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10 USL Championship Games to Circle in September

By NICHOLAS MURRAY - nicholas.murray@uslsoccer.com, 08/31/21, 5:19PM EDT

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From interconference battles to playoff race showdowns, the penultimate month of the season has plenty on offer


A top-two clash between El Paso Locomotive FC and Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC provides us a meeting of the current best attack and defense in the Championship as September begins. | Photo courtesy Ivan Pierre Aguirre / El Paso Locomotive FC

We’ve reached the final two months of the 2021 USL Championship regular season, and while there are some teams looking like certainties to be part of the postseason field in November, the past month has produced some fascinating narratives along with the normal twists and turns that the race for the playoffs brings.

Between Hadji Barry’s pursuit of the Championship’s single-season scoring record at Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC with 20 goals in 20 appearances so far, to the five teams separated by a point for the best record in the league, to serious postseason battles developing in all four divisions, the final third of the season has plenty to watch out for.

Here are 10 games that are going to further shape those storylines in the upcoming month.

Tampa Bay Rowdies
Atlantic
September 3 | 7:30 p.m. ET
Al Lang Stadium
Oakland Roots SC
Pacific

It’s OK to admit that at the start of last month, this game probably wouldn’t have been at the top of this month’s list. But while the Rowdies are right back where we expected them to be at the start of the season – both in contention for first place the Atlantic Division and the best record in the league – Oakland has found its feet and as part of a six-game undefeated streak recently picked off Phoenix Rising FC for one of its four wins in that span. Roots SC makes the trip across the country as Rising FC did earlier this season to take on the team with the most shutouts this season in what will be a great barometer for how far Oakland has come as Tampa Bay looks to build toward a potentially historic shutout streak.

Hartford Athletic
Atlantic
September 7 | 7 p.m. ET
Dillon Stadium
Louisville City FC
Central

Things have cooled off a bit for Hartford Athletic since its outstanding start to the season. In the past month the side has gone 1-4-1 and conceded 12 goals, with even outstanding goalkeeper Jeff Caldwell unable to stem the tide as the Athletic have slipped below the playoff line. But there’s still a good deal of talent in the squad that will take on Central Division leaders Louisville City FC as the national television cameras visit Dillon Stadium, where Hartford has been stellar this year with four wins and three draws in nine games. LouCity brings its own arsenal of talent, and this could be a landmark moment for forward Antoine Hoppenot as he enters the month two goals away from becoming a member of a pretty exclusive 30 goals, 30 assists club in the Championship’s history. With Cam Lancaster and the rest Louisville has to offer around the field, make sure to tune in for a game Hartford is going to need to get something for in its pursuit of the postseason.

El Paso Locomotive FC
Mountain
September 11 | 9:30 p.m. ET
Southwest University Park
Sacramento Republic FC
Pacific

Just like Hartford and Louisville, the interdivision matchup that brings together Mountain Division leader El Paso Locomotive FC and Pacific Division contender Sacramento Republic FC is a big game for different reasons for each side. For Locomotive FC, another three points would be another step toward securing homefield advantage in the USL Championship Playoffs with the best record in the league – an opportunity El Paso would eagerly embrace given its home undefeated run across the regular season and playoffs enters this month at 18 games and more than a calendar year. For Republic FC, it would mean another step toward making the postseason for an eighth consecutive season, second-longest streak in the league after the Charleston Battery. Locomotive FC has produced one of the best in-game atmospheres in the league, too, led by 8th Notch, something else Sacramento – a club that knows a thing or two about great homefield advantages – will have to navigate as well.

Colorado Springs Switchbacks
Mountain
September 14 | 9 p.m. ET
Weidner Field
El Paso Locomotive FC
Mountain

El Paso Locomotive FC might be tied for second in the Championship in shutouts as we start September, but going purely by goals scored and goals conceded this matchup with Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC at Weidner Field pits the league’s leading scorers – the Switchbacks with 45 goals – against the league’s best defense – Locomotive FC with 14 goals conceded. Add in that these teams enter the month as the top two in the Mountain Division and we could have quite the game on our hands as the attacking duo of Hadji Barry – 20 goals in 20 games through August – and Michee Ngalina – eight goals and eight assists, tied for the league lead in the latter – takes on goalkeeper Logan Ketterer and a back line led by the experience of Yuma and Mechack Jerome in the center. These teams are both known for their postgame fireworks, but we could see plenty on the field in this matchup in downtown Colorado Springs.

