Last Week This Morning: Second!

Written while kinda hate-watching the Gold Cup final…

Well that was a fun weekend if you ignored the USMNT, wasn’t it? Given that people apparently stayed away from the 3rd place Gold Cup game in droves, YES. IT WAS. After winning their fifth game in a row, Louisville City finds itself in second place in the East with two games in hand on Charleston, who is in third with 34 points. Second place is great, don’t believe what Reese Bobby said. Besides, he was high that day. Let’s see what else happened in the USL last week:

Going into the weekend, City was in third but just two points behind the Charleston Battery with a game in hand. Charleston, though, played two games in fairly quick succession that could have allowed them some breathing room if they got results in either match. They didn’t. The Battery lost 1-0 to Tworonto on Friday night and then lost again 1-0 to Rochester in a boring, boring game that I kind of wish I hadn’t watched. So thanks, Charleston, we’ll be keeping that second place spot with our eyes fixed on Rochester, eight points ahead.

Get ready for a bunch of Reno 911! jokes. The USL is planning to announce Nevada’s second city as the home of the next team making a 2016 debut, along with Rio Grande Valley. We can expect more announcements like this soon, if USL President Jake Edwards is to be believed.

Here’s a fun story: After sixty minutes in their Keystone Derby match against the Harrisburg City Islanders, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds found themselves up a man and winning 1-3. After ninety minutes plus stoppage time, HCI grabbed the three points in a 4-3 win. Despite losing M Jose Barril in the 65th minute, Harrisburg managed to score three goals in a half hour to hand the Riverhounds their second consecutive loss, leaving the two teams dangling on either side of the red line.

Other scores of note: NYRB II beat the Kickers 4-3, Saint Louis’s home not-winning streak continued against OKC Energy in a 0-0 draw, and the sun rose in the east and set in the west.

With 10 games left in the season, it’s not to early to be talkin’ bout ~~practice~~ playoffs. Louisville City has already mathematically clinched a spot and, if their points per game holds up over the last third of the season, they won’t do any worse than third place. Not bad! Unfortunately, the only way we catch the Rhinos is if they play awful and Team Purple plays great to close out the fixture list, which I don’t really see happening.