Here's a look at some of the implications Week 26 (and beyond) for the USL-C 2021 season. WEEK 26 Wednesday: Memphis 901 v Louisville City Memphis, with two games in hand on the teams behind them, tries to move up to 3rd in the Central while Louisville tries to take the points on the road in an effort to stave off Birmingham for the top spot in the division. Birmingham Legion v Austin Bold The Legion, meanwhile, hope to leapfrog Louisville with a win at home against the Bold. Austin, on the other hand, would love points on the road to distance themselves from New Mexico United while holding onto the final playoff spot in the Mountain. El Paso Locomotive v Colorado Springs Switchbacks Staying in the Mountain division, El Paso can virtually lock up the division with a win at home vs current third place Colorado Springs. The Locomotive would be 11 points ahead of San Antonio with 4 matches remaining if they win, while Colorado Springs could temporarily jump back over San Antonio for 2nd in the division with a road upset. Orange County v Phoenix Rising OC hopes to solidify their hold on 3rd place in the Pacific while Phoenix is looking to expand their current lead (1 point over TB) for the overall #1 seed in the playoffs. Tacoma Defiance v Las Vegas Lights Tacoma can move from 6th to 4th with a win over the eliminated LV side, potentially 1 point behind OC if they lose at home. Sacramento Republic v LA Galaxy II The winner of this match takes the tiebreaker for the season between them. Sacramento could move from 7th to 4th with a win and a Tacoma loss, but would see the three teams behind them all having a game in hand over the final few weeks. Los Dos could move to 3rd in the Pacific with a win and an OC loss or tie as they've already locked up the head-to-head against the team from Irvine. Friday: Tampa Bay Rowdies v NYRB II Depending on the Wednesday result, Tampa can temporarily move ahead of Phoenix for #1 overall. Saturday: Austin and Phoenix have road matches against eliminated teams that could help them solidify their playoff standing. Charlotte Independence vs Charleston Battery A loss or draw for Charleston eliminates them and sets the Atlantic Division as the first with all 4 playoff teams decided. A Charlotte win temporarily moves them to 2nd in the division while they wait for the result between Miami and Pittsburgh. Indy Eleven v Louisville City Indy will be trying to hold onto the slimmest of playoff hopes at home against a Lou City team looking to try and lock up the division before their final week showdown at Birmingham. Memphis 901 vs Atlanta United 2 A second home match for Memphis this week, against the also almost eliminated A2. 901 could virtually lock up a playoff spot with 2 wins and leave the Central with 5 real potential playoff teams. The Miami v Pittsburgh Riverhounds A Miami win coupled with a Charlotte tie or loss would see the South Florida team move to 2nd in the Atlantic with the head-to-head tiebreaker over Pittsburgh and a game in hand on the Pennsylvania team. Pittsburgh needs a draw to stay in 2nd place in the division, but even with a playoff spot locked up they trail in the head-to-head against both Miami and Charlotte with those two teams each having a game in hand on them. Colorado Springs Switchbacks v Rio Grande Valley The Switchbacks go back home for their second match of the week as they try to further solidify themselves in the race for 2nd in the division while trying to hold off an RGV team that, though currently 6th in the division, are only 2 points behind 4th place Austin. San Antonio v Tulsa Second in the Mountain hosts 3rd in the Central. San Antonio hopes to keep pace with Colorado Springs for 2nd in the division while possibly, but not likely, chasing down El Paso for the division title. Tulsa looks to take advantage of one of their 2 games in hand on the teams behind them in the Central to add points as they close in on clinching a playoff spot themselves. Oakland Roots v Orange County 5th place Oakland looks to take advantage of being home against 3rd place OC as they scramble for a playoff spot in the Pacific Division where places 3-7 are currently within a 5 point spread. OC sees their second pivotal game of the week occur as they almost lock in a playoff spot with 2 wins, but could slip down to 7th with 2 losses. Sunday: Sacramento Republic v Tacoma Defiance Sacramento gets their second home game of the week against a division opponent just above them in the standings. Two wins could leave them in tremendous shape as the season winds down. Tacoma looks to take advantage of their easier two game schedule to snag a point or three in Sacramento and put themselves into great shape for their final 3 matches. OKC Energy v Birmingham Legion OKC gets a home game against a Legion team playing its second match of the week against a playoff hopeful, and need to take advantage of it as they are 5th in the Central and both Memphis and Tulsa have 2 games in hand on the Energy. Birmingham will likely need 4 points, at minimum, from their 2 games to keep pace with Louisville for the top spot in the division. San Diego Loyal v New Mexico United A win, plus a handful of positive results in other matches, could lock San Diego into a playoff spot in the Pacific. NM needs a win on the road as they've fallen to 5th in the Mountain and Austin has a game in hand on them while holding 4th place. LA Galaxy II v El Paso Locomotive Los Dos get another shot at points to solidify their position in the Pacific Division playoff race. El Paso can lock up the Mountain Division with two wins this week and a loss or tie by San Antonio. Overview: The Atlantic becomes a battle for 2nd-4th if Charleston doesn't win this week. Tampa Bay has won the division and is just trying to out point Phoenix for the #1 overall seed. The Central can see some clarity come this week and holds the potential for the best remaining match of the season as Birmingham v Louisville could be for the division title in both teams last match of the regular season on October 30. The Mountain Division is still the most up in the air of all with only El Paso qualified for the playoffs, teams 1-3 still in position to potentially finish 1st, and teams 2-6 within 9 points of each other. The Pacific sees Phoenix try to stay ahead of Tampa Bay while San Diego potentially locks in a playoff spot this week and the mess at 3-7 either clarifies a bit or possibly becomes even more jumbled after all the matchups between the teams over the next few days.
