Continuing our series ahead of the start of the 2018 USL Cup Playoffs this Friday night that looks at the teams that aren’t part of the postseason field, we cast an eye to the Western Conference and a group of teams that includes a pair of newcomers that will look to learn from their inaugural season, and one that will try to return to its former glory in 2019.

Las Vegas Lights FC

There was no side outside of FC Cincinnati that inspired more national headlines than Las Vegas Lights FC, whose goal of being by Las Vegas, for Las Vegas and of Las Vegas more than lived up to the billing in its uniforms, its promotions, its partnerships and the entertainment value the side was capable of bringing on the field.

Unfortunately for Lights FC, and to the cost of the jobs of both Technical Director Jose Luis Sanchez Sola and Head Coach Isidro Sanchez, too much of the fun was had by opposing sides as the club’s defense consistently leaked goals. That was especially true away from home where the side conceded 47 goals over 17 games, the most in the Western Conference.

Enter new Technical Director and Head Coach Eric Wynalda, a firebrand within North American soccer and another splashy hire for a side that has shown it knows how to make a memorable impression. But if this season was a successful one in putting Lights FC on the map, its first under Wynalda is going to have to show more substance than style.

Lights FC’s roster was a work-in-progress for a good amount of the season with its midseason additions building some chemistry as the season wore on. It could form a decent starting-point for next year’s squad should Wynalda and his team choose to retain them as the attacking trio of Raul Mendiola, Sammy Ochoa and Carlos Alvarez, all put up solid numbers and appeared to have developed a good understanding by the time the season ended.

For Ochoa, to end with eight goals and seven assists was particularly impressive considering how snake-bit the veteran forward looked at the start of the season. His all-around play ensured he ended the season as the club’s leader in minutes, though, and his ability to find space in the penalty area is something that comes from a player with his experience.

If the side can also hold onto Mendiola and Alvarez, who led the team in chances created with 54, then there’s a solid attacking nucleus to build around for a side that wants to entertain.

As the season wound on, the curiosity as to whether Adu would make an appearance for Lights FC began to dwindle, but there were still some things to like when the former U.S. international was on the field for Lights FC this year. His numbers weren’t big, just one goal and one assist over 14 appearances, but there was the sign of a player who still had that creative spark – he registered a key pass every 47.2 minutes of action – when he got onto the field.

Adu has travelled plenty in his career and it will be interesting to see if he is part of Wynalda’s and the club’s plans moving forward. It does seem like it could be a win-win for Adu to remain and help grow Lights FC into Year 2 and provide a foundation for a late-career resurgence, but all bets are off with the new leadership now in town.

Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC

Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC missed out on the postseason for the second consecutive year, and this year it was mainly the club’s inability to get results away from Weidner Field that was the culprit. It wasn’t just that the side won only three times away from home that was the issue, it was that the side couldn’t earn enough draws either, which left it with only 11 points from its 17 road games in 2018.

The 12 losses away from home were tied for fourth-most in the league, alongside ATL UTD 2 and Las Vegas Lights FC, and came about mostly because of an inability to find the net consistently with only 17 goals in 17 road contests. That’s a mark that was surpassed by the last-place clubs in both conferences, Tulsa Roughnecks FC and Toronto FC II, not the sort of company that will find a side giving itself a chance at the postseason.

The Switchbacks have never been a great road team, even when they last reached the postseason in 2016 they only claimed 16 points from 15 road contests, but even getting back to that level would be a positive step in 2019.

We referenced the lack of goalscoring on the road for the Switchbacks above, but it wasn’t that much better at home. When your co-leading scorers only go for six goals apiece, it’s simply not going to be enough to put a side in playoff contention no matter how good defensively it is. The Switchbacks finished with only 29 goals from within the penalty area, third-fewest in the league, an indicator of how much this side needed a dominant central striker for Shane Malcolm and Saeed Robinson to play off and feed.

Is that player Marty Maybin? The Northern Irish forward had four goals in 24 games in his return to the team, and there could be other options like Tobenna Uzo, who we only saw in limited action this season, within the current playing group.

The more likely solution, though, is the Switchbacks are going to need to go out and find a player who can consistently find the net at a better clip than the club’s 2018 chance conversion rate of just 11.9 percent.

