USL News Release

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

TAMPA, FL – United Soccer Leagues (USL) announced today the Super Y-League (SYL) First and Second-11 Club rankings for the 2009 regular season, recognizing the league’s top clubs on a competitive and administrative basis. The top overall club in the SYL this season was the Northern Virginia Majestics/Royals, who scored an 81.80 to edge out the second-best club in the league, MPS Bulldogs/Renegades by .09 percent.

Mountain WFC won the boys rankings with a score of 86.78 and the Washington Freedom won the girls rankings with a score of 86.53. The scores will be readjusted based on the clubs performances at the annual SYL North American Finals, where all but one of the 38 clubs in the First or Second-11 Rankings will be competing for 10 championships up-for-grabs beginning Friday, November 20. The clubs will also be recognized during USL’s Annual General Meeting, the second half of USL’s SoccerFest, which is held in conjunction with the North American Finals in downtown Tampa.

Club Rankings [+]

The SYL launched the First and Second 11 Ranking System in 2005 with the top clubs ranked from 1-22 in three categories: overall, boys and girls. The extensive growth of the USL Super-20 League in the past three seasons has led to the inclusion of the Under-20 league in the ranking process. The rankings are based primarily upon the on-field results. Point percentage accounts for 70 percent of the score while minimum standards and operations complete the other 30 percent.

“The criteria used to rank these clubs is basic yet essential to the Super Y-League’s philosophy of providing a professionalized atmosphere for the top youth players in North America,” said USL Senior Director of Youth League Development, Jeff McRaney. “United Soccer Leagues wanted a way to recognize those clubs who consistently succeed not only on the field but off the field as well.”

The Northern Virginia Royals were an impressive 41-3-14 during the SYL Regular season. They finished fourth in the boys rankings with a score of 78.11. Their U14, U15 and U17 boys went undefeated, while their U13, U16 and Super-20 League teams each had just a single loss. All five of the club’s SYL teams will be present at the SYL North American Finals.

Northern Virginia’s girls, the Majestics were 36-10-4 this season, finishing fourth in the girls rankings with a score of 79.27. The Majestic’s U13, U14 and U16 girls will all compete for a North American Championship in Tampa.

Last season’s U16 boys North American Finals Champion, Mountain WFC completed a 36-6-6 season in the SYL this season. The club’s U15 boys went unbeaten this season, going 8-0-2 while their U13 boys had just one blemish on their 11-1-0 record.

The Washington Freedom again edged the Cleveland Internationals for the right to call themselves the best girls club in the SYL. Last season, the Freedom scored an 86.3 to top Cleveland by just 0.8 of a point. This time around the separation grew slightly to 3.03 percent as Cleveland earned a score of 83.50. Schulz Academy, was the only other club to score in the 80’s with a mark of 80.00.

The Washington Freedom, who is sending their U13, U14 and U16 girls to this season’s North American Finals finished the regular season with a club record of 46-7-5, incredibly, the Freedom ended the 2008 regular season with a record of 47-8-5. The lone Freedom team to go unbeaten was the club’s Super-20 Women, who 9-0-1 was heading into the North American Finals.