The UPSL’s 2025 Spring/Summer National Final is upon us and as always, the league is ready to deliver! It’s been a long road, but the two top teams in the country are ready to clash on Sunday, August 10th at the Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine, California - 5:30 pm (Pacific) kickoff.

Find the stream here, on the UPSL YouTube Channel

Now, let’s talk a little bit about how they got here…
*All of the stats, names, and numbers were pulled from the league site - sometimes they don’t add up.

LA 10 FC

The club from Los Angeles finished 1st in their SoCal Central Coast Division with a perfect 10 wins from 10 games played record. Goalkeepers Brandan Ward and Adam Soria shared time in between the pipes and helped the side to 11 clean sheets throughout the season; overall, the defense only allowed 2 goals during the regular season and gave up 3 more during the playoffs, which led to an impressive +52 goal differential.

In the Round of 32, LA10 FC knocked off City SC San Diego 3-2 then scraped by Next Level Soccer, 1-0 in the Round of 16. Next, they defeated their Pacific Northwest opponents 3-1 in the National Quarterfinals and completely blew away Balboa FC, 5-0, in the Semis; goals from Fernando Alejo in the 4’, a brace for Hunter Devlin in the 17’ and 29’, Brian Castillo added one more before the half to make it 4-0. Finally, Jake Kemhajian capped off the evening with a goal in the 77’.

Head Coach Leonid Sharf has his boys flying right now and we didn’t even mention Obdoelrahma Yoouef’s team high 12 goals, Samuel Lena’s 10, and Christian Buckner’s helpful addition of 8 more to the mixer. From top to bottom, this LA10FC team is stacked and can both score at will and shutout their opponents.

Tennessee Tempo

Tempo finished second in the KY-TN Division with 10 wins and a loss - they too had an impressive Goal Differential, only allowing 7 goals in the regular season and 1 more in their National Semifinal against Chicago Nation. It took Chicago 103 minutes to get that goal too and if it wasn’t for goals from Dominic Oduro in the 114’ and Soulemane Balde in the 116’, we’d be talking about a very tough Chicago team in the Final.

Instead, however, we are looking at a very dynamic and resilient Tempo squad who fought inch by inch to get to this stage. In the Round of 32, they beat 314 SC StL 3-0, then knocked out Miami United 1-0 and Asheville FC 1-0 as well. Tempo have a whole fleet of goalkeepers who have contributed to the 12 cleansheets listed on the website; Francois Djiba, Alex Rodriguez, Jesse Erreguin, and Callum Donnell - literally any one of them can line up on Sunday and take care of business.

Tempo’s Head Coach, Ramon Gamez, has his side in good shape going into this dogfight - his leading goalscorers are Harrison Watts with 13 goals, Gregory Cousins on 8, Nathaniel Bedai also on 8, and Jemaine Muirhead, who has 6 of his own.

Tempo did have to fly across the country, from Nashville to Los Angeles, but it didn’t seem to slow them down in the Semi. But LA10 FC are on home turf and should expect a good local crowd to cheer them on. The UPSL 2025 Spring/Summer National Final should be a great show!

Protagonist Soccer’s Post-Season Coverage of UPSL
by Joshua Duder