It’s a given within USL circles that the league has grown better and more technical with each passing season. Superior player recruitment and enhanced tactical sophistication have only made the Championship stronger on the field.
That progress hasn’t slowed down in 2025, but it’s taken on a new look. Increasingly, the USL is divided between two camps: teams that play long and teams that play short, with very little in between.
If you define a “direct” team as one that prefers long balls and hits an average pass that travels 8.5 yards or more, 29% of the Championship in 2025 is direct. On the flip side, a record-setting 33% of the division is “short” if you set the bar at 6.5 yards per pass or less. American Soccer Analysis’ data goes all the way back to 2017, and there’s never been a smaller share of mid-range teams across nine seasons of data.