This week’s announcement that Luke Vercollone was hanging up his boots after more than 300 professional appearances wasn’t necessarily unexpected, but it will make for a different dynamic in the Colorado Springs locker room that has some proven leadership but may need others to form a cohesive unit.

Switchbacks mainstays Josh Suggs and Jordan Burt are almost certain to lead the way here, and Shane Malcolm’s international experience and talent on the ball could certainly help as well. Life after Vercollone, who was well-liked and admired by teammates and fans alike in the Switchbacks family, is going to give the team potentially a very different feel next spring.

Fresno FC

Putting together an expansion roster is rarely easy, especially with the rising level of competition for players within the league, which means it shouldn’t be viewed as a disappointment that Fresno FC wasn’t part of the postseason in its first year. There were some good underlying numbers to the club’s performance, most notably posting a +6 goal differential while surrounded by those who finished in the red below the playoff line.

What this season should have provided Head Coach Adam Smith and his staff, though, is a clear view as to which of the club’s core group are going to be the ones to build around for the long-term. With eight players having played more than 2,070 minutes – effectively two-thirds of the season – that core group appears to be in place for 2019.

The experience brought by players like Pedro Ribeiro, Mickey Daly and Juan Pablo Caffa is going to be important to retain if possible and give the side a chance at making the sort of jump OKC Energy FC did in its second year, when it took second place in the Western Conference thanks in part to the key pieces the club retained.

The biggest thing that might contribute to a jump up the standings is having a consistent double-digit scoring threat to lead the club’s attack. In 24-year-old Christian Chaney, the Foxes may have that within their group already.

Chaney got his first real chance at minutes this year after a couple of seasons where he worked and learned at Sacramento Republic FC, and it turned into a semi-breakout season that saw Chaney score seven goals at a rate of a goal every 220 minutes. The key for Chaney is going to be upping his accuracy (44.8 percent) and conversion rate (12 percent) to move closer in line with the players who were among the leading scorers this season.

If Chaney can make that leap, it will not only make the Foxes more dangerous overall but could have a domino effect that creates more space for players like this year’s co-leading scorers for the Foxes, Jemal Johnson and Juan Pablo Caffa.

The road was unkind to the Foxes in their inaugural season, and it simply came down to the club’s inability to find the back of the net. Fresno scored just 14 goals in 17 road games, and after taking victory in its first road contest of the season the side won just once more over the remaining 16 games away from Chukchansi Park, a stat that was inarguably the biggest reason the Foxes missed out on the postseason.

What’s maybe the most surprising thing about this is the Foxes were among the best teams in creating chances away from home in the league. Fresno posted 174 created chances on the road, an average of more than 10 per game, that put it tied for fourth in the league and sitting in the company of teams like Phoenix Rising FC, Sacramento Republic FC and Louisville City FC.

Unlike those sides, however, Fresno was unable to consistently convert, or hit the target. Its 59 shots on goal were tied for seventh-fewest in the league where it sat alongside the likes of the Richmond Kickers and Ottawa Fury FC and more than 25 fewer than Phoenix and Louisville. Fresno’s road defense was solid, but not in the league of the likes of fellow low-scorers Indy Eleven or Nashville SC that saw both those sides squeak into the Eastern Conference postseason field.

LA Galaxy II

If you’ve followed the USL for a while, it’s not an exaggeration to say that Efrain Alvarez is arguably among the three most exciting prospects to have played in the league since the advent of the partnership with MLS, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that his career arc is going to take the same direction as the other two – who happen to be Alphonso Davies and Tyler Adams – sooner rather than later.

As a result, how the LA Galaxy choose to play this is going to be something plenty of fans beyond Los Angeles are going to pay attention to this offseason and beyond. Alvarez has shown with a scoring rate of a goal every 103.3 minutes this season that he’s potentially ready for the next level as Davies and Adams were after outstanding 2016 seasons that saw Adams lift the USL Cup with the Red Bulls II.

That’s one thing when you’re in a system that’s shown a willingness to give youth its shot in Vancouver and New York, but quite another when you’re the Galaxy and you’re having to decide over whether Efrain Alvarez or, say, Giovani Dos Santos is in your lineup, which makes it a big question for Galaxy brass as they move into their offseason.

