Five area teams still alive in U.S. Youth Soccer national championships

One team from the Philadelphia area is guaranteed a spot and three others will seek to advance to the finals for the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships in Overland Park, Kansas today.

The guarantee is because one of the 19U boys semifinals will feature a local derby between Lehigh Valley United and Lower Merion SC. The two teams last met in June when Lower Merion won the PA State Cup. The stakes will be much higher today as only one team can advance to play for a national championship on Sunday.

Both teams are stacked with current and future college talent. Lehigh Valley United has two current Lehigh University student athletes (Patrick Adams and Dawson Berger) and three incoming freshman (Euan Forrest, Dominic Flowers and Spencer Koski) while Lower Merion is led by incoming Penn freshman Alex Kades, Drexel recruit Philip Burckhardt, Holy Family recruit Sean Touey and Bucknell recruit Luke Smith.

The game is scheduled for 10 a.m. EST but unfortunately isn’t one of the games being streamed.

The lone girls team from the region still alive, the Wyomissing, Pa.-based FC Revolution, will play Boise Thorns Elite at 8 a.m. EST in the 17U girls division. The game will also not be streamed.

Two teams from the area will be part of semifinals in the 15U division.

Real Jersey FC will look to return to the final after falling short in the 14U division final last year. They’ll take on Downtown LVSC at 8 a.m. EST. in a game that is not being streamed. PA Dominion will play in the other semifinal against PPA KSA at 8 a.m. in one of the live streamed games of the day.