Qualifications Continue in Mid Atlantic

Super Y-League News Release

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

TAMPA, Fla. - The Super Y-League announced today 12 clubs from the Mid Atlantic Division that have qualified for the 2012 North American Finals from December 7-11 at the world-class facilities of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.

Between today’s announced qualifiers and last week’s from the Mid Atlantic Division, more than a quarter of the allotted spots for the largest division in the Super Y-League have been won. The Keystone Athletic Grifos, New Jersey Stallions, Princeton Soccer Academy, and Westchester Flames each have two teams on their way to Florida.

Keystone Athletic Grifos’ U13 girls team won its group in the Mid Atlantic Division convincingly with a 7-3-0 record and 21 points, 14 more than the second-place team. Most of the U16 boys that have qualified for this year’s tournament were a part of the Grifos that reached the semifinals in the 2011 Finals. This year’s group will hope to advance further and claim a championship this year.

The New Jersey Stallions doubled their Finals qualifiers from 2011 with two this season, the U13 boys and U13 girls. The boys finished third in their division, while the girls finished second in Group A. The Stallions also just missed out on a few other qualifications that came down to the wire at the end of the 2012 Super Y-League season.

With a championship at the U15 boys’ level in 2011, Princeton Soccer Academy’s U16 boys finished an outstanding season with a division-best 9-1-0 record and are hungry for more silverware. The U14 girls also qualified for the Finals with a 6-1-2 record and a second-place finish in their division.

Following their team’s appearance at the Super-20 League Finals in Bradenton in July, the Westchester Flames have qualified their U14 and U15 boys for the chance of a trophy at the Super Y-League Finals. The Flames are one of five teams in both the U14 and U15 age groups to qualify from the Mid Atlantic Division.

The Brooklyn Knights’ sole representative at the Finals this year will be the U14 boys team that finished third in the division with an 8-2-2 record and qualified for last year’s tournament from a similarly-tough division as U13s.

The Central Jersey Spartans suffered a disappointing end at the 2011 Finals, in which the U13 boys squad lost the championship game. A new chapter will be written for the club from New Jersey, as the U12 boys have qualified for the Finals by finishing second in the division behind Parsippany SC.

Match Fit Chelsea also qualified its U12 boys this year. Match Fit lost three games during the 2012 season for a fourth-place finish in the Mid Atlantic Division.

National Soccer Academy’s U14 boys only lost one game and took the fourth spot in the division for a berth at the Finals this year.

New York Magic’s U16 girls, Quickstrike FC’s U16 girls, Soccer Plus Academy’s U16 boys, and Washington FC’s U12 boys also qualified for the 2012 Finals from some of the toughest divisions the Super Y-League has to offer.

In its 14th consecutive year, the SYL North American Finals has helped launched the careers of many notable U.S. soccer stars such as Jozy Altidore, Juan Agudelo and 2010 Gatorade National High School Player of the Year Mollie Pathman.

With 130 teams competing, the total daily attendance for December’s Super Y-League North American Finals is expected to exceed 15,000, and fill more than 7,000 hotel rooms in Manatee and Sarasota Counties. Earlier this year, IMG hosted the Super-20 Finals, the Super Y-League Olympic Development Program (ODP) National Camps for boys and girls, and the USL PRO Combine.

The world’s largest and most advanced multi-sport training and education complex, IMG Academy has already hosted a myriad of soccer team training camps in 2012, including clubs such as the Seattle Sounders, D.C. United, Columbus Crew, Sweden’s Malmö FF, as well as the U.S. Women’s National Team preparing for the London Olympic Games and the Antigua & Barbuda Men’s National Team preparing for World Cup qualifying. The Super-20 League North American Finals were also held in Bradenton from July 19-22.

Additional qualifying teams will be announced in the coming days.