Shawn Laird

Boca Raton FC vs. Florida Soccer Soldiers

This weekend the UPSL Florida Playoffs kick off, starting with the UPSL Tropics facing off against GOSA and Leg A-Z International battling The Institute FC. While I’m excited for this whole tournament, I’d have to say the game of the weekend will be Boca Raton FC vs the feelgood story of the US Open Cup, Florida Soccer Soldiers. Essentially a David versus Goliath matchup down in South Florida. In the end, I have a feeling that the Soccer Soldiers will advance through the whole tournament and challenge for the national championship in Texas.

Joshua Duder

UPSL Last Frontier, Alaska City FC vs Cook Inlet SC

While most conferences and divisions across the country are coming to a close, and playoff seeds are being determined, UPSL’s Last Frontier Conference in Alaska is just getting warmed up. With just three teams in conference play, there is only one match scheduled per weekend and up this week is Alaska City FC vs Cook Inlet SC. While Alaska City is listed at the “Home” side, and will host CISC at Machetanz Stadium, all of the clubs rotate between four or five listed fields and there’s no real home field advantage. Cook Inlet beat City by two goals to none on June 1st, which was a pre-season game, and it will be interesting to see if City can come up with some offense this time around. They were able to score three vs Arctic Rush in another pre-season game, but last week in the Conference’s inaugural match, Alaska City and Arctic Rush drew nil-nil. This is Cook Inlet’s first match in this league, but the organization was founded in 1982 and will be looking to test their “Premier” team in this brand-new league for Alaskan soccer.

For more information about Last Frontier.

NPSL Northwest Conference, PDXFC vs FC Mulhouse Portland

Last year’s league semi-finalist FCMP start a stretch of three games over the next ten days, all of which are in the Portland area, and two of them are against last place PDXFC. FC Mulhouse Portland have two games in-hand on Conference toppers Crossfire Redmond, and their second game of this home stretch could be a proverbial 6-pointer against that very side. FCMP are already in 2nd place in the Conference, but if they can haul in enough points to fend off the rest of the competition, they can secure their place in the NPSL playoffs yet again, and it would not be a surprise to see them repeat the task of knocking off their opponents in the first and second round—this team is that good. PDXFC, on the other hand, are sitting in last place in the division, and haven’t won a regular season match since 2017. They’ve failed to record a shutout this year and have been outscored 24 goals to 7. They might be just playing for pride in what some call the Battle for Portland and others call the Black-and-Blue Derby.

Dan Creel

Mississippi Blues SC at Northshore United

Returning to the Gulf Coast Premier League for the second week in a row, I’m looking at current league leaders Northshore United. On Saturday they get a home match against Mississippi Blues SC. The Blues are sitting well down in the standings and normally should be a fairly easy opponents for the Norsemen. But, this will be a test to see how well Northshore can handle two games in four days.

United beat Motagua New Orleans 3-2 at City Park in a rescheduled mid-week Pontchartrain Derby game that jumped them to the top of the standings with four wins and one draw. And, at this level, rescheduled matches can be the bane of a club’s record.

Northshore is a club looking to win the league. Defeating a less talented opponent while managing the complications caused by unforeseen developments will be an indication the lads in yellow could be well on their way.

Kickoff is 7pm at Wolverine Stadium in Covington.