It seems like it’s been forever but the long wait is almost over. The 2026 USL Championship season is upon us and there’s much to talk about as things kick off…
Or will they?
Let’s get the elephant in the room dealt with first: the league and the Players’ Association (read: union) have been going at it over a new collective bargaining agreement to replace the one that expired at the end of last season. The negotiations have been in process for over a year now and while there has been progress the players are balking at some of the terms offered. So much so that a strike is not out of the question. Indeed, the players voted to authorize one but it will not happen until after the opening weekend at least.
The issues are mostly to do with money and working conditions. In particular, the players want health insurance, higher salary minimums and better housing options. None of those seem like they should even be an issue. Indeed, the league has made offers for all of those and several other matters besides. The major sticking point appears to be in-season terminations; the league wants 2 per team per year (3 over two years). Understandably, the players (and presumably their agents) don’t like that at all. Clearly that’s the quid pro quo the league wants for everything they’re offering. The question now is which side is going to be the more stubborn.
The league hasn’t done itself any favors by suggesting in the last couple of days that players should cross the picket lines or that replacement players could be considered. Those of us who remember the 1987 NFL season have mixed feelings about that last idea. The replacement games were fun, but the overall quality of play deteriorated even though some of those players survived the end of the work stoppage. However, it would likely be much harder for the USL to do the same thing anywhere near as effectively and doing so without damaging its relationships with the fans (who, generally speaking, lean more left than football fans).
Hopefully, this is just a ton of grandstanding going on. On the other hand, cutting out a double-game week for the Legion in Week 1 would not be so bad.
The most important part
With that said, the league is entering a big year. Not only is the World Cup here is the US but the league is heading towards Division I and promotion/relegation in the very near future. Between the Championship and League One there are a whopping seven new teams this season: Brooklyn FC and Sporting Jacksonville in the Championship and AC Boise, Corpus Christi FC, Fort Wayne FC, the New York Cosmos (the third team with that name) and Sarasota Paradise in League One. The net gain is only 5 teams though as North Carolina FC dropped out at the end of last season and South Georgia Tormenta did the same very recently. Both are supposedly on hiatus although Tormenta’s return seems iffy at best.
So the Championship is now at 25 teams and therefore has uneven conferences, the East having the extra team. The Birmingham Legion remains in the East, probably thanks to North Carolina. Lexington SC remains in the West though despite being well east of the Magic City. Life’s not fair.
Anyway, assuming there is not strike after the weekend, the Three Sparks not only have a double-game week they also have an education day game. Saturday’s game (7:00pm, ESPN+) will be against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. That’s all normal. But Wednesday’s game against Hartford Athletic kicks off at 11:00am. That will in fact be the only Week2 game for both teams. We’ll cover that one in a later post.
The Rowdies game is going to be a meaningful test for both sides. Both teams missed the playoffs in 2025 (Tampa finished 10th in the East) and have proceeded to completely retool. Like the Legion, the Rowdies axed their head coach (Robbie Neilson) early in 2025 and went the rest of the year with an interim head coach, Steve Coleman, for a while before hiring Dominic Casciato away from Union Omaha.
Unlike the Legion’s Mark Briggs, Casciato is still around and has been very busy in the offseason rebuilding the Rowdies’ roster. A massive 19 players are new to the team this year. Notable additions are strikers M.D. Myers from the Charleston Battery and Evan Conway from North Carolina. In goal will be Jahmali Waite from El Paso Locomotive. A third new striker is Karsen Henderlong who had a very impressive season with FC Naples in their 2025 debut season in League One.
The Legion got off to a rather slower start in rebuilding and has not added quite as many new names. We took a close look at the changes late last month here, but that’s already out of date. Since that post the team has picked up 2 more players: Costa Rican midfielder Kadeem Cole and earlier today forward/winger Serge Ngoma on loan from the New York Red Bulls. There are indications that at least one more player may be picked up on loan, right back Leo Duru, although his current team status is unclear (he may be on loan with San Diego or his purchase option may have been exercised).
I am very bullish on this Three Sparks team but starting the season with a team in similar circumstances with everything to prove and no clear history of games to analyze makes for a tough opener. Tampa played 5 games in preseason: a 0-2 loss to the Philadelphia Union, a 2-2 draw (over 120 minutes) with CF Montreal, a 3-0 win over Naples, and 1-0 wins over Sarasota and Jacksonville. With that they could well be far more ready than the Legion which had to reschedule one of its 4 preseason games (this writer was unable to watch the other 3).
What is clear is that both teams have a lot to prove. This could be one of the biggest games of the week (unless storms come through as may be the case). And before you ask, I am giving up on predictions this season. Either I suck at them or they are a curse.
Best of the rest
The season in fact starts tonight with a marquee matchup and there are a few other games to keepo an eye on, although nmost of Saturday’s schedule conflicts with the LEgion game to one extent or another. Here are our picks:
Lexington SC v. Louisville City (Friday, 6:30pm, ESPN+)
The Commonwealth Cup kicks off the 2026 season. Lou City blew through the regular season in 2025 before predictably crashing our in the playoffs. Lexington failed to make the playoffs at all, finishing 9th in the West. That doesn’t mean they will not be up for this contest. Scream at your barman if this game is not on his biggest screen.
Sporting JAX v. Hartford Athletic (Saturday, 6:30pm)
Hartford wisely heads south to open its season. Jacksonville adds a mens’ team to its Super League team and will be looking to make a statement. Obviously, with Wednesday looming we will want a look at Hartford who hopefully will be here on very short rest. They were a much improved squad in 2025 and there is every reason to think they have stayed that way.
Sacramento Republic v. FC Tulsa (Saturday, 10:00pm, CBS Sports Golazo)
A nice nightcap. The top 2 teams in the West in 2025 facing off should be entertaining. Can Tulsa build on its best-ever season? We shall see.
Brooklyn FC v. Indy Eleven (Sunday, 3:00pm, ESPN+)
The other new Championship team (similarly adding to their Super League team) has what may be a relatively easy start to its history with the perennially underwhelming Indy (9th in the East last year). And Brooklyn has my favorite logo in all of US soccer.
Back in the Old Country
Birmingham City FC has had a tough couple of games, losing 0-3 to Millwall and 1-3 to Middlesbrough. Both are above the Blues in the standings, so these were both key 6-pointers. The team is now 12th and 8 points behind Wrexham in the final playoff spot. Teams between the two are tightly packed but it’s become a very steep hill to climb. The team has 11 games still to play and 6 are against teams above them in the table, so it is still doable. This weekend the Blues head to London to play Charlton Athletic (9:00am, no US TV) who are 18th.
