The USL Championship season may have ended in November but teams have already started moving to make sure they improve in 2024. This series will look at the moves teams have made and what gaps still need to be addressed as they take this offseason to build a Championship-caliber squad. This week, we look at the teams that finished 1st, 6th, and 12th in their respective conferences:

Top Dogs (or Bears?)

Pittsburgh Riverhounds

You would be forgiven for thinking that Pittsburgh have the least to do this offseason. Players’ Shield Winners by virtue of the most points gained in the League and yet all they have to show for it is a disappointing first round playoff exit to a Detroit City team that gathered 26 fewer points than the Riverhounds across the 34 matches of the regular season. How does the team rebound from that and build a team that will transform a strong regular season into a USL Championship Final run?

Regular season success, check. Postseason is another story. Image courtesy of USL Championship.

They started the offseason with announcements of 11 returning players. Kenardo Forbes is back for a seventh season, along with Edward Kizza, Robbie Mertz and Danny Griffin. There are, however, some notable names not confirmed as returning yet that could have a huge impact on the Hounds next year. I’d be crazy to start anywhere other than Albert Dikwa, whose 20 goals in black and yellow won him the USL Championship’s Golden Boot. The others who haven’t yet signed include Arturo Ordonez, Marc Ybarra, Joe Farrell to name a few.

If indeed Albert Dikwa is not back in Pittsburgh next season then the priority must be a pure striker. This is especially necessary given the midfield and playmaking presence they are retaining. The availability of Romario Williams, announced 11/30 by Colorado Springs, could be just the remedy to that issue that Bob Lilley needs. They’ll need to recruit defenders too, with Ordonez and Nathan Dos Santos accounting for just about 5,000 combined minutes in 2023.

Eleven players is more than Bob Lilley has ever had return in his tenure in charge of Pittsburgh so far be it from me to question if he is capable of building a contender over an offseason but suffice it to say Riverhounds will have their work cut out

Sacramento Republic

Less than 24 hours had elapsed since the end of a gripping penalty shootout in Charleston, SC when Sac Republic, a team that scored a team record 51 goals in 2023, announced it had landed Trevor Amann. When a team who finished seven points clear at the top of the Western Conference and just three points off of Players’ Shield Winners Pittsburgh adds the USL League One Top Scorer, you can’t help but just admire the hustle. In one fell swoop, they’d added 27 goals to a front line that already boasts Russel Cicerone (15 goals, 3 assists) and a returning Rodrigo Lopez, not to mention Cristian Parano who will almost certainly have more of a role in next year’s Sac Republic.Republic are returning 17 players from that team. This includes Conor Donovan, Shane Wiedt, Jared Timmer, Damia Viader, Jack Gurr and 2023 USL Goalkeeper of the Year Danny Vitiello, who as a defensive unit allowed just 26 goals in 34 USL matches. Hell, this team has even supplied Detroit City with a manager, as Danny Dichio joins Le Rouge after serving as Mark Briggs’ assistant in Sacramento from 22-23.

If there is one area where Sac Republic and Briggs will be looking to improve or add to, it is in central midfield. The current offering is quite light, which could be by design given that Briggs deploys a 5-3-2 or 5-2-3 shape and tends to keep the play quite wide through Gurr and Viader, the wingbacks on either flank. That said, the introduction of Amann almost certainly moves Cicerone to one flank, and with Parano likely taking up the other, there is a case to be made that Luis Felipe and Nick Ross may need some reinforcements. Given the way Sacramento has conducted their business this offseason, I don’t think we’ll have to wait long to find out their next steps.

Divergence

This category gets a prologue. Both these teams finished 6th in their respective conferences and the feeling between them could not be further apart. Phoenix is coming off one of the most incredible postseason runs the League has ever seen, dispatching 3 higher seeds out of the West before going and winning the whole thing in Charleston. Indy, on the other hand, just bid farewell to the man originally thought to be the start of a whole new era, Mark Lowry. Phoenix feel like they have the foundation to now compete at the top of the West while Indy spent two years making what felt like steady progress under Lowry only to be sent back to the drawing board. What a difference a postseason can make.

Indy Eleven

So, as I said, Mark Lowry is out as Indy Eleven manager after two seasons and we’ll say mixed results. This year felt like a true step forward after Indy had finished outside of the playoff picture in 2022. They stumbled out of the gates but eventually got this roster (which at times felt like a 2019 USL Championship All-Star Team) firing. Sebastian Guenzatti and Aodhan Quinn were potent in front of goal while Cam Lindley and Solomon Asante added the bulk of the creativity. Then, suddenly, it was all over with Lowry resigning the post (for pastures yet to be 100% confirmed.)

The trouble with all this apart from the obvious loss of continuity during what felt like a longer term project, is that Indy had already made some player contract decisions before Lowry was gone. Guenzatti, Lindley, and Quinn were returning, along with Jack Blake, Younes Boudadi, Adrian Diz Pe and goalkeeper Yannik Oettl. No real issues there as these players have lots of quality. Danny Barbir was added having not been renewed by Oakland Roots.

And now the manager was gone.

Two days later, Indy Eleven announced, well…eleven departures from the squad. They now have nine players and no head coach. First things first, they’ll have to remedy the latter situation. Getting in a manager who can then go and quickly build a competitive squad in a very short offseason will be a tall task for the front office in Indy. John Harkes and Nate Miller are actively on the market and it will be crucial that Indy gets the hire spot on. From there, the boss will have to add across all departments, while bringing those nine players still under contract into the fold. I do not envy whoever gets that task.

