WPSL Central Region Playoffs Preview
Playoffs! In the Northland!
As part of the planned rotation between regions, it has long been known that the Northern Conference's winners this year would not only seal that conference's only spot in the playoffs, but would also host the Central Regional finals. This year there is only one Conference Championship in the Central Region.
FC Pride (who finished third in the Gateway) play Lake Michigan winners Milwaukee Torrent for the Midwest Conference on Sunday for a place in Sioux Falls.
Sioux Falls City in the Northern Conference and the Heartland division winners Union KC are spared that extra game, Rockies division winners Colorado Pride have won the Mountain Conference's spot in the Central Region's final four.
I will be investigating how clubs qualified for the postseason without winning their conference.
USL League 2 Spotlight: Minneapolis City v Rochester FC
Minneapolis City SC 2-0 Rochester FC
Goals by Eli Goldman and Ryan Keefe
All pictures from Jason Morales Ortiz
UPSL Men's Playoff Final: 18x26 Academy v St Paul Blackhawks
18x26 Academy 2-1 St Paul Blackhawks
After a postseason of upsets, 18×26 seized the trophy for UPSL Men’s Midwest West Premier Division and moved on to play in the National bracket against Dodge City Toros of the Midwest South at the weekend.
All photos by Jason Morales Ortiz.
WPSL Spotlight: St Croix Legacy v Sioux Falls City
Sioux Falls City FC completed their perfect season with a win over St Croix Legacy. The winning goal came from Taylor Thomas. The other results from this round are covered here
WPSL Wrap-Up: Week 8
The battle for the North was all set up for a showdown on Friday, albeit with an unexpectedly tight result in Maple Grove.
Wednesday
St Croix Legacy 1-0 Mankato United
This was a Spotlight Match of the week, full gallery here.
Minnesota Thunder 11-2 Rochester United
Caroline Bailey scored a hat trick, Kiya Gilliand scored two and Vesna Dennison, Taylor Heimerl, Paige Peltier, Paige Kalal, Izzy Engle and Allison Flies all scored once for Thunder. Kylie Miranto and Sydney Tucker scored for the Lions.
MapleBrook Fury 0-1 Salvo SC
A penalty kick from the prolific Khyah Harper kept Salvo's season perfect.
Friday
Dakota Fusion 0-4 Joy Athletic Club
A strong second half by the Goats, yet another defeat for Fusion. Brooke Quam scored twice, Ashley Bennett and
Sioux Falls City 1-0 Salvo SC
Mia Bosch sealed the Conference title, and hosting rights for the playoffs, with a winner in the 60th minute, from a Mia Mullenmeister pass and off a despairing Ayden Gagner in the Salvo net.
Saturday
Mankato United 5-0 Manitou FC
Jadyn Chee, Kelsey Heller, Lucy Weninger, Ava Stanchina and Marit Klagge all scored for United.
Sunday
Dakota Fusion 0-2 Rochester United
Rochester United travelled to Fargo with only 11 players but matched up with a team who rostered only 12.
A back and forth opening few minutes marked by few chances, often only just missed by both sides.
Right on half time, a free kick for Rochester, bounced high over the Fusion keeper Quinn Carter but was somehow scrambled clear.
Fusion’s Sarah Burgum, missed a chance, over the crossbar, from inside the 6 yard box and only ten minutes later, Rochester United had a two run lead. Sydney Tucker benefited from a long ball down the middle which bounced free of the Fusion offside trap, slotting past a disgruntled Carter. Two minutes later, Kylie Mirango made it 2-0 to the visitors, slapping home a ball which found her in the six yard box from a midfield free kick.
Fusion finished the game on the front foot but failed to spoil the clean sheet. With that result, the team from Fargo-Moorhead head to MapleBrook next week hoping for a two win season but with the chance for a transformatory three-win season gone by the way.
Joy Athletic Club 1-0 MapleBrook Fury
Ashley Bennett scored the winner in the Goats last game of the season. Ben VanWyk has a full Spotlight gallery here
St Croix Legacy 0-1 Sioux Falls City
Taylor Thomas's early strike is enough to give the Northern Conference Champions a perfect regular season. Jason Morales Ortiz has the Spotlight coverage here.
Coming Up:
Sunday July 7th:
MapleBrook Fury v Dakota Fusion
WPSL Spotlight: Joy Athletic Club v MapleBrook Fury
Ben VanWyk brings our WPSL spotlight to the match up of MapleBrook Fury and Joy Athletic.
The rest of the week’s coverage, including multiple other Spotlights, will be published soon.
