USL Championship Review – Week 22 | OneFootball

It wasn’t quite as dramatic this week as last. Overall standings in both divisions remained relatively stable; any exceptions we’ll detail below.

That said, the league still delivered its quota of big wins, crushing losses, and head scratching draws.

Best Show(s) of the Week

Louisville City should have leveled Birmingham Legion on Wednesday night at Lynn Family Stadium. The hosts fired 29 shots at Legion keeper Jassem Koleilat, but the Czech was having none of it. He saved 11 of the on-frame efforts, the highest number of saves this season. Unfortunately, two did hit the net, leading to his side falling 2-1. 

LouCity followed up that offensive juggernaut in what might go down as the USL Championship game of the season. They traveled down to Tampa to take on the league-topping Rowdies, and if Al Lang Stadium had a roof, they’d have blown that clear off! In the space of eight minutes, Louisville punched three against the hosts with efforts from Jansen Wilson (’21), Chris Donovan (’25) and Jake Morris (’29). Tampa looked cooked heading into the locker room.

But during halftime the Rowdies coach either read them the riot act, forced them to guzzle some Red Bull, or both. Just minutes into the second half they matched LouCity’s scoring rampage with three goals in an eight minute span: Russell Cicerone (’48), Marco Micaletto (’51) and Matt Myers (’54). Louisville would go up in the 68th as Jake Morris nabbed his brace. Cicerone would equalize in the 86th with a screamer from outside the box, and Myers clinched the comeback with a shot from close range. Totally bonkers.

Tampa Bay retains their comfortable lead in the East and the league title.

USL Eastern Conference standlngs

Riverhounds on the Double

Pittsburgh Riverhounds faced Western Conference opposition twice this matchweek, splitting the difference in two 1-0 games. On Wednesday they were outclassed by a visiting FC Tulsa, only putting one shot on frame. But on Saturday they dropped a reeling Oakland Roots side with Eliot Goldthorp’s tap-in in the 20th minute the difference maker.

Pittsburgh hasn’t exactly looked like the defending champions this season, although they are comfortably in the playoff spot at 5th place. This is despite the third most losses of the Eastern teams (8). The edge? Only two draws. They either win or lose, rarely in between.

Meanwhile, Oakland’s woes deepen, as this marks the fifth consecutive loss in all competitions.

Colorado’s Big Stumble

The Switchbacks’ loss on the road to New Mexico United was notable for a few things. In nearly every offensive category they crushed the Kings of Chaos: shots on frame (6 to 3), total shots (21 to 6), touches in the opponent’s box (37 to 12), corners (14 to 3). But goals are what counts, and they fired a big blank in that category while New Mexico’s Maliek Howell did not. As a consequence, Switchbacks dropped four places in the Western Standings, from 3rd to 7th place. Ouch.

Expansion Teams Struggle

It was a dreadful week to be in Brooklyn gray or Sporting JAX blue and white hoops. Maybe the team’s performances were poor because they were on the road? But honestly, they each conceded five goals while scoring none. That’s simply awful. 

Brooklyn FC at least made an effort, firing 50% of their 10 shots on target; Charleston’s keeper Luis Zamudio blocked four to keep a clean sheet. Sporting JAX managed one shot and four touches inside Sacramento’s box. For the entire game. Jake McGuire stopped half of Republic’s 10 shots on target, and appeared to be the only person taking the game seriously.

It goes without saying that Sporting JAX is in last place overall (8 points). Brooklyn sits just above them on 13.

Legion Rising

We already discussed Birmingham’s record-setting keeper at the top of the article, but Jassem Koleilat followed up on that with a six save effort, and a clean sheet, while Legion hosted Rhode Island in the lone Sunday fixture. Koleilat should file for hazard pay due to all the shots he’s facing, but at least today his efforts paid off. In the 63rd minute, Ronaldo Demus stayed alert and some inept backline communications between RIFC left an errant backpass ripe for the plucking. The Haitian tapped it into an open net. 

This win was the first for Birmingham since Matchweek 13.

Orange County Continue to Top the West

The OCSC machine continues to steamroller across the west, holding onto their top spot with a 3 point cushion after toppling El Paso Locomotive 2-0.

USL Championship Western Conference standings