USL Cup: Analyzing each Championship, League One club after Matchday 3

The USL Cup’s tiebreaker rules are meant to encourage goalscoring, but is that actually bearing out? This season, the average cup match has featured 2.75 goals. That’s less than in the League One regular season, 0.01 goals higher than the Championship average, and a decline from last year’s cup. In other words, teams aren’t meaningfully changing their systems to chase down a potential wildcard berth.

Still, this weekend’s full slate of group games was full of excitement and fascinating takeaways. What stood out, and which of the 42 clubs in the competition are in position to advance? I’m ranking the contenders from top to bottom to find out.

1. Tampa Bay Rowdies

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Result: 2-0 win at Jacksonville

Is Tampa Bay now a back three team? The Rowdies broke out that formation against Louisville a week ago, and it would’ve been easy for the change to be a one-off against the USL’s premier three-at-the-back side. That the Rowdies returned to the well in Jacksonville this weekend hints at a bigger shift.

Shape aside, Tampa Bay varied their approach week-over-week. Whereas the win in Kentucky was a bit more direct than usual, the Rowdies delighted in working through lines in the USL Cup. Their shape was vaguely a 3-1-4-2, but interchange through the midfield and forward lines was rampant. MD Myers was a constant as a No. 9, but Marco Micaletto, Sebastian Cruz, and Louis Perez were a maelstrom around him.

The Rowdies’ first two goals were both semi-transitional, with a midfield recovery quickly leading to a break upfield. Cruz finished the first in the 35th minute, and Myers came good a few beats later. That chance started with a recovery by left wingback Charlie Ostrem, who immediately pushed up the sideline as the midfielders one-touched their way into space. The flurry of motion opened Cruz on the weak right side, where he looked upfield and found the striker for a clean finish off the through.