NPSL Round-Up: 23-29 June 2024
Wednesday
Duluth FC 10-0 Minnesota Blizzard
Tyler Limmer scored a hat trick, Dylan Sumner scored twice, Myles Edmondson, Felipe Santos, Felipe Carli, Manny Morales and Golden Boot leader Eduoard Nys all scored one.
Sioux Falls Thunder 0-0 Minnesota TwinStars
Siouxland United 3-0 Joy Athletic Club
Ahmed Dosso, Magloire Makila and Marcus Harwood scored for the Outlaws.
Saturday
Joy Athletic Club 4-0 Sioux Falls Thunder
Bennett Kouame, Mika Folstad, Philip Caputo and Zinedine Kroeten scored for the Goats as they lock the TwinStars in every category other than head to head (which the Goats lead)
Minnesota Blizzard 0-2 Minnesota TwinStars
Abdoulsalam Akinola and Sadra Golzarian led the TwinStars past the Blizzard.
Dakota Fusion 3-2 Siouxland United
An end to end opening 10 minutes led into a straight red card for Queenslander Flynn Faulkner from Siouxland United for verbal abuse of an opponent in the 15th minute.
Even as the team with the numerical advantage, it took another 15 minutes before Fusion scored, through Gael Gonzalez. Only 5 mins after that, Sho Toda finished a passage of intricate passing to make it 2-0 and it looked like the home side were going to play out a copy of their smash and grab 2-0 on the road in Sioux City.
Outlaws came out with renewed vigor in the second half, and Kenny Hewitt broke through for Siouxland, poking home from a corner in the 62nd minute. Felix Buabeng made it 3-1, capitalizing on a square pass by a Siouxland defender to break away and score in the 81st minute. Marcus Harwood scrambled home a second goal from a ball over the defense, in the third minute of stoppage time but they were unable to tie it up.
The win takes Fusion clear of Duluth FC at the top of the Conference.
Speaking to us after the win, Dakota Fusion head coach Alex Trent had this to say:
We were great in possession in the first half and then we got away from what was working halfway through the second half. Proud of the effort of the team to get into good areas offensively and put the ball in the back of the net, but we had a few lapses on things defensively that normally we're great at. We're looking forward to another challenge on Tuesday against TwinStars.
I have reached out to Siouxland United and will update the story when I hear back.
Coming Up:
Tuesday:
Siouxland United v Sioux Falls Thunder
Dakota Fusion v Minnesota TwinStars
Minnesota Blizzard v Joy Athletic
Saturday:
Minnesota Blizzard v Dakota Fusion
Siouxland United v Duluth FC
Minnesota TwinStars v Joy Athletic Club
USL 2 Spotlight: St Croix Legends vs Rochester FC
USL League Two Spotlight: St Croix Legends 1-3 Rochester FC
In a fight between the top side in the Deep North, and the bottom side, it was the Loons who emerged with all three points – aided by an amazing sequence at the end of the first half where Nathan Donovan was shown a red card for the Legends and almost immediately, Rochester attacked and scored through Jake Parish off the half volley, going on to add a second through Preston McKay in first half stoppage time and a third in the 81st minute by Warren Moss before the Legends spoiled the clean sheet in the 90th minute through Cole Schrage.
Following this game, Rochester FC has beaten St. Croix twice this season. Those matches are RFC’s only wins and St Croix’s only losses.
Check out Ben VanWyk’s photo gallery.
WPSL Spotlight: St Croix Legacy v Mankato United
WPSL Spotlight: St Croix Legacy 1-0 Mankato United
Against the run of play, St Croix Legacy won a narrow victory, with a goal from Laney Murdzek. Enjoy Ben VanWyk’s photos.
UPSL Men's Spotlight: Midwest West Playoff Semi-Finals
With the regular season in the books, the top four teams from the Midwest West conference of UPSL men’s premier division fought it out for the one spot in the national bracket.
Minneapolis City SC 2-4 18×26 Academy
The #1 seed bowed out in the first round, with Awes A Qasim, Jabril M Mohamud, Abdirahman Shariff Hassan and Assem S Elsayad all scoring for 18×26. Mitchel Munzing and Carter Hermanson scored for the Rookery.
St Croix Legends II 2-3 St Paul Blackhawks
Continuing with the theme of road upsets, the #3 seeded Blackhawks made the short trip East and came away with a win. Caspar A Olseth, Samuel C Hoyt and Liam K Hafenbrack had the goals for the ‘hawks, whose progress was no doubt aided by St Croix finishing the game with 9 men (Perry Blay and Agostino Quadrio Curzio both got second yellow cards)
Asher B Ozuzu had the Legends’ goals.
UPSL Women's Gallery: June 23 2024
UPSL Women's Gallery
This week we have photos from Northern Tide’s 3-2 win over Minnesota TwinStars and Minnesota Aurora 2’s 7-0 demolition of St Croix Legacy II.
