Boston City FC

2018 was a seachange for Boston City FC. After two seasons of making the playoffs, the club would move down the standings, finishing ninth in an eleven team conference. For the Lions it was a massive fall off from their record of success. According to club official, Michael Preston, it’s not something that was lost on them. “The honeymoon period from a very successful 2016 and 2017 was clearly over and we had got away from some of the ideals first set out by the club. A change in head coach and a new influx of players will right the ship.” With new leadership and players, the club has set a conference championship as their goal. That would be a first for the Lions. Returning to the club this season is team captain Gabriel De Souza and his central defensive partner Marcelo Cunha. Also returning is Ironsides Crew (the club’s supporters group) Player of the Year Goalkeeper Jacob Wagmeister. Wagmeister had spent the beginning of last season on the bench, but was called into duty in the second half of the season and excelled in the opportunity. That backline will have to improve from last season if Boston plans to move up the table. A rivalry match circled on the calendar for Boston FC is Kingston Stockade, who closed out the 2018 with a convincing win 5-1 over the Lions. Payback can be a big motivator!

Big changes are in the works for Boston City FC. According to the club, a new home field is about to be announced. Paired with that big news is an impending announcement of a new head coach for the club. Those changes are sure to set a new tone for the club and inspire the team to climb the table in 2019.

Brooklyn Italians

Faouzi Taieb is a standout for club and college. Image courtesy of Top Drawer Soccer.

Few clubs in the NPSL can claim the pedigree of the Brooklyn Italians have. The club was originally founded by Italian immigrants in 1949 in the Metropolitan Soccer League. Over the next 60 years, the club would play in several leagues, under multiple iterations of their name. During that era, they would also chalk up two US Open Cup Championships in 1979 and 1991. However, it wasn’t until 2010 that the club joined the NPSL and began it’s current run of success. Italians has qualified for the playoffs six out of nine seasons in the league. That track record of consistent excellence has also paid off in the US Open Cup, where the club has qualified for the competition seven of those nine seasons.

Being good has brought some rivalries into play, the biggest of which is with N.Y. Cosmos. Last season Brooklyn beat the Cosmos in the U.S. Open Cup 3-2, but Cosmos returned the favor in the NPSL Conference Final, beating Brooklyn in a close match that went to penalties. The loss in the Conference Final was especially tough for the club, because they felt capable of advancing further in the national playoffs. With the bitter taste of disappointment in their mouths, they come into 2019 committed to being “ruthless when we have the chance to finish teams off and close out games.” With just over half the club returning, that lesson should be front and center for the players. Those players will be lead by returning player, Faouzi Taieb, last year’s captain and an accomplished college player from UCSB.

Greater Lowell Rough Diamonds

Established in 2016, Greater Lowell NPSL FC decided to rebrand over the offseason. The new name, Rough Diamonds, references the developing talent the club aims to polish. With a new name, 2019 is a great chance to start a new winning tradition.

The Rough Diamonds finished the 2018 NPSL regular season just below mid-table, 4-6. That was good enough for a seventh place finish in the eleven team conference. GM Cooper Hall saw the positives from that finish - “Last season was a huge step in the right direction for us. Although the end of season standings may not show it, we had a real opportunity to extend our season into the postseason.” And viewed from a multi-season perspective, it was a step up from 2017, as the club doubled their win total and moved out of last position in the conference.

For Greater Lowell, the matches against Kingston, Hartford City, and Rhode Island are the big ones. And grabbing wins against those clubs certainly will certainly set the Rough Diamonds up for success against the more well-known members of the conference. Returning for 2019 is defender Patrick Hamilton, who has been with the club since day one. With his veteran leadership, the club expects to improve and qualify for the playoffs. The club motto is “Training and Character” and the improvement year over year is a sure sign that the club’s hard work is beginning to pay off. With an overhaul of the coaching and addition of more support staff, the trajectory should continue towards improvement.

Hartford City FC

When we spoke with Director of Football, Nick Balistierri about what he learning from his club’s 2018 campaign, he summed it up like this “Last year we learned it takes a deep bench, a motivated squad and dedication towards accountability to make it through the season. Like everyone injuries happen, suspensions happen, people come and go, but you have to deal with it. The resilient teams who can adapt continue playing through the summer.” That resilience has powered Hartford into the playoffs the last two seasons, but the club has yet to earn a home playoff game. That fact certainly sticks with Balistierri as a reason they’ve failed to achieve more success in the postseason - “A few mistakes cost us matches and points, those points could have turned into a home playoff match.”

Rashawn Dally transitioned to MLS (FC Cincinnati) after one season with Hartford. Image courtesy of NPSL.

