Rebranded for the 2019 season, the USL Championship is home to 36 teams split across an Eastern Conference and Western Conference.
The league also serves as the second tier on America's soccer pyramid, one notch below Major League Soccer. Thus, there's an aspirational quality to the USL Championship's players, ones who are chasing dreams of playing at the highest level. It's also a prime development space for youngsters.
For the 2019 season, a number of players with ties to New England are worth keeping an eye out for.
To keep track of it all, New England Soccer Journal has assembled every USL Championship player who’s either from the region, went to college here, or attended a NEPSAC program. In all, nearly a dozen players are included within.
