You may know me as one of the Knights Who Say NISA. This, however, is not another NISA piece. This is the start of a regular feature covering lower league soccer in New York, New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. Yes, that is a lot of ground. Let’s have some fun.

Cosmopolitan Soccer League

Welcome, welcome CSL!

The Cosmopolitan Soccer League is back and ready to go. Almost a century old, and never feeling more relevant. With CSL now part of the Eastern Premier Soccer League, there’s place to go up. And go up many did - nine of the ten Division 1 teams moved up to the Metropolitan Conference of the EPSL. This gave an opportunity for lower division teams to move up to Division 1, including Hoboken FC 1912 – the only charter member of the CSL that is still going.

For this 2020 -2021 season, Division 1 will have 12 clubs, Division 2 has 10 clubs, Division 3 will carry 22 clubs, and then the Metro Division will have 9 teams. Division 1 and 2 teams also have reserve teams playing in, well, Division 1 and Division 2 reserve leagues.

So here we go with the Division 1 schedule for the weekend:

Saturday, October 4th

NY Shamrock v Kelmendi FC NY, 12PM ET

Hoboken FC 1912 v Stal Mielec NY, 2PM ET

Real Ole FC v NY Greek Americans II, 4PM ET

Richmond County FC v Polonia SC, 9PM ET

Manhattan Celtic v Zum Schneider FC 03 II, 9:15PM ET

NESL Super League

The Super League is back this weekend with two games on Saturday. At the VE Clubhouse in Warminster, Pennsylvania, Christos FC makes the trip up to face Vereinigung Erzgebirge at 2:30PM. According to their social media, it’s going to be a party with music and food starting at 1PM. Only a $5 donation is being asked.

Later in the day, the action moves to Jersey as FC Motown host Safira FC from Massachusetts. All of these clubs will be chasing West Chester United, who beat Jackson Lions FC in the opening match and look to be a strong force in the league.

UPSL

UPSL’s American Division in the Northeast Conference is well underway, and only two teams are remaining without a loss. New York Contour United out on Long Island made if four games getting a result at the start of the season with a 2-0 home win over Santa Fe NY last Saturday. Keeping pace with New York Contour at the top of the table was Allentown United, winning 3-2 on the road this past Sunday against EFA Metro in Clifton, New Jersey. Both Allentown United and New York Contour. Tied at the top of the table with 10 points each, are scoring over three goals a game on average, way ahead of the rest of the division.

The other remaining undefeated club is Newark, New Jersey’s North Jersey Alliance. Last Sunday, it was North Jersey Alliance’s turn to beat up on newbie Bronx River FC 4-1. Bronx River is taking its lumps in its inaugural season in UPSL, having given up 15 goals in just four games.

The remaining games from the past weekend (home team listed first):

Saturday, September 26th

Westchester United FC 2 v New Jersey FC 2

Sunday, September 27th

Real New York FC 2 v Philadelphia Lone Star 3

The undefeated clubs face off this Saturday at 3PM ET as New York Contour cross the Hudson to face NJAFC. The rest of the schedule for the weekend looks like this:

Saturday, October 3rd

Philadelphia Lone Star v Bronx River FC, 6PM ET

FSA Pro v Real New York, 6PM ET

New Jersey FC v Astoria Knights FC, 7PM ET

EFA Metro v Santa Fe NY, 7PM

Allentown United v Westchester United FC, 7PM

Long Island Soccer Football League

Founded in 1948, the Long Island Soccer Football League (LISFL) kicked off the new season last weekend. In the Premier division of the LISFL, Port Jefferson and NY Irish Rovers got off to impressive starts. Port Jefferson opened at home and took care of Olympiacos NY 4-0, which NY Irish Rovers defeated NY Serbia on the road 5-1.

In the lower divisions, the Port Jefferson reserve side also opened with a victory, defeating Mineola Portuguese 4-2 in Division 1 play. Queens Calcio and South Jamaica Portuguese were standouts in Division 2’s opening games with solid victories. And Amigos FC was the big winner in Division 3, defeating Asteras GCC 2-0.

Here’s the slate of games happening in the Premier Division this weekend:

Sunday, October 4th

Glen Cove v Olympiacos NY, 10AM ET

Port Jefferson v NY Serbia, 12PM ET

NY Hota Bavarians v Forest Park, 3PM

NY Irish Rovers v Leros, 7PM

Garden State Soccer League

All the divisions were active this past weekend, and the goals were plentiful. In Super Division play, Bulldogs SC and Sportfriends Polonia SC led the way with an 11-goal outburst. Bulldogs had 7 of the 11 and the victory (insert Slurpee joke here). FC Motown opened their GSSL season in fine fashion with an impressive 6-2 win over Evolution SC from Newark. Clifton Elite also won going away in its first game, a 5-1 victory over North Jersey Alliance FC’s GSSL team. Interesting to note that this was Clifton Elite’s ‘2’ team, with the top team having now joined the EPSL as the representative of the New Jersey Soccer Association (NJSA).

