When Detroit City FC upset then-Players’ Shield winners Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals of the 2023 USL Championship Playoffs, the 26-point margin between the two clubs in the Eastern Conference rated it as the biggest upset in the league’s postseason history.

Two years on, Le Rouge delivered something even more improbable.

In five prior visits, DCFC had never won against Louisville City FC at Lynn Family Stadium, losing all five contests by a 14-2 aggregate scoreline.

What’s more, LouCity was coming off one of the best regular seasons in USL-C history to claim its second consecutive Players’ Shield. The hosts had gone undefeated at home for the first time in a regular season while almost doubling Le Rouge’s point total with 73 points to Detroit’s 37 across their 30-game regular season slates.

The 36-point differential between the two sides was the largest in USL Championship Playoffs history.

And yet, thanks to a first-half goal by Devon Amoo-Mensah and a stellar defensive display highlighted by goalkeeper Carlos Saldaña’s three-save shutout and eight blocked shots, the visitors delivered the biggest upset in USL Championship Playoffs history, with their 1-0 win ending LouCity’s season in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals for the first time.

• SET FOR SUCCESS: If there was a major surprise that Le Rouge took victory, there wasn’t about how they found the net. The club had been above average from corner kicks in the regular season, scoring five of its 33 goals from those opportunities, and a precise set piece from Ryan Williams flicked on by Jay Chapman to find Amoo-Mensah as he arrived at the back post was perfectly executed.

• UNDER PRESSURE: Amoo-Mensah’s finish proved the last of the three shots Detroit took on the night. The visitors recorded only one touch inside Louisville’s penalty area in the second half as they battled to withstand the hosts’ pressure. Saldaña’s denial of Brian Ownby’s header in the 65th minute was an early contender for Save of the Playoffs, but Detroit was able to hold as the scoreboard pressure built on the hosts.

• HELD AT BAY: For all its pressure, LouCity looked like a team that by the end had simply run out of ideas, with cross after cross being delivered into the box and dealt with by Detroit’s tightly packed defensive group. In the USL Championship’s Opta database, Louisville’s 57 crosses were the second-highest total in a game across the regular season since the start of the 2017 season, but the hosts connected on only 10 of them as Shane Weidt (16), Michael Bryant (13) and Williams (11) all recorded double-digit clearances.

In this weekend’s opening games of the USL Championship Playoffs, that idea of scoreboard pressure was crucial overall. In five contests, the winning side scored first while holding the opposition off the scoreboard, while there were two games decided in the Eastern Conference by penalty shootouts where an opening shot save – in the case of Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC – and an opening shot goal – in the case of Rhode Island FC – set the tone for the eventual outcome.

What does this portend for Detroit City, which came off the high of defeating the Hounds two years ago only to get blasted 4-0 by Louisville City in the Eastern Conference Semifinals? That’s a big question, with the irony being Le Rouge now must face the No. 4 seed Hounds at Highmark Stadium next Saturday where there will be some in Pittsburgh’s squad wanting to exact revenge for what happened the last time they met in the playoffs.

For the USL Championship Playoffs as a whole, however, the defeats of the two highest-scoring teams in the regular season – and the top two teams in hosting priority for the Championship Final – after the Charleston Battery’s elimination by Rhode Island means everything is going to be up for grabs over the next three weekends.