The Southwest is the only region in this year’s tournament to include two sides from NISA – the rest either have only one or none from the host league. California United Strikers and 1904 FC, both from Southern California, will face FC Arizona and Atletico Olympians, both from Arizona. The opening match of the tournament will come out of this group on Wednesday, July 7th with 1904 FC taking the trip from San Diego to the “Phoenix Area.” The two clubs, which couldn’t be more different, will kickoff at 8:00 pm (Pacific Time) from Campo Verde Stadium in Gilbert Arizona.

FC Arizona

This NPSL side, founded in 2016 and began play in 2017, are 29-9-7 all time in their respective league, winning a whole lot more than they do anything else – show promise to provide stiff competition for the professional NISA outfit from San Diego. They’re also likely to get the better of their Phoenix, AZ-based counterpart, Atletico Olympians when they face each other ten days later.

This year the club is currently second in the Southwest behind Las Vegas.

Atletico Olympians

At first glance, this club doesn’t seem to offer much, with very little information available about them out in the universe. What we can see is that they are following up their first match of this competition, on July 10th vs California United Strikers FC, with a match against 2nd Division Mexican opposition Legones Negros on the 14th. They play their second match of the tournament, again at home, on July 17th when they host FC Arizona. They only travel once in the first round, to face 1904 in San Diego.

1904 FC

1904 announced the club would not be playing in the Independent Cup on July 7th.

Backed by professional footballers Demba Ba and Eden Hazard, 1904 was founded in 2016, but seemingly have played fewer matches than either FC Arizona or California United Strikers FC. Also, they completed their NISA Spring season third bottom with a -9 goal difference and currently, no head coach is listed on the homepage, which tells me they could be in for a rough start to this competition. It wouldn’t be a surprise to seem them go winless in this tournament altogether.

There’s a running behind the scenes discussion about clubs having ethos/identity/perspective. 1904 just seems to lack this aspect of their makeup so far. There’s so much promise around this program, from the big money backing to the prime geographic location, it just feels like something has to be sorted at the core of who they are. Figure out who you are first, then win!

California United Strikers FC

This club has arguably the best schedule of the group and if you add that to their league form, finishing 4th overall in the Spring Season, I think they offer the best bet to win the region. They start their campaign on the road to Atletico Olympians, but then host their other two matches and have only lost at home this year to league eventual league winners Detroit City FC. What’s more, the last home game they had, they beat 1904 FC handily, 3-1 where Billy Garton scored a goal and had two assists. Expect this team to put on a clinic in this region, but don’t be surprised if little-known Atletico Olympians surprise a few folks either.

- Josh Duder