What We're Watching in USL League One's Final Week

We're down to the final week of the regular season, and one thing is for sure: Charlotte Independence are the 2026 Player's Shield winners.

The Jacks wrapped up their historic season with a decisive 3-0 win over Greenville to secure the club's first regular season title. But even though the hardware is secure, there are still a few things to watch when the squad finishes the season at Portland.

For Your Consideration: Charlotte Independence

The Jacks are finishing an historic season, with multiple records broken or tied, and several players and a coach set to clean up on end of season awards.

Jon Bakero will not only finish with the Golden Playmaker award, but he's also running away with the regular season record. The Spanish midfielder is now up to 17 in regular season play after adding another against Greenville last weekend. It puts him at a whopping 25 goal contributions on the year, and in our view, first in line for the league MVP.

But his teammate Souaibou Marou is also the current leader in the Golden Boot race after scoring all three of the goals against Greenville. The striker is up to 18 on the year, two ahead of Westchester midfielder Conor McGlynn.

We're looking at the top two MVP candidates coming from the same team. This is something not seen since 2022, when Emiliano Terzaghi and Jonathan Bolanos were nominated after breaking goals and assists records respectively while playing for the Richmond Kickers.

Charlotte's record-breaking season doesn't even stop here. Bakero is now tied with Nil Vinyals for the all-time assists leader, something that took Vinyals eight seasons to achieve. Bakero has matched him in only two. With Bakero down to one match left, and Vinyals with two, could we see a new leader in this category after this coming weekend?

Charlotte also has the best home record in league history at 14-1-1 with 43 points and 2.69 points per match, the most goals scored at home in the regular season at 45 and the most goals scored across a season with 73. They also have the most points in a season with 66.

To top it all off, Head Coach Mike Jeffries just passed Darren Sawatzky as the all-time winningest coach in league history with 65.

Charlotte will finish out the season on Saturday at Portland Hearts of Pine, having already clinched the top seed, and with Portland long-eliminated from contention.

Is Omaha's Slide Reversible?

The Owls surrendered their chances at another Player's Shield with back to back losses to Fort Wayne and Westchester. They're guaranteed the second seed in the playoffs regardless of results at Madison this weekend, but seem to be limping into the final stretch.

This still isn't a team anyone should be ready to count out. The bench still goes deep, and if they're able to settle a bit and get a few more shots on target, it could be a different story against Madison and whoever they face in the first round.

We're going to say they get things back in order at least by the first round of the playoffs, where they'll host either Chattanooga or Fort Wayne.

Toss-Up: The Battle for the Other Home Spots

With Spokane splitting its two matches last week with a loss and a win, the race for the third and fourth spots is in a tight three-way battle between Madison, Boise and Spokane.

Knoxville sits at the fifth spot right now, but with their regular season over, all they can do is sit back and watch it all play out with the others. They can't go any higher, so won't be hosting this year, but could finish fifth or sixth depending on other results.

Spokane has two matches remaining, starting on Wednesday at the New York Cosmos, followed by a finale at Naples on Saturday. Spokane has mixed results on the road, but even taking one of these matches could boost their chances at a home playoff game.

Meanwhile, Madison hosts Omaha and Boise travels to Fort Wayne. Both of these are toss-up matches in our books. Omaha technically does not have anything to play for, but a team with that much talent and on a two-match losing streak will not be taking their rivals lightly. And Fort Wayne is also fighting for final position, hoping to avoid a difficult trip to Charlotte in the opening round.

Of note: should Madison beat Omaha and Boise defeat Fort Wayne, Madison holds the tie-breaker on goal differential.

The Final Spots

Chattanooga Red Wolves and Fort Wayne FC are separated by a single point heading into the final week. The former is on a two-match slide, with losses to Knoxville and Spokane and without any goals scored. The latter was unable to punch their ticket last weekend, with a 3-1 home loss to Sarasota.

Chattanooga still has the easier path, with a visit to last place New York Cosmos to close the season. Meanwhile, Fort Wayne hosts Boise, currently on a three match win streak and playing for one of the last home playoff spots.

And then there's the Naples factor: the ninth place team is surging to end the season, and has a match in hand. Keep a close eye on their matchup with Sarasota on Wednesday. A Naples win keeps them in contention, and makes the final spot up for grabs on Saturday. In that scenario, a Naples win over Spokane on Saturday and anything other than a Fort Wayne win against Boise would see Naples stealing the final spot on the total wins tiebreaker.

Where Will Westchester Mail the Wooden Spoon?

Last year's last place team Westchester SC will not repeat, having ended the season on a strong push for the playoffs that fell just short.

Heading into the final week, it's a very close three-way race between Greenville Triumph, Richmond Kickers and New York Cosmos, with Richmond hosting Greenville to close out the season.

The Cosmos have the best chance to dig out, with two matches this week. They'll host Spokane on Wednesday, then finish with a Saturday late-afternoon match against Chattanooga.

Should the Cosmos lose both of those matches, they'd clinch the Spoon even before the Richmond vs. Greenville match begins.

However, should the Cosmos upset Spokane, there are a number of scenarios and tiebreakers that could come into play.

That's when we'll be keeping a close eye on not only the results of Cosmos vs. Chattanooga and Richmond vs. Greenville, but also tie-breaking factors such as total wins and goal differential.

Currently all three of Greenville, Richmond and Cosmos are tied in total wins with 7, and there is only a 2 point spread in goal differential between all three teams.

Buckle up, this could be the most exciting Wooden Spoon race the league has ever seen.

In Other News

USL announced a rebrand set to go public in January 2027.

Greenville Triumph recognized Brandon Fricke and Leo Castro before the match against Charlotte last weekend. Both are expected to step away from the game following the end of the season after long careers. Fricke is a USL original, having played for Lansing in 2019 and Greenville ever since. Castro has 17 years of professional experience, with his last four in Greenville. He heads into his final match tied with Lyam MacKinnon as the club's all-time leading goal scorer.

Portland Hearts of Pine midfielder and captain Mikey Lopez also announced his retirement at the end of the 2026 season. Lopez has 14 years of professional experience across MLS, USL Championship and USL League One, and spent the last two seasons with Portland.

Sporting Cascades has already signed three players, announcing the latest this week: Alexis Ledoux, a winger from UC Santa Barbara and local UPSL club Valle Verde. Previously, the club announced left back Jonathan Robinson and winger Fabian Straudi.

Fort Lauderdale teased the announcement of the professional signing of one of its USL League Two players to be announced at an upcoming founding members event.

Port St. Lucie cleared an important zoning step in the pursuit of building a 6,000 capacity stadium to be operational by the 2028 season. There is still no word on the temporary facility to be used in 2027.

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