Welcome to our 2021 NISA Independent Cup coverage! We’re so excited to really focus on what we consider to be one of the most important soccer competitions going on in the country today. I know a lot of NISA fans are enjoying the holiday today (or a Championship if you’re from Detroit!), but I wanted to take a second and preview what we plan to deliver over the next 4 weeks.

Regional Previews

Because of the open nature of the Independent Cup, there’s a lot of teams that might be off the radar for you. We want to offer previews for every region, giving you context for who these clubs are, the leagues they play in, the makeup of their rosters, and what you might expect from them in the competition. Having a more complete understanding of the competition helps do all the competitors justice and allows viewers to better enjoy this fun and exciting competition.

Podcasting Blitz

If you follow Protagonist Soccer, you know we really love podcasting. Expect to hear a lot about the Independent Cup on all of our shows including, Knights Who Say NISA, The Protagonist Weekly, and Sight Lines. We firmly believe that driving the discussion around this competition will only contribute to its growth and success. Given what has happened with the Open Cup, one our most beloved traditions in American soccer, our staff believes the Independent Cup is even more important. Where else can you see clubs from multiple levels of the “pyramid” facing each other? Nowhere else in 2021, apparently. I’d also predict we might fit in some Discord watch parties on some of these matches, no promises, though.

Amethyst Purple and Pink Modern Feminine Thank You for Your Business Folded Card (1).png

Regional Experts

Because of the wide-spread nature of this tournament, the massive amount of clubs playing, the action-packed schedule, we decided we’d divide and conquer for the win. So we broke the map apart by region and spread it around as evenly as we could. We tried to make the assignments make sense (Dan Creel like Bobcats, so we gave him Mid-Atlantic. JHF lives in northeast, so we handed him the region closest to him) and appropriate to interests and regional focuses. I assume I got South Central because I’m from Texas, but I suspect the rest of the staff doesn’t understand how big the damn state is. Anyway, we’ll be making appearances on podcasts, writing match reports, generating all sorts of content, within our respective assignments. Also, please excuse my terrible graphic, it was meant for internal circulation and I’m not a graphic artist.

It’s a Big Deal

We believe in the this competition, enough so that we’re committing to delivering the best coverage we can. We’re a volunteer staff, but, at our core, we believe in this sport, we believe in the democratic nature of the American game, we believe in grassroots over corporate interests. The Independent Cup kicks off on Wednesday, let’s hit it!

- Dan Vaughn