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USL Championship Power Rankings – Week 13

By NICHOLAS MURRAY - nicholas.murray@uslsoccer.com, 06/02/25, 5:00PM EDT

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North Carolina is on a hot streak, but there are warning signs on its sustainability

Aside from the scorching hot Charleston Battery at the top of the race for the USL Championship Players’ Shield, the current form side in the Eastern Conference is its Southern Derby rival North Carolina FC.

The squad completed a perfect month of May in USL-sanctioned competitions with Saturday’s 1-0 victory against the Richmond Kickers in the USL Jägermeister Cup, giving it four consecutive wins overall across the in-season tournament and the Championship.

NCFC’s push forward from making the postseason in its return to the Championship a season ago has been a good story. The likes of Mikey Maldonado and Rafael Mentzingen have each taken a step forward, with Maldonado tied for the league-lead with five assists.

But the numbers say there’s reason to be a little worried about NCFC’s overall prospects.

Across three USL Championship games in May, North Carolina outscored its opponents 7-2 but held only a slim advantage in Expected Goals - 3.43xG against 3.34xG for its opponents. What’s more, North Carolina’s opponents outshot them 41 to 31 in three outings, and while Jake McGuire proved up to the task with a save percentage of 81.8 percent, it’s equally down to profligate finishing as anything that NCFC has been able to deliver defensive success.

This has been the challenge for North Carolina FC for most of the campaign. In both Opta and American Soccer Analysis’ models, it currently has a negative Expected Goal Differential, sitting at a -2.26xGD per Opta.

While everything is going smoothly for now, it’s likely NCFC is going to need to find another level to be a serious contender at the end of the campaign.

Here are this week’s rankings.

Biggest Movers

Rank

 

Team

Change

Summary

1 Sacramento Republic FC
(3-2-4)
Week 14: vs. TUL
2
Last Week:
3
Republic FC went through May undefeated in USL Championship and USL Jägermeister Cup play, and conceded only once in the process. Just as you’d expect for a Neill Collins-coached team.
2 Loudoun United FC
(7-3-0)
Week 14: vs. CHS
4
Last Week:
6
Loudoun has been building up to its breakthrough against Louisville City. Now it gets the next leg of a gauntlet of games at home to the Charleston Battery.
3 North Carolina FC
(5-3-2)
Week 14: @ HFD
4
Last Week:
7
NCFC put together a great month of May, winning four games in USL-sanctioned competitions and conceding only twice, but the underlying numbers offer a reason for caution.
4 Louisville City FC
(6-0-4)
Week 14: vs. TBR