Birmingham and Memphis hold serve at home tonight. Birmingham now takes a 1 point lead on Louisville in the Central and Memphis moves up to 3rd in the division ahead of Tulsa. Austin stays in 4th in the Mountain, but loses their game in hand on New Mexico and RGV who are 1 and 2 points behind them respectively. Currently in the 83rd minute in El Paso with the home team tied 2-2 against Colorado Springs. OC with an early goal against Phoenix as well.
El Paso takes the 3-2 lead in the 86th minute. If El Paso holds on they virtually lock up the Mountain Division title for 2021.
Diego Luna scores, after blatantly diving 3 times in the preceding 10 minutes, to make it 4-2 for El Paso as they now lead San Antonio by 11 points in the Mountain division and hold the head-to-head tie breaker. Unless San Antonio wins out and El Paso loses their remaining games, the division title belongs to the Locomotive.
Tacoma with a clunker at home, losing to the eliminated LV Lights and dropping to 7th in the Pacific, though still only 3 points out of 4th. Sacramento draws at home against Los Dos, moving up to 6th in the division but still remaining 3 points behind their opponents from last night. The big winner among the late games was OC, beating Phoenix at home and putting 4 points of space between themselves and LA II with 4 games remaining on their schedule. Meanwhile, Phoenix takes a hit to their chances of finishing 1st overall as they've still got the 1 point advantage over Tampa Bay but now have one fewer game remaining.
RB2 with a beautiful counter, covering the length of the field with 2 passes, to take the 1-0 lead at Tampa in the 23rd minute.
Tampa with the tying goal before halftime, but they were unable to score in the second half including a few minutes in stoppage time with RB2 reduced to 10 men. Phoenix and Tampa Bay are both now at 62 points with 3 matches remaining and Tampa holding the tiebreaker with a 2-1 win back in May.
A couple of barn burners to start the day First with Monarchs SLC pulling off a 4-3 home win over Austin, leaving the Bold with 0 points on the week and the possibility of falling to 6th by the end of the day tomorrow. Then Phoenix pummeling Las Vegas 6-3 on the road, moving them a step closer to the #1 overall seed for the playoffs.
Charlotte combed Charleston 5-1 to eliminate the Battery and fix the teams that will finish 2-4 in the Atlantic. With the scoreless draw in Miami, Charlotte jumps over Pittsburgh for 2nd in that division. Indy's 1-0 win over Louisville kept them alive in the Central while giving Birmingham an advantage over Lou City in the race for the division. Memphis with the 4-2 win over Atl2 puts them just a couple of points away from clinching a 3rd playoff spot in the Central while Tulsa's tie at San Antonio keeps OKC, Atl2, and Indy alive for the time being. The 94th minute goal at home for the Switchbacks ties them on points with San Antonio in the Mountain, with both teams very close to locking up a playoff position. The losses by Austin and RGV could come back to haunt them depending on the result New Mexico gets tomorrow against San Diego. One match remaining tonight as Orange County has a 1-0 lead on the road at Oakland, early in the 2nd half. A wild, goal filled day for the USL-C.
OC held on last night, giving them a 7 point cushion over 4th in the Pacific and putting them in reach of the 2 seed ahead of San Diego. Charleston and Atlanta 2 were eliminated. So far today, Sacramento controlled the first half against Tacoma, but no goals were scored and the 6th and 7th placed teams in the Pacific remain tied heading into the second half. OKC, who needs a win and some help to stay alive, has just begun at home against Birmingham and San Diego's home game against a New Mexico team that could use a win has also just begun.
OKC with the 0-0 draw at home essentially eliminates them. They need Tulsa to lose out to have a chance, and that's highly unlikely. That result also locked Memphis into the playoffs, currently sitting 3rd in the Central. The final game of the season between OKC and Tulsa should be interesting, even if playoff status has already been determined. San Diego held a 1-0 lead for much of the second half, frustrating New Mexico with 2-3 saves that absolutely robbed them of goals, before breaking through with a 94th minute equalizer in a thrilling finish. New Mexico, Austin, and RGV are all still tightly packed in the battle for the 4th spot in the Mountain division with New Mexico currently holding the advantage. The final match of the night has Los Dos hosting El Paso, where a win for the Locomotive would give them the Mountain division title while a win for LAG2 would give them some breathing room over the trio of Sacramento, Tacoma, and Oakland in the Pacific playoff race.
Los Dos mutilated El Paso 5-0, giving the Galaxy team a 5 point lead for 4th in the Pacific and really putting pressure on Oakland/Sacramento/Tacoma to step it up the last couple of weeks.
Did not expect San Antonio to come out and just assault San Diego from the first kick. 2-0 San Antonio just 25 minutes in.
El Paso with a disaster on the defensive end in the 76th minute to give Oakland the 1-0 lead on the road. Locomotive has wasted quite a few quality chances and a 17-9 shot advantage thus far. San Antonio rides out the 2-0 quick start to set themselves up for what will most likely be a road game in the conference semifinals.
Oakland entered the playoffs with the lowest point total of any team to make it and a road game against an El Paso team that hadn't lost at home in 25 matches, and left with a 1-0 road win.