2026 USL Championship season

USL Championship
Season	2026
Dates	March 7 – October 24; (regular season); October 30 – November 20–22; (playoffs);
	← 2025 2027 →

The 2026 USL Championship season is the 16th season of the USL Championship and the ninth season under Division II sanctioning.

Season2026

Dates

March 7 – October 24
(regular season)
October 30 – November 20–22
(playoffs)

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Before the start of the season, the United Soccer League Players Association (USLPA) authorized a player strike, pending resolution of ongoing labor negotiations between the league and the association.^[1]

25 teams in two conferences will compete in the regular season.^[2] The Brooklyn FC men's team, which was originally scheduled to begin play in 2025, debuted in 2026 alongside Sporting Club Jacksonville. North Carolina FC dropped out of the USL Championship and went on hiatus following the 2025 season, with hopes of entering USL Premier in 2028 with a new stadium in Raleigh.^[3]^[4]

All 25 teams will participate in the Prinx Tires USL Cup alongside the 18 USL League One teams.

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds are the defending league champions, and Louisville City FC are the defending Players' Shield winners.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Team	Stadium	Capacity
Birmingham Legion FC	Protective Stadium	47,000
Brooklyn FC	Maimonides Park^[A]	7,000
Charleston Battery	Patriots Point Soccer Complex	5,000
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC	Weidner Field	8,000
Detroit City FC	Keyworth Stadium	7,933
El Paso Locomotive FC	Southwest University Park^[A]	9,500
FC Tulsa	ONEOK Field^[A]	7,833
Hartford Athletic	Trinity Health Stadium^[A]	5,500
Indy Eleven	IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium^[A]	10,524
Las Vegas Lights FC	Cashman Field	9,334
Lexington SC	Lexington SC Stadium	7,500
Loudoun United FC	Segra Field	5,000
Louisville City FC	Lynn Family Stadium	15,304
Miami FC	Pitbull Stadium^[A]	25,000
Monterey Bay FC	Cardinale Stadium	6,000
New Mexico United	Rio Grande Credit Union Field at Isotopes Park^[A]	13,500
Oakland Roots SC	Oakland Coliseum^[A]	53,200 (15,000^[B])
Orange County SC	Championship Soccer Stadium	5,000
Phoenix Rising FC	Phoenix Rising Soccer Stadium	10,000
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC	F.N.B. Stadium	5,000
Rhode Island FC	Centreville Bank Stadium	10,500
Sacramento Republic FC	Heart Health Park	11,569
San Antonio FC	Toyota Field	8,296
Sporting Club Jacksonville	Hodges Stadium	12,000
Tampa Bay Rowdies	Al Lang Stadium^[A]	7,227