The Colts, nicknamed after several elements of their emblem, are a strong competitor in their conference. Their goal for 2019 is to win the conference and spark a deep run in the national playoffs and with half the team returning, that goal isn’t that unlikely. That experience will play a key role in their hopes of returning to the top of the table. Led by 2018 East Region Goalkeeper of the Year, Hami Kara, and Andre Morrison, a center back who was drafted in the 2018 MLS SuperDraft, the defense should be backbone of success for Hartford. The match circled on the calendar for the club is Brooklyn Italians. The final loss of the season came against them, in the playoffs, but Hartford was short many of their starting players. Revenge is on their minds.

Kingston Stockade

Even if you haven’t followed NPSL, you’ve probably heard of Dennis Crowley, cofounder of Foursquare and Dodgeball. He’s also the chairman of Kingston Stockade and an outspoken leader in the lower league community. His eye for design is all over the club’s aesthetic. The slick look of their kits and crest, however, doesn’t win games on the field. After a fantastic 2017 campaign that saw Kingston win the conference and proceed to the regional semifinal in the NPSL National Playoffs, 2018 would be less successful. Stockade finished 8th in the conference, with only three wins to show for their effort. Technical Director for the club, Dan Hoffay, pointed out two issues to explain the club’s poor showing - “injuries derailed a very talented team...depth is a major factor when playing in USOC and league season.”

Going into 2019, the club hopes to see Pedro Espindola return to form. After scoring eleven goals in their successful 2017 campaign, Espindola was bitten by the injury bug all of 2018. Matched with Afonso Pinheiro, with USL/PDL experience, Kingston is convinced their offensive production will outshine their 2018 effort. Certainly the club will achieve a higher finish than last year, but, with so many talented clubs, 2019 should be a bitter fight in the North Atlantic Conference.

New York Athletic Club

The New York Athletic Club was founded in 1868 and has been a training ground for Olympic athletes that goes back to 1896. The list of athletes who have trained at NYAC reads like a who’s who of American Olympic sports. Along with the names you know, the Club also serves many who simply want to get in shape. From this bastion of fitness and athletic achievement, sprang the New York Athletic Club soccer teams.

NYAC has two soccer teams, both men’s and women’s, though the women’s team has had a much greater run of success. But maybe the men’s side is showing signs of life. The club climbed from last place in 2017, to a very respectable sixth place finish in 2018, more than tripling their number of wins. Will that lead to better results this season, hard to tell.

New York Cosmos B

If there’s a club in this preview that everyone has heard of, it’s the Cosmos. The brand is soccer royalty in this country. From Pele and the roaring NASL years in the 1970s to the reboot in 2012 to the purchase of the club by outspoken chairman Rocco Commisso, the Cosmos are the example of non-MLS success and have many fans because of that fact. Cosmos B came to NPSL in 2015 and kicked it off by going undefeated and winning the National Championship. Since then, the club has consistently achieved success, winning 2 more conference titles, including 2018. However, since their first title, Cosmos B has struggled to return to the Championship.

2019 will see a strong squad returning to the field for the club. Bledi Bardic, the club’s leading scorer in 2018, is returning for 2019 and will be joined by returning team captain, Danny Szetela. Adding to the existing talent, Cosmos B added International talent Ricardo Bocanegra. The talented midfielder is a product of Liga MX club Atlas. He also played with the Mexican U23 side. These players will be led by the returning NPSL Coach of the Year, Carlos Mendes. There’s every reason to assume Cosmos will be near the top of the table this season.

Ricardo Bocanegra comes to New York with a hefty resume. Image courtesy of Vavel.com.

The only speedbump for New York may be the upcoming Founders Cup. Just over the horizon, it may be a distraction for the team during the 2019 NPSL regular season. On the other hand, the club could use this regular season as a tune up opportunity, heading into Founders Cup ready to compete. What is definitely clear is that Cosmos B are a strong, experienced side which are sure to threaten the rest of the conference.

Rhode Island Reds FC

Rhode Island came so close to making the conference playoffs last year, finishing a single win from qualifying. This is a position the club has found itself the last 3 seasons, the last club standing of those who didn’t qualify for postseason play. While it might be easy to see that as a negative, it’s also a sure sign that the Reds have been consistently effective at putting together great rosters year over year. One of the highlights of those strong rosters is the versatility of the player pool. Club President Ruben Paz offered an example of that versatility - “Derek Blanchette, who we normally play in an attacking role, makes a great defender. We had a shortage at the position for our match against Lowell Rough Diamonds and he fit the role perfectly. He played much like Andy Robertson from Liverpool, always hustling down an attacker, coming up to aid in the attack, just everything you could want out of a defender and more. I think its something that ultimately lead to us winning that match last year. I always try and look at the positive things and that is major positive along with others to take into this upcoming season and be able to build on.”

