Tight races mark USSF at halfway point

Tight races mark USSF at halfway point
January 28, 2009
A mid-season break down of the USSF Developmental Academy year two standings reveals some tight races in the works, but everything still to play for in most divisions.

The 74 teams at both U16 and U18 age groups are broken into nine divisions. The top three teams in each division will qualify for the June playoffs to be held in Greensboro, NC. The remaining five berths come from the best five fourth-place finishers. While the records of the first 27 are taken just from divisional play, the wild card positions are determined by the best points per game total in OVERALL play.

So while there are a number of games to go, there are some pretty likely playoff qualifiers already determined. A quick rundown of the U16 races:

Elite club soccer players compete.These teams from the Great Lakes region control their own destiny.
Central Conference

Frontier Division
St. Louis, Chicago, Denver and Milwaukee teams here, and most have just scratched the surface of divisional play.

Great Lakes Division
Detroit, Buffalo, Indianapolis and Ohio teams here. Vardar leads early but it’s way too early to determine anything.

Texas Division
FC Dallas leads Texas Rush with another round of intradivisional play to go. They look to be in good position but Andromeda, Rush, Solar, Texas FC and Dallas Texans will be battling for the other berths.

Eastern Conference

Mid Atlantic Division
All the heavies from New York to DC here, but only a few matches played thus far.

Northeast Division
Greg Davis, Orlando Castaneda, Anthony Flores and Justin Orden lead the BW Gottschee team against a host of opponents from New York and New England, but they’re just getting started.

Southern Conference

Atlantic Division

Matt Pacifici and South Charlotte SA lead in-state rivals North Meck and Greensboro early on, with clubs from Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina’s CASL trailing.

Southeast Division
Felipe Noguerol and Schulz Academy lead early over IMG, Birmingham United and Miami FC, with a trio of Georgia teams and Clearwater Chargers trailing.

West Conference

Northwest Division
Early days here as Washington Premier and Crossfire Premier look strong in this division.

SoCal Division
LA Galaxy, Real So Cal and Arsenal have the early speed in this division, but there’s a long way to go. Irvine Strikers looking good for a wild card if they can produce within the division.

Tomorrow: A rundown of the U18s.
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