Hard to believe the season is half over, but here we are. This is an entirely fun exercise in putting together midseason all-league team based on first half performance. Even more fun will be to return to these squads when the league releases its teams at the end of the season. We’ll see who remained consistent, and who might have fallen off in the second half.
While the league does seem to be experiencing a great deal of overall parity moving into the second half of the season, there have been a lot of top performers stacked on just a few teams. This is reflected by the fact that our first team only has five teams represented. Four of these teams, Charlotte Independence, Forward Madison, North Carolina FC and Northern Colorado simply have a disproportionate number of top league performers.
NOTE: all stats as of Monday, July 3rd – thus do not include the July 4th match between Northern Colorado and Charlotte, which marked the official start of the second half of the season.
League One Updater USL League One 2023 First-Half First Team
GK – Austin Pack, Charlotte Independence: after a not-so-productive 2022 stint at Hartford in the USL Championship which saw his mid-season release, Pack rejoined Charlotte as a backup, but did not see any minutes the remainder of the season. However, he won the starting role for 2023 and is on pace for a career-best performance with six clean sheets and 14 goals conceded in 15 league matches. Pack backstopped what was one of the league’s top defenses in the first half of the season, and was a huge part of maintaining that.
D – Joel Johnson, Charlotte Independence: Johnson re-joined the Jacks after a year with Hartford in the USL Championship. While primarily a right back, Johnson has proved his versatility by starting around the pitch, including in the midfield and at wing. In the first half of the season, he contributed three goals, an assist and created a team-high 25 chances.
D – Jake Crull, Forward Madison: the center back joined Forward Madison from FC Tucson in the off season as part of the Mingos’ massive roster overhaul and paid dividends in shoring up one of the league’s tightest defenses in the first half of the season. Crull leads Madison in tackles won, and leads the defenders in duels won and aerial duels won. He’s also contributed two goals and an assist and is second to midfielder Isidro Martinez in chances created.
D – Bruno Rendón, Northern Colorado Hailstorm: the league newcomer has been a crucial part of locking down Hailstorm’s top-ranked defense in the first half of 2023. Second in clearances and interceptions, and top of the squad in tackles won, duels and aerial duels won, the sizable defender makes his presence known across the back half of the field. He also tacked a goal while maintaining the second most shots on the team, and creating seven chances.
D – Arthur Rogers, Northern Colorado Hailstorm: with one and a half USL League One seasons under his belt, no other defender has shown the two-way versatility that we’ve seen from Rogers. Leading the league in chances created, providing three assists, the reigning defender of the year and first-team selection also comes in second on his squad in tackles won and duels won, while appearing in every minute of league play this season. Rogers has also recently shifted to the midfield, so he may not even qualify for defender of the year by the end of the season, but league MVP is certainly within reach.
M – Isidro Martinez, Forward Madison: the 26 year old has provided exactly the midfield spark that was missing from Forward Madison last season. Leading the squad with 26 chances created, Martinez has also provided a goal and two assists. He’s also an adept two-way midfielder, logging 24 tackles won and 64 duels won – a big reason why his team is know for having a stingy defense.
M – Rafa Mentzingen, North Carolina FC: the hero of Chattanooga’s 2022 playoff run, Rafa co-leads his new squad in goals scored, and for a time, led the entire league. He also leads in shots and chances created, helping lead an offensive powerhouse that has seen two of his fellow line mates (Louis Perez and Oalex Anderson) also compete for the golden boot conversation. Rafa is also a midfield menace, leading the squad with 93 duels won.
M – Louis Pérez, North Carolina FC: the Frenchman started the season a couple of matches late, but quickly made his presence known, scoring five goals in 13 appearances, along with an assist and 18 chances created. It cannot be emphasized enough how potent this offensive attack is with Mentzingen, Pérez, Anderson and Garrett McLaughlin as options to take shots.
M – JP Scearce, Union Omaha: another return first team selection, Scearce continues to straddle the league lead in duels won at 104, currently second only to Greenville’s Leo Castro’s 107. He’s also second in interceptions and aerial duels won on the team, added two goals, and stepped in as captain when needed.
F – Trevor Amann, Northern Colorado Hailstorm: when the club’s 2022’s leading goal scorer Irvin Parra stepped away for medical reasons, Amann stepped up in a huge way, scoring eight goals in 11 matches, leading the golden boot race at the halfway point of the season, with five matches in hand. Not bad for a guy who scored five total in all of 2022.
F – Oalex Anderson, North Carolina FC: the striker leads the league in goals + assists at ten, with six goals and four assists. This makes Anderson at least partially responsible for a whopping 48% of his club’s first half of the season goals. He’s also on track to nearly double his production from 2022, where he finished with an impressive seven goals and seven assists.
Second Team
Forwards: Leo Castro, Greenville Triumph; Christian Chaney, Forward Madison
Midfielders: Luis Gil, Union Omaha; Billy King, Northern Colorado; Lyam MacKinnon, Greenville Triumph; Tobias Otieno, South Georgia
Defenders: Nathan Aune, Richmond Kickers; Clay Dimick, Charlotte Independence; Lucky Opera, Northern Colorado; Tate Robertson, Lexington SC
Goalkeeper: Lalo Delgado, Northern Colorado
Editor’s note: it came down to the final matches of week 16, but we had to make some tough decisions with so many valuable strikers. Ultimately, we picked Trevor Amann, based on co-leading the golden boot race at the time of writing and doing it with fewer matches on a team with 2.0 points per match; Oalex Anderson based on goals + assists; Leo Castro, also based on goals + assists and duels won; and Christian Chaney based on goals + midfield dominance. However, we have to specifically mention at least one honorable mention in Noe Meza, who barely missed out, with his with eight goals in 14 matches, including two multi-goal games.
We placed Joel Johnson, Arthur Rogers and Tate Robertson as defenders, which is their traditional position, even though they’ve bounced around between the backline and the midfield.
Notable honorable mentions: Nico Brown, Lexington SC; Alexis Cerritos, Central Valley Fuego; Lucas Coutinho, Greenville Triumph; Miguel Ibarra, Charlotte Independence; Jake Keegan, One Knoxville; Jackson Khoury, South Georgia; Aaron Lombardi, Chattanooga; Noe Meza, Union Omaha; Gabriel Obertan, Charlotte Independence; Mitch Osmond, Forward Madison; Tyler Polak, Greenville Triumph; Angelo Kelly-Rosales, One Knoxville; Bernd Schipmann, Forward Madison; Justin Sukow, Richmond Kickers; Emiliano Terzaghi, Richmond Kickers; Jimmie Villalobos, One Knoxville; Nil Vinyals, Richmond Kickers; Derek Waldeck, One Knoxville; Aaron Walker, Greenville Triumph.
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