Moving out of the regular season into the postseason is a big hurdle for the club, but with 85-90% of the roster returning, lessons learned from past seasons may be what’s needed to make the leap. Issac Addai Nani, a former conference leader in scoring, and Stavros Zarokostas, who helped lead his college side, URI, to a NCAA A10 Conference Championship last year, return to lead the Reds in 2019.

Paz stressed that the leadership don’t necessarily see the Reds as a club, but as a family. “At the end of the day, we're a Family. Kabba [Joof], the chairman, has done a great job conveying this fact to everyone who plays for this team. Yes, the soccer and the product on the pitch is important, but it more about building our community around us. The best way to describe the reds is like your best friends mom. The one who always has the door open and has a seat her table for you. Regardless if her child is home. You know at any point you can go over your friend's house and their mom will make you a sandwich no questions asked. That's the Reds, we've had players leave us and come back and for the most part, they'll always be embraced with open arms.”

Photos courtesy of club social media and Protagonist Soccer, unless otherwise mentioned. Custom art designed by Laura Mills. Previews written by Dan Vaughn with input from David Baker and Joshua Duder.

Atlantic City FC

Atlantic City FC had a big launch of its club with a lot of fanfare surrounding the launch of its crest and kits when the club was announced prior to the 2018 season. The Aces began what was a tough learning experience in their first NPSL season that ended with the club just below the playoff spots despite some very difficult challenges they were forced to overcome.

The Aces began their season extremely strongly and looked to be competing for a conference title when they were struck with several injuries to key players and suffered three straight 1-0 losses. With that tough stretch putting them on the back foot, ACFC was unable to bounce back and qualify for the playoffs in an extremely competitive conference. It only finished four points behind rivals FC Monmouth who qualified on the last day of the season. The season was fruitful nonetheless for the club as it learned lessons about the administration and logistics of a club and is positioned as well as anyone for a challenge in 2019.

The next season for ACFC will likely lead to a new home as the club looks to move away from Stockton University and into Atlantic City proper. Talks are ongoing with the city to move the club to Surf Stadium, a former minor league baseball stadium. This aligns with the team’s goals of establishing a youth program in the city and surrounding area and giving kids the opportunity to develop through the ranks of the club. Between developing the club at large and returning fifteen players to the men’s team, the club seems poised to seriously compete for the conference title. It has also pulled off a bit of a coup, grabbing David Nigro, scorer of the goal that took FC Motown to the National Final. That is some kind of coup to pull off within the conference. If they can stay healthy, the Aces will be serious contenders in the NPSL in 2019.

Surf Stadium. Image courtesy of Press of Atlantic City.

Electric City Shock

The Electric City Shock, based in the hometown of Dunder Mifflin’s Michael Scott, had a difficult season in the NPSL. It was slow to adjust to the new-look division and won just one of its ten games. This was not supposed to happen. The year prior, it was a playoff team and the next steps were supposed to be forward. Unfortunately, this season became a solid step back.

The challenge that the club faces now is in a conference that is becoming increasingly competitive. How does it keep the pace? The benefit that Electric City has is geographic dispersion from its competitors. This may lead to some slightly lengthy travel but it also provides the opportunity to build a foundation of solid players from its area without much threat of having them poached by teams nearby.

The improvement needs to take quickly though, as the clubs at the top get more ambitious and raise their profiles, it will be harder and harder to keep the pace. Improvements need to be made at both ends of the pitch, with just 8 goals scored and 35 conceded last season. This could be another long campaign for ECS if things do not improve quickly.

FC Monmouth

There are not many teams in the United States that can claim to play in a facility named for someone quite as cool as FC Monmouth. Its home is Count Basie Park in Red Bank, NJ and the outfit from an area known for producing musicians will be looking to make sweet soccer music of its own in the 2019 NPSL season.

FC Monmouth, also referred to as the Raptors, enjoyed a successful season in the Keystone Conference last season, finishing fourth and just qualifying for the conference playoffs by defeating local rivals NJ Copa FC on the final day of the regular season. Several players distinguished themselves, but defender Thomas Judge, midfielder George Akampeke, and forward Jordan Saling were named to the Conference’s Best XI (with Judge also earning NPSL Best XI honors). Securing six wins on the way, FC Monmouth gained its league position through imperious home form, drawing just one of the five matches at Count Basie Park while winning the rest. The club’s attendance of around five hundred fans per game and its supporters group, The 732, were instrumental pieces in creating an atmosphere that was difficult for teams to perform in and the record at home more than speaks for itself. The away form is the only question mark from last season, as two wins away from home was not enough to push Monmouth into the upper reaches of the conference. Despite the overall tough form away from home, Monmouth’s best win of the season was arguably a 3-1 triumph over NJ Copa in Metuchen, NJ.

