One of the toughest divisions in the Premier Development League just got tougher.

The local team that resides in that division thinks the addition will make attending Forest City London PDL games a greater attraction.

The Great Lakes Division has produced the North American PDL champion two of the last three years, with FC London the first of those two. Last year the Michigan Bucks, perennial contenders, emerged as champions.

The PDL made some changes to the Great Lakes Division, removing the Chicago Fire and Toronto Lynx, bringing back Dayton and adding Toronto FC Academy.

Toronto FC play MLS and will use their PDL team as a development squad. Most MLS teams have affiliate teams in the PDL.

Toronto FC also has a team in Ontario’s League 1. That team, made up of mostly 18-year-olds, dominated League1 last year. Those from that team who didn’t turn professional moved on to university scholarships and will likely play on the PDL team.

“It’s going to be a strong team, no question about that,” said FC London coach Martin Painter.

With Michigan, Dayton, TFC, Kitchener-Waterloo United, Derby City, Louisville and Pittsburgh in the division, wins will be tough to come by.

“Overall, the USL brand is doing extremely well. Almost every MSL team has a reserve team in the USL,” Painter said. “The good thing is it creates opportunity for players to move from PDL to USL or to professional soccer. Josh Hughes (who played with FC London last year) signed with NASL Atlanta Silverbacks. The league’s doing really well. Leaguewide, our division is as competitive as ever.”

The FC London franchise continues to strengthen its place in the community. They are the best known soccer team in the city and this year may have as many as 11 local players on the team.

The PDL is a 14-game season with FC London playing their games at Cove Road Field at the German Canadian Club. The open regular season play with four road games beginning May 21 and open at home June 6.

Six-of-its-seven home games will be played on Saturday night, a change from last season.

“I think Saturday games will be better for us,” said FC London owner Ian Campbell. “On Friday’s, people are scrambling to get off work and get to the game. We were scrambling to get the site ready. Going to Saturday will give us a youth component and other games in the afternoon so it becomes sort of Soccer Saturday.

“I think with Toronto FC Academy in the picture, it’s going to catch people’s attention.”

The day of the June opener is also the day when Canada’s women’s World Cup opens and it’s the day of the Champion League’s final. FC London hopes to spin all that into an entire day at Cove Road as well as holding an exhibition game between Western University women’s soccer team and the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

The Blues also have an exhibition game against Detroit FC in Stratford on May 18.

Painter not only coach’s FC London but he’s also the head coach of the Mustangs’ women’s team and is the district coach for Elgin-Middlesex Soccer Association.

While he would have preferred not playing four games on the road to start the season, he doesn’t mind time on the road early.

“The priority for us was getting Saturdays and we wanted to start on the road, probably not four in a row but you take what you can get,” Painter said. “It’s a team bonding thing. You learn a lot on those trips.”

Painter expects a different team from last year’s high scoring version of the Blues.

“We’re going to be very strong defensively,” Painter said. “We have room for one or two changes but otherwise the roster is fully set. Roster fully set. We are going to be much more athletic and have a strong physical back four.”

Both Mark Haynes and Scott Shewfelt will be back to play goal. Painter is excited about the addition of local defender Anthony Perez and French midfielder Pierre Mangold who suffered an injury in college last year. Painter was interested in him last season.

Up front James Pucci returns after scoring 23 goals in 18 games for his university squad.

Also up front will be FC London’s first Spanish player. Alejandro Pastor is a 21-year-old that Painter believes will be a big scorer.

As for the local content, there are more local player on FC London than every before.

“The bright side from the local scene is that the last couple of years it has been tough to integrate a lot of younger local guys because the groups coming up (haven’t been very good,)” Painter said. “But if you look at the age groups for the next three to five years, they are very strong age groups.”

Something FC London hopes they can use to their advantage