Team	Head coach	Captain(s)	Kit manufacturer	Kit sponsor
Birmingham Legion FC	Jay Heaps	Phanuel Kavita	Hummel	Coca-Cola
Brooklyn FC	Marlon LeBlanc	Thomas McNamara	Diaza
Charleston Battery	Ben Pirmann		Hummel
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC	Alan McCann	Matt Mahoney	Capelli Sport	CommonSpirit Health
Detroit City FC	Danny Dichio	Devon Amoo-Mensah	Adidas	AlumniFi
El Paso Locomotive FC	Junior Gonzalez	Arturo Ortiz	Hummel	Southwest University at El Paso
FC Tulsa	Luke Spencer	Abdoulaye Cissoko	Hummel	Williams
Hartford Athletic	Brendan Burke	Jordan Scarlett	Hummel	Trinity Health of New England
Indy Eleven	Sean McAuley	Aodhan Quinn	Under Armour	Ford
Las Vegas Lights FC	Devin Rensing		Joma
Lexington SC	Masaki Hemmi	Kendall Burks	Hummel	UK HealthCare Sports Medicine
Loudoun United FC	Anthony Limbrick	Jacob Erlandson	Capelli Sport	CORAS
Louisville City FC	Danny Cruz	Kyle Adams	Puma	GE Appliances
Miami FC	Gastόn Maddoni	Daltyn Knutson	Macron	Avianca
Monterey Bay FC	Jordan Stewart	Nico Gordon	Charly	Montage Health
New Mexico United	Dennis Sanchez	Will Seymore	Puma	Meow Wolf (home) Sandia Resort and Casino (away)
Oakland Roots SC	Ryan Martin	Tyler Gibson, Tommy McCabe	Charly	Anthem
Orange County SC	Danny Stone	Tom Brewitt	Hummel	Hoag
Phoenix Rising FC	Pa-Modou Kah	Pape Mar Boye	Adidas	Carvana
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC	Rob Vincent	Danny Griffin	Hummel	Allegheny Health Network (home) 84 Lumber (away)
Rhode Island FC	Khano Smith	Koke Vegas	Capelli Sport	Breeze Airways
Sacramento Republic FC	Neill Collins	Lee Desmond	Hummel	UCDavis Health
San Antonio FC	Carlos Llamosa	Mitchell Taintor	Charly	Community First Health Plans
Sporting Club Jacksonville	Liam Fox		Adidas	Ascension St. Vincent's
Tampa Bay Rowdies	Dominic Casciato		Charly	Union Home Mortgage

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tampa Bay Rowdies	14	9	1	4	23	8	+15	31	Playoffs
2	Charleston Battery	14	8	4	2	30	19	+11	26
3	Detroit City FC	13	6	4	3	19	13	+6	21
4	Louisville City FC	14	6	5	3	24	22	+2	21
5	Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC	12	6	4	2	15	13	+2	20
6	Indy Eleven	11	5	3	3	16	12	+4	18
7	Hartford Athletic	12	4	2	6	10	10	0	18
8	Miami FC	14	4	5	5	17	23	−6	17
9	Rhode Island FC	11	4	4	3	21	15	+6	15
10	Birmingham Legion FC	13	2	4	7	14	16	−2	13
11	Loudoun United FC	13	1	5	7	15	26	−11	10
12	Brooklyn FC	13	2	8	3	13	24	−11	9
13	Sporting Club Jacksonville	14	0	11	3	17	39	−22	3

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Orange County SC	14	7	2	5	22	15	+7	26	Playoffs
2	San Antonio FC	14	6	2	6	20	17	+3	24
3	Oakland Roots SC	14	5	3	6	23	20	+3	21
4	FC Tulsa	13	5	4	4	17	16	+1	19
5	New Mexico United	12	5	4	3	13	13	0	18
6	Phoenix Rising FC	14	4	5	5	19	19	0	17
7	El Paso Locomotive FC	13	4	5	4	23	23	0	16
8	Sacramento Republic FC	12	4	4	4	13	12	+1	16
9	Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC	13	4	5	4	21	21	0	16
10	Las Vegas Lights FC	13	4	6	3	20	23	−3	15
11	Lexington SC	12	4	5	3	17	15	+2	15
12	Monterey Bay FC	14	4	8	2	14	22	−8	14