WPSL Wrap-Up: Week 7
With so much action in the league this week, we spotlighted Salvo's comprehensive victory over Manitou. The other results are as follows:
Tuesday
St Croix Legacy 3-2 Rochester United
Lexi Huber (from Kallianne Mogler) and then Lainey Murdzek (from Avery Murdzek) put Legacy ahead 2-0 within the opening half-hour. Sydney Tucker got a double (both unassisted, in the 62nd and 69th minutes) to tie the match but Lainey Murdzek popped up in the 85th minute (this time from Claire Cater) to steal the three points for the hosts.
Wednesday
Mankato United 2-1 Joy Athletic Club
Goals from Ella Huettl and Jadyn Chee for the hosts carried United past their visitors' late goal from Ashley Bennett.
MapleBrook Fury 1-6 Minnesota Thunder
Kendall Stadden's tally for the hosts was met with thunderous intent with goals by Grace Estby, Caroline Bailey, Paige Kalal, Izzy Engle and Paige Peltier.
Friday
Dakota Fusion 0-5 Sioux Falls City
Sioux Falls City kept pace with Salvo, with an explosion of scoring from Katharina Oelschlager - three goals in seven minutes (although one was probably an own goal) providing the dagger. Oelschlager is credited with four goals overall from the game and Yui Fujii opened the scoring, after an opening 30 minutes where they had repeatedly failed to connect on final passes but had otherwise knocked on the door.
Saturday
Manitou FC 1-3 Joy AC
The basement battle went the way of the team from St Louis Park. Brooke Quam put Joy ahead, before Tatum Trettel equalized. Brooke Nast and Ashley Bennett made sure of the points.
MapleBrook Fury 2-1 St Croix Legacy
Sunday
Minnesota Thunder 7-0 Dakota Fusion
Izzy Engle scored a hat trick, Grace Estby picked up two and Paige Peltier and Caroline Bailey scored single goals.
Sioux Falls City 5-0 Mankato United
Hailee Christensen with two, Katharina Oelschlager, Yui Fujii and Mia Bosch kept Sioux Falls in the hunt for the playoff spot.
Rochester United 0-6 Salvo
Khyah Harper scored a hat trick, Sophia Baresteh got two and Katelyn Buelke scored as the team from the Twin Cities lined up a potential playoff decider on Friday in Sioux Falls.
Coming Up:
Wednesday
St Croix Legacy v Mankato United
Minnesota Thunder v Rochester United
Friday
Dakota Fusion v Joy Athletic Club
Sioux Falls City v Salvo SC
Saturday
Mankato United v Manitou FC
Sunday
Dakota Fusion v Rochester United
Joy Athletic Club v MapleBrook Fury
St Croix Legacy v Sioux Falls City
Sunday July 7th:
MapleBrook Fury v Dakota Fusion
NPSL Round-Up: 16-22 June 2024
Tuesday:
Joy Athletic Club 2-1* Minnesota TwinStars
This back and forth match was brought to a halt in the 48th minute by torrential rain and high winds. Grant Luce put Joy ahead in the 14th minute. Akinola equalized for TwinStars five minutes later. Philip Caputo put the hosts back ahead in the 35th minute.
If this result stands, Joy have taken 4 points off teams around them in playoff positioning in the past two matches. Next visitors to St Louis Park on Saturday, a Duluth side needing to keep winning to fight for first place.
Wednesday:
Duluth FC 6-1 Sioux Falls Thunder
Eduoard Nys notched another two goals and Jireh Oyebamiji also got two. Dylan Sumner and former Thunder player Tyler Limmer picked up solo goals. Thunder made it 2-1 briefly with a penalty kick.
Minnesota Blizzard 2-3 Siouxland United
Blizzard opened the scoring in the 53rd minute through Landon Atkins. Flynn Faulkner equalized in the 84th minute before Atkins instantly put Blizzard back ahead. The Outlaws stole the three points for their journey home with a penalty kick from Marcus Horwood in the 90th minute and a goal from open play in stoppage time from Hibiki Mizutani.
Saturday Spotlight Match
Our full coverage of Minnesota TwinStars v Dakota Fusion is here.
Joy Athletic Club 4-2 Duluth FC
Joy continued their trend of taking points off their fellow playoff contenders, Phil Caputo scoring four on the way to a home victory. Eduoard Nys continues his red hot form, opening and closing the scoring for the BlueGreens.
Sioux Falls Thunder 1-1 Minnesota Blizzard
In a game of dueling penalty kicks, Thunder dispatched theirs in the 30th minute but Blizzard missed one just before half-time. However, Max Just provided the equalizer in the 85th minute.