Last Week:
4
Louisville pulled out all the stops to find an equalizer against Loudoun late, but Head Coach Danny Cruz was rightfully critical of the defensive work the side put in to put them in that position.
5 Charleston Battery
(8-2-0)
Week 14: @ LDN
4
Last Week:
1
We’re going to have to figure out who in the Battery’s camp has an aversion to Jägermeister. Two defeats to USL League One teams against a seven-game winning streak in the Championship doesn’t make sense.
6 New Mexico United
(7-3-0)
Week 14: vs. COS
1
Last Week:
5
Yes, losing in a shootout to Phoenix Rising stung after holding a lead twice, but United is still in control of its path to the knockout stage with games against Colorado Springs and San Antonio to come.
7 El Paso Locomotive FC
(5-2-4)
Week 14: @ OAK
5
Last Week:
2
Rotating the lineup for the USL Jägermeister Cup makes some sense, but it took the teeth out of a Locomotive attack that needed a win. Advancement’s still possible, but trickier from here.
8 Phoenix Rising FC
(4-3-4)
Week 14: vs. OC
3
Last Week:
11
We were going to sing the praises of goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky, but Head Coach Pa-Modou Kah won’t let us. “Don’t jinx him. Next question,” is going to be among the quotes of the year.
9 Miami FC
(3-5-1)
Week 14: @ RI
4
Last Week:
13
There might have been an element of fortune to Michael Lawrence’s winner against FC Naples, but Miami thoroughly deserved it. They’re now the favorite to advance out of Group 6.
10 Birmingham Legion FC
(2-4-4)
Week 14: vs. IND
2
Last Week:
12
Legion blocking 14 shots against FC Tulsa is the most by any team in a USL-sanctioned game this season, and an overall club record. That’s serious commitment to seeing out the result.
11 FC Tulsa
(5-3-2)
Week 14: @ SAC
3
Last Week:
8
Awful lot of shoulda, coulda, woulda for Tulsa after that loss to Legion. This side has all the makings of a contender, though, and the goals will start coming eventually, we think.
12 Indy Eleven
(1-3-5)
Week 14: @ BHM
3
Last Week:
9
Head Coach Sean McAuley’s recent quote, “We've done really well at scoring goals, and we’ve been pretty poor at defending,” never rang truer than in Wednesday’s 4-4 draw against Hartford.
13 Monterey Bay FC
(4-4-4)
Week 14: vs. LEX
6
Last Week:
18
Is Monterey Bay back? It might be. What we’re sure of is Ilijah Paul loves playing Orange County, he’s got four goals and one assist against them in two games this season.
14 San Antonio FC
(5-4-2)
Week 14: vs. LV

Last Week:
14
SAFC put together a good performance against Tulsa, but when the only shot you put on target is from the penalty spot, you’re leaving yourself open to get burned.
15 Rhode Island FC
(3-4-3)
Week 14: vs. MIA
2
Last Week:
17
Rhode Island’s table-turning victory against Pittsburgh wasn’t close to a great performance, but it kept the side on top of Group 4, and that’s what matters most.
16 Detroit City FC
(4-2-5)
Week 14: @ PIT
6
Last Week:
10
According to Opta, Le Rouge gave up four big chances to Portland Hearts of Pine and got burned all four times. That’s six games without a win across all competitions, and some problems to fix.
17 Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
(2-4-5)
Week 14: @ NM
2
Last Week:
19
A step forward again for the Switchbacks in El Paso. We’d like to see something a bit more convincing, but a win is a win.
18 Hartford Athletic
(1-5-3)
Week 14: vs. NC
3
Last Week:
21
Are we back to Burke-ball again? Seven goals in two games over the past week is much more like it, and Mamadou Dieng finding his form is a very welcome sign.
19 Orange County SC
(4-5-1)
Week 14: @ PHX
4
Last Week:
15
That’s likely a wrap for OCSC’s USL Jägermeister Cup campaign, but it was good to see Pedro Guimaraes on the scoresheet before his call-up to the USMNT U-17s.
20 Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
(3-5-2)
Week 14: vs. DET
4
Last Week:
16
The Hounds have lost two 1-0 results in the USL Jägermeister Cup as their attacking challenges continue. Someone’s got to start firing soon.
21 Tampa Bay Rowdies
(1-7-2)
Week 14: @ LOU
2
Last Week:
23
The Rowdies saved their USL Jagermeister Cup campaign thanks to their late comeback against Tormenta. Now they’ve got to try and carry that forward into league play.
22 Las Vegas Lights FC
(3-5-3)
Week 14: @ SA

Last Week:
22
The Lights have lost four games in a row after Saturday’s loss in Sacramento and simply couldn’t convert their chances to turn things in the right direction.
23 Oakland Roots SC
(3-7-1)
Week 14: vs. ELP
3
Last Week:
20
It didn’t take long for Morey Doner to show what he can offer Roots after coming on as a substitute against AV ALTA, but he also got to find out about why Oakland’s struggled this year as well.
24 Lexington SC
(1-5-5)
Week 14: @ MB

Last Week:
24
Lexington had a two-goal lead and a great shot at all three points and let it slip away. It’s the current story of their season, one that needs to change in short order.

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