Sacramento Republic FC
Pacific
September 18 | 10:30 p.m. ET
Heart Health Park
San Antonio FC
Mountain

Sacramento Republic FC and San Antonio FC are both going to be in a battle for the playoffs as they meet in California for the first time since midway through the 2019 season, but there’s another reason why this matchup looks intriguing and it comes from the grassroots of both clubs. From the likes of Jose Gallegos and Leo Torres in San Antonio to Hayden Sargis and Mario Penagos in Sacramento, these two clubs are among those looking to let their Academy-produced talent shine on the field at the First Team level. Add in some quality veteran talent on both sides and a balanced all-time record between the sides that sees Republic FC hold a three-wins-to-two lead over SAFC in seven meetings and this should be a compelling matchup in addition to the stakes involved in the playoff race.

Charlotte Independence
Atlantic
September 22 | 7 p.m. ET
Memorial Stadium
The Miami FC
Atlantic

You could be forgiven for picking up a Charlotte Independence roster recently and wondering if you’d been transported to an early 2010s Premier League game what with the arrivals of Sylvain Marveaux, Christian Fuchs and Gabriel Obertan at the club as reinforcements, but they’re all now looking to build into a playoff bid that could prove an ultimate dark horse run if they can secure a spot in the Atlantic Division. How those veterans fare against a Miami FC side that did plenty to put itself in postseason position with an undefeated August is going to be fascinating to watch given the international-quality players Miami has at its disposal including Jamaica’s Speedy Williams and Lamar Walker, El Salvador’s Joshua Perez and Haiti’s Christiano Francois, all of whom will be raring to go as they look to drive the club’s run down the stretch toward its first trip to the Championship Playoffs.

Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
Atlantic
September 25 | 7 p.m. ET
Highmark Stadium
Charleston Battery
Atlantic

As two of the Championship’s original clubs, Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and the Charleston Battery have squared off 22 times over the past decade with the Battery holding an 8-4-8 edge in the all-time series. This season it’s the Hounds who are on course for a fourth consecutive postseason berth under Head Coach Bob Lilley and are also vying for the best record in the Atlantic Division and the Championship as a whole alongside the Tampa Bay Rowdies. For the Battery, it’s a question of finding the results to keep its streak of reaching the USL Championship Playoffs in every season of the league's history alive as it heads to Highmark Stadium. There’s going to be plenty of exciting talent on display here; the Hounds have not only the Championship’s all-time assists leader in Kenardo Forbes but the duo of Russell Cicerone and Alex Dixon leading the way, while the Battery have Bermudan international Zeiko Lewis and midseason arrival Claudio Repetto, who has made a big impact up front. There’s a big three points at stake here, which team will grab them?

Birmingham Legion FC
Central
September 26 | 5 p.m. ET
BBVA Field
Charlotte Independence
Atlantic

Through the first four months of the season, Birmingham Legion FC has been close to how you would expect a solid playoff contender to be. It attacks well enough, especially with a top forward like Neco Brett leading the line, it defends well and is consistent enough to win at home and away. As we get into the final two months of the season, though, there’s still that feeling this team could be capable of more than it’s shown and with that challenge Louisville City FC for first place in the Central Division before those two teams meet on the final day of the regular season in October. If Legion FC is going to accomplish that, it’s going to need to beat a team that looks remarkable like a mirror image in terms of solid attacking production, defensive prowess and playoff potential in the Charlotte Independence. With the aforementioned veterans the Independence have added, this could be an intriguing regular-season matchup, and potentially a playoff preview if things fall into place for both sides.

OKC Energy FC
Central
September 29 | 8:30 p.m. ET
Taft Stadium
Indy Eleven
Atlantic

Beyond Louisville City FC and Birmingham Legion FC, the biggest question regarding the last two playoff positions in the Central Division has been, who wants them? The inconsistency that has been on display has been remarkable – if likely exasperating – for the teams and fanbases involved as the ups and more often downs of the season have unfolded. With its recent three-game winning streak, FC Tulsa has at least laid claim to one of them after pulling out of the middle of the pack, but that leaves potentially four teams for the final spot, with OKC Energy FC and Indy Eleven two of them. Level on points as the month begins, this meeting between the sides at Taft Stadium is going to be a quintessential playoff six-pointer. Should either side take victory, it could be a key paving stone to the postseason.

New Mexico United
Mountain
September 29 | 9:30 p.m. ET
Isotopes Park
Rio Grande Valley FC
Atlantic
Rio Grande Valley FC

There has been no more difficult division to predict this season in the Championship than the Mountain with six likely looking contenders for the four playoffs positions. Over the past month, though, New Mexico United’s fortunes have taken a turn for the worse with a seven-game winless streak that was capped by defeat in Phoenix at the hands of former player Santi Moar. United is going to have to find a turnaround to reach the postseason, currently sitting sixth in the standings, but that could also be true of Rio Grande Valley FC, which while in third spot has slid down after the early highs the return of Head Coach Wilmer Cabrera and a re-tooled squad produced with only one win in the past month. As tight as this race figures to be, there should be an awful lot riding on this meeting at Isotopes Park in the final week of September.

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