Coming Up:
Wednesday
Duluth FC v Minnesota Blizzard
Sioux Falls Thunder v Minnesota TwinStars
Siouxland United v Joy Athletic Club
Saturday
Joy Athletic Club v Sioux Falls Thunder
Minnesota Blizzard v Minnesota TwinStars
Dakota Fusion v Siouxland United
NPSL Spotlight: Minnesota TwinStars v Dakota Fusion
NPSL Spotlight: Minnesota TwinStars 0-0 Dakota Fusion
The TwinStars had already notched a memorable win over Duluth FC and although they would give up a lop-sided defeat to the same opposition on the road, they remained undefeated at their home at Park Center High and in third place going into their match with top of the table Dakota Fusion. Fusion have lost some momentum recently, with two draws bringing their lead over Duluth to only 1 point, going into the weekend – albeit with an uneven number of games played. The week’s results in full are recapped here.
In a tightly contested match, the closest that either side came, was in the fourth minute of stoppage time when a Fusion header from a corner was headed off the line by TwinStars. Speaking to us after the game, Dakota Fusion head coach Alex Trent was optimistic
We believe we can win any game and create chances. We know we have the players to do it and that goals will come if we continue to stay disciplined and execute better.
So the TwinStars home unbeaten record remains intact and Fusion’s remarkable streaks of clean sheets and of blunt finishing continue. Duluth lose some ground, falling 4-2 to Joy Athletic Club.
Alex Trent had an eye on the team’s key weakness
The past two games, we’ve played more than well enough to win and created countless chances, but need to be more clinical in the final third.
TwinStars Assistant Manager Karim Darbaki was very complimentary of both sides
It was a very good match. Very tactical. Both teams had some good moments. Fusion played possession football similar to the way we play, which made for an entertaining match.
We look forward to playing away to them.
Ousman Ceesay, our captain, had a very good game and was able to keep a clean sheet, one of our main objectives.
Fusion men next play next Saturday, back at home at Jim Gotta Stadium in Moorhead, against Siouxland United before welcoming (if that is the right word) the TwinStars to the Red River Valley on July 2nd and closing the NPSL season away at Minnesota Blizzard on July 6th. The club has also been announced as a participant in NISA Independent Cup’s Great Lakes region, and their opening match in that knockout bracket is scheduled for the following day back in Moorhead against UPSL and MASL club Vlora FC. The NPSL playoffs are then scheduled to begin on Wednesday the 10th at the highest two seeds’ home stadia, almost certain to be Fusion and the BlueGreens.
TwinStars men next play Sioux Falls Thunder on Wednesday, and then Minnesota Blizzard next Saturday. They close league play on July 6th at home to Joy Athletic before probably being on the road at the #2 seed in the playoffs on the 10th.
WPSL Spotlight: Salvo SC v Manitou FC
Spotlight Match – Salvo 6-0 Manitou
It took less than two minutes for Salvo to earn their first corner and only a minute more before they registered their first shot on goal. With barely 5 mins on the clock, the hosts had the opportunity to go ahead but a cross in from the right was just missed by attackers in the 6 yard box.
A minute later, Manitou had a chance to go ahead but a free kick fired in from 20 yards out, scuttered across the box and away for a goal kick. It would prove costly, as shortly after, Salvo’s high press turned over the ball in the Manitou penalty area and Khyah Harper calmly slotted it home. That would become a recurring theme of the first half.
With Manitou struggling to break Salvo’s press, a long ball down the middle from Cameron Rintoul, was latched onto by a sprinting Khyah Harper, who outpaced the Manitou defence and tapped it home in the 21st minute.
Two minutes later, the Manitou defence gave up the ball easily again, and Katelyn Buelke passed to Harper for a 23 min hat trick. The pattern of the game then shifted into a more tactical mode, with Salvo in complete control, slowly passing laterally and forward before unleashing shots, albeit without scoring.
With half time approaching, another ball down the middle from Maddie Ishaug saw Khyah Harper score her fourth of the game.
With the game out of hand, the second half started scrappily but Manitou were able to apply some pressure down their right wing, before the ball went harmlessly out. A combination of scrambling defence and mis-timed connections meant that the game would remain in a sort of stalemate until Aaryn Gabriel dribbled into the box and smashed home from close in, from Sophia Barjesteh, for Salvo’s fifth goal. Manitou came close in the waning minutes but the final word came from Gabriel, firing a bullet header past a helpless Jordan Metz in the Manitou goal in the 89th minute.
For the other results and upcoming schedule from the WPSL, check out Week 7’s Wrap Up – out on Sunday.