USL Cup group stage reaches decisive final day with knockout berths at stake

USL Championship · By Marcus Chen · July 9, 2026
USL Cup group stage reaches decisive final day with knockout berths at stake

Saturday, July 11 is the final day of group play in the Prinx Tires USL Cup, with eight knockout berths still in play. Seven group winners will advance automatically, and the eighth place in the knockout bracket will go to the best second-place team, with goals scored the first tiebreaker if clubs finish level on points.

The tournament opened April 25 with 43 clubs from USL Championship and USL League One split into seven regional groups, six of them with six teams and one with seven, and each side has only four group-stage matches to sort itself out. If a game is tied after regulation, it goes straight to a penalty-kick shootout, with the winner taking an extra point and the loser still collecting one, which means a late equalizer can still change the table without settling anything.

AI-generated illustration
AI-generated illustration

Hartford Athletic against Westchester SC, Charleston Battery against Charlotte Independence, Rhode Island FC against Brooklyn FC, Louisville City FC against Lexington SC, El Paso Locomotive FC against New Mexico United, San Antonio FC against Chattanooga Red Wolves SC, Orange County SC against Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC and AV ALTA FC against Phoenix Rising FC are all part of a final weekend that can redraw who enters August with a berth and who goes home short on margin. For the clubs sitting second, the pressure is even sharper: one draw might not be enough if another runner-up piles up more points, and every goal can matter twice, first in the table and then in the tiebreaker.

Prinx Tires USL Cup — Wikimedia Commons
John Manard via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Charleston Battery midfielder Emilio Ycaza was voted USL Championship Player of the Month for June after five goal contributions in four league outings, and head coach Ben Pirmann was voted Coach of the Month after the club went unbeaten in June. Louisville City FC forward Phillip Goodrum scored the first perfect hat trick in LouCity history. The knockout bracket follows quickly after the final whistle, with quarterfinals set for Wednesday, Aug. 13, semifinals on Wednesday, Sept. 9 and the final on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Sources

  1. [1]uslchampionship.com