We’ve now had a look at all 12 teams after the action in week two. While we’re not ready to commit to in-season power rankings just yet, here are six storylines we’re watching in week 3.
Editor’s note: this piece was published on Tuesday, March 19th, but has been updated after mid-week US Open Cup action.
1. RICHMOND’S WINLESS STREAK
The Roos are winless in 17 regular season matches, going back to July 1st, 2023. While the second match of a new season is not a must win, it would certainly give a jolt of life to the squad and provide some much needed morale among the fan base.
Richmond is struggling with injuries right now. Emiliano Terzaghi will miss the first month of the season with a hand injury. Nathan Aune and João Gomiero missed the 2-1 loss at Spokane with undisclosed ailments. Midfielder James Vaughn exited that match with an apparent injury as well, but thankfully returned for the mid-week US Open Cup match. Meanwhile Toni Pineda exited from the US Open Cup match with a lower body injury.
Richmond notched a 1-0 victory over USL League Two side Christos FC in the US Open Cup first round on Wednesday. Adrian Billhard scored the lone goal, his second in as many matches.
2. TORMENTA FACES A LOT OF FORMER PLAYERS
Tormenta is also coming off a disappointing 2023 campaign, and dropped its first match to a hot-out-of-the-gate Fuego side. However, they managed a late equalizer against Madison, taking at least one point in the first two weeks of play. After a shaky start against Fuego, Ford Parker stood on his head against Madison, keeping Tormenta in that match. It’s also promising that Tormenta has a goal each from its two off-season offensive signings, Sebastian Vivas and Niall Watson. They had some big shoes to fill, and may be up to the task.
Tormenta will face former players Adrian Billhard, Arthur Bosua and Pablo Jara for the first time since each player left South Georgia. Billhard spent 2023 with Detroit City of the USL Championship, while Bosua and Jara exited the squad this off-season. The latter was Tormenta’s goalkeeper going back to the PDL days, and captained the professional side since 2019.
In addition, Richmond forward Ryan Sierakowski played for Tormenta for half of 2022 and for the first 25 days of the 2023 season, while midfielder Nil Vinyals played in South Georgia in the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Tormenta survived an encounter with FC America CFL Spurs in midweek US Open Cup action on a Nick Akoto goal in the 5th minute.
3. BARREL WARS 2024: LEXINGTON HAD THE HYPE BUT KNOXVILLE IS HOT
Lexington had the pre-season hype, but Knoxville put up an outstanding performance at Charlotte this past weekend. The two 2023 expansion sides will duke it out for the first leg of Battle of the Barrel in Knoxville.
Knoxville made a bit of a run at the playoffs last year, but ultimately finished five points back. Some off-season drama appears to have been resolved, and a strong returning core is joined by some signings that we ranked mostly “wait and see.” It was the returning core who took care of business against Charlotte, with Frank Ross and Angelo Kelly-Rosales scoring goals (Kelly-Rosales assisted on the first one). But our first look at newcomers Innocent Nshuti, Sivert Haugli and Stuart Ritchie were positive. Each had a shot on target, while Haugli and Ritchie also impressed in the midfield and on defense.
Lexington battled out a 1-0 win over Chattanooga on Friday night. While we haven’t seen the Lexington that we expected yet, we have seen promising signs that the squad is getting things together. In the last two matches, 6-7 players in the starting 11 were off-season acquisitions, something that is expected to require some time to heat up.
Lexington will be missing goal-scorer Yannick Yankam, who will be on international duties with Malta this weekend. The offensive depth, built up in the off season, will need to fill in for his midfield play. Coach Darren Powell went with a 4-1-4-1 against Northern Colorado and a 4-2-3-1 setup against Chattanooga. With Knoxville’s offense suddenly showing signs of life, we’d expect one of these two setups. There are plenty of options to fill Yankam’s role, with our guess going to Pierre Mané.
Knoxville defeated former USL League Two rivals Asheville City 2-0 in Wednesday night US Open Cup action, while Lexington fell to Vermont Green in a wild 4-3 result.
4. GREENVILLE EAGER TO PROVE THE NAYSAYERS WRONG
Defender (now midfielder?) Evan Lee called everyone out after scoring a goal in Greenville’s 3-1 opening match win over Spokane. We have to assume we were included in this callout, after listing Greenville 8th in our pre-season power rankings.
In the meantime, Greenville took a 1-0 victory over SC United Bantams in US Open Cup action on Wednesday.
5. MADISON: UP, DOWN OR MUCH THE SAME FROM 2023?
Madison built up quite a bit of goodwill in our book with the off-season signing of Juan Galindrez. We felt it was a move meant to address Madison’s most glaring problem last season, goal-scoring. The jury is still out, and we definitely took some pushback for our position. We do know that against Tormenta, Galindrez took four shots in his 67 minutes of play, but ran up against a suddenly hot Fort Parker.
Madison did go ahead on a Devin Boyce goal, but gave up a last minute equalizer to head home with just one point. While it’s just the first match of the season, it does exhume memories of last season where the Mingos limped into the post-seasons with just one win in the last 11 matches.
Will Matt Glaeser make any adjustments ahead of facing off with Greenville this weekend? Should we read into Galindrez getting the start over Chaney in the first match? The next few weeks will be a critical test to see if they’ve taken care of their issues, or will end up much the same as last season.
Midweek saw Chaney as the go-to striker, a decision that rewarded a brace in a 2-0 win over Duluth FC in US Open Cup action.
6. SPOKANE HOSTS ROAD WARRIORS NORTHERN COLORADO
Squeaking out a 2-1 win over an injury riddled Richmond side without a win since July 1, 2023 is one thing. Doing it again against a road-tested Northern Colorado side? That’s not going to be easy.
Northern Colorado are legendary road-warriors in the first few months of the season, going 3-1-2 in the first six matches of 2023, all on the road. They held their own at Lexington last week in a 0-0 draw, without the services of Billy King and Marky Hernández. The latter returned for midweek US Open Cup action at Tulsa Athletic, scoring one of the side’s 4 goals in a resounding win.
Spokane’ depth is a little concerning, carrying a roster of only 18 players. They travelled across Washington on Wednesday, defeating USL League Two champions Ballard FC on a last minute Andre Lewis goal.
Depth and roster management become critical leading up to this match. Can Spokane handle it and put up a good fight against Northern Colorado this weekend? Or will Northern Colorado’s experience and depth win out?