Men’s pre-professional soccer team launching in Worcester, roster to include Holy Cross athletes

A soccer player in a white uniform dribbles a ball at his feet while two defenders in black uniforms chase him

Photo | Courtesy of New England Futbol Club New England Futbol Club, a Mendon-based, not-for-profit youth soccer organization, is launching a men’s pre-professional soccer team which will start play this spring in Worcester.

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By Eric Casey

One year before the return of the men’s FIFA World Cup competition to the United States, a local soccer organization is launching a new pre-professional team, which will play home games in Worcester.

New England Futbol Club, a Mendon-based, not-for-profit youth soccer organization, is launching a men’s soccer team, which will start play this spring in USL League Two (USL2).

USL2 is a 144-team league meant to serve as a training ground for college-age players with professional dreams, similar to the opportunity provided by the Worcester Bravehearts in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

USL2 is part of the United Soccer League, an organization which runs three men’s leagues, two women’s leagues, and a youth league featuring more than 250 soccer clubs across the country.

“It was just the next evolution for our club,” said Jason Braga, vice president of NEFC. “This year we'll be doing the men's side, and the following year we'll be launching a women's side. We've been really successful up until about under-19, on the men's and the women's side, and then we've been hosting an under-23 program locally. It's just got to the point where we were ready to make the jump into a more competitive environment.”

NEFC plans on playing four of its five home games at Alumni Stadium on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a venue with a listed capacity of 2,000. One game will be played at Oliver Ames High School in Easton, closer to a large portion of NEFC’s youth membership.

Image | Courtesy of Google Earth

Alumni Stadium on the campus of WPI

The team will be known as New England FC and will play a schedule against other teams in the nine-team Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference. NEFC's first home game at WPI is scheduled to kick off on May 31 at 7:00 p.m. A full schedule can be found here.

The three other home games at WPI are scheduled for June 8, June 11, and June 14, while the Easton-hosted game is scheduled for June 21.

The league has playoffs, with the 2024 playoffs featuring a 32-team bracket.

Season tickets will be available for $75 and include a commemorative inaugural season T-shirt. Single game admission will be $15, with children six and younger getting in for free.

“New England Futbol Club is an example setter in the Northeast,” Joel Nash, senior vice president of youth and pre-professional properties at United Soccer League, said in a Nov. 24 press release announcing the launch of the team. “The club develops thousands of youth players each year, and we’re excited that League Two will give some of those players an opportunity to showcase themselves in an elite competition as they pursue professional careers.”

NEFC is in search of interns interested in a career in sports management to assist with operations. The team has already secured one uniform sponsor but is in search of another and additional corporate support, Braga said.

The team’s roster will be released on social media before the season starts, but it is set to include various NCAA-level players from college squads based in New England, including College of the Holy Cross, Boston College, Harvard University, UMass Amherst, and the University of Rhode Island.

NEFC will be led by Head Coach Jake Beverlin, who serves as the coach of the men’s team at UMass Boston.

Vermont Green FC, a Burlington-based team in a state devoid of professional sports teams, will play in the same division as NEFC. That team has had success in fostering a dedicated fanbase since the club’s founding in 2021, regularly attracting upwards of 2,000 fans. Some Vermont Green diehards even bring drums and flares to root on the team, attempting to create an atmosphere similar to soccer stadiums in Europe.

Another USL2 Northeast Division team, the Western Mass Pioneers, play their home games in the 3,000-capacity Lusitano Stadium in Agawam and have been in operation since 1998.

A crowd of people in stands watch a soccer game

Photo | Courtesy of Western Mass Pioneers

The Western Mass Pioneers regularly attract a few hundred fans to their games at Lusitano Stadium in Agawam.

For now, NEFC’s goals are more modest and focused on youth player development. The club’s goal is to attract a few hundred fans per game, with a major reason behind the launch of the squad being its ability to serve as inspiration for the organization’s 6,000+ youth players in their regional system, which stretches from Maine to Rhode Island.

“Western Mass Pioneers have been around for a long time, and the Vermont guys are kind of setting the standard for USL2 across the country,” Braga said. “I'd love to get to that point, but I think our goal is a few hundred fans per game in year one. We’re really trying to emphasize our own kids seeing the potential pathway within NEFC.”

NEFC will join Fitchburg’s Lightning Stars FC and Worcester’s Unations FC, New England Combine FC, and Worcester Warriors FC, four teams playing in the United Premier Soccer League, as other Central Massachusetts men’s squads playing in amateur leagues with a national footprint.

Worcester Fuel FC, a women’s team playing in the pre-pro United Women's Soccer league, also plays in a league which operates nationally.

USL2 is arguably the country’s top amateur-level soccer league and has proven to be a potential path to the professional ranks, with 70% percent of all selections in the MLS SuperDraft since 2010 having experience in the league, according to USL’s website.

USL’s two other men’s leagues, USL Championship and USL League One, are professional-level leagues serving as second-tier and third-tier leagues respectively in the United States soccer pyramid. Unlike most other soccer-playing nations, teams aren’t promoted or relegated from tier-to-tier in the United States Soccer Federation system.

Worcester has been left sitting on the sidelines as a number of other New England cities have announced professional men’s or women’s teams since 2020.

The New England Revolution of the top-tier Major League Soccer (MLS) play at Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium, which is set to be the site of seven World Cup games next summer.

Portland Hearts of Pine, a Maine-based team in USL League One, is playing its first season this year at the 6,000-capacity Fitzpatrick Stadium, while Rhode Island F.C., a USL Championship team, is set to play its second year of existence at the new 10,500-seat Tidewater Stadium in Pawtucket. Fellow USL Championship team Hartford Athletic has played at the 10,000-seat Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford, Connecticut since 2019.

The United Soccer League system has grown with six pro and over 25 pre-pro teams set to join its ranks in 2025. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, USL has largely focused its professional-level growth on midsized cities and other smaller markets previously ignored by the top-tier MLS.

USL launched a top-tier women’s professional league called the USL Super League in 2024 and announced plans on Thursday to launch a men’s league in 2027 that will aim to have the same Division One USSF status as MLS, according to The Guardian.

MLS launched a minor league system of its own called MLS Next Pro in 2022 and has plans for a team and a stadium in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been updated to include details of NEFC's home schedule.

Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.