In the playoffs, Monmouth’s stay was short as it came up against regular season conference champions and eventual playoff champions, FC Motown. It was always a challenge having to go away from home to the best team in the conference, and it proved to be too much for the Raptors, as they fell to Motown 4-1. The disappointment of the postseason exit has since given way to pure optimism now for 2019. Obviously on the field the playoffs are the goal, but the development off the field is important to the club as well. Its motto, “We Are Monmouth,” demonstrates what it hopes to achieve this next season. It wants to double the amount of fans at the games and connect more with the community. The goals are admirable and the potential is palpable. Monmouth’s potential for 2019 basically depends on maintaining home form and improving the form away from home. With the community behind them, the Raptors will have a lot of potential to push for the Conference Championship.

FC Motown

FC Motown (formerly known as Clarkstown SC Eagles), based in Morristown, NJ, had a landmark season in the NPSL last season as it stormed the Keystone Conference, suffering just one loss at the hands of West Chester United en route to a regular season conference championship and a berth in the playoffs as the top seed. It dispatched FC Monmouth quite comfortably in the first round of the playoffs, led by former MLS attacker Dilly Duka. West Chester United proved a stern test again for Motown though and it took penalties to send the New Jersey club to the Northeast Region Semifinal. There, a double from Daryl Kavanagh helped Motown to a solid 3-0 win over FC Baltimore, before a Dilly Duka penalty proved enough to hold off the stiffest competition- and favorites to win the national title, NY Cosmos B -to 3-2. It was no surprise after such a performance; you would be forgiven for thinking Motown would walk over FCM Portland in the national semifinal. But the Oregon club was a tough but to crack for Motown, which needed extra time and a late David Nigro winner in added time at the end of the extra period to triumph 2-1. It was there that it ran out of magic, as a 35th minute equalizer from Duka in the national final against Miami FC 2 proved to be a mere consolation, with the South Florida former NASL club proving to have too much firepower.

The expectations for the upcoming season for Motown are exceptionally high, although the departure of Dilly Duka to play professionally in Albania and David Nigro joining Atlantic City FC will put a slight dent in its title aspirations. Despite a plus 35 goal differential in the division, averaging 4 goals a game and allowing just 5 the whole season, the brief campaign meant it only finished 3 points ahead of Junior Lone Star in second. There is no margin for error in the current format and the expectation is that the rest of the conference has improved. There is absolutely no time for sentimentality over the run from last season and the Celtics will need to bounce right back with the same quality and intensity we saw take them to the national final last season.

Hershey FC

Hershey, PA is famous for chocolate (and more recently Christian Pulisic) but Hershey Soccer Club has been a fixture in youth soccer in the area for over thirty years. The commitment of the club to the development of young players in the area led to it establishing a senior team at the top level of its youth structure known as Hershey FC. The club is entering its sixth season in the NPSL and will be looking to improve on last season’s return.

The club claimed just two victories and a draw in the Keystone Conference last season, but the gap between it and a playoff spot is perhaps not as wide as the record would suggest. It suffered a couple big defeats, no doubt, but it gave extremely tough games to FC Monmouth and Junior Lone Star and kept most other games respectable against the big sides in the conference.

It will no doubt take a big improvement to push for that fourth place finish, but it is not trailing as far as the bottom of the conference and with a short season could pull a big upset if it gets the right influx of young talent into the squad.

New Jersey Copa FC

New Jersey Copa FC of Metuchen, New Jersey has had an up and down couple of years. In 2017, it lost just once all season enroute to a regular season conference title and a conference playoff final appearance. The season was ended in that final with a 3-1 loss to FC Motown (then known as Clarkstown SC Eagles). Last season, it did not climb to the top of the pile and was scraping to make it back to the playoffs. Going into the last match of the season, it was level with FC Monmouth on sixteen points. The game would be played in Metuchen and the winner was headed to the playoffs. This was an extremely favorable situation for the reigning conference champion to advance from. However, as they say, some days you are the pigeon, some days you are the statue, and after a stunning opener from Monmouth, and not for lack of trying, NJ Copa ended up on the wrong end of a 3-1 result. There would be no playoffs and NJCFC would be left wanting.

