JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The penultimate month of the 2026 USL Championship regular season kicks off Saturday when Lexington Sporting Club matches up with Sporting Club Jacksonville down in Duval.
The Greens are looking to shake off a modest two-match losing streak, despite having posted a 7W-4L-1D record over their last 12 matches overall.
It marks the first time the club has lost back-to-back USL Championship matches this season.
The Greens’ hopeful get-right match comes against an opponent who, so far, has been the perfect get-right opponent for most clubs in the league this season. Sporting JAX sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and has won only twice in 22 matches.
LSC’s last couple of results have seen the club fall to eighth place in the Western Conference with eight matches left to play. However, LSC is still in possession of a playoff spot at the moment and is only four points removed from a top-four spot — one that would guarantee a playoff match at Lexington SC Stadium.
Lexington is the only Western Conference club in action vs. an Eastern Conference opponent on Saturday. The group will have a keen eye on several late-night kickoffs to see its other counterparts from the West scratch and claw at each other for positioning in a crowded table.
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC also hosts Loudoun United FC Friday evening as the only other inter-conference matchup of the weekend.
The first-ever meeting between Lexington and Jacksonville’s men’s sides kicks off from Hodges Stadium at 7 p.m. ET.
SCOUTING JACKSONVILLE
It has been an inaugural season to forget for the Sporting JAX men. After the club’s women’s team reached the Gainbridge Super League Playoffs in its first-ever season, the men have floundered with a 2W-15L-5D record and a –31 goal differential. Both figures bottom out the USL Championship.
Sporting JAX’s 58 goals conceded are far and away the most in the league, and it is the only club to not tally a single clean sheet in 2026.
While ranking middle-of-the-pack in goals scored (15th with 27 goals), Jacksonville’s offense has been incredibly efficient, converting at a 19% clip to rank second-best in the league.
Kieran Sadlier has accounted for a third of his club’s goals with nine scores. Emil Jääskeläinen’s four assists lead the club and goalkeeper Christian Olivares, who was just recalled from his loan spell with the club by St. Louis City FC earlier this week, ranks sixth in the USL Championship with 60 saves.
HOW TO WATCH
The match will stream live on ESPN+.
