The Northern Virginia Royals U16 Super Y-League team secured the South Atlantic Division championship this week, granting them an automatic berth into the United Soccer Leagues Youth North American Finals. The upstart U16 Royals cruised by a depleted Carolina Dynamo team 5-0 on Wednesday to win the division outright.
The U16 Royals have garnered a season record of 9-0-1 so far to lock in first place, but still face rematches with the Atlanta Fire United and Atlanta Silverbacks this weekend. The Fire and Silverbacks (third and fourth place, respectively) both remain eligible for advancement into the championship tournament as the South Atlantic retains two slots in the North American Finals. Triangle FC (6-4-1) currently has a tenuous hold on second place by points, but could be over-taken by either Atlanta club.
So far, the U16 Royals have scored 34 goals this season and only allowed 8 against them in ten games played. Their only blemish so far this season came at the hands of Alpharetta United, who battled Northern Virginia for a 2-2 draw.
The U16 Royals are preceded in 2008 post-season advancement by their older counterparts, the Super 20 Northern Virginia Royals who head to their own final tournament next weekend at Virginia Beach, VA. Northern Virginia still has several other Super Y-League teams in the hunt for spots in the finals. The U17 Royals and U17 Majestics need just a single win each to secure berths in the tournament, while the U15 Royals, U14 Royals, U16 Majestics, and U15 Majestics remain at the top of their divisions with more games to play.
The USL North American Finals will be held in Tampa, Florida, and is scheduled to run from November 21st through November 25th. A total of sixteen teams will clash at every age level in the boys Super Y-League’s U13-U17 divisions. On the girls side, twelve teams will meet from each of the five age divisions. The 2008 version of the Super Y-League finals is the greatest representative of elite youth talent in North America now that the league encompasses nine regions across the United States and Canada.
