Toronto FC II is on the brink of being eliminated from playoff contention. Photo credit: Robbie Mehling/ Soc Takes
The USL season has passed the 75 percent point and we’re into the final weeks of the season. That means the playoff race is heating up!
And yet, because of the sheer madness that is the USL, no team has been eliminated from the playoffs yet, and only one team has secured a spot.
First up, FC Cincinnati is the only team at this point to have secured a spot in the postseason. Cincy is sitting on 60 points in 27 games (a ludicrous 2.22 PPG!), which means that only seven teams can pass them. While it’s a safe bet to expect Cincinnati to finish top of not just the Eastern Conference but the league as a whole, its seeding is still very much undecided.
As for the rest of the league, no one can clinch this week. Yeah, Cincinnati is that good.
And now onto the elimination scenarios for Week 26, beginning in the Western Conference.
Tulsa Roughnecks FC currently sits at the bottom of the West and is the closest team to elimination in the conference. There are four different scenarios that will see Tulsa eliminated by the end of the week:
- Tulsa loses/draws against Sounders 2 on Wednesday; San Antonio wins/draws against Phoenix on Saturday
- Tulsa loses/draws against Sounders 2; Saint Louis wins against Reno on Saturday
- Reno wins against Saint Louis; San Antonio wins against Phoenix
- Tulsa loses/draws against Sounders 2; Tulsa loses/draws against Timbers 2 on Sunday
Tulsa essentially needs to win out the season and hope for a lot of dropped points to even have a shot at making the playoffs.
In the East, there’s one team facing elimination this weekend, Toronto FC II. TFC II is also at the bottom of its conference with 12 points from 25 games. There are three scenarios for TFC II’s elimination:
- TFC II loses/draws against Ottawa on Wednesday
- Nashville SC wins against North Carolina on Saturday
- TFC II draws against Ottawa; Nashville draws against North Carolina
That’s all for this week in the USL playoff race. Stay tuned for the next report which should be out next Monday and will continue until the final seeding is determined. In the USL, that can mean literally the last day of the season!
As always, thanks for reading and thanks for supporting Soc Takes. Apologies for the delay in the Q3 progress report. Lots of life suddenly happened, and rather than a 75 percent report, it’ll be closer to 80 percent-ish. It’s coming soon!
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John Michael Lenard 