CHARLESTON, S.C. – The No. 2 seed Charleston Battery will square off with No. 4 seed Louisville City FC on Saturday night in the Eastern Conference Final of the 2026 USL Championship Playoffs with the two winningest teams of the past four seasons each aiming for the Eastern Conference crown and a berth in the 2026 USL Championship Final. Kickoff at Patriots Point is set for 6 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and SiriusXM FC (Ch. 188).
Charleston Battery (16-9-5, 53pts) – For a second consecutive postseason outing, the Battery claimed a 5-4 victory in a penalty shootout last Saturday night to advance past Hartford Athletic after recording the biggest comeback in Championship Playoffs history that earned a 3-3 draw through regulation and extra time. Trailing by three goals at halftime to Hartford, Charleston scored three goals from the 80th minute on as Emilio Ycaza and Colton Swan scored 152 seconds apart before Kirill Pakhomov’s equalizer in the seventh minute of stoppage time leveled the game. After a scoreless additional 30 minutes, the Battery got a key save from John Berner to open the fifth round before Jeremy Kelly scored the decisive goal, mirroring the club’s progression past Rhode Island FC in the Conference Quarterfinals.
The outing continued the Battery’s home success this season, where the side has been held scoreless on only one occasion and notched 41 goals in 17 games overall. Swan leads the team with 10 goals across the regular season and playoffs, and the side will now hope to repeat its last meeting with Louisville in the postseason when it took a 2-1 victory at this stage in 2023…