The NPSL is winding down its 2022 season and the four regions of the league are halfway through their end-of-season playoffs. While other regions are progressing through their playoff brackets, the West Region is easily the furthest along, as their regular season kicked off well in advance of the rest of the country. The two Conference Finals (aka Regional Semifinals) are this weekend, so let’s take a look at the Region and the matchups coming up this weekend.

Golden Gate Conference

The Golden Gate Conference has basically gone chalk. Sacramento Gold won the regular season with an 8-1-1 record. Coming in as the 1 seed, Gold faced 8 seed Sonoma County Sol winning 3-1. Next up was 5 seed Academica SC, which Gold dispatched 4-2. The 2 seed, El Farolito FC had finished the regular season with an 8-2-0 record, just shy of the top spot. In the first round, EFFC beat Oakland SC 5-2. In the second round, the club had the #3 club to beat, Napa Valley 1839 FC. Beat them they did, winning 5-1. Tomorrow, these two will meet up in the Conference Championship, Sacramento hosting.

Sacramento marched through the regular season and is the #1 seed.

Prediction: If you look at these clubs’ head to head record, there’s not a lot to go off here. They faced each other in the FIRST MATCH OF THEIR SEASON. Sacramento won 2-1 on March 19th, a whopping 4 months ago. These two Golden Gate heavyweights are led by two of the top scorers in the league: Eric Arias, who scored 14 goals for El Farolito, and Manolo Pena, who netted 12 goals for Sacramento Gold. I think that, given the closeness of these two clubs, it’s going to be a close one. I’m picking the upset - El Farolito wins 3-2.

Pacific Conference

Unlike the Golden Gate Conference, which played a straight bracket, the Pacific Conference did group play with the top two in each group qualifying for the playoffs. There was a shake up in both matches out of group play, when International Portland Select FC lost to Crossfire Redmond 2-3. On the other side of the bracket, top-seeded SC Brave Lions lost 2-3 to FC Arizona. So the Conference Championship will feature Crossfire Redmond hosting FC Arizona tomorrow.

Prediction: These clubs have played each other twice, so more sample size, YAY! Oh, great, they drew 1-1 and 3-3 in the two matches they played in the regular season. There’s two big differences between these clubs that give me a reason to pick one over the other. First, statistically, there’s a big difference in the number of goals FC Arizona has given up compared to Redmond. FC Arizona has given up double the goals (21 in 10 matches). The second is that Crossfire Redmond only lost a single match all season (They did, however, have 5 draws). I think Crossfire Redmond is the smart money this weekend. Crossfire wins 3-1.