As one of the sides to sit with three double-digit goalscorers this season, finding the back of the net wasn’t usually a problem for Los Dos. What wasn’t missing from those Galaxy II sides that contended for the USL Cup in its first two seasons, though, was a measure of experience in the back line that has now vanished, which caused a minus-seven goal differential despite the club racking up 60 goals on its own.

The promotion of players like Daniel Steres and David Romney to the Galaxy’s squad and others like Jaime Villarreal and Alejandro Covarrubias moving on entirely wasn’t really addressed, which meant it became easier for opponents to push through the middle of the field and create chances against a young back line. As a result, the Galaxy II gave up 14.6 shots per game this season, seventh-most in the league, and 5.2 shots on target per game, fifth-most on the season.

Finding some experience that will add to the spine of Los Dos could allow the side to thrive again and produce a better structure for the talented young players that compete for the side to produce consistently. Getting back to the early Galaxy II model that not only brought talent up but also taught its young players how to win is going to be important.

Efrain Alvarez’s performance was the one that caught most attention, but the play of Ethan Zubak and new Cuban addition Frank Lopez also saw both players take the spotlight this season. The question now for the Galaxy and the players is where is the offseason going to take either?

Both are on Galaxy II contracts as of now, although Zubak’s future should hold a Homegrown Player deal in it should the club believe the 20-year-old is ready to make that step. As with Alvarez, though, the question then becomes where you find playing time for either Zubak or Lopez, should he make the move to the first team at some point. Ariel Lassiter continues to show he’s probably a bit too good for Los Dos when he’s in the lineup but hasn’t made a breakthrough consistently in MLS given the star-power in front of him.

The forebear of all these players, of course, is Jack McBean, who was a standout for two seasons in 2014 and 2015 before earning his way back to the Galaxy squad. Now he’s with the Colorado Rapids, symbolic of what can happen to young, talented forwards that can’t hope to meet the lofty resumes of the players LA brings in from elsewhere.

Seattle Sounders FC 2

Seattle Sounders FC 2 saw its attendance rise more than 225 percent in 2018 after its move to Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Wash., fulfilling the club’s hopes for the way it would be embraced by a regional community and making the side the best-attended of all the MLS owned-and-operated clubs in the league this season.

Maintaining that level of enthusiasm is now going to be the trick for the club’s management, and it looks as though they’re making moves to give S2 a more Tacoma-ish feel. Putting out feelers for a new club name was a move in this direction, and while that might not take place this offseason it certainly feels like it would be another positive step to giving the team its own identity.

After four seasons of seeing a hollowed-out Sounders crest act as your official emblem, the club is looking ready to stand on its own two feet.

Since reaching the USL Cup Playoffs in its inaugural season in 2015 with a veteran-laden squad, S2 has gotten younger and younger each year. That’s unlikely to change in 2019 with the announcement that players like 16-year-old Alec Diaz – who had two goals and two assists in S2’s final two regular season games – will move onto a professional contract next season after being a USL Academy signing this year.

What’s felt different from the past two seasons, though, is Head Coach John Hutchinson’s willingness to hold his young players’ feet to the fire a little more and raise their own expectations of what they should be able to accomplish. With players like David Estrada to lead them on the field and in the locker room, S2 should be hoping to take inspiration from the side just south of them and take a similar leap forward next year in competitiveness on the field.

A two-time selection for the USL 20 Under 20, Sam Rogers is maybe the most intriguing of the S2 prospects to have come out of the Academy in the past two years. Where he’s headed in the next 12 months could set a lot of expectations for the future with the 19-year-old Seattle native.

Rogers only made 11 appearances for S2 this season, and for good reason since much of his time absent from the club was spent with U.S. Youth National Teams ahead of potential selection to the 2018 Concacaf U20 Championship in November. A strong showing there could be the path to an even bigger year in 2019, where he’d not only get the chance to make a case for a move to an MLS contract, but also the prospect of the FIFA U20 World Cup.

Hutchinson and others within the Sounders organization believe Rogers is destined for big things, not just at the club level in MLS but potentially with the U.S. Men’s National Team down the line. Those are lofty goals, and ones that Rogers will start to chase down in the next 12 months.