USL Jägermeister Cup, NISA & MLS Next Pro round-ups, May 10-12

Round two of the USL Jägermeister Cup took place on Saturday with all twelve USL League One teams in action for the first time this season. Charlotte Independence won their first match in the tournament away at South Georgia Tormenta - on penalties after the tie finished 1-1, largely thanks to the efforts of goalkeeper Austin Pack, but the first thing he had to do in their home tie against Forward Madison on Saturday was pick the ball out of the net, Christian Chaney putting the Flamingos in front in less than two minutes at American Legion Memorial Stadium. A disappointing crowd of 798 showed that not everyone is on board with the new competition but they at least got to see Juan Carlos Obregon Jr level the scores just past the hour, his seventh goal in nine games this season. It was all for nought, though, as Madison picked up a handy away win to make up for their away loss in round one, substitute Derek Gebhard making it 2-1 with eleven minutes left on the clock. The clash between Greenville Triumph and South Georgia Tormenta at Paladin Stadium featured two sides who lost on penalties first time out and it looked like it might be going in the direction of spot-kicks again when Jamie Smith made it 2-2 from the penalty spot in the 68th minute. Lyam MacKinnon had given Triumph the lead with his eighth goal of the season just past the quarter hour, but Tormenta had roared back with a two-goal salvo from Mason Tunbridge and Jackson Khoury to take a half-time lead. Some of the 1,471 fans may even have been heading for the exist as Smith opped up to score his second and give Greenville the win with just four minutes to go, putting them top of the East Group.

Lexington SC remain unbeaten in their Jägermeister Cup campaign, floowing up a home win over Forward Madison with a shootout victory over Central Valley Fuego on Saturday. Twelve hundred fans saw the visitors reduced to ten men in the fifth minute when Christopher Heckenberg was deemed to be the last man, giving Cameron Lancaster the opportunity to score a tidy free-kick to give the Boys in Green the lead in the eighth minute, an advantage doubled fourteen minutes later by Ates Diouf. Fuego have been poor to middling all season but they found some inspiration in the second-half, Alfredo Midence reducing the gap to a single goal on 65 minutes. Two minutes into time added on at the end of the game, Raul Mendiola grabbed a leveller, sending the game to a shootout, which the home side side won 4-1 to go top in the Central Group. They could have been joined there by One Knoxville were it not for the Tennessee side having an absolute nightmare at home to Northern Colorado Hailstorm in front of a good crowd of 1,700. Things went the way of the visitors as early as the second minute, when Isidro Martinez gave Hailstorm the lead, and it was 3-0 just past the half-hour courtesy of a brace by Bruno Rendon. Kempes Tekiela did manage to pull one back for the Scruffy City side on 36 minutes, but it was 4-1 at the half thanks to Ethan Hoard's fourth of the season. The second-half brought just one more goal, Haruki Yamazaki becoming the first Japanese player to score for Northern Colorado, and a 5-1 win was a lovely was to bounce back from their defeat on penalties in the first round.

A hundred miles southwest, and half an hour later, Chattanooga Red Wolves welcomed Richmond Kickers to CHI Memorial Stadium, where another solid crowd of almost 2,500 saw the home side earn their first win of the Jägermeister Cup campaign. Kickers had managed to win a shootout after a late equaliser at Greenville in round one and it looked like it might be going to spot-kicks again when Red Wolves found a winner five minutes from time, Kickers 'keeper Ryan Shellow putting through his own net. The final game of the weekend was out west, where Spokane Velocity met USL-1 form side Union Omaha at a busy One Spokane Stadium, just five hundred short of a sell-out. After a cagey few minutes it was the visitors who took the lead, but Missael Rodriguez's eleventh minute goal was cancelled out five minutes later by Andre Lewis. That was it for the first-half but Union went ahead again six minutes into the second-half when Pedro Dollabela converted a penalty given for a foul on Rodriguez. Again, that advantage was short-lived, Spokane equalising through former Omaha man Luis Gil five minutes later, and it seemed like a draw would be the most likely result as it stayed 2-2 into stoppage time, only for Martin Gil to find a winner in the third minute of time added on, taking the hosts top of the West Group.

There were just three games again in the NISA league this weekend, starting with the visit of unblemished Michigan Stars to Atlanta's Silverbacks Park to face new boys Georgia FC on Saturday. Stars had won all four league matches so far but found themselves behind in the 32nd minute when Patrick Okonkwo opened the scoring for the home side, with Kevin Herrera making it 2-0 two minutes later. Half-time was a chance to reset but it brought no instant dividend before Okonkwo grabbed his second to put the Georgians 3-0 ahead. Sacko Konate did manage to get on the scoresheet for Stars with two minutes left to play, but a stoppage time goal from Victor Valencia gave Georgia their second win of the season. The first of Sunday's games saw Maryland Bobcats visit Winter Park, Florida, to face the veterans of Club de Lyon. The Lions went above their rivals with a surprise win at Georgia FC last week but it was business as usual this week with the Bobcats 2-0 up at half-time, thanks to a penalty from Darwin Espinal and an Elijah Amo goal. It didn't get any better for the Floridians after the break as Espinal grabbed his second and Josselin Possian put them 4-0 with two minutes to go, the only blemish on the night being Juan Manuel Martinez's consolation  in stoppage time. Expansion club Arizona Monsoon hosted Los Angeles Force, top of the Western Conference, for the first time on Sunday and were given a lesson in direct soccer and clinical finishing. Michael Salazar opened the scoring for Force in the eleventh minute and that was how it stayed until 21 minutes into the second-half, when Daisuke Otsuka put Monsoon back on level terms. The tie was short-lived, though, as Bryan Ortega restored LA's lead with a nice goal in the 69th minute, and it was left to former Club Leon prodigy Chila, now carrying some extra timber at 28-years-old, to finish the job for the visitors in the 90th minute, a 3-1 win just reward for their efforts.

Sitting pretty at the top of the MLS Next Pro league, former NISA club Chattanooga FC grabbed another win at the weekend, turning over Inter Miami II at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. Of course, the halfpint Herons don't have the galacticos of their first team but it's still a good effort by the Boys in Blue, who took the lead in the thirteenth minute through Jesus Ibarra, an advantage they held to the break. A minute into the second-half, though, Miami pulled level through the implausibly named Idoh Zeltzer-Zubida, and it looked like things might be heading for the shootout used to settle drawn games in this league. Four minutes from time, though, Mehdi Ouamri found a winner for the Chatts, who are now three points clear at the top of the Eastern Conference. Elsewhere, Portland Timbers 2 had a huge 4-1 Cascadia derby win over Tacoma Defiance, and St Louis CITY II went top in the West with a home win over 2023 winners Austin FC II.