Lower90

Lower90 Weekly for June 22, 2026

FootballNews365 / June 22, 2026

World Cup fever is here - and there is tons of great soccer happening everywhere in the US. Check out the latest from the wonderful world of minor league soccer!

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It was a week that rewarded anyone who stayed until the final whistle — and punished anyone who didn’t. Across the USL Championship, NPSL, League One, League Two, and W League, late goals, stunning comebacks, and scorelines that read like typos dominated the action. Oakland Roots moved their USL Championship standing in the right direction with a barnstorming 4-3 win in Phoenix, while the NPSL delivered hat-trick duels and a four-own-goal horror show in the same weekend. If this week had a theme, it was simple: nothing was decided until it was actually decided.

Match of the Week: NPSL — West Chester United SC vs Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals

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Editor’s pick: Nine goals, a team down 4-1 in the second half, and a winner in the 77th minute — West Chester’s comeback against Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals is the kind of match that makes you remember why you fell in love with this game in the first place.

West Chester United SC completed a stunning comeback from three goals down to beat Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals 5–4 in NPSL action on June 17. R. Martin, P. Rojek (twice), and A. Zama found the net for the hosts, with an L. Mellor own goal also contributing. R. Robinson scored twice for the visitors, with C. Undorf and L. Thomas adding the others.

Philadelphia came out firing. Robinson opened the scoring in the 16th minute, and just 60 seconds later Martin equalized for West Chester. The response was short-lived. Robinson restored the visitors’ lead in the 20th minute, and Undorf made it 3–1 four minutes later. The Nationals were rampant. Thomas extended the advantage right before halftime, and at 4–1 the game looked done.

It wasn’t. Rojek pulled one back immediately after the restart, scoring in the 46th minute to make it 4–2. The deficit still looked steep, but West Chester kept pushing. The turning point came in the 74th minute when Mellor put the ball into his own net, cutting the gap to one. Two minutes later, Zama — who had been booked back in the 20th minute — hammered home the equalizer. Then Rojek struck again in the 77th minute to complete the turnaround, sending the home crowd into scenes that will be talked about for a long time. Three goals in three minutes to win a game you had no business winning. That’s lower league soccer at its absolute finest.

This Week’s Highlights

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USL Championship — Phoenix Rising FC vs Oakland Roots SC

Oakland Roots arrived in Phoenix and left with a 4-3 win that was nothing short of chaotic — every single goal came in the second half, making the first 45 minutes feel like a very tense prologue. Peter Wilson did the heavy lifting with a brace (49’, 78’), but it was Kelvin Arase’s 90th-minute strike that ultimately put the result beyond doubt after Florian Valot had given Phoenix genuine hope at 3-3 in the 74th minute. Seven second-half goals, a lead that changed hands, and a winner in the 90th — Oakland will take the three points and quietly not mention how nervous the final 15 minutes must have felt.

NPSL — Gio’s Lions SC Chicago vs Southern Indiana Guardians FC

Here’s a sentence you don’t type very often: this match featured two hat tricks, and the team whose player scored the hat trick first still lost. A. Martinto delivered a treble for Chicago in the 18th, 37th, and 40th minutes, only for Southern Indiana’s Y. Lakhlifi to answer with goals in the 30th, 49th, and 52nd — making it 3-3 and setting up a frantic finale. A. Lopez settled it for the Lions in the 59th minute, but the real story here is that two players hit hat tricks in the same seven-goal match and somehow it still feels like an underreported fact.

NPSL — Flower City Union vs Niagara 1812

There’s losing 4-0, and then there’s losing 4-0 while your own players score every single goal. Niagara 1812 had the misfortune of suffering one of the most statistically bizarre results in recent NPSL memory, with N. Rippe’s third-minute own goal setting the tone for a complete defensive catastrophe. J. Avallone (26’), R. Gomes de Almeida (53’), and J. Baraka (86’) followed Rippe’s lead, each finding their own net to hand Flower City Union a clean sheet and four points they barely had to work for. Whatever Niagara’s coaching staff said in the dressing room afterwards, it wasn’t enough.

USL Championship — Sporting JAX vs Charleston Battery

Charleston Battery didn’t just win in Jacksonville — they made a statement, scoring three times in the opening 19 minutes to effectively end the contest before the match had even found its legs. Maalique Foster (12’), Jeremy Kelly (14’), and Miguel Berry (19’) put the Battery in total control before Wan Kuzain made it 4-0 either side of halftime (44’, 47’) in a performance that bordered on clinical humiliation. Berry added a second in the 53rd and Alec Hughes got a late consolation for the hosts in the 82nd, but this was Charleston’s day from the opening whistle — a road performance that moves the needle on their Championship campaign in a big way.

