Event Preview: League Cup Semis & Finals @ NorCal’s Spring College Showcase
Next month at the NorCal Spring College Showcase, the inaugural edition of the NorCal League Cup will conclude as teams participate in semifinal and final matches throughout the course of the weekend.
Founded this season to give teams from different leagues an opportunity to play competitive matches against each other, the League Cup sees teams from NorCal’s NPL and ECNL RL compete against teams from the ECNL and MLS Next in a knockout style competition.
“The cross-competition play has been enjoyable and the results stand for themselves for how competitive each of these divisions are against each other,” said NorCal ECNL RL Coordinator Kelcey Chaidez. “There are good teams in every league–anyone can truly beat anyone on a given day. We’ve loved giving these teams the opportunity to finally compete against those from other leagues.”
The event began all the way back in August with two group stage matches before teams were scheduled to play their third group stage match as well as the quarterfinals during the NorCal Fall College Showcase.
Due to inclement weather, only the girls were able to go on as planned, however the boys continued those rounds at a makeup date earlier this spring, meaning that there are just four teams left in each division ahead of the May 16 and 17 showcase at Davis Legacy Soccer Complex.
While each division began with 24 teams, there are just 32 teams overall remaining, and 25 different clubs represented among those teams.
Just three clubs still have multiple teams left in the League Cup–Folsom Lake Surf lead the way with four, while South Valley United and Walnut Creek Surf each have three squads alive.
“The sheer number of clubs left from all the different divisions shows how wide open this competition is,” Chaidez said.
Though there are only three matches left in each division, each team who participated in the League Cup earned an invitation to both the fall and spring showcases, with NorCal scheduling friendly matches for teams who have been eliminated.
Overall, with one weekend of play left, the feedback surrounding the first-ever League Cup has been positive.
“We’ve sent out surveys to our member clubs and from them we’ve learned a few things about how we can tweak the competition to make it even more competitive and potentially focus on certain areas,” Chaidez said. “However, this year was a great starting point. There’s room for growth, but there’s also a big desire from our members to keep this competition going for the foreseeable future.”
For more information on the League Cup, click here.
