CLUB HISTORY

The Villages SC is a PDL, Premier Development League, soccer club located in The Villages, FL.  The team was founded by Dr. Maen Hussein and Anderson DaSilva.

In 2008, we began as a youth club providing competitive and recreational soccer to youth players in our community. We have steadily grown our programs and in 2015, we held our first annual tournament, The Villages Cup, during the 3-day, Labor Day weekend.

In 2016, the addition of the PDL team to our club family was a realization of a dream. One that fits perfectly into our mission which has been and will continue to be to promote the growth of, and appreciation for, the game of soccer in an environment that promotes teamwork, sportsmanship, and mutual respect.

PDL (Premier Development League):  The top developmental men’s league in North America, the PDL features 73 teams within four conferences across the United States and Canada. The PDL season consists of 16 regular season matches for each team, eight home and eight away, and provides elite collegiate players the opportunity to taste a higher level of competition while maintaining their eligibility. In addition to league play, PDL teams compete in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup as well as various exhibitions. The PDL has proven to be an important stepping-stone for top professionals now playing throughout the world.

Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup:

Dating back to 1914, the U.S. Open Cup is the oldest cup competition in United States soccer and is among the oldest in the world. Open to all affiliated amateur and professional teams in the United States, the annual U.S. Open Cup is a 100-plus-year-old single-elimination tournament.

In a nutshell, the U.S. Open Cup is very similar to domestic cup competitions popular throughout Europe, South America and the rest of the world. Cup competitions, which usually run concurrent with a country’s league season, are open in the early stages to any club that qualifies, giving local amateur teams a chance to compete against the best teams a country has to offer.

In 1999, the U.S. Open Cup was renamed the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to honor the long-time soccer supporter and pioneer. Hunt, who died in 2006, was one of the sport’s first major ownership figures in the United States and is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.