USL Cup Quarterfinal Draw Complete: Four Matches to Watch

Credit Wade Wimberly

The Prinx Tires USL Cup quarterfinal draw happened today, and boy did we get some matchups. The Prinx Tires USL Cup is a domestic USL cup between the current top 2 leagues, USL Championship and USL League One, within the USL pyramid which has seen its share of cupsets. This year’s tournament has six USLC and two USL1 teams in the quarterfinals; let’s see how the draw played out.

The defending champions Hartford Athletic won group 5 beating New York Cosmos, Westchester SC, Brooklyn FC and drawing with Rhode Island FC. Last year they won the Cup 1-0 over Sacramento Republic FC. In the Quarterfinals this year they face USL 1 side Charlotte Independence, who won group 6. En route to winning group 6 they beat Richmond Kickers and Greenville Triumph SC while drawing and winning in PKs against Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and Charleston Battery. The story of this matchup will come down to the goalkeepers as both teams have held their opponents to 1 goal or less in each game so far with the advantage going to Hartford, unless the match ends in PKs where the advantage would have to go to Charlotte as they allowed 4 total in the 2 games decided by PKs, where Hartford allowed 4 in just 1 game.

Tampa Bay Rowdies will host Louisville City FC in a matchup that features 2 of the top 4 teams in USL Championship Eastern Conference this year. The Rowdies won all 4 of their matches en route to winning group 7. The impressive thing here was the Rowdies have done what they have done all season which is out scoring their opponents, this time 10 goals to 1. Louisville City on the other hand won 3 games, drawing against Detroit but winning in PKs. There is some history in USLC playoffs between these 2 teams, but is the first time they will meet in the USL Cup. The advantage must go to Tampa’s favor has they have been one of the most dominant teams this year as they have only lost twice over 19 matches this year. This game has a chance to be a real rivalry matchup.

San Antonio FC hosts Miami FC which could be an upset in the making as Miami is the lone wild card team going against the group 3 winner. San Antonio won all 4 games, needed PKs to win one of them, but so far have held the teams they played against to 1 goal in regulation. Miami on the other side comes from Group 7 where they placed 2^nd with their lone loss going to Tampa Bay. The surprise here is that Miami who has struggled in goal was able to look much better with goal difference where it was 11 goals scored to 5 conceded, which is much better than the 18 and 24 respectively in the USLC season. Can Miami continue turning their season around and move past or will San Antonio get 1 step closer to being the first USLC team to win the USL Championship title, Players Shield and the USL Cup?

The last matchup from the Quarterfinals sees USL1 side Spokane Velocity FC host USL C side Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC. Spokane comes in winning their last 3 USL Cup matches after a round 1 loss to Sacramento Republic FC in a game where Spokane gave up 4 goals in that matchup but only 2 in the following 3 games. Colorado Springs on the other side won all 4 of their matches with wins, matching Tampa Bay in goals scored and conceded in 10 and 1 respectively. It would be fair to say that Colorado Springs has the upper hand in this one as goalkeepers have been rock solid in this tournament; however, Spokane has been a strong side at home posting a 9-2 record.

Will we see a USL1 team make it to the semifinals for just the 2^nd time ever in what could be a cupset or will the USLC continue to show that there is a difference between the two leagues? Find out on August 12^th with the first games starting at 7pm ET.