Results Roundup

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USL W League — Vermont Green FC vs AC Connecticut — Vermont Green FC 10-0 AC Connecticut. Vermont put on a historic display, routing AC Connecticut by ten goals in one of the most lopsided results the W League has produced this season.

NPSL — Jackson Lions FC vs WC Predators — Jackson Lions FC 1-2 WC Predators. WC Predators pulled off a two-minute heist in the dying moments — an own goal in the 87th and a real goal in the 89th turned a 1-0 deficit into a stunning 2-1 road win.

USL League One — Greenville Triumph SC vs AV ALTA FC — Greenville Triumph SC 1-2 AV ALTA FC. AV ALTA came to Greenville as underdogs and left with all three points, with Christian Ortiz and Cesar Bahena Jr. scoring in the 72nd and 87th minutes to complete a disciplined road comeback.

USL Championship — Las Vegas Lights FC vs Orange County SC — Las Vegas Lights FC 2-3 Orange County SC. Five goals and four different scorers made for a back-and-forth Vegas thriller, with Garrison Tubbs delivering the 76th-minute winner that sent Orange County home with three points.

USL Championship — Birmingham Legion FC vs Loudoun United FC — Birmingham Legion FC 1-1 Loudoun United FC. Loudoun thought they’d done enough until Sebastian Tregarthen struck in the 89th minute to rescue a point that felt very much like a gut punch for the visitors.

USL Championship — Monterey Bay FC vs El Paso Locomotive FC — Monterey Bay FC 1-0 El Paso Locomotive FC. Paul Gindiri shattered El Paso’s hopes with a 90+1’ winner, gifting Monterey Bay three points in the most dramatic fashion after 90 minutes of deadlock.

USL League One — Forward Madison FC vs Fort Wayne FC — Forward Madison FC 1-1 Fort Wayne FC. Madison had a man sent off in the 15th minute but gutted out more than 70 minutes a man down, eventually sharing the spoils in a gritty result that says plenty about their character.

NPSL — Siouxland United FC vs Dakota Fusion FC — Siouxland United FC 2-1 Dakota Fusion FC. Down 2-0 and seemingly done, Siouxland mounted a miraculous comeback capped by K. Green’s 90th-minute winner to send the home crowd into complete delirium.

USL League Two — AC Houston Sur vs GFI — AC Houston Sur 3-8 GFI. GFI shredded Houston 8-3 in an away performance so relentless it produced one of the most eye-catching scorelines anywhere in the American pyramid this week.

USL Championship — FC Tulsa vs Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC — FC Tulsa 1-2 Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC. Tulsa led going into the second half but Juan Tejada and Jonas Fjeldberg struck within five minutes of each other to deliver Colorado Springs a heads-up road comeback win.

USL W League — FC Buffalo vs Erie Sports Center — FC Buffalo 7-2 Erie Sports Center. FC Buffalo were in an utterly ruthless mood, putting seven past Erie Sports Center in a dominant home performance that stands as one of the W League’s highest-scoring displays this season.

USL W League — AFC Ann Arbor vs Detroit City FC — AFC Ann Arbor 2-6 Detroit City FC. Detroit City turned the Michigan derby into a masterclass of clinical finishing, cruising to a 6-2 away win that made a very clear statement in the W League standings.

NPSL — Greenville United vs Statesville FC — Greenville United 0-2 Statesville FC. Greenville’s defenders saved Statesville the bother of scoring — two own goals, including a heartbreaking one in the 90th minute, handed their rivals a 2-0 win without a single legitimate goal.

NPSL — Ristozi FC vs DMV Elite FC — Ristozi FC 3-1 DMV Elite FC. J. Petty produced a devastating late double, scoring in the 76th and 79th minutes to turn a 1-1 tie into a 3-1 Ristozi win with a blistering two-minute burst.

USL W League — Bigfoot FC vs Tacoma Galaxy — Bigfoot FC 3-5 Tacoma Galaxy. Tacoma Galaxy came to Bigfoot FC’s home and delivered a breathless 5-3 road win in one of the W League’s most entertaining attacking shootouts of the entire campaign.

Until next week — keep watching the beautiful game

Originally published by Lower90 on Substack.