There has been plenty to talk about in the USL Championship so I want to get you caught up with the latest news around the League, from transfers and managers to kits and signs that someone is actually turning the Lights on in Vegas. It’s your USL News Roundup!

Lou City Keeping It Real

You’d have been forgiven for questioning just why Lou City were after goalkeeper Damian Las from Austin FC II in MLS Next Pro. A loan move in a position where Oliver Semmle had already kept the talented Kyle Morton on the bench for much of the campaign felt like a head scratcher. Las is a talent, don’t get me wrong. He came up through Fulham’s academy and featured for them in the Premier League 2. He’s a former US Youth international and was voted MLS Next Pro Goalkeeper of the Year in 2023. 12 clean sheets last season made it a deserved award and at first it appeared that he might take the role of Danny Faundez who was stuck behind Semmle and Morton in 2023.

That is until Philadelphia Union and Lou City announced the transfer of Oliver Semmle to the Union for an undisclosed fee. This continues a promising trend of MLS franchises paying real American currency for players from the USL Championship. He follows fellow member of the Goalkeepers’ Union Trey Muse along with Fidel Barajas and Carlos Harvey as the USL’s latest products to fetch cash from MLS teams. Semmle will be the primary backup to Andre Blake in Philly and who knows what type of opportunities this will open up for him.

As for the battle over the number one shirt in Louisville, it feels a bit open. Faundez has not made an appearance since 2022 for Louisville and has only seven USL Championship appearances under his belt. On the other hand, Las is a hot prospect but ultimately still green and will be trying to get to grips with the pace of the game at the Championship level. Either could make the starting spot their own, or will Danny Cruz have a third option up his sleeve come March 9th?

Coast to Coast

Speaking of transfers, Charleston Battery received a fee for Tristan Trager from Monterey Bay, a type of transaction that is also becoming much more commonplace than in seasons past. Frank Yallop said himself that he had been “tracking Tristan for 18 months,” which suggests he was always going to go all out to get him.

That being said, the ins have been pretty light for Monterey Bay so far this offseason, with them primarily relying on a core of 16 returning from last year. While Trager definitely moves the needle for Monterey Bay in attack, he does not add a ton of goals directly. It’s safe to say the link up with Chase Boone and Alex Dixon is what Yallop will look to as the difference maker but it’s hard to see exactly where they’ll get goals from consistently without adding a pure #9.

As for Battery, they brought in a another Atlanta United 2 product in the form of Jackson Conway along with Diego Gutierrez from Portland Timbers and Nathan DosSantos who is fresh off a Players’ Shield with Pittsburgh. While Gutierrez is the one who profiles closest to Trager in that he has spent a lot of time at Left Wing, the combination of Conway and Gutierrez, not to mention Markanich, Jake LaCava and Emilio Ycaza it feels like Charleston are on their way to rebuilding that attack that fired them to a Final last year.

IT IS ALIVE

Las Vegas Lights had announced that Jose Bautista, former MLB pro and owner of one of the most iconic bat flips in the game’s history had acquired the Sin City club. This has been followed by a lot of hype but no manager and no players.

That all changed last Monday when Dennis Sanchez was announced as the manager at Cashman Field and is officially in his first job as the main man. He had started with roles in Columbus Crew and Sac Republic’s academies before he was brought on as Conor Casey’s assistant in that ill-fated 2022 Charleston Battery campaign. He moved to Austin FC II where he was Brett Uttley’s assistant in a season where they went on to win the MLS Next Pro title.

Now he has absolutely 0 players on his roster. While some will choose to look at this as a negative, I look at it like a blank canvas on which Sanchez can paint his tactical vision. He has experience with a variety of systems. Charleston played a back 3 with wing backs (really poorly) and Austin worked with a back 4. My money is on Sanchez sticking to the system that was so successful for Uttley in Austin.

But back to the empty roster, this is an insane task to throw at someone who is brand new to management. He has 40 days from the time he was announced as manager to put together an entire squad and show up in Memphis on March 9th ready to take the field. Can he pull it off? Netflix, give us the documentary of this we deserve.

Charly in Memphis

For the kit obsessed out there, we got an announcement that Mexican kit supplier Charly, who most notably in USL supplied SD Loyal’s kits last year, would be taking over as Memphis’ supplier. They’ll replace Puma and for this humble author’s money, the move away from Puma is a good thing.

The Memphis badge, with the neon sign style and vibrant colors, lends itself so well to the unique designs that we will likely get from Charly. I also hope that the club lets Charly do their thing. Jay Mims and Co had better not let us down and drop clangers when they have such an opportunity. It should be a fruitful partnership and the proliferation of Charly and Hummel in USL can only be a good thing.

Editor’s Note: Defender Rhys Williams, who has played for multiple lower league clubs including New York Cosmos and Stumptown, has resigned with Detroit City FC through 2025. According to Wikipedia, Williams has made 65 appearances for Le Rouge since 2022.

- Phil Baki