TICKETS: FC Buffalo vs Lorain County, 7pm Friday
FC Buffalo’s men have two home games left this season and a path to the playoffs if we handle our business.
The USL2’s Great Forest Division has two opportunities to reach the postseason: Win the division or edge out another second-place team on points-per-game.
This season the USL has determined that the second-place team from either the Great Forest or Great Lakes Division will be awarded a wild card place in the USL2 Playoffs, determined by points-per-game.
Three teams remain eligible for the Great Forest Division crown: Steel City FC, FC Buffalo, and Lorain County Leviathan. The first two both play the third, making this a true three-team race. Steel City have 24 points and a plus-15 goal differential with two matches left, FCB have 21 points and a plus-18 GD with two matches left, and Lorain have 16 points and a plus-6 GD with three matches remaining in their regular season (beginning Friday in Buffalo).
Here are all the games remaining for those three teams:
- Friday, July 3: Lorain County at FC Buffalo, 7pm
- July 6: Erie Sports Center FC at Lorain County, 7pn
- July 8: Steel City at Cleveland Force, 6pm
- Saturday, July 11: Akron City at FC Buffalo, 3pm
- July 11: Steel City at Lorain County, 7pm
Wild card scenarios: How second place can be a USL2 playoff spot
As for the wild card, the Great Lakes Division is not yet decided by Flint City Bucks have a two-point lead on Oakland County for the division title and Flint have a match-in-hand, too.
Oakland have two matches left and a 2.00 points-per-game haul. FCB enters this weekend with a 2.1 points-per-game mark. Oakland max out with a 2.16 ppg, while the teams behind them max out at 2.08 (Kalamazoo FC) and 1.75 (AFC Ann Arbor).
With two wins, FCB’s ppg would finish at 2.25. With a win and a draw, that drops to 2.08. Two draws? 1.92. Two losses? 1.75. The last two scenarios of course, require that Lorain County would not pass FCB for second place.
USL2 playoff tiebreakers
If FCB and Steel City finish level on points, Steel City will win the Great Forest Division by virtue of winning the season series with FCB (Four points to FCB’s one).
If FCB and Lorain County finish level, which can only happen with two FCB draws and Lorain going 2W-1D, FCB would win the tiebreaker by virtue of their win at Lorain and the corresponding draw which would happen Friday.
If FCB and a Great Lakes runner-up finished level on points-per-game, the first tiebreaker is goal differential, followed by goals scored.
Current goal differential: FC Buffalo +18, Oakland County +14, Kalamazoo FC +8
Current goals scored: FC Buffalo 28, Kalamazoo FC 25, Oakland County 24
