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Lower90 Newsletter Week of Sept 14, 2026
Golazzo’s everywhere across the US Minor Leagues this week. Super League is back and USL Championship and League One are rocking.
Lots of great games and action this week, as these leagues continue to produce fantastic matches and lots of goals. Get out and watch a game nearby! Easily find professional and minor league soccer games near you with our free soccerneame.app website, where you search by location, team, date etc…
Now let’s get to the action:
This Week in US Soccer
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It was a weekend that had everything — nine-goal thrillers, late heartbreakers, and second-half heists that left standings scrambled across all three USL divisions. The USL Championship saw Lexington SC’s emphatic 4-1 demolition of Oakland Roots turn heads, while Hartford Athletic and Rhode Island FC each made loud playoff statements. In League One and the Super League, stoppage time was practically a separate sport, with late winners and desperate equalisers rewriting results well into added time.
Match of the Week: USL League One — Charlotte Independence vs Westchester SC
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Editor’s pick: Nine goals, a breathtaking mid-game collapse and recovery, a leveller in the 77th minute — and then Christopher Jaime breaking Westchester hearts in the 91st. When the dust settled on a wild Saturday night, this one stood alone.
Charlotte Independence survived a furious Westchester SC fightback to win 5–4 in a nine-goal USL League One contest on Saturday, with Christopher Jaime striking in first-half stoppage time to settle a remarkable game. Joseph Skinner scored twice, Viggo Ortiz, Christy Manzinga, and Jaime added the others for Charlotte, while Conor McGlynn, J Loura, and a Koen Blommestijn brace accounted for Westchester’s four.
Westchester started fast. McGlynn opened the scoring in the 19th minute, and Loura doubled the lead eight minutes later, finishing off an Aleksei Armas pass to make it 2–0. Charlotte looked in trouble. What followed was extraordinary.
Skinner pulled one back in the 31st minute from a Christy Manzinga feed, and just 60 seconds later Ortiz equalized, converting a Christopher Jaime delivery. Skinner then grabbed his second in the 38th minute after Jon Bakero picked him out, and Manzinga made it 4–2 before the break, again set up by Bakero. Four goals in 14 minutes had completely flipped the match.
Westchester refused to fold. Blommestijn headed the visitors back into contention in the 68th minute from a Daniel Bouman ball, picked up a yellow card four minutes later, then scored again in the 77th minute — Ermin Mackic the provider — to level things at 4–4. The game was boiling over, with bookings stacking up on both sides.
Charlotte found the winner deep into stoppage time. Jaime, who had assisted earlier, got on the end of a Clay Dimick pass in the 91st minute to snatch all three points.
The victory keeps Charlotte Independence’s push up the League One table alive heading into the final stretch of the season.
This Week’s Highlights
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USL Championship — Phoenix Rising FC vs FC Tulsa
Dominique Badji put Phoenix in front as early as the 6th minute, and for most of the match that early cushion looked like it would hold. Gunnar Studenthofft’s 88th-minute goal appeared to have put the game firmly to bed — then Delentz Pierre had other ideas, nodding home in the 90th+4 to make it 2-1 and leave Phoenix sweating through a frantic finale. Rising held on, but the manner of the finish will give the coaching staff something to chew over before next week.
USL Championship — New Mexico United vs Indy Eleven
New Mexico looked utterly in control at 2-0 up, with Luther Archimède and Greg Hurst both on the scoresheet inside 18 minutes. Indy Eleven came out of the break a completely different side — Malik Henry-Scott pulled one back in the 50th and Jack Blake levelled just nine minutes later to complete a stunning turnaround. A point apiece, but this one stings far more for New Mexico, who handed Indy a share of the spoils they had no business claiming.
USL Super League — Brooklyn FC vs Sporting JAX
Catherine Zimmerman set the tone with a fifth-minute opener and Brooklyn raced to a 3-0 lead inside 17 minutes, with Tziarra King and Baylee DeSmit adding their names to the scoresheet. When Sporting JAX clawed it back to 2-1 and threatened a comeback, Zimmerman stepped up again with a header in the 82nd minute to restore the cushion. A Paige Kenton goal deep in stoppage time added gloss, but this was Zimmerman’s night — two goals and an all-action performance that Brooklyn fans will be talking about for a while.
