Author: Mark Privratsky

​It is playoff time! It feels like we just kicked off, but these Summer Leagues are a sprint, not a marathon. We’ve seen more teams in more leagues than ever this year, and every season we have more to talk about. MN Aurora FC continued their 3 year (!) regular season undefeated streak to take another Heartland Division Title in the USL W League. Sioux Falls City FC took another step as the Champion of the WPSL Northern Conference, taking the Title to the 605 for the first time as “South Dakota’s Team”, beating the heavy hitters of the Twin Cities along the way. Meanwhile, MN Aurora 2 debuted in the UPSL Midwest West and took the Title from fellow debutant NOSC Blast on goal difference. If you want to study up for any of the league’s playoffs, we have multiple full interviews from squads in W League, WPSL and UPSL, along with 4 different watch-alongs from the UPSL and WPSL to prep with! Find our archive of watch alongs and past content on YouTube. With almost all of the postseason scenarios now defined, let's dig into your guide for 2024 Summer League Playoffs!

​The W League is now 80 clubs deep in just their third year back in action, so the playoff bracket of 16 squads is sure to represent only the best that the League has to offer. Here in the Central Conference, Detroit City will host the first 2 rounds of the playoffs. Like last year (and ‘22) MN Aurora took the Heartland Division Title, and a Divisional opponent joins as the Central Conference Wild Card. River Lights are in their first ever season in the W League and impressively took a postseason spot with an impressive 8-2-1 debut season. Detroit City won the Great Lakes Division, while Indy Eleven won the Valley Division. Due to W League rules about intra-division matchups, Aurora will face defending Champions Indy Eleven (July 5, 3pm Central) in the round of 16, which is a crazy first round matchup. Aurora will have to face the squad that knocked them out right away, but if they pass that test, the momentum would certainly be on their side. Detroit City will face River Lights (July 5, 6pm Central) as both squads face postseason play for the first time. Expectations are certainly lower on the debutants and you’d argue they are just playing with house money at this point. Detroit City has the distinct advantage of a true home field advantage and will carry that through the first two rounds. The Central Conference Championship will be decided on July 7 in Detroit. Equal Time will be on the ground for the first two games, so stay engaged on socials to see all our coverage. Streams will be on NBC Sports Engine Play (and local TV for the Michiganders) 

In the WPSL, our Northern Conference Champion, Sioux Falls City FC, host the Central Region Playoffs on July 13 and 14. City is making history in their first ever playoff birth after clinching the Northern Title with a huge home win over Salvo and a clinching win over St Croix. They’ll look to use the home field advantage to extend this history making season. Two of the Conferences are split into two divisions each, so we cannot confirm all of the final participants. Sioux Falls City represents the Northern Conference, and in the Heartland we have Kansas City SG as the clear winner. In the Mountain Conference, Utah Surf handily won the Wasatch Division with 25 points in 10 games, while Pride leads the Rockies Division with 18 points on 7 games so far. In the Midwest, Dayton ran away with the title with 28 points in 10 games, while Milwaukee Torrent swept the Lake Michigan opponents. The full bracket for Central Region Playoffs is still to be revealed, stay tuned to Equal Time social for more info. Expect Streams to come from the Sioux Falls City hosts via Hudl, which means a dependable broadcast for the Central Region. 

​Dates are still to be determined, but sources tell us that we can expect a similar postseason format to last year, the top 4 teams making up the Midwest West Division Championship on the weekend of July 12-14. The only difference? Last year it was a league of 6, now it’s 12 (11*? See Tonka Fusion Elite) and the playing level made a huge jump in year 2. The UPSL Womens League has not yet held a National Tournament, so the trophy to play for is local. MN Aurora 2 and NOSC Blast both finished undefeated with 9-0-2 records, racking up goal differences of 38 and 36 with big blowout scores throughout, and Aurora 2 took the title by the slimmest of margins. Northern Tide have lost just twice and are safely in 3rd, while the 4th seed is FULLY in play. MN Twin Stars sit on 16 points and Granite City is on 14, both with 1 game to play. Meanwhile Vlora and Superior City sit on 14 points with 2 to play. For what it’s worth, it can be tough to depend on the standings and schedule from the UPSL website, which is our reference, so some of these details may include a grain of salt. We know for certain that eyes will be on a potential rematch of Aurora 2 and NOSC Blast, who tied 1-1 in their regular season match. Tide could certainly be a contender, and whoever grabs the 4 seed will be fully playing David in their matchup with MN Aurora 2. Details on where the games will be played are yet to come. The hosting will no doubt be affected by both seeding and facility availability. Stay tuned for details on hosts and streams from Equal Time, but we will be on the coverage as much is feasible. UPSL Midwest West have been streaming on YouTube for each host club.

The Soccer World is growing and that is exciting! We are as busy as you are trying to keep up with the game, so here's a few recent stories from local and/or soccer media to help you prep for the next few weeks of playoff drama. The more soccer stories that are out there, the better! We appreciate the growing coverage of local women's soccer and the other independent soccer outlets that build the game. 

