Over 400 top teams to descend on Southern California for MLS NEXT Fest

NEW YORK – MLS NEXT Fest, the premier winter showcase event in North American youth soccer, will kickoff Friday, December 6 at the Empire Polo Ground in Indio, Calif. and run through Wednesday, December 11. (SCHEDULE)

More than 400 of the best youth soccer teams will compete at the fourth-annual edition of the competition, featuring nearly 630 matches and over 7,000 players. MLS NEXT Fest provides an opportunity for top talent within the program to be evaluated by college, national team, and professional scouts.

For the first time in the event’s history, MLS NEXT Fest will feature an opportunity for MLS NEXT Elite Academies to qualify for the 2025 Generation adidas Cup. Sixteen teams in both the U16 and U19 age groups will compete in a single-elimination tournament where the winner will earn a spot in the illustrious Generation adidas Cup. The 16 teams in each age group earned a spot in the qualifying tournament by finishing the fall in the top two of their division’s power rankings. The power rankings were compiled through an analytical formula that considered strength of schedule and points earned among other factors and were published weekly on MLS NEXT’s social media accounts.

“Introducing the Generation adidas Cup qualifiers to one of the top showcase events in North America will make this the most anticipated MLS NEXT Fest in our program’s history,” said MLS NEXT General Manager Kyle Albrecht. “We look forward to highlighting the best young talent in our program with more than 400 teams and hundreds of scouts attending this week’s event in California.”

The MLS NEXT Fest Showcase will have teams in four different age groups (U15, U16, U17, and U19) playing three games in four days. Matches are scheduled based on division, past event competition, and standings from the MLS NEXT regular season to allow clubs to play a variety of different teams from across the country. Players participating in MLS NEXT Fest are also eligible to be selected for MLS NEXT Fest Best Of matches, which consists of three games across the U15, U16, and U17 age groups from Dec. 8-9 in which top players compete against one another in front of evaluators.

Additionally, MLS NEXT will also feature two ‘Uncommitted Matches’ on December 8, which will provide a unique opportunity for college coaches to evaluate some of the top players in the U19 age group who have not yet made their collegiate decisions. The two Uncommitted Matches will be held in an East vs. West format with 22 players per team.

On-site at MLS NEXT Fest will be five members of the second cohort of MLS Innovation Lab companies to test their pioneering concepts during the event. The new cohort is poised to enhance MLS’ key priority areas of fan engagement, on-field player performance, and media technology. The four companies testing their solutions all week will be – OLIVER Sports, Soccerment, Lubu Technologies, EDGE Sound Research, and Wicket – with more information about each available HERE.

TOCA Football (TOCA), the official soccer training partner of MLS, will also be activating at MLS NEXT Fest. TOCA provides players of all ages and skill levels the necessary soccer skills to develop their first touch, passing and shooting accuracy, movements, speed of play, and more through repetition and interactive training challenges. At MLS NEXT Fest, TOCA will offer players and fans an opportunity to test their training products and climb a dynamic leaderboard with prizes given to the top performer each day.