Phoenix Rising

I will be the first to admit that I doubted Phoenix at every turn this postseason. What they pulled off in the end was nothing short of extraordinary. A playoff run for the ages, culminating in one of the most remarkable set of penalty kicks that I have ever witnessed.

That being said, Phoenix’s worst mistake now would be imagining that they are the finished article.

Rising have yet to announce roster moves looking ahead to 2024, one of the few USL teams who has not yet published a list of those players returning or not for the new season (editor’s note: since the writing of this article, Rising has announced the list of returning players.). Perhaps they are still reveling in the glow of the postseason triumph, but as Indy are finding out, the offseason can get pretty short pretty quickly.

All that aside, Phoenix were a team that lived on a knife edge for most of the season. Despite ending the season with a +13 goal difference, Phoenix created an average of 1.37 expected goals per game and allowed an average of 1.26 expected goals per game. This essentially means that they relied on the sharp finishing of Danny Trejo and Manuel Arteaga to take advantage of what chances they had while counting on Rocco Rios Novo to keep them out of trouble at the back. While this approach absolutely worked in the postseason, there is a reason Phoenix was not fighting at the top of the West all year.

32 of the team’s 54 goals last year were scored by two players, Trejo and Arteaga. Phoenix did try to get them some additional assistance during the season, adding Panos Armenakas and Dariusz Formella. Erickson Gallardo showed during the playoffs that he could be a threat in that area as well and it looks like they have gone a long way in answering the question of could they spread the goals out a bit.

So if they have done the work in attack, they must be looking to add some pieces in defense and midfield, where they could definitely benefit from added dynamism. As of the time of writing, there are reports that they have added Edgardo Rito, a Venezuelan right back who spent last season as one of the very few bright spots on a dismal Hartford Athletic squad and John Scearce from Union Omaha. Scearce scored six USL1 goals from his position in central midfield which seems to be the exact sort of player that Phoenix would like to add in an effort to add depth and threat to the group which currently includes Carlos Harvey, Jose Hernandez and Renzo Zambrano.

Phoenix are the Champions, but can they repeat in 2024? Image courtesy of USL Championship.

Phoenix are the Champions, but their goal next year will be to leave no doubt.

Oof

Hartford Athletic

You would have to go an awfully long way to find a larger difference between expectations and reality than 2023 Hartford Athletic. The signings that they landed in the offseason seemed to point to a club that was finally going to live up to what their supporters expected. Prince Saydee was joined by Antoine Hoppenot, Elvis Amoh, Kyle Edwards and Juan Pablo Torres. Niall Logue, Matthew Sheldon and Tristan Hodge were meant to anchor a solid spine of the team and this project was led by none other than Tab Ramos.

So what the hell happened?

Ramos was out after just 25 matches in charge spread across two seasons. Omid Namazi, who took over after Ramos was dismissed, did not fare any better. He oversaw 18 matches in which they collected just eight points and allowed a whopping 45 (yes, forty-five) goals. The team with so much attacking promise scored just 40 goals and allowed a League-worst 79 goals in the 34 match regular season. That's 13 more goals allowed than the next worst in the League (who we’ll discuss in just a few.) The team was capable of all manner of loss. Their specialty though seemed to be putting up a brave fight unexpectedly against much stronger opposition only to find a way to lose. The 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh comes to mind. Having trailed 3-0, Hartford fought back to tie it 3-3 in the 86th minute through Hoppenot, only to concede the winner two minutes later. This was the almost sublime horror of 2023 Hartford.

So what do they do now?

They have started by dismissing Namazi as their manager. In this void, they have also begun to sign a number of players for 2024 to try to “Do the Charleston” which for my purposes no longer refers to an outdated dance move and rather refers to going from absolutely terrible to quite good. They have so far signed a very experienced Brazilian goalkeeper in Renan Ribeiro, a winger from the Israeli Second division in Emmanuel Samadia, and USL knockabouts Thomas Vancaeyezeele and Jay Chapman.

It is a start certainly but whoever gets the reins here is going to have their work cut out for them, maybe even more than whoever the new boss in Indy is.

Las Vegas Lights

At the same end of the table but with far less to report, we have Las Vegas Lights. A team that is most known for its halftime entertainment did not offer much between the lines. Preston Tabort Etaka and Danny Rios shared the honor of being the team’s top scorer, with five goals. Couple that with a defense that allowed a League 2nd worst (see Hartford Athletic above) 66 goals and you have this team. 21 losses and just 19 points collected across an entire campaign, it is hard to even really speak on what this team can do.

Which really brings me to a genuine question I have. What is Vegas doing? I am not being facetious or goading, I legitimately want to know what the ownership plans on doing with this team. At one point they were essentially the feeder team for LAFC in MLS, now that connection has been severed but it did not result in added interest or investment from either the fanbase (paid actors?) or a genuine improvement on the field (paid actors, Andrew Carleton?)

This team had only five players that appeared in 30 or more matches this year and none of them was a goalkeeper. I do feel genuinely bad for the professionals who ply their trade in Vegas because it simply seems like an organization that isn’t quite sure what it is. Isidro Sanchez was brought back into the fold as the manager despite a very famous falling out between the club and his father Chelis who quit after multiple suspensions in Lights’ inaugural season. The younger Sanchez joins a long list of Lights’ managers who have been unable to succeed in any material way at the organization. So this has left me to ask again, what exactly are Las Vegas Lights trying to be? Are they an MLS reserve side, an independent Championship side, or just a sideshow?

- Phil Baki

Cover photo courtesy of Indy Eleven/Trevor Ruszkowski.