Lower League Round-Up: Introduction

Starting next week, we’ll roll out a weekly results roundup of local lower league teams from Philadelphia and the surrounding region. It may be confusing with all the different men’s amateur leagues and teams around Philly, so this series will try to simplify things with one centralized location for a weekly recap and roundup of amateur soccer in the region. Individual match reports and feature stories may still exist outside of this series as well.

Let’s start by breaking things down for the different teams and leagues. Keep in mind, clubs can play in multiple different leagues simultaneously. I won’t get into where these leagues would fall on a hypothetical American soccer pyramid as the US soccer structure beyond tier 3 is technically unofficial. It would be nice if US soccer would actually define a pyramid but I’m not holding my breath for that. So let’s take a look at the different amateur leagues and teams playing the beautiful game in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. For simplicity sake, I usually refer to these leagues as “lower leagues”, as they are leagues that are lower on the hypothetical American soccer pyramid, with MLS being the top. So with that in mind, here are the local lower league soccer teams in the greater Philadelphia region:

Eastern Premier Soccer League (EPSL)
-Philadelphia Heritage SC
-Salone FC
-Philadelphia Soccer Club
-Inter Vidas
-Oaklyn United FC
-FC Neman Philadelphia
-Real Central NJ
-Kensington SC
-Albion SC Delaware

National Premier Soccer League (NPSL)
-Atlantic City FC
-Electric City Shock
-First State FC
-Hershey FC
-Jackson Lions
-Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals
-Philadelphia Union Development Squad
-PA Classics
-Torch FC
-West Chester United SC

United Premier Soccer League Premier (UPSL)
-Philadelphia Lone Star FC
-Lancaster Elite
-Pennsylvania Prime

United Premier Soccer League Division 1 (UPSL1)
-Alloy Soccer Club
-Philadelphia Lone Star FC II
-Pennsylvania Prime II
-Real Futbol Club

USL League 2 (USL2)
-Lehigh Valley United
-Philadelphia Lone Star FC
-Reading United
-Ocean City Nor’easters
-Real Central NJ
-West Chester United SC

United Soccer League of Pennsylvania (USLPA)
-United German Hungarians
-Colonial SC
-Vereinigung Erzgebirge
-West Chester United SC
-Phoenix SC
-Lancaster City FC
-Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals
-Lighthouse United

Can teams from different leagues play each other? Yup! There are two Eastern Pennsylvania state cups that take place each year, which usually begin in the fall, where teams of different leagues may compete against each other for state cup glory. Also, qualifying rounds for the US Open Cup will sometimes see teams from the different leagues match up against each other.

Philadelphia also has two other adult amateur soccer leagues that exist; CASA Soccer League and La Liga Pattison. With well over 100 individual teams combined, these two leagues won’t be included in the weekly recap. Also of note, this series will primarily focus on the men’s senior teams in the region. Tri-County Women’s Soccer League and USLPA are home to local lower league women’s teams and a few of the local women’s teams also play in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) as well. All that to say, the Philadelphia area has a thriving soccer community, and this series will look to capture just a piece of it.

So I hope you will check back each week for the local lower league roundup including match results and upcoming schedules. I always encourage people to go to these games or stream them live from home to support local soccer, which will help to grow the game.