With six teams vying for two playoff places and playoff seedings and homefield advantage still to be decided, it’s set to be a captivating final Saturday of the season in the USL Championship’s Western Conference. Here are five things to watch out for as the night unfolds.

ALL OR NOTHING FOR TOROS

The last time Rio Grande Valley FC won three consecutive games it was the first three games this regular season as the club’s new era under Head Coach Wilmer Cabrera got out to a rousing start. If the Toros can match that performance with victory on Saturday night against El Paso Locomotive FC – which would add to victories against New Mexico United last weekend and Real Monarchs SLC on Wednesday night – it will earn the club a first postseason berth since the club’s inaugural season, also under Cabrera’s leadership, in 2016.

The catch? The side the Toros take on is El Paso Locomotive FC, which ran away with the Mountain Division this season having lost only three times overall in 31 games. With something to play for themselves as the best record in the Western Conference remains up for grabs, Locomotive FC will arrive looking to avenge one of those defeats after RGVFC took a 3-2 win when the sides met for the first time this season at H-E-B Park. It’s a challenge, especially for a side that has seen inconsistencies over the second half of the campaign that left it battling for a playoff place at all.

While the Toros’ first postseason game in 2016 still stands as the biggest in its history, if it can come through with victory on Saturday night to book its return, it would certainly make for one of the more memorable nights in the club’s history.

NEW MEXICO UNDER THE GUN IN FAMILIAR SCENARIO

On one hand, it’s never great to enter the final day of the regular season without control over your path to the postseason. On the other, it’s a scenario that New Mexico United has faced in the past and come out on top by the end of the night.

Two years ago, New Mexico entered the final day of the season one point behind San Antonio FC as it played host to Las Vegas Lights FC to wrap up the campaign. Thanks to a remarkable comeback by Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC – who having already been eliminated could easily have thrown in the towel down two goals and one player after a first-half red card – that earned the visitors a 2-2 draw at Toyota Field, United was able to jump into the final playoff place in the Western Conference with a 2-0 win of its own.

New Mexico will be hoping the same scenario might play out on Saturday, although this time there’s a twist thanks to the schedule. Sitting one point behind Rio Grande Valley FC, United kicks off against Real Monarchs SLC at Isotopes Park 90 minutes before the Toros begin their game at H-E-B Park against El Paso Locomotive FC. That means if New Mexico comes through with a victory, it would put the pressure on the Toros to match them against the Mountain Division.

In terms of potential drama, it may not get much better than this for a regular season finale.

FALL’S PLAYOFF PEDIGREE COULD BE ROOTS’ ACE IN THE HOLE

There are numerous players who have reached the USL Championship Playoffs in every season of their careers – three-time title-winners Sean Totsch of Louisville City FC and Speedy Williams of Miami FC among them – but none might be as unique as Oakland Roots SC’s Wal Fall. Having played for four clubs across six seasons in the league – including two separate stints with Saint Louis FC – the German midfielder has always seemed to find a way to be a catalyst for improvement with the players around him.

Part of that is reflected in the club’s record when Fall has and hasn’t been available for selection this season. With him available and in the lineup, Roots SC has gone 9-7-7 and conceded only 23 goals in 23 games while Fall has been on the field. Without, the side is 1-6-1 and has conceded 20 goals in eight games. There are other factors to this, for sure – one of them being the progression of Oakland from an expansion team to one that has found its feet well in its first season in the Championship overall – but there just seems to be something about Fall and his narrative that sets up these scenarios.

Oakland goes into its final game of the season in need of victory against Sporting Kansas City II on Saturday night while hoping the LA Galaxy II drop points against Orange County SC to give Roots SC a clear avenue into the postseason. Fall posted to his Twitter feed on Thursday, “Everybody who knows me knows exactly that that I will come in and keep fighting until the last day,” and it should be quite a home finale at Laney Stadium.

RISING FC LOOKS FOR URGENCY AGAINST TACOMA

Phoenix Rising FC has had the Pacific Division title locked up for a few weeks now, but after last week’s 1-1 draw against Sacramento Republic FC that required a late equalizer for the hosts before a club-record crowd of 9,236 fans at Wild Horse Pass, the focus has turned to finding greater urgency in the final game before the playoffs. With a win against Tacoma Defiance in its regular season home finale, Rising FC would clinch at least the best record in the Western Conference, and cap an undefeated home slate for the first time in club history.

“It would be nice to make sure we get at least the Western Conference,” said Rising FC Head Coach Rick Schantz. “More so for the fact we can say we won the Western Conference than what it yields. I told them, it's great. This is a must-win game for us but even if we win it, we only have one guaranteed game left. This season could be over in two weeks. Our last training could be next Friday. That brings a little bit of finality to everything you do at this point of the year.”

For Tacoma, there are still avenues to reach the postseason, which will mean the visitors will try to summon their best game of the season. Phoenix will have to try and thwart that and get its own positive feeling going before it takes aim at a run at the USL Championship Final.

SWITCHBACKS READY FOR FREE ROLL IN SAN ANTONIO

The Brendan Burke era at Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC didn’t get out to a stellar start. A 3-0 defeat on the road against San Antonio FC to open the campaign on May 1 was a result that left a mark for the coach and his new squad, to the extent that the return fixture on the final day of the season was quickly circled as a chance for revenge.

Now that game is here, however, there’s even more at stake than the Switchbacks looking to restore some pride. Level on points with San Antonio sitting in second place and the Switchbacks in third in the Mountain Division, the contest is now a winner-take-all clash for a home game to open the 2021 USL Championship Playoffs.

“Saturday is a playoff game,” said Burke. “At the very least it’s a great dress-rehearsal for the playoffs. We know we’re going to see OC [Orange County SC] or San Diego [Loyal] – probably OC – but the reality is that we’re going down to San Antonio with a free-swing in a playoff environment, which is more than we could ask for at the start of the season.”

The 3-0 result remains the heaviest the Switchbacks have suffered this season, a sign of how quickly the club has come together to earn its first postseason berth since 2016 in Burke’s first season. Colorado Springs can play fast and loose with nothing to lose and everything to gain.