USL Championship final will have plenty of familiar faces and local ties

On-loan left back Matt Real and the older brother of midfielder Jack McGlynn will be squaring off in Saturday’s USL Championship final in Colorado Springs but the Real vs McGlynn match-up is one of many local ties to the final game of the season.

Bethlehem Steel legend James “Chambo” Chambers ia a first-year head coach of the Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC and Real, midfielder Zach Zandi and captain Matt Mahoney were his teammates on the first iteration of the team now known as Philadelphia Union II. Switchbacks Sporting Director Stephen Hogan is a former Bethlehem Steel assistant and assistant coach Alan McCann led Reading United to back-to-back USL League Two finals.

The connections certainly run deep.

To both the Philadelphia Union and Reading United, where Zandi played for McCann on the 2018 team that lost in the final to Calgary Foothills FC. Nicholas Murray wrote about the Eastern PA connections in this article for the USL Championship website.

Veteran defender Duke Lacroix also has ties to the area as a Penn grad and former Ocean City Nor’easter. Lacroix was part of the Ocean City squad that nearly upset the Philadelphia Union in the 2013 U.S. Open Cup.

Real has made 29 appearances and logged more than 2,400 minutes for the Switchbacks since being loaned out from the Union in mid-April.

Conor McGlynn, meanwhile, has been part of an impressive inaugural season for Rhode Island FC. Forward JJ Williams played for Reading United in 2017 and assistant coaches Dave McKay and Karl Spratt both were previously in the Philadelphia Union organization.

The final will be played at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs on Saturday and will be broadcast live at noon on CBS.