Well, the first thing you need to know is that Round 2 has already started. In fact, it started way back on April 29th, when The™ Miami FC played its second game of the tournament. And since Miami plays again this weekend, technically Round 3 will be under way. Sarasota Paradise and Sporting JAX played Wednesday; JAX plays FC Naples Sunday so will the second team with 3 games under its belt. JAX beat Sarasota 2-0, by the way, their first win in any competition. That means Sarasota has lost 2 games and will be the first team eliminated if Miami earns a point and the Tampa Bay Rowdies win on Saturday.
The most important part
The Legion heads up to Chattanooga (with a good number of fans in tow) to play the Red Wolves of League One (Saturday, 6:00pm, ESPN+). The two played here in the USL Cup just over a year ago in the first round to a decisive 3-1 home win on the way to 2nd in Group 3 and a wild card spot. The two also played in Chattanooga in preseason this year, the Three Sparks winning 1-0.
The Legion will need a pretty good result this time around as well. Group 3 is extremely tight right now with only one outright win in the first round. That win was a mild upset; it went to Corpus Christi FC, who beat the Red Wolves 1-0. That game was Corpus Christi’s only win in 8 competitive games in this rookie season; they sit at the bottom of League One with just 3 points from 3 draws.
The upshot of this is that the Legion doesn’t only need to win this game outright, it needs to win by a big margin. Goals scored is the 3rd tiebreaker in group standings (after head-to-head and total wins) and the 1st tiebreaker for the wild card. The latter is less of a concern though; there is only one wild card team from 7 groups (there were 2 last season), so you don’t want to rely on that.
The Red Wolves were just a spot or two above Corpus Christi in the league standings in that first round game, on 4 points from 3 games. Since then they have improved a bit and have 7 points from 5 games. Those 4 extra points came last weekend when they whipped the aforementioned Sarasota Paradise 4-1. That was their first win since the opening week, when they won 2-1 over Greenville Triumph, who are currently 16th. They are now up to 10th and have games in hand over the entire league.
Which is to say, they may be very low on the USL totem pole at the moment, but are probably somewhat better than their positioning suggests. Granted, both wins have been at the expense of clearly weak teams, but they look to be making progress. The big scoreline last week in particular is reason to be wary. Moreover, a loss would effectively eliminate them, so they have every reason to be motivated.
Those 4 goals last week nearly doubled the team’s total for the year; they have 9 in 6 total games and have been shut out twice. They have allowed 8. Of the 9 scored, 6 are accounted for by two players: Omar Hernandez (not to be confused with his teammate Pedro Hernandez) and Matt Bentley. Each of them has 3 goals. The Englishman Bentley got all 3 of his last week in great style, scoring the hat trick with his left foot, right foot and head. Hernandez is a left winger; Bentley has been used as both a striker and a central attacking mid.
In fact, CRW is formationally unpredictable overall. This season they have used 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 5-3-2 and 5-4-1. Employing 4 different formations in 6 games is really pushing it and tends to suggest a team is struggling to find its identity. In the win over Sarasota the initial formation wa a 4-4-2 but they played it more as a 3-5-2 with left back Jordan Ayimbila playing as a wingback and right back James Vaughan as a center back. Vaughan was replaced at halftime by Angelo Kelly-Rosales, who is officially a central mid but clearly acted as a back in this game. Kelly-Rosales, by the way, only joined the team this month; he played for One Knoxville last year but signed with South Georgia Tormenta in the offseason and thus found himself unemployed for a while. His defensive stats in 2 games are already good and he may be the spark the Red Wolves needed.
As for the Legion, they have to shake off another disappointing performance in the 0-0 draw with Miami, a game in which the entire team knows they should have taken all three points. Seba Tregarthen said, “We understand that we should have won that game against Miami and at home, but yeah, I feel like you have to focus now on Chattanooga, even though it’s a Cup game. You have to focus on getting those three points.” He also noted that defense is not an issue and that they need to work on finishing chances: “We focussed a little bit more this week on being sharp at the final third, so I feel like training has been very into that.” Personally he has been working on the service he provides and also on converting the scoring chances he gets personally.