Having playoff hopes ended on the final day of the season is a difficult blow for any club to take, luckily NJ Copa FC is not just any club. The Copa Academy has been around for fifteen years, providing playing opportunities to Metuchen’s men, women, and kids. NJ Copa FC was founded, like others in the conference, as the senior team as part of a larger club setup. This sets a solid base for the club to draw on and gives a goal to those traveling up through the club’s ranks.

This foundation could put NJCFC right back into contention for a conference title next season. Players like Captain Raphael Araujo provided the team with the spirit that it used to continue to compete to the final day. If things break differently on the final day next season, we could easily see NJCFC back in the postseason, competing for titles as it has since it joined the league in 2015.

Philadelphia Lone Star

There are seasons and eras for clubs that feel special; when the momentum that has been built by a club, both on the field and off it, feels like it is all peaking at the correct time to have the greatest impact. That is what the feeling at Philadelphia Lone Star FC is. Named for the “Lone Star” on the Liberian flag, the homeland of the club’s founders, the club finished second in the Keystone Conference last season, just three points behind national finalists FC Motown and with a fresh name to back its historic identity, the club is looking to build upon last season’s success. “Our goals are to win the NPSL Keystone Conference and go as far as possible in the NPSL Regionals and/or Nationals,” said Club President Paul Konneh III. They might just be able to do it, you know.

Lone Star is returning a large portion of its roster, including Keystone Conference XI defender Kouassi N’Guessan, forward and Captain Anthony Allison, and NPSL National XI midfielder Yaya Fane. Keeping this core intact is key to competing since so much roster turmoil is common across the amateur levels of soccer.

The first mark on the wall for those players will be the matches against West Chester United this season, who dispatched the Stars in the Keystone Conference playoffs on penalties following a 2-2 draw in which Lone Star finished with just ten men. This is a problem Paul intends to correct, “We lost the conference playoff semifinal against our rivals West Chester United due to indiscipline. We have to improve on that this season and avoid unnecessary red cards in crucial games.”

Philadelphia Lone Star will truly be Philadelphia’s amateur club, as it plays at the South Philadelphia Athletic Super Site, practically in the shadow of Citizen’s Bank Park and in a great location for those in the city limits to reach. The club will be pushing for a lot of success this season (and looking great doing it) and I think Philadelphia may want to stand up and take notice of this community-focused club.

Torch FC

Torch FC- representing Bucks and Montgomery Counties of PA -has been providing players in that area with soccer opportunities for ten years and will be entering its ninth season in the NPSL’s Keystone Conference. The club has had varied success across its seasons in the league, but last season will be one to forget for this long-running club.

It was the team at the bottom of the division, securing zero points while shipping fifty goals and scoring just eight. It also handed Electric City Shock its lone win of the season. The conference may have reached a point where the community club is not able to secure the level of talent required to truly compete. It will take a momentous turnaround for the club to be competitive and it will likely find the division even more competitive this year than the last. This is a hard-working club though, and the challenge is not something it will shrink from, just as it has not for the last ten seasons.

The club will return to the same home ground it has used for years, utilizing Palisades High School in Nockamixon Township and Dock Mennonite Academy in Towamencin Township. It will provide the same good opportunities for young players that it always has, and here’s hoping it experiences more success in doing so.

West Chester United SC

West Chester United SC is nothing if not consistent. Having finished in third place with 20 points in 2017, it finished third with 21 points in 2018. I am no scientist but my deductive reasoning leads me to believe it will finish third with 22 points this season. Prediction over.

Image courtesy of Brotherly Game (SB Nation site).

Seriously though, West Chester is part of Penn Fusion’s academy system. The infrastructure at Penn Fusion academy is extremely impressive, but the club on the field last season was able to impress as well, with West Chester upsetting Junior Lone Star on penalties in the playoff to earn a spot in the conference final against FC Motown. The club was able to push Dilly Duka and his band of merry Celtics all the way, finally succumbing to the eventual NPSL national finalists narrowly on penalties. Chas Wilson, scorer of West Chester’s sole goal in that match, will be leading this group to bounce back from the potential disappointment of challenging a top team only to come up short.

The club does seem poised to push on from its finish last season as it will be able to draw on a significant talent pool in the academy. Not to mention the potential motivation for players who, with a bit more luck, could have been into the regional playoffs past one of the best teams in the NPSL.

Photos courtesy of club social media and Protagonist Soccer, unless otherwise mentioned. Custom art designed by Laura Mills. Previews written by Phil Baki with input from David Baker, Joshua Duder, and Dan Vaughn.