USL League One — Portland Hearts of Pine vs AV ALTA FC
This was an ugly, card-heavy grind for 89 minutes — the kind of match that looks forgettable right up until the moment it isn’t. Serigne Faye made it utterly unforgettable, latching onto a Diego Gonzalez pass in the 90th+3 to break AV ALTA’s resistance and send Portland’s home crowd into pandemonium. Three points don’t always come beautifully, but they count all the same, and Portland will take this one with both hands.
Results Roundup
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USL Super League — Lexington SC vs Carolina Ascent FC — Lexington SC 0-1 Carolina Ascent FC. Jenna Butler arrived in the 88th minute to gut-punch Lexington on their own turf and hand Carolina Ascent a stunning road win.
USL Championship — Birmingham Legion FC vs Charleston Battery — Birmingham Legion FC 2-2 Charleston Battery. Miguel Berry struck twice inside 21 minutes for Charleston, but Birmingham clawed all the way back in a frenetic first half that produced four goals in just 28 minutes.
USL League One — Corpus Christi FC vs Union Omaha — Corpus Christi FC 1-2 Union Omaha. Bachstein’s 82nd-minute leveller gave Corpus Christi hope, only for Sergio Ors to crush it with a gut-wrenching 87th-minute winner for Omaha.
USL Super League — Tampa Bay Sun FC vs Fort Lauderdale United FC — Tampa Bay Sun FC 2-1 Fort Lauderdale United FC. Three yellow cards in four wild minutes didn’t derail Tampa Bay, as Shea Connors stepped up in the 81st minute to complete a comeback win over Fort Lauderdale.
USL Championship — Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC vs San Antonio FC — Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC 2-1 San Antonio FC. Two goals in three second-half minutes flipped a goalless bore into a winner-takes-all finish, with San Antonio unable to find the equaliser they chased desperately.
USL Super League — Dallas Trinity FC vs DC Power FC — Dallas Trinity FC 2-1 DC Power FC. DC Power pushed hard in the second half but Dallas held their nerve to protect the lead and close out a hard-earned three points.
USL Championship — Orange County SC vs Las Vegas Lights FC — Orange County SC 0-2 Las Vegas Lights FC. Oalex Anderson put the exclamation mark on a dominant Las Vegas road performance with a 90+3’ goal, leaving Orange County with nothing to show for their efforts.
USL Championship — Louisville City FC vs El Paso Locomotive FC — Louisville City FC 1-2 El Paso Locomotive FC. Rubio Rubín’s first-half brace gave El Paso a commanding road lead, and despite Louisville’s 77th-minute fightback, the Locomotive held on for a vital away win.
USL Championship — Sporting JAX vs Rhode Island FC — Sporting JAX 0-3 Rhode Island FC. Rhode Island were dominant from start to finish, with Jojea Kwizera adding a 90th-minute strike to cap a thorough road demolition.
USL Championship — Hartford Athletic vs Tampa Bay Rowdies — Hartford Athletic 3-1 Tampa Bay Rowdies. Hartford put on an authoritative home display to overpower the Rowdies and send a clear message to the playoff contenders watching.
USL Championship — Oakland Roots SC vs Lexington SC — Oakland Roots SC 1-4 Lexington SC. Lexington stormed into Oakland and left with a crushing four-goal road victory that exposed serious defensive issues and sent a significant standings message to the rest of the league.
USL League One — Athletic Club Boise vs New York Cosmos — Athletic Club Boise 2-1 New York Cosmos. Boise kept the pressure on at the top of League One with a composed home win — exactly the kind of grinding result that defines serious title contenders.
USL League One — Greenville Triumph SC vs Fort Wayne FC — Greenville Triumph SC 1-3 Fort Wayne FC. Fort Wayne rolled into Greenville and left with a clinical three-goal road victory, underlining their credentials as one of League One’s most dangerous away sides this season.
USL Championship — Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC vs Loudoun United FC — Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC 1-0 Loudoun United FC. Samuel Bassett struck early and Pittsburgh’s defense did the rest, grinding out a tight home win that could prove significant in the playoff picture.
USL Championship — Sacramento Republic FC vs Detroit City FC — Sacramento Republic FC 1-0 Detroit City FC. Jared Timmer’s 14th-minute strike was all Sacramento needed as their defence shut out Detroit City and kept the Republic’s playoff hopes very much alive.
Until next week — keep watching the beautiful game
Originally published by Lower90 on Substack.
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