LD Update: NASL Game Night; Super-20 First 11; Sesay to Wave

A pair of draws in the first half of the final weekend of play kept everything as is in the top half of the NASL table heading into the final week with Tampa Bay's stalemate in Carolina locking the Rowdies into second and giving San Antonio, playing Sunday, the regular season title while also locking Carolina into fourth as they were unable to pass Puerto Rico, who played to a draw versus visiting Atlanta.

LD Update: USL Pro All-League honors; NASL honors; Blues to play Pachuca

LD News: Orlando City of USL Pro is loaning Jamie Watson to the NASL Minnesota Stars for the remainder of the season.

NASL News: The league recognized Matt Horth of the Atlanta Silverbacks as the Offensive Player of the Week and Frankie Sanfilippo of the Tampa Bay Rowdies as the Defensive Player of the Week... The Carolina RailHawks duo of Nick Millington (Guyana) and John Krause (Puerto Rico) have been called in for national team camps in preparation for World Cup qualifiers and the Digicel Caribbean Cup (qualifiers for Gold Cup).

LD Update: Champion Orlando City out; Charleston & Wilmington reach USL Pro Final

One upset was perhaps fathomable, but too was improbable. Both road teams, however, advanced Friday evening to reach the USL Pro championship game next Saturday.

The Wilmington Hammerheads, who accounted for Orlando City's lone loss this season, repeated the feat in stunning fashion. The Charleston Battery, meanwhile, battled the Rochester Rhinos to a 1-1 draw before prevailing in penalties.

LD Update: Carolina clubs win dramatic USL Pro playoff openers; NASL Game Night

It was a dramatic night of rallies in the opening round of the USL Pro playoffs as the Carolina clubs Charleston Battery and Wilmington Hammerheads advanced to the semifinals. Charleston came from behind at home to knock out Harrisburg while Richmond and Wilmington played a back-and-forth contest that saw the visiting Hammerheads prevail on a late strike.

In the NASL, two matches were of note. The two sides tied for second squared off, but the Tampa Bay Rowdies and visiting Puerto Rico Islanders played to a scoreless stalemate. Meanwhile, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers moved within two points of the pair by downing the league-leading San Antonio Scorpions.

LD Update: NASL & USL Pro Game Nights; Cosmos to NASL; Roster changes

Midweek action created a two-point margin between the top three clubs in the NASL as the Puerto Rico Islanders moved back level with expansion San Antonio Wednesday and the defending champion Minnesota Stars keeping pace two points back the following night.

Wednesday - Puerto Rico Islanders 1:0 San Antonio Scorpions - The Islanders took the narrow decision between the league's two top sides with a header from Nicholas Addlery off a cross from Noah Delgado 25 minutes in. Jonathan Fana nearly made it two seven minutes later when he found himself alone with the keeper only to have Darryl Sattler make a great save. Richard Martin made a great save for the other side six minutes into the second, however, it was to keep a potential own goal on a Esteban Bayona cross from going in. Another great save for Martin came courtesy of the crossbar, which denited midfielder Hans Denissen five minutes later. - MORE

LD Update: Carolina & LA signings; WPS is done

NASL News: The Carolina RailHawks announced the addition of rookie defenders Nick Millington and Jamie Finch.

USL Pro News: The Los Angeles Blues officially announced they have signed former MLS striker Maykel Galindo.

PDL News: The league announced Des Moines Menace forward Husref Jupic as the Player of the Week along with the Team of the Week.

W-League News: The Pali Blues topped the New Zealand U-20 National Team in a friendly, 3-0.

WPS News: On the Facebook page, Women's Professional Soccer announced that in addition to coming to a settlement with estranged owner Dan Borislow, the WPS Board of Governors agreed to permanently suspend operations and dissolve the league, leaving the USL W-League and WPSL as the remaining women's leagues of note.

LD Update: Edmonton out; Velez returns; Blues broken nose

No midweek lower division pro action aside from FC Edmonton's Canadian Championship contest...

ACC: Scoreless after the first leg, Toronto FC got an early lead at home just two minutes in via Reggie Lambe and, despite losing Richard Eckersley to a 16th minute red card, held on for a 2-0 series win against the Montreal Impact with a Ryan Johnson insurance tally in the 38th minute... In the late game, the second division FC Edmonton made things interesting with the opening goal in Vancouver after falling 2-0 at home. Yashir Pinto headed home a cross in the 54th minute to make it 2-1 on aggregate. Vancouver answered back though with Sebastien Le Toux scoring in the 75th. Le Toux headed a second in with three minutes left to leave no doubt and Darren Mattocks added another three minutes into stoppage to repeat the two-goal margin, 3-1, for a 5-1 aggregate win.

LD Update: Antigua wins; Weekend previews; International signings

Antigua Barracudas 3:2 Charlotte Eagles - After two weeks off, the island club showed no rust. They immediately took the advantage through Peter Byers in the 12th minute. Jorge Herrera tied the contest up eight minutes before the break, but Stefan Smith scored two in five minutes to give them a commanding 3-1 lead on the hour mark. A tally from Luke Williams, though, made the finish a close contest.

NASL Previews: Saturday night features three matches with teams looking to end winless streaks. First, there is the first-ever meeting between San Antonio Scorpions, who come to North Carolina still searching for their first-ever victory after finally ending their scoreless status last week at home.  And though the Carolina RailHawks have the second best goal total in the league, all they have to show for it are three draws and a loss... The Atlanta Silverbacks are at home looking to end two frustrating streaks with the Minnesota Stars visiting. They have draws in all three games this season, and last year went without a point against Minnesota. The fell, 1-2, at home in the first meeting and were blanked the rest of the way, falling 3-0 and then 2-0 twice... The other host, Tampa Bay Rowdies, are in the complete opposition situation having posted an unbeaten record against rival Fort Lauderdale last year. They finished level, 1-1, at Fort Lauderdale in the opening game of the series and then beat the Strikers in the next three with a 4-2 home win and then a pair of 2-0 shutouts. 

USL Pro Previews: Friday night's lone contest is a meeting of old foes with a unique history as the Charleston Battery play host to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. The Battery went winless against the Riverhounds last year with a pair of scoreless draws and two losses. It was unusual for Charleston, which had not lost a regular season game against Pittsburgh since their first-ever meeting in 1999, a stretch of nine games (5-0-4). The only other odd note is that Pittsburgh had won the only playoff series between the two with a two-game sweep in a 2001 season in which they did not face one another.