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Sacramento Republic FC	59,490	11,569	8,072	9,915	+1.2%^†
2	Louisville City FC	64,236	11,182	7,297	9,177	−5.9%^†
3	Indy Eleven	52,114	9,357	8,188	8,686	−8.2%^†
4	New Mexico United	49,447	9,491	6,187	8,241	−13.5%^†
5	Rhode Island FC	39,948	7,596	5,708	6,658	−25.3%^†
6	San Antonio FC	35,218	6,512	5,570	5,870	−7.8%^†
7	Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC	34,768	6,883	4,860	5,795	−19.9%^†
8	Detroit City FC	33,623	6,110	5,053	5,604	−10.0%^†
9	Oakland Roots SC	44,069	14,419	2,496	5,509	−34.2%^†
10	El Paso Locomotive FC	31,131	6,079	3,704	5,189	−5.9%^†
11	Lexington SC	30,860	8,277	3,303	5,143	+21.0%^†
12	Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC	24,533	6,053	3,946	4,907	−1.2%^†
13	Tampa Bay Rowdies	33,866	6,267	4,038	4,838	−1.4%^†
14	Phoenix Rising FC	33,304	6,230	3,174	4,758	−2.3%^†
15	Orange County SC	21,608	7,651	2,699	4,322	−5.5%^†
16	FC Tulsa	29,803	5,717	4,004	4,258	+34.0%^†
17	Charleston Battery	26,974	5,012	3,179	3,853	−2.3%^†
18	Birmingham Legion FC	30,758	5,084	2,662	3,845	−15.3%^†
19	Monterey Bay FC	26,523	4,240	2,421	3,315	−0.7%^†
20	Las Vegas Lights FC	17,888	3,708	2,116	2,981	+6.4%^†
21	Hartford Athletic	15,978	4,130	1,148	2,663	−45.8%^†
22	Sporting Club Jacksonville	16,174	10,357	446	2,311	n/a^†
23	Brooklyn FC	14,786	4,500	628	2,112	n/a^†
24	Loudoun United FC	9,491	1,912	957	1,356	−41.9%^†
25	Miami FC	6,389	1,439	665	1,065	−8.7%^†
	League total	779,340	14,419	446	4,811	−13.5%^†

2026 USL Championship season

Teams

Changes from 2025

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and sponsorships

Regular season

Format

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Attendances

Player statistics

Goals

Hat-tricks

Assists

Clean sheets

USL Cup

Awards

Midseason awards

Monthly awards

Weekly awards

References

Related Articles

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[6]
1	Darren Smith	Detroit City FC	11
2	Peter Wilson	Oakland Roots SC	9
	Khori Bennett	Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
	Ihsan Sacko	Phoenix Rising FC
5	Rubio Rubín	El Paso Locomotive FC	8
5	Johnny Rodriguez	Las Vegas Lights FC	8
7	Colton Swan	Charleston Battery	7
8	JJ Williams	Rhode Island FC	6
	Albert Dikwa	Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
	Bruno Rendón	Indy Eleven
	Thorleifur Úlfarsson	Loudoun United
	Kieran Sadlier	Sporting JAX

Rank	Player	Club	Assists^[10]
1	Wolfgang Prentice	Oakland Roots SC	6
2	Christian Pinzón	Las Vegas Lights FC	5
2	Jorge Hernandez	San Antonio FC	5
3	JJ Williams	Rhode Island FC	4
	Cristian Parano	San Antonio FC
	CJ Olney Jr.	Brooklyn FC
	Richie Aman	Loudoun United FC
	Chris Hegardt	Orange County SC
	Jeremy Kelly	Charleston Battery
	Nathan Messer	Charleston Battery
	Taylor Davila	Louisville City FC

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets^[11]
1	Antony Siaha	Hartford Athletic	7
2	Jahmali Waite	Tampa Bay Rowdies	6
3	Carlos Herrera	Detroit City FC	5
3	Alex Rando	Orange County SC	5
5	Eloy Room	Miami FC	4
	Alex Tambakis	FC Tulsa
	Kris Shakes	New Mexico United
	Patrick Rakovsky	Phoenix Rising FC
	Danny Vitiello	Sacramento Republic FC
	Joseph Batrouni	San Antonio FC
	Nico Campuzano	Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
	Oliver Semmle	Lexington SC

Month	Player of the Month			Coach of the Month		References
Month	Player	Club	Position	Coach	Club	References
March	Antony Siaha	Hartford Athletic	Goalkeeper	Dominic Casciato	Tampa Bay Rowdies	^[13]^[14]
April	Wolfgang Prentice	Oakland Roots SC	Forward	Alan McCann	Colorado Springs Switchbacks	^[15]^[16]
May	Colton Swan	Charleston Battery	Forward	Dominic Casciato	Tampa Bay Rowdies	^[17]^[18]