His relationship with Amir Daley has been developing well. “He’s a good friend of mine, so we always talk about what we can do better in the field, and obviously communication is one of the key aspects of how a right and a right winger can work defensively and also on the offensive side.”
With a long week to prepare, the team thinks it has a handle on the Red Wolves. Seth Antwi said, “We know what they’re about and we know what they’re good at. We’ve done our film on them so we know what to expect, from preseason and from right now. I’m pretty sure they’ve also changed the way they play and stuff like that, with different guys coming in.” He also does not think the need to get a big result has added any pressure on the team. “We know what we’re capable of,” was his simple answer.
Jay Heaps was asked who the team needs to keep an eye on aside from Bentley; his answer was not much of a surprise. “Omar Hernandez, one of their top wingers, left-footed. He’s an interesting player in how he attacks. He and Pedro Hernandez are very interchangeable, right foot, left foot. They have different dynamics in how they attack and they got a lot of freedom in how they move around up top too, making their center forward, like a Bentley or a [Greyson] Mercer be dangerous.” Mercer has played every game, averaging about 60 minutes, but has just 1 goal to his name and is gradually making way for Bentley to be the #1 striker.
As far as getting that crucial final touch, Jay was a little less concerned with that than with what precedes it. “It’s not like you don’t work on that…but we’ve really got to focus on doing it the right way, but also in our tactical senses we want to make sure we can move the ball from east to west, sideline to sideline, making sure we’re opening space.” Miami sat deep making that difficult. “We have to make sure can move the ball quicker to find those passing lanes.”
In other words, the transition game is key; draw the defense upfield and punish them with speed on the return. The Legion has that in spades; Dawson McCartney and Gevork Diarbian on the left, Amir Daley and Seba Tregarthen on the right. Against a relatively slow League One team that should be a huge advantage.
Best of the rest
There are games all three days this weekend; our picks are mostly on Saturday. The Sunday game is a must-see though.
One Knoxville v. San Antonio FC (Saturday, 6:00pm, ESPN+)
Let’s start with the two other Group 3 games. You already know what happened with San Antonio; One Knoxville drew 1-1 with FC Tulsa, winning on penalties to take second place in the group. Which is also where they stand in League One. The Legion does not play One Knox, so we really want the points to be split here, with Knoxville preferably taking the extra point. They are a strong side, no question, so it’s not impossible they can do it.
Corpus Christi FC v. FC Tulsa (Saturday, 7:30pm, ESPN+)
Corpus Christi is one of many expansion teams across the USL who are having a very tough rookie season, as discussed above. Tulsa started the season very poorly but have made significant strides in the past few weeks and are looking somewhat more like the 2025 squad. The visitors are the clear favorites here, but the Texans may be wanting to make as much as possible of their only success so far in 2025. The Legion will play both these teams at home to finish group play.
Athletic Club Boise v. Monterey Bay FC (Saturday, 8:00pm, ESPN+)
Speaking of expansion teams not doing well, AC Boise is not one of them; they are 4th in League One. Monterey Bay is winless in league play with a -13 goal difference, but did pick up 2 points in the Cup against the Oakland Roots. They are matched with Boise who took 2 points from the Las Vegas Lights with an identical 1-1 score. Both teams are chasing the Sacramento Republic, an unenviable task. Why watch this one? The Legion heads to Monterey next week.
Union Omaha v. Louisville City (Sunday, 4:00pm, ESPN+)
Under most circumstances, Lou City playing a lower league side would not be of great interest. However, despite sitting second in the East, Louisville is on a very poor run of form (they are 23rd in our Power Rankings). Omaha are riding high in League One, topping the league with a 6-2-1 record and beating second-place One Knox last week 2-1. They beat Indy Eleven 2-1 in the first round of the Cup and are looking very good indeed. This is the game of the week.
Back in the Old Country
It’s been a quiet week across the pond, as you might expect. All that has happened for the Blues is that they have been charged by the FA for yet another mass confrontation incident in the season finale at Portsmouth.
