USL Championship Playoffs Rife with Upsets | OneFootball

Everyone loves an underdog story, but the USL Championship playoffs delivered FOUR upset fixtures over a weekend filled with equal parts triumph and heartbreak.

Eastern Conference

Louisville City FC (1) 0 – 1 Detroit City FC (8)

There was no team more dominant in the regular season than Louisville. Just how dominant were they?

Detroit City came into Lynn Family Stadium knowing they couldn’t outplay LouCity. In fact, of all the playoff teams, Detroit had the second worst run-in to the post season, gathering a measly 16 points out of 13 games (4W, 4D, 5L). Their entire game plan was predicated on what youth soccer coaches call “parking the bus” and hoping for a counter-strike. They executed that to perfection. Defender Devon Aboo-Mensah snatching a goal in the 34th minute from a corner, which was the only on target effort from 3 total shots. On the defensive end, DCFC goalkeeper Carlos Saldaña kept a clean sheet by blocking 4 of Louisville’s 19 shots. Two of those came in stoppage time as the hosts pressed desperately. Le Rouge also recorded 8 blocked shots from the field.

Charleston Battery (2) 0 – 0 Rhode Island FC (7)

Rhode Island advances 5 – 3 on penalties.120 minutes of grueling physical soccer endless in a goalless draw, but plenty of cards. In the sixth minute of stoppage, referee Elton Garcia issued red cards to Houssou Landry of the Battery and Jojea Kwizera of RIFC after an on-field tussle between the pair.  In the ensuing penalty shootout, Rhode Island was a perfect 5 of 5 from the spot, while Charleston’s Arturo Rodríguez skied his effort. This was a clutch win for the on-again, off-again visitors, rekindling hopes in the Anchor faithful that another storybook run to the finals might be in store for RIFC.

North Carolina (3) 1 – 0 Loudoun United (6)

Poor Loudoun. 71% possession, 19 shots, 11 corner kicks, arguably the better team, and they could not find a crack in North Carolina’s defence. Meanwhile Oalex Anderson took what looked to be a poor touch to the inside and squeezed it into the near post only moments into the match.

Pittsburgh Riverhounds (4) 0 – 0 Hartford Athletic (5)

Pittsburgh advances 4 – 2 on penalties.If the USL used goal differential in determining tiebreaks for playoffs, then Hartford would have pipped Pittsburgh and been the fourth seed. But they use head-to-head record, and the Riverhounds won both fixtures during the regular season. This really hurt Hartford, who were simply sensational in the final half of the season recording 31 points (10W, 1D, 4L). You have to think that the home field advantage might have given them the edge, but we’ll never know. Pittsburgh outlasted the visitors over 120 minutes of pedestrian soccer, and were the more ruthless from the penalty spot to move on.

Western Conference

FC Tulsa (1) 1 – 0 Colorado Springs Switchbacks (8)

Had Tulsa’s Travion Sousa not missed by a whisker in the 25th second this game could have been spared the additional thirty minutes. As it was, they went the distance nil to nil and kicked off the extra time with a 2nd minute header from Stefan Lusić, off a delicious delivery from a Jamie Webber dead ball. Both sides were guilty of employing the dark arts of time-wasting and floppery, but in the end the better side prevailed and Tulsa were spared the embarrassment of a first round exit.

Sacramento Republic (2) 0 – 0 Orange County SC (7)

Orange County advances 5 – 4 on penalties.Yes, this was the third double blank scoreline that required penalties to resolve, and the second in which the lower seed upset the higher. In an eerie echo of the Battery v. RIFC contest, there was a double-sending off in extra time. As a game, there wasn’t much to talk about. Between the two sides there was a grand total of one shot on frame out of twenty-three attempts. That’s piss poor. It looked like that inaccuracy would also play a role in the spot-kicks, as both first attempts were saved/missed. But OCSC’s skipper Danny Stone’s strategic substitution in the 120th minute, pulling keeper Colin Shutler in favor of Tetsuya Kadano, proved wise. Kadano made three saves of seven shots, and his teammates did their job by converting five of seven to move the underdogs forward.

New Mexico United (3) 2 – 0 San Antonio FC (6)

In a playoff weekend in which all other games were either 1 – 0 or 0 – 0 scorelines, New Mexico’s two goal victory over Southwest rival San Antonio felt like a blowout. The Black & Yellow appeared to have total control, with keeper Kevin Shakes stepping up to make two critical saves to ensure their clean sheet.

El Paso Locomotive (4) 0 – 1 Phoenix Rising (5)

Even before midfielder Frank Daroma got his 73rd minute red card for a retaliatory kick to John Scearce’s leg, the game was already being controlled by Phoenix. When a cross struck Tony Alfaro’s arm in the box, it allowed Phoenix’s Charlie Dennis to send the ensuing penalty into the net.