverage of the BPL.

“My wife and I have always been supportive of each other’s careers and I knew this was a big opportunity for her with NBC so I made the move with her,” he said.

The couple was married in July, and Saunders did not wait long before trying to land the new U.S. resident.

“I was sneaking away to call Jeff [Saunders] while I was on my honeymoon,” Buckle added with a laugh.

The quick bond between the two has made the transition relatively easy for Buckle.

“Jeff [Saunders] deserves all the pats on the back,” Buckle said. “The framework is there – it just needs some direction. He needed to know that he could trust someone to give some order.”

There is a reason to trust Buckle - he is experienced on the field and charismatic off of it, the ideal blend for a technical director looking to change the perception of his club.

A lengthy career in the game shaped his ideals for what he wants to accomplish in New York – after all, Buckle and Saunders are quick to refer to Met Oval as a Center of Excellence rather than an academy. Both use the comparison to European institutions rather than any domestic counterpart.

“The biggest thing I’ve seen in developing players if you can get in with the golden years, you can make a big difference,” Buckle said. “It’s not all about the on-field stuff as well, they need personal skills too. It is really important steering them in the right direction from an early age. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good you are technically, if you are lazy you aren’t going far.”

Saunders and Buckle aspire to be the best in the Big Apple.

“Right now, it is about creating the environment where the kids develop to the best of their ability,” Saunders said. “We want to be the place where players in New York want to come to.”

“The most important people in all of this are the New York kids,” Buckle added. “We want to give them a safe and healthy place for their training.”