We don’t always offer a reasoning on decisions, but because soccer fans are so goddamn passionate, we thought it would be a good idea to list some of the clubs we considered but eventually passed on. We don’t expect you to agree with our logic, in fact, we expect the opposite. But the twelve volunteer writers who make up Protagonist Soccer gave their input and we feel confident in our five finalists. So here’s the list of potential clubs we considered for Club of the Year and a brief explanation of our logic in why we didn’t select them. Enjoy!

- Dan Vaughn

Miami FC - Miami FC capped off a massive 2019 campaign with a rather unsurprising NPSL Championship. Soon after, the club originally announcing a move to NISA, then bought the rights to enter the USL Championship. They were the sixth club on our list, meaning they were the last eliminated, for club of the year. We wish them the best in the USL Championship, but that league is well outside of our coverage area. We decided to bump up another club instead.

Flint City Bucks - Flint City had a great run in USL League 2, winning the league championship. The club also won their third consecutive Hank Steinbrecher Cup, a USASA competition between amateur league champions. Both wins were impressive; however, we passed on Flint City for several reasons. 1. Our coverage of League 2 is shoddy at best. We’ve focused on NPSL, UPSL, NISA, and regionals. So picking a club we haven’t covered AT ALL and nominating it for club of the year seemed foolish. 2. The impact of Flint City on the game has been pretty minimal so far. And we really tried to bring impact into this year’s voting.

Forward Madison - This is the one that we battled over, but we have reasons. First of all, credit to the club, Madison’s roll out was about as good as you could have. Beautiful logo, kit was spot on, amazing social media, all the boxes are checked and x’ed. Absolutely perfect in every way. The only other club that was as good (in our opinion) was Oakland Roots and they made our nomination list. The club made the playoffs and finished that run in the semifinals. But in the end, we are a lower league soccer website, focused on grassroots soccer. I know some may see no difference between what Forward Madison has done versus Roots, but our staff does, and that difference was enough for us to pass on the flamingos. The lower leagues are complicated and navigating this gray area isn’t the easiest thing in the world.

Orange County Football Club - Biggest mark for this club was their amazing success in the Open Cup. They were the last amateur side standing, knocking out two USL Championship clubs, Orange County SC and Las Vegas Lights in the second and third rounds, before losing to an MLS side, LA Galaxy, 3-0. However, a disappointing 3rd place finish in their NPSL conference, which eliminated them from playoff competition, negated all the USOC success. We’re very excited about what’s going on with OCFC and can’t wait to see how they perform in 2020.

Providence City FC - Everyone knows the Rogues because of their spectacular branding, which they took a notch up in 2019, with the introduction of their Revival Brewing “shark kits.” Witty in their banter on social media, ever willing to troll but also encourage, PCFC is a model of a regional club doing things the right way. The club finished top of the table in 2019, with an impressive 10 point lead over second place. The Championship marked the crown of a massive promotion run that began in the third division three years ago. All of those positives made the club our top regional in the discussion, but, in the end, PCFC is a massive shark in a small pond. We’d love to see the club move into a national league, as they’ve established they are the best of the BSSL.