When making a list of places at the American soccer vanguard, would you ever consider Pennsylvania’s capital city?
You might be about to.
Harrisburg’s USL team is in the midst of a revolution that aims to produce a new kind of player development pathway.
In mid-November, Colorado-based Rush Soccer joined forces with the City Islanders, a team that was the Union’s minor-league affiliate from 2010-15. Rush has 84 youth soccer teams across America and other countries, including Brazil, and more than 50,000 players.
Rush rebranded the City Islanders as Penn FC, and turned Harrisburg into the end point of a funnel for its top domestic youth prospects.