2019 USL Championship

The 2019 USL Championship regular season will open on Saturday, March 9 and conclude on Sunday, October 20, with every team playing a home-and-home series within its own conference. It will be the largest season yet, featuring 612 matches across 33 weeks in addition to an expanded playoff format.

Expanded Playoff Structure

The 2019 USL Cup Playoffs will expand to include 10 teams from each conference, with the lowest four seeds in each conference opening the postseason in the Play-In Round, provisionally slated for Wednesday, October 23 with the No. 7 seed hosting the No. 10 seed and the No. 8 seed hosting the No. 9 seed for a place in the Conference Quarterfinals.

Following the Play-In Round, the two teams to advance will be placed into the main bracket for the Conference Quarterfinals, with the lower remaining seed facing the conference’s No. 1 seed and the higher remaining seed facing the No. 2 seed.

The single-elimination format will then continue for the following four weekends in a fixed-bracket format with the higher seed in each matchup serving as host through the Eastern and Western Conference Finals. The 2019 USL Cup will be held between November 14-18, 2019 and be hosted by the conference champion with the better regular-season record.

2019 USL Cup Playoffs Schedule