World Cup and European leagues

[Hopkins92]

(h/t to Ryan Scott for much of this information)

SV 07 Elversburg, from a German town so small (5,000) that it lacks a rail station, won its initial match in the Bundesliga 3-2 over Bayer Leverkusen (sixth on last year's table).  Their "big" signing coming into the season was an American, Cole Campbell, whose father played soccer at Texas Lutheran when they were D2/NAIA.  Cole formerly was at fellow Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, for whom he had made six appearances the last two seasons before being loaned to 1899 Hoffenheim, another Bundesliga side (fifth on last year's table), where he saw action in five matches.  Campbell, who has represented the US in U19, U20, and U23 international youth competitions, scored his first goal in Bundesliga competition in the ninth minute in the win today. 

Elversburg was moribund for most of the last decade, playing in the fourth-division Regionalliga Südwest where they did well for a number of years, finally earning promotion to the 3. Liga in 2022 after a first-place finish.  The repeated that feat the following year, gaining entry to the 2. Bundesliga in 2023; after falling just short with a third-place finish in 2024-25, a second place finish last season earned their promotion to the top level.  Think Wrexham without the celebrity owners and reality series (h/t to Ryan for that, too). 

Thanks for sharing! Incredible story and I was going to mention Wrexham until I saw the end of your post.

[Hopkins92]

I actually came here* to post this, prior to reading that cool story:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7545747/2026/08/28/us-soccer-youth-takeover/

In a nutshell, US Soccer Federation is going to takeover U.S Youth Soccer Association. While it won't fix Pay-to-Play, it's an important first step in unifying youth soccer prior to where most of the pay-to-play kicks in. That's a pretty big deal.

There are grumblings that the next move is to take on the pay-to-play system down the road. But if we can get a handle on identifying talent at a younger age, and steer those kids in the right direction in a coordinated, professional manner... That's way better than what's happening now.

* - Might want to start a "US Soccer thread"... It has been refreshing hearing from many of you on issues not strictly related to D3 soccer the last few months.