The rest of the scores from last weekend went like this:

Friday, September 25th

Ironbound SC 3 v White Eagles SC 1

Saturday, September 26th

Vistula Garfield SC 2 v Sport Club Portug. 2

Sunday, September 27th

Ukranian Sitch SC 1 v Jackson Lions 3

FC Senegal NJ took care of Meadowlands FC in A North Division play with a 5-2 victory. In A Central Division action, it was Jersey Shore Boca Juniors and Empire United Legends with wins over FC Dynamo and Feelsgood FC, respectively (that can’t feel too good).

Goals, goals and still more goals came in abundance down in the B Divisions. Rahway FC edged Meadowlands FC Reserves 5-4 in B North Division, while Jersey Devils FC and Giresun Spor USA each scored seven times in their wins in B Central Division play.

Here are the weekend’s schedule of games in Super Division play:

Friday, October 2nd

Sport Club Portug. V Jackson Lions, 9PM ET

Saturday, October 3rd

Vistula Garfield SC v Ironbound SC, 8:15PM ET

Sunday, October 4th

White Eagles SC v Sportfriends Polonia SC, 12PM ET

Bulldogs SC v Clifton Elite FC 2, 6PM ET

Evolution SC v Ukranian Sitch SC, 8:30PM ET

GSSL’s Women A Division began play this past weekend, and the Jackson Lions FC Women made their debut with a 3-0 road win against NJ Wizards SC Forza. The men from Meadowlands FC went 0-2 last weekend, but the ladies pulled one back in the victory column with a 4-3 win over Hoboken FC 1912 Women.

This weekend’s schedule for the Women A Division goes like this:

Saturday, October 3rd

Jackson Lions FC Women v Peninsula Aztecs, 7:30PM ET

Sunday October 4th

Meadowlands FC Women v NJ Wizards SC Forza, 8PM ET

North Jersey Alliance FC Women v Hoboken FC 1912 Women, 8:15PM ET

CASA

Philly’s big amateur league is up and running, with this past week being the third week of the season. Perennial favorites FC Misconduct and South Philly United are looking once again to be dominant forces in the Primera Division. FC Misconduct rolled over FC Tigre 5-2, while South Philly United took care of YTP FC 4-1. The big score of the day came from Stoney United, dropping six goals on Philadelphia Heritage SC.

The Segunda Division saw its share of goals last week, with FC Robert Munich and Philly Striker Team Jamaica each tallied in seven goals in victories. SMK posted six goals against Barenjager in winning 6-1, and Hunting Park only managed to score five in a shutout win against Rum Ham FC.

Rose Tree Gunners and Upper Darby FC are both off to strong starts in Tercera Division, each winning their first three games. Rose Tree edged Berber United 3-2 last weekend, while Upper Darby blanked Rowan Soccer Club 3-0.

Here is the schedule for the weekend’s games in the Primera Division:

Saturday, October 3rd

South Philly United v FC Tigre, 8AM ET

Philadelphia Corinthians FC v Stoney United, 8:15AM ET

YTP FC v Philadelphia Heritage SC, 9:45AM ET

Icarus FC v FC Misconduct, 11:30AM ET

Vidas United v FC SouthHouse, 1:15PM ET

United Soccer League of Pennsylvania

Sixty years and still going strong, USL of PA played its third week of games this past weekend. And speaking of strong, Colonia SC put on the strongest goal-scoring display of the weekend, putting a 10-spot on Danubia to eke out a 10-1 win. As impressive is that is, it puts Colonia SC only mid-table in the Mens Major Division. West Chester and United German Hungarians are off and running, with three wins in three matches each. West Chester is doing it with offense, leading the league with 15 goals including four in its 4-2 win over Vereinigung Erzgebirge Majors. United German Hungarians are being defensive-minded, having posted three clean sheets after beating Phoenix Majors 1-0.

Even in Mens Major II the goals keep on coming for West Chester. Last weekend the reserve team took out Vereinigung Erzgebirge’s reserve team 8-2. The reserve side for West Chester is already looking like a team that can run away and hide from the rest of the division. Three straight wins to start the season and a goal differential of +15. Yes, that does mean that the club has a winning margin average of five goals. A game. Yowza.

Here’s the Men’s Major schedule for the weekend:

Sunday, October 4th

Lancaster City FC v United German Hungarians, 2:30PM ET

Ukranian Nationals Majors v Danubia, 6PM ET

Tuesday, October 6th

West Chester Predators v Colonial SC, 8:30PM ET

In Womens Major action, the beat downs were handed out everywhere last week. United German Hungarians led the way with a 7-0 win over Warminster SC. Lancaster City FC showed no mercy against Philadelphia Flames SC with a 7-1 result. And Danubia kept pace with a 4-1 victory over Lower South. And to the surprise of no one, guess which three teams are at the top of the table? To give you an idea of how dominant these clubs have been so far, they have scored a combined 32 goals and have given up just 6.

Just one game on the docket for this weekend:

Sunday, October 4th

Lancaster City FC v United German Hungarians, 12PM ET

John Howard-Fusco