Just under a year ago, local United Soccer League (USL) Championship team San Antonio FC (SAFC) lifted their first-ever trophy. This year, the road to the final will be far more challenging. SAFC was the first seed and got a full slate of home games last year, but now, as just the fourth seed in the west, SAFC is only guaranteed one home game.
SAFC came into the last two months of the season with just three losses and seven ties on the season and looked like a favorite to get a top seed once again. However, since Aug. 19, San Antonio has doubled both their loss and draw tally for the season. This late-season drop in quality took San Antonio out of the race for guaranteed home-field advantage and almost led to them being on the road for the entirety of the playoffs, avoiding this fate by just three points.
The team that San Antonio beat out for that home game to start the postseason is the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, who is also San Antonio’s first opponent of these playoffs. San Antonio’s rivals from 6,035 feet above sea level faced San Antonio last year in the Western Conference finals, a game that SAFC won 2-0. The Switchbacks transferred their leading goal scorer Hadji Barry right before last year’s playoffs, and the Switchbacks felt his absence when they faced SAFC, and into the start of this year. At the midway point of the season, the Switchbacks seemed out of the playoff race. However, opposite of SAFC, the Switchbacks have been hot over the past two months. With seven wins out of their last ten, the Switchbacks will be a tough challenge to start for SAFC.
If SAFC is to make it past the Switchbacks, it will likely be a trip to the number one-seeded Sacramento Republic FC. Sacramento was the best team in the Western Conference this year with the same number of losses as SAFC but four fewer draws. Sacramento has had the best defense in the USL this year, allowing just 26 goals in 34 games. This challenge could serve as a huge problem for SAFC, who have been shut out in five of their last 11 games. Sacramento takes on New Mexico to start their playoff run.
Besides Sacramento, the toughest team in the west is Orange County Soccer Club (OCSC). Orange County finished the season four points ahead of SAFC despite having five more losses. There is a lot to be said about OCSC, however, in terms of SAFC, nothing is more relevant than their two matches against San Antonio in the last month. 27 days ago, San Antonio defeated OCSC 4-0 at Toyota Field in San Antonio. More recently, on Oct. 7, San Antonio lost to OCSC 1-0 on the road. If SAFC faces Orange County, it would be in a Western Conference final on the road, less than a month after their last loss at Orange County. Orange County starts its playoff run against El Paso.
If SAFC can make it to the USL Championship Final for the second year in a row, they could face their toughest opponent yet, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Besides being first place overall in the USL, the Riverhounds also led in several other metrics. Pittsburgh had the most wins and the least losses in the league, only losing five times all year. They also were second only to Sacramento in goals allowed. Pittsburgh has been the best team and on top of the table since almost the first week of the season, even making an impressive run in the U.S. Open Cup, beating Major League Soccer (MLS) teams the Columbus Crew and the New England Revolution. Last year, the USL team to beat was SAFC — this year, that title belongs to Pittsburgh as the playoffs get set to start. Pittsburgh opens the playoffs with a game against Detroit.
Around the USL, the rest of the first-round playoff matchups include a Western Conference game between San Diego and Phoenix, and three Eastern Conference games: Memphis vs. Louisville, Charleston vs. Indianapolis and Tampa Bay vs. Birmingham. SAFC will open their championship defense this Saturday, Oct. 21 at 8:00 p.m.
