On Saturday, History can be made at Widner Ground. as Rhode Island FC advances to take on the Colorado Springs Switchbacks at noon on CBS for the USL Championship. Both are among the league’s newest teams, seeking the first championship in club history with first-time head coaches, but the similarities start to deviate there. Colorado had been in the USL for 10 years, but this isn’t just their first finals appearance: By qualifying for the playoffs their first two seasons, the Switchbacks were in and out of the postseason. Closest senior coach Brenden Burke left for the Houston Dynamo, the Switchbacks relied on hard-working James Chambers to manage the team, deepening their connection to the Japan of all parks.
Chambers and team captain Matt Mahoney played together for Bethlehem Metal, where Chambers served as a veteran presence and team captain to help perform alongside talented players in the Philadelphia Union academy.
“I think as you get older you get more experience, you’ve seen certain things, you’ve felt different things and I was able to do that at Bethlehem,” Chambers said. “In the end, it was a little easier because I had younger players in a top academy who were around me and who accepted what I was trying to do. Whether it was right or wrong, they still listened to me, which was impressive from your side of things. I would say it definitely helped me, but I wouldn’t say it has completely and absolutely shaped me in this culture right now, but it has helped me on this journey.”
He’s a unique overall being alongside players like Brenden Aaronson and Mark McKenzie at Bethlehem, but having the ability to get that ability and sometimes create mistakes is important for expansion. The Bethlehem aspects have been aggressive, combining construction with efficiency, which has carried over to Colorado Springs. His mid-season growth is due to the team being more competitive and learning their roles under Chambers to earn their place behind the strong house mode and his avid players participating in each and every opportunity.
“I was very fortunate to have Chambo, who had played professionally at the time and I think he was the age I am now,” said 29-year-old Switchbacks captain Matt Mahoney. “When he was captain of that team, my first year, it was incredible to learn from [him] and obviously my relationship with [sporting director Stephen Hogan] and breden [Burke] At that moment they made me feel very comfortable and it was all a matter of work and mentality. “We had a couple of college teammates in that group that made it easy to train and work hard within that organization, so I was able to learn how to be a good professional and what it means to win at this level.”
The experience in Bethlehem has already passed him by for Mahoney, who has never ignored the USL playoffs throughout his career. The general will lean towards that place that used to be formed in Bethlehem, but that doesn’t stop an upstart side from trying hard and stealing the light.
Khano Smith’s Rhode Island FC, who have already beaten Louisville Town FC and Charleston Battery, have temporarily become a team no one needs to support. Without agreeing, they all set the record for most ties in a USL championship season with 15, and only the league’s Louisville and Charleston bracket had fewer losses than Rhode Island’s seven. Coming out of their first season strong, they were the first development team to even make the playoffs since Swope Ground Rangers in 2016. Swope Ground also became involved in the USL Finals and became the second team in USL history in doing it. however, Rhode Island is now third.
“The turning point in the year is, I guess, when we start winning games. But again, if you look at the results and the games and if you really look at the games we were in, the only game we were in.” “The really competitive thing, from a scoring perspective, was the game against Tampa and that was the game against Tampa on the road,” Smith said, reflecting on the season. “It was the third game of the season. We actually got to the half, we were up 1-0 and we probably should have been up by two. I thought, in my opinion, we were the better team. In the second half, they bombed us like crazy with four goals and we never reacted, we never changed.
“It was a learning moment for me and a learning moment for the players. But beyond that, all the games have been similar, we’ve been competitive, uh, we’ve possibly been competitive in all of them, and to have a look, [it] It just took us a moment to win games, but we weren’t losing games either, and in the end, people would like to point out to me and us that we all set the draw record at 15 ties. However, for me that is favorable.”
That push caused Rhode Island to embrace the growth group trend that was suffering in its first hour, but there’s still some other problem in its path. None have banned them so far, so they will be perfectly prepared to create an exciting final and create history in the process as two teams fight for their first crown.
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- Chance: Saturday, November 23 | Generation: 12 pm Eastern Time
- Location: Weidner Land – Colorado Springs, Colorado
- TV: C.B.S.
- Resident flow: Supreme+
