ONE (plus) From Last Week

With the Number 1 (Richmond Kickers) and Number 2 (Greenville Triumph) seeds taking their first round bye respite, the Number 3 (SG Tormenta) and Number 4 (Chattanooga Red Wolves) teams took care of business at home and earned the right to carry on in the USL League One Playoffs:

Tormenta hosted #6 Charlotte Independence and former Manchester United and Newcastle wide man, Gabby Obertan scored early to give the visitors hope. Kazaiah Sterling took away all hope with a brilliant performance and second half brace, including a 77’ penalty which proved to be the winner. The Independence outshot Tormenta, including 6 on target, but couldn’t get past Tormenta keeper TJ Bush.
Union Omaha, who hadn’t won a game since early September, just ran out of fumes away to Chattanooga Red Wolves. Chattanooga dominated possession and passed the Owls off the pitch - but Omaha were impressive and peppered the goal with 15 shots. They were unable to hold out beyond the 101’ when the Brazilian Rafael Mentzingen collected the ball, center of the pitch, about 40 yards out, skipped past one defender and split three more to take a low shot from the top of the box and score the extra time winner.

Rafael Mentzingen, born in Rio de Janeiro, learned to play at clubs like Volta Redonda and Vasco da Gama - he attended University at Valparaiso and has played for Detroit City FC, Lansing United, and Memphis 901 in the past. He has been an essential component for Chattanooga Red Wolves this season and is 3rd in the club with 7 goals from 31 appearances; 3rd with 4 assists and 27 chances created; leads the team with 54 shots taken.

ONE (or more) For This Week

#1 Richmond Kickers vs #4 Chattanooga Redwolves
Saturday, October 29th - 3:00pm (PST) / 6:00pm (EST) at City Stadium.
Tickets: https://www.richmondkickers.com/tickets/

Kickers and Redwolves have met three times this year and its a 1-1-1 split down the middle. While Richmond have outscored Chattanooga, each match has been competitive and Red Wolves contained Terzaghi to just one goal from three outings. That will continue to be the key on Saturday; if Moe Espinoza can score early for Redwolves and help them hold out they just might be able to earn their way to the final.

Jimmy Weeks and Chattanooga are 5-7-3 on the road this year and have shown they aren’t afraid of opening up to get their goal - Darren Sawatzky and company are 8-2-5 at home and carry the league’s best goal difference - they’ve scored the most and allowed the second least. If Bolanos (who has had just an insane year with 11 assists, 30 shots, and 6 goals in only 20 appearances) is able to connect with Nil Vinyals or Ethan Bryant in the attacking third (they created 112 scoring opportunities combined) there’s a great chance golden boot winner Emiliano Terzaghi is going to score. This is a great match up and one to look forward to watching.

#2 Greenville Triumph vs #3 SG Tormenta FC
Saturday, October 29th - 4:30pm (PST) / 7:30pm (EST) at Triumph Stadium.
Tickets: https://www.greenvilletriumph.com/tickets/

16 goals in three matches this season and Tormenta have outscored the #2 Seed 10 - 6 while picking up two away wins and a very spirited draw at home. Both Tormenta’s Kazaiah Sterling and Greenville’s Jacob Labovitz have scored three goals each in the series - but its the supporting cast which really makes the difference; Tormenta have 6 more goal scorers with at least one goal a piece - including danger man Kingsford Adjei who finished 12th overall in the league with 7. Sterling gave the Golden Boot race a run for its money, finishing on 15 for the year.

All that having been said, don’t sleep on John Harkes and his Greenville Triumph, whose baseline finish every season is in the title match - he’s old fashioned and loves a 4-4-2 but the pair of Labovitz and Lucas Coutinho are deadly up top. Expect Allen Gavilanes to create waves of opportunity and either Venton Evans or Nico Brown to provide solid performances from the bench. Golden Glove winner Paul Christensen, who finished with 75 saves and 10 clean sheets for Greenville, may keep Tormenta’s dynamic attack at bay… or not. Who knows!? The brilliance of these playoff matches is that all four teams deserve to be here and any of them could find their way into the final.

by Joshua Duder