USL Championship Semi-Finals Set

Give the USL Championship credit for keeping it simple. There’s no play-in, and no drawn out best-of-three nonsense in their postseason. It’s old school. You play one game. The winner moves on; the loser goes home. 

Round One saw some major upsets, which meant that the quarterfinals held over the weekend had some pretty good storylines to cover, not to mention the chance for some more underdog victories. While the East upended expectations, the West still has a leading team left in the running.

FC Tulsa 1 – 0 Phoenix Rising

It’s hard to sugarcoat this match, as it was just not good. One expects playoff soccer to be bold, exciting and daring; this was the complete opposite. Adding insult to injury, it went a total of 120 minutes. In that time there was only ONE shot on target courtesy of Phoenix’s Charlie Dennis, whose 63rd minute effort took a deflection and was easily reigned in by keeper Tyler Deric. The official highlights completely omitted the first half of play, such was the dearth of impactful content.

Tulsa actually roused the crowd out of slumber in the 99th after Jamie Webber hijacked the ball, took a touch and let fly. The ball took a slight deflection and skittered only an inch wide of the post. In the 120th minute, FC Tulsa earned a free kick from the far right side of the pitch. Rising made some substitutes to kill time and have fresh legs for upcoming penalty kicks. Giordano Colli’s effort floated into the box and was headed down by Phoenix, pinballing onto two other players before Taylor Calheira’s shot was blocked, the ball looping up wide. Extra-time substitute Stefan Lukic tracked the arc of the ball, striking it with his side foot and hitting true. The Serbian scored for the sixth time off the bench this season, and none was bigger than this one. It was the most improbable finish to a snoozer of a match!

New Mexico United 2 – 1 Orange County SC

The second match of the Western Conference was thankfully more vibrant. Both sides came fired up to compete, and the capacity crowd at Isotopes Park met their enthusiasm with a wall of noise for full time. OCSC had the first crack at goal, when Vak Latinovich’s header almost beat keeper Kristopher Shakes. Shakes would be tested again right before halftime, as the visitors entered halftime the more dangerous side.

It would only take three minutes and change for New Mexico to strike after the second half whistle. After a corner, United forward Greg Hurst headed a cross off the post, then follow-up with a left-footed effort to beat OCSC keeper Colin Shutler. Orange County would answer off a corner of their own in the 68th minute, Malik Pinto coming in unmarked on the far post to slot in Ousmane Sylla’s outswinging cross.

The match looked destined for extra time before Valentin Noël received a long switch pass. Finding his route to goal blocked by two OCSC defenders, he delivered to Dayonn Harris, who took a hopeful shot from the corner of the box, rifling it into the net. There was no time left, and New Mexico had just stamped their ticket into the Western Conference final.

North Carolina FC 0 – 2 Rhode Island FC

This match had an air of finality to it even before the kickoff. Earlier in the week, NCFC announced that it was leaving the USL Championship league after this season, even as its leadership declared its intention to apply for top flight Division 1 status when that starts in 2028. That leaves the next two years in limbo, and you have to wonder if that decision didn’t weigh on the minds of NCFC players. Meanwhile Rhode Island, in only their second season in the USL, showed up and simply went about their business.

For all their youth, RIFC knows how to play postseason soccer. Last year they battled their way into the USL Championship final in their inaugural year. Coming into this fixture with a good number of the same players, they had a swagger that the hosts could not match.

It took some time for the visitors to find their footing, and North Carolina had the majority of better chances in the first half. Oalex Anderson was particularly dangerous on the left flank. But in the second half the momentum began to shift towards Rhode Island. A 53rd minute corner forced NC keeper Oliver Semmie into a big-time from Frank Nodarse’s shot. Eight minutes later Semmie made another critical save, palming away a chip from Jerome Williams. The pressure on NCFC continued to build until Albert Dikwa’s header found the net in the 81st minute. The clincher came in the 93rd minute after a sloppy pass from Semmie was intercepted by Dikwa, who launched a pass/shot from midfield that slowly drifted into the open net.

Pittsburgh Riverhounds 0 – 0 Detroit City SC

Pittsburgh advanced 4 – 3 on penalties.

I’m not going to spend time trying to defend Detroit City’s cynical style of play. Low-block defending and relying on the counter can be quite effective in the postseason. And in their case on Sunday, it got them to within one penalty kick of an Eastern Conference final. I wish I could say the Riverhounds were much better, but that would be mendacious. Pittsburgh had three shots on frame from 18 attempts, a poor 17% on target percentage; Detroit’s was 40% (2 for 5).

One curious statistic came from the bench. In the 120 minutes of game time (regulation + extra) Detroit used all six of their substitutions; Pittsburgh used only one. You’d think fresh legs would be favored in spot kicks, and that was somewhat true. Both of Detroit’s missed kicks came from players who’d played the full minutes, but the same can be said for the four kicks made by Pittsburgh. All I can say is that the team that dominated play for the full time walked away with the win.