United Women’s Soccer has distilled itself down to its four finest squads - last year’s UWS Champions, the Michigan Jaguars, will join the New England Mutiny, Santa Clarita Blue Heat, and the hosts FC Buffalo at Robert Rich Sr All-High Stadium in Buffalo, New York for a winner takes all National Finals weekend.

The Final is on Saturday, July 20th at 4:00pm Pacific / 7:00pm Eastern but the two semifinals are the day before - so, let’s take a look at how they got here!

New England Mutiny vs Michigan Jaguars FC

Friday, 07/19 - 2pm PST / 5pm EST at Robert Rich Sr All-High Stadium in Buffalo, NY

2023 United Women’s Soccer Champions, Michigan Jaguars FC, were 1st in the Midwest Conference; finishing with 9 wins and a draw - including their 4-1 win over 2nd place Indiana Union, which saw them move on to this weekends UWS Finals. From the player stats available on the league website, they only had 7 players with a goal a piece; however, that’s not possible because according to the standings table - these Jaguars tallied a league-high 41 goals and are one of the most potent offenses in UWS.

New England Mutiny went a perfect 10-0-0; scoring 38 goals of their own and only letting… four goals against. They defeated a very tough Sporting CT last weekend to advance to the National Finals with Maddie Fried netting the winner. Hope Santaniello was also dangerous all year, with a team high 6 goals - according to the stats available.

Winner will play on Saturday the 20th vs the winner of SC Blue Heat vs FC Buffalo

SC Blue Heat FC vs FC Buffalo

Friday, 07/19 - 2pm PST / 5pm EST at Robert Rich Sr All-High Stadium in Buffalo, NY

Going 8 for 8, with a perfect record, the two-time UWS Champions (four-time Final participant) has not surprisingly made it to the National Finals in Buffalo. Because their conference is so small, there was no Conference Final needed to qualify and they advanced outright. During the regular season they scored 31 goals and allowed an astonishing 2 goals to be scored against them all year. Cameron Valladares and Tatum Wynalda led the team with 4 goals each.

FC Buffalo, hosts of the Finals Weekend, finished 3rd in the East Conference with 19 points from 8 played. Skylar Cornell led the way with 5 goals and an assist - while Carissima Cutrona had 4 goals and a team high 3 assists. FC Buffalo had previously won their respective division in 2021, 2022, and 2023 and will look to put up a fight against the vaunted SC Blue Heat from California.

Winner will play on Saturday the 20th vs the winner of New England Mutiny vs Michigan Jaguars

The UWS National Championship is in Buffalo, NY

by Joshua Duder