Ventura County Fusion vs Long Island Rough Riders

Saturday, August 6 - 7:00 pm (PST) at the Ventura College Sportsplex, California

After months of hard work and dedication to their craft, both Ventura County Fusion and the Long Island Rough Riders have shed themselves of the competition and will meet up an epic duel of the ages. The visitors, Long Island Rough Riders, are stacked with some of the best collegiate products out of New York. While head coach Tom Bowen will tell you every player has been essential, and he would be telling the truth, the stats tell us that Matthew Vowinkel with 11 goals from 18 shots on the season, and Ryan Carmichael 10 goals and 3 assists have been peerless throughout the playoffs. Add Jared Gilbey’s 2 goals and 7 assists and you have a very strong attack from Long Island which is nearly impossible to contain - let alone shut out.

Only twice in the regular season did the Rough Riders fail to score, in an 0-1 loss to eventual Metropolitan Division winner Manhattan SC, and a 0-0 draw with FA Euro NY. The came in second place in their division, despite holding down that number one position for 80% of the season. Rough Riders finished the season with 2.43 PPG and a +26 goal difference - entering the playoffs as an underrated #5 seed where they outscored their playoff opponents 9-3 (giving up less than one goal a game). Long Island proceeded to knock off two #2 seeds, a #4, and an #8 - completely shutting down their opponent, NC Fusion, in a Semifinal postponed by severe weather.

MLS Draft Pick, Vowinkel has been essential for the Rough Riders this season

Founded in 1994, Long Island Rough Riders have been a mostly successful organization for nearly three decades. In just their first year of existence, with legendary players like Chris Armas, Giovanni Savarese, and Tony Meola, the Rough Riders won the USISL (United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues) - the precursor to today’s USL Championship.

In 2002, after some league movement and consolidations, they won what was then the USL Second Division - Edson Buddle and company, defeating the Wilmington Hammerheads 2-1. For many of the years since then, Long Island Rough Riders have done well in the US Open Cup, and found themselves in several quarter and semifinals - making success their baseline.

The Long Island Rough Riders won the USISL in 1995 & USL Second Division in 2002

It would be difficult to say that Ventura County Fusion were expected to be here - they might argue they always thought they could do it and never stopped playing their brand of soccer. But the Southwest Division, one of the larger divisions in the league, was highly competitive this season and there may have only been one week, of the 12 played, that they were ever top of the division… maybe. That, in itself, is a testament to the kind of resolve and fight they have as a squad.

Fusion finished second in the division, after SF Glens and SoCal Seahorses dropped points heading into the stretch - Fusion, on the other hand, finished strong with four consecutive wins and landed themselves a nifty #5 seed where they were to face a weak #6 seed in the first week of playoffs. Ventura County won that 3-2, then two days later defeated SoCal Seahorses (a #7 seed) by 2-1 - a team they failed to beat in two attempts during the regular season. They then snuck by #4 seed Ballard FC, who had just played a 120+ minute earlier in the week and two days later, knocked out #7 seed Flint City Bucks, who had also gone 120+ minutes against last year’s champs.

Smart, concise attacking play has helped Ventura County Fusion get through to the Final

While much of this sounds like Ventura County Fusion have just been fortunate - in a league as competitive as USL League Two, there are no easy days. Head Coach Mike Elias has done a brilliant job of managing his roster, using 6 different goal keepers throughout the season and 33 different outfielders who laced up their boots at least once. Fusion had at least 6 different goal scorers (stats not reported for all matches) and were led by Logan Farrington with 9 goals on 21 shots, Nathan Opoku with 4 goals on 16 shots, and Marley Edwards 2 goals on 11 shots - it was Opoku’s goalazo which saw them past Flint City Bucks, 1-0

Much like their opponents, Ventura County Fusion have a rich history and a baseline of success, whether it’s in today’s USL League Two or the league’s predecessor, USL PDL. Fusion were founded in 2006 and just three years later, led by the indomitable Rodrigo Lopez, they hosted the PDL final - defeating the Chicago Fire U23s in injury time with dramatic RoRo set piece. Ventura County have also had their share of well-known players, such as Gyasi Zardes and even Jermaine Jones played his last ever sanctioned league match in Ventura.

The match will be on ELEVEN at 7:00 pm (Pacific Time)
Tickets are available from the club through Ticket Leap
Listen to the latest episode of USL2 The2how before the match: HERE

Ventura County Fusion won the PDL in 2009

This match will have everything - played out between two teams who find a way to win. It will likely go through extra time and be decided by kicks after 120 + minutes of pure effort.

- Joshua Duder