Player of the Week
Week	Player	Club	Position	Reason	Ref.
1	Rubio Rubín	El Paso Locomotive FC	Forward	2 goals vs Colorado Springs	^[19]
2	Jansen Wilson	Louisville City FC	Forward	1 goal, 1 assist vs Miami	^[20]
3	Emilio Ycaza	Charleston Battery	Midfielder	2 goals in comeback win vs Birmingham	^[21]
4	Arney Rocha	Miami FC	Forward	2 goals and 2 Assists in 6 point week for Miami	^[22]
5	Amando Moreno	El Paso Locomotive FC	Forward	2 goals vs Las Vegas	^[23]
6	Markus Anderson	Brooklyn FC	Forward	1 goal, 2 Assists vs Charleston	^[24]
7	Albert Dikwa	Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC	Forward	2 goals vs Detroit	^[25]
8/9	Peter Wilson	Oakland Roots SC	Forward	4 goals in 2 games including first Hat Trick	^[26]
10	Nico Campuzano	Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC	Goalkeeper	7 save shutout vs Louisville City FC	^[27]
11/12	Jürgen Locadia	Miami FC	Forward	Hat Trick vs Louisville City FC	^[28]
13	Christian Sorto	San Antonio FC	Forward	2 goals vs Jacksonville	^[29]
14/15	Darren Smith	Detroit City FC	Forward	5 goals vs Jacksonville	^[30]
16	Peter Wilson	Oakland Roots SC	Forward	3 goals; 1 assist in 2 games	^[31]