Dakota News Now: SFCFC Joe Demay glad to have home field for WPSL Central Region Playoffs (WITH VIDEO)

Sioux Falls City Standout Mia Mullenmeister Spotlight

Protagonist Soccer W League Playoff Preview

Lights Football WPSL Northern Conference Week 8 Wrap-Up

Lights Football Photos: Sioux Falls Completes Perfect Season 

Author: Emily Bunnell

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Welcome back to another jam packed summer of soccer with Equal Time! There are more teams, more ways to watch, and more players using our local summer league squads to launch a pro career. Our region is seeing a growth in the game that mirrors the growth that we are seeing nationally. The NWSL is now consistently expanding and bringing reserve teams into the summer league ranks. The USL Super League is set to launch this fall, providing much needed roster spots for the proven talent in this country. WPSL Pro has been announced with intent for 2025, with Sioux Falls City being one of their committed clubs. MN Aurora FC has been consistent about their public intent to explore NWSL or other Professional opportunities. In other words, being a women's soccer fan has never been better! This summer we have 24 (!) teams to track playing in the WPSL, USL W League, and UPSL. We've got 21 teams in MN, along with our neighbors in Sioux Falls City (SD), Dakota Fusion (ND), and Superior City FC (WIS), so we are here to break down the teams to follow, each of the Leagues, how to watch, and some in depth previews with a few clubs! As always, Equal Time will look to highlight as many teams as possible through in person content, stream highlights, player/coach interviews and social media. Follow us on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to stay connected with ALL of our summer league coverage. If you want to read our season wrap from last year to prepare, click HERE. 

​With the 24 teams in our coverage area, there are plenty of different priorities for the varied clubs. They range from merely providing games to players on college break, helping them become a professional, or  developing teenage players with a high level competition ahead of college. Then there are those who also focus on media and community development of their team. Most of the teams do bits and pieces of each, but we are here to help you find the teams that are most aspirational, successful, but most importantly, easy to follow and engage with. Whether they play on TV, provide professional quality streams, sell tickets and promote their schedule, or post regularly to social media, here are a few of the easiest teams to follow this summer. 

​All 10 WPSL teams return this year in a league that has been very stable in our region, finding slow and steady growth, with few teams dropping compared to many lower divisions of either gender. Last Year saw traditional powers MN Thunder and Salvo SC top the Conference with Sioux Falls City oh so close to breaking through in a tiebreaker’d 3rd place finish. With ambitions to move pro in 2025, look for Sioux Falls City to continue their on and off the field growth into an even bigger contender. Mankato United will look to rebound after an uncharacteristically poor season in terms of results. After giving a lot of youth some experience last year and a core of MN State Mankato’s successful squad returning, we should see a step on on last year’s 9th place finish. The middle of the Northern Conference is a tough road to climb out of, but it also presents a lot of tough trap games for even the top performing teams each year. 

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​We will just say it, Aurora still hasn’t lost in the regular season. After a dominant ‘23 Regular Season where MN Aurora went 12-0 and a +56 Goal Difference, the betting odds would be strong for them in the Heartland Division. Rochester FC on the other hand should be in for a much different season than last year. The Loons only won 1 out of 12 last year, but if you watched the club, that was a misleading stat. They gave MN Aurora their toughest regular season game at home, and were competitive for stretches, just not for the full 90. Rochester FC have recruited some more talent this year in terms of player profile, and we’d expect them to improve on the last place finish in ‘23. The MN clubs are joined again by Chicago City and Dutch Lions, 2nd year team Bavarian United, 2nd year team RKC Third Coast and newcomers River Light FC. The W League continues to expand quickly and the challenge of a Heartland Division team winning a W League title will only get tougher.

​The UPSL Midwest-West is the big source of expansion in the women's game this summer, adding 6(!) teams to the 6 that played in the inaugural year in ‘23. The UPSL has the reputation of being the largest (and fastest growing) Semi Pro league on the Men’s side. Only in the last couple years have we seen that turn to the women's side of the game. Primarily a coastal conference, Minnesota is home to the sole women’s division in UPSL that doesn’t touch an ocean or a coast, and it’s growing fast. Last year it was just Superior City and Vlora who had streams and public facing content, so we’ll look to highlight those squads as much as we can, along with as many of the new clubs as we can. The addition of Aurora 2 and other established Twin Cities youth clubs should help kick start the new division, so we are hopeful for a step up in coverage possibilities in ‘24. Early impressions are good with more teams using YouTube to stream their games this year.

Tonka Fusion Elite - Minnetonka High School
Northern Tide FC - Todd Field
Superior City FC - NBC Spartan Athletic Complex
St Croix SC - Stillwater High School
Vlora FC - Burnsville High School
Granite City FC - St Cloud Tech High School
NOSC Blast - Spring Lake Park High School
MN TwinStars - Maple Grove High School
Blackhawks FC - St Paul Humboldt High School
Skills FC - Burnsville High School
MN Aurora 2 - Sea Foam Stadium, St Paul
Tonka Fusion Elite 2 - TBD/Rotating

We do our best to cover as many teams as possible in the growing soccer landscape, but we certainly have blindspots. If you are interested in a streamed show to highlight players, coaches and/or front office members of your team, reach out on social and we'll work to find a way to highlight your club! The more we can find rosters, stats and good streams, the easier it is for us to showcase your team as well. If you have a creative idea for content with Equal Time, we are all ears.