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.
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 Men's Round Up: Week 3
Saturday
Worthington Community FC 0-6 Superior City FC
The Navy rolled into the home of 2-0-0 WCFC and left with all three points courtesy of a devastating display of attacking. Ryan Tomsche scored twice and David Lopez Perez, Henrico Zena, Siji Gonzalez and Bruce Boldt all claimed solo tallies.
St Paul Blackhawks 2-2 Mpls City U21
Mikaelle Daniel and Sam W Kaeding scored for the Young Crows. Liam K Hafenbrack and Samuel C Hoyt scored for the Hawks.
18x26 Academy 1-2 Vlora FC
Vlora's goals were scored by Suad Suljic and Franklin P. Schwendimann. 18x26 returned with a goal by Mubashir A Nour.
Austin Villa 7-1 Granite City FC
Villa saw a hat trick by Jose Valladares and single goals by Lucas Monteiro, Sergio Traitel, Julio Hernandez and Luis Armando Lofego. Granite City could only muster one goal in response, from Eli B De Jongh.
Sunday Spotlight Match
St Croix Legends II 3-2 FC Minneapolis
The first half saw a number of Legends corners and the ball in the net more than once, only to be ruled offside. In the end, FC Minneapolis went down to ten men in the first half an hour and subsequently broke the deadlock in the 51st minute through Pedro Belmont.
Legends equalized at the hour mark with a scrambled effort by Porter Ball off a long throw into the penalty area. With only 10 minutes left, Luca Contestabile scored a free kick, after consultation between the referee and his assistant, to put the Legends back ahead. The Lion Kings levelled it with a screamer from the top of the box in the fourth minute of stoppage time, courtesy of Andrei Filho but there was still enough time for a last sting in the tail as Will Kidd finished, from a Contestabile corner with the stopwatch reading 90+12.
Wednesday
Mpls City U21 5-3 St Croix Legends II
Mitchel M Munzing and Tomas S Menna scored two each and Camel Htoo got a single goal for the Crows. Gora G Gora scored twice and Carter E Thiesfeld scored a solo effort for the Legends.
FC Minneapolis 1-1 Austin Villa
Austin Villa survived a red card to claim a point on the road.
Thursday
Granite City FC 0-1 Worthington CFC
The Toros stole a late winner on an own goal.
Friday
Vlora FC 1-1 Leon FC
A strange evening in Burnsville, where a match only lasted 70 minutes due to bad weather. In between the interruptions, a match broke out, with both sides notching breakaway solo efforts. Franklin Schwendimann scored for Vlora, Medo had the reply.
Coming Up:
Saturday:
18x26 Academy v Granite City FC
Worthington Community FC v FC Minneapolis
Austin Villa FC v Minneapolis City U21
Sunday:
St Croix Legends II v St Paul Blackhawks