Team of the Week
Week	Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards	Bench	Coach	Ref.
1	Vitiello (SAC)	Foster (COS) Crognale (SAN) Kleeman (SAC) Real (HFD)	Careaga (HFD) Schneider (TBR) Suber (CHS)	Obregón (BKN) Rubín (ELP) Parano (SAN)	Siaha (HFD) Fisher (OAK) Spaulding (SAC) Ngalina (HFD) Pinzón (LVL) Hernandez (SAN) Akale (LOU)	Brendan Burke (HFD)	^[19]
2	Batrouni (SAN)	Amoo-Mensah (DET) McFadden (LOU) Montgomery (DET)	Serrano (LOU) Mendez (ELP) Sample (PGH) Byaruhanga (OAK)	Smith (DET) Dikwa (PGH) Wilson (LOU)	Semmle (LEX) Benalcazar (OC) Nodarse (RI) Davila (LOU) Ahl (PGH) Donovan (LOU) Okyere (LVL)	Ryan Martin (OAK)	^[20]
3	Siaha (HFD)	Nishikawa (BKN) Barbir (SAN) S. Anderson (HFD)	Rendón (IND) Ycaza (CHS) Prentice (OAK) Damm (TUL)	Hernandez (SAN) Cicerone (TBR) Wilson (LOU)	Beaudry (LDN) Quinn (IND) Akpunonu (CHS) Coffey (HFD) Kwizera (RI) M. Anderson (BKN) Myers (TBR)	Dominic Casciato (TBR)	^[21]
4	Rodríguez (MIA)	Jabang (NMU) Totsch (LOU) Suárez (SAN)	Mendez (ELP) Noël (NMU) Cruz (TBR) Ferri (LEX)	Harris (NMU) Dikwa (PGH) Rocha (MIA)	Mora-Mora (ELP) Diz (HFD) Benítez (SAC) Moreno (ELP) Molloy (LEX) Bennett (COS) Anaku (HFD)	Gastón Maddoni (MIA)	^[22]
5	Dick (IND)	Zengue (LEX) Nodarse (RI) Suárez (SAN)	Pasher (BHM) Pakhomov (CHS) Pinzón (LVL) Murphy (LDN)	Bennett (COS) Moreno (ELP) Reid-Stephen (NMU)	Siaha (HFD) Dossantos (TBR) Diz (HFD) Griffin (PGH) Schneider (TBR) Kelly (CHS) Willey (SAC)	Ben Pirmann (CHS)	^[23]
6	Rando (OC)	Yamazaki (DET) Alfaro (ELP) Herbert (IND) Smart (LVL)	Murphy (LDN) Davila (LOU) Blake (IND)	Sacko (PHX) Anderson (BKN) Úlfarsson (LDN)	Lee (BRK) Dayes (LOU) Crognale (SAN) Scearce (PHX) Tregarthen (BHM) Cicerone (TBR) MacKinnon (OC)	Danny Stone (OC)	^[24]
7	Spiegel (OAK)	Messer (CHS) Diz (HFD) Adams (LOU) Damm (TUL)	Hernandez (SAN) Pasher (BHM) Perez (COS)	Dikwa (PGH) Sacko (PHX) Masereka (COS)	Beaudry (LDN) Edwards (OAK) Crognale (SAN) Prentice (OAK) Ferri (LEX) Bennett (COS) Rubín (ELP)	Alan McCann (COS)	^[25]
8/9	Waite (TBR)	Benítez (SAC) Ian (TUL) Prentice (OAK)	Hernandez (SAN) Kocevski (TUL) Tregarthen (BHM) Foster (CHS)	Wilson (OAK) Swan (CHS) Cabral (TUL)	Beaudry (LDN) Messer (CHS) Jacquesson (OAK) Ferri (LEX) Rodríguez (SAC) Williams (RI) Damus (BHM)	Luke Spencer (TUL)	^[26]
10	Campuzano (PGH)	Quinn (IND) Ordoñez (LEX) Neidlinger (IND)	Careaga (HFD) Firmino (LEX) Hegardt (OC) Jabang (NMU)	Hurst (NMU) Goodrum (LEX) Úlfarsson (LDN)	Waite (TBR) Kelp (PGH) Diz (HFD) Bailey (NMU) Mendez (ELP) Rendón (IND) Reid-Stephen (NMU)	Sean McAuley (IND)	^[27]
11/12	Tambakis (TUL)	Scardina (RI) Keller (NMU) Pope (LVL)	Kwizera (RI) Sylla (OC) Erofeev (SAN) Perez (TBR)	Locadia (MIA) Williams (RI) Myers (TBR)	Batrouni (SAN) Yamazaki (DET) Glasgow (MB) Molloy (LEX) Blake (IND) Kelly (OC) Donovan (LOU)	Dominic Casciato (TBR)	^[28]
13	Dick (IND)	De Vicente (OAK) Blanco (SAN) Mar Boye (PHX)	Pedder (JAX) Molloy (LEX) Schneider (TBR) Leggett (MB)	Sacko (PHX) Sorto (SAN) Bidois (MB)	Vitiello (SAC) Barnes (PGH) Ostrem (TBR) Firmino (LEX) Bacharach (RI) Swan (CHS) Ordóñez (LOU)	Pa-Modou Kah (PHX)	^[29]
14/15	Siaha (HFD)	Kelp (PGH) Scardina (RI) Barnes (PGH)	Ycaza (CHS) Hernandez-Foster (DET) Duncan (LOU) Ferri (LEX)	Williams (RI) Smith (DET) Epps (LEX)	Vitiello (SAC) Anderson (HFD) Garcia (MB) Olney (BRK) Pinzón (LVL) Kelly (CHS) Hegardt (OC)	Ben Pirmann (CHS)	^[30]
16	Campuzano (PGH)	Mahoney (COS) Glasgow (MB) Tubbs (OC)	Webber (TUL) Kuzain (JAX) Kelly (OC) Fjeldberg (COS)	Aboukoura (LDN) Wilson (OAK) Berry (CHS)	Shakes (NMU) Batista (TUL) Tregarthen (BHM) Jabang (NMU) Sacko (PHX) MacKinnon (OC) Cicerone (TBR)	Ryan Martin (OAK)	^[31]