Palmetto State Report: March 27
Regular season and US Open Cup kicks into high gear around the state
Palmetto State Report: March 27
No time to waste, lots of great soccer happening around the state over the next few weeks…
Key Matches this weekend
There is a huge UPSL game on the schedule this weekend as Soda City FC plays at the SC United Heat at 5 PM on Sunday, March 30. Both teams are undefeated on the early UPSL Mid-Atlantic South season and it's a massive game with postseason implications in just week three of the season. Soda City FC claimed the victory 3-1 last fall in the Columbia Derby and the teams will meet twice in the spring of 2025 in two must-see Palmetto State soccer matches. There will be a full match report on this one Sunday night.
UPSL Fall 2024 Golden Boot winner Tom Marriott will be there playing for the SC United Heat. Tom already has six goals in the first two games of the spring season and has a pretty good golf swing you’ll see in his goal celebrations.
Greenville and Charleston play USL matches this weekend. The Triumph welcome in the Spokane Velocity and the Battery visit NCFC in a Southern Derby match in their next fixtures. Both teams will look to continue their early season form and pick up results this weekend.
Charleston United travel to Gastonia this weekend looking for their first points of the season. Kickoff is at 7 PM Saturday night at Martha Rivers Park.
Lamar Hunt US Open Cup in Greenville
Next week it will be the Greenville Triumph hosting One Knoxville in an all-USL League One Second Round Lamar Hunt US Open Cup match at Paladin Stadium. The match is set for Wednesday, April 2 at 7 PM. Greenville moved past Asheville City SC in Round One 4-3 in penalties after the two teams played to a 0-0 deadlock after 120 minutes. Waiting in the Third Round is the Charleston Battery who are guaranteed to host a match on April 15 or 16. Should the Triumph win, they would seem to be the likely opponent to visit Patriots Point in the next round based on how US Soccer groups the teams by regions in the early rounds of the tournament.
Soda City FC WPSL returns in 2025
Soda City FC will again field a WPSL team in 2025 after sitting out the 2024 season. The team will kickoff their 2025 season on Saturday, May 17 versus Carolina Football Club in the WPSL Atlantic Conference Carolinas Division. Kickoff is set for 6 PM. Matches will be played at the Irmo High School stadium. The club will hold tryouts on April 19th at the Gibson Road Soccer Complex in Lexington. Visit their website www.sodacityfcwomen.com for details.
USL Promotion and Relegation; Addition of new top-tier league
The recent news of USL adding promotion and relegation has sparked some great conversations about the league and future of soccer in the USA. To start a league, there must be 12 franchises (expands to 14 in year 3) and they must be in all three continental time zones. The primary owner must have a net worth of $40 million dollars or more. One other key consideration about the new league are the stadium requirements for first-division status with US Soccer. The stadium must have a capacity of 15,000. Right now, there four USL Championship teams with this stadium capacity and another six that have 10,000+ that could possibly scale up to the capacity threshold. USL League One has only one with the 15,000 mark (Richmond) and two others over 10,000 (Greenville and Charlotte).
So how about the two South Carolina USL franchises? Charleston has a published capacity of 5,000. Greenville is building a new 10,000 seat stadium at BridgeWay Station. This would suggest that unless Charleston builds a new soccer stadium, they would not make the move to the higher league. This would also suggest that Greenville is on the cusp and if they expand the stadium capacity that could put them in to the conversation.
Palmetto State Results and Upcoming fixtures:
Charleston Battery (USL C): 2-0 W over Rhode Island. 1-1-0 record. Next @ NCFC on March 29
Greenville Triumph (USL One): 3-0 W over Union Omaha. 1-0-1 record. Next VS Spokane on March 29
Soda City FC (UPSL Premier): 3-1 W over Gastonia FC. 1-0-0 record. Next @ SCU Heat on March 30
SC United Heat (UPSL Premier): 3-2 W over Charlotte SA. 2-0-0 record. Next VS Soda City on March 30
Charleston United (UPSL Premier): 4-5 Loss to Asheville FC. 0-1-0 record. Next @ Gastonia FC on March 29
Boiling Springs SC (UPSL Premier): 3-0 Win over NC Ballers. 1-1-0 record. Next @ Charleston United on April 5
Emerald City FC (UPSL Division 1): 2-0 Win over Liberty Arsenal. 1-0-0 record. Next VS Huntersville on April 5
Electric City FC (UPSL Division 1): No results. 0-0-0 record. Next VS Liberty FC on April 5
SC United Bantams (USL Two): No results. 0-0-0 record. Next @ Tobacco Road on May 21
SC United Bantams Women (USL W): No results. 0-0-0 record. Next @ Carolina Ascent on May 17
Greenville Liberty (USL W): No results. 0-0-0 record. Next VS One Knoxville on May 14
Soda City Women (WPSL). No results. 0-0-0 record. Next VS Carolina Football Club on May 17