Detroit City FC To Host NPSL Midwest Region Playoffs This Weekend

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Photo credit Photo: Nathan Vicar / WWJ
DETROIT (97.1 The Ticket) -- Detroit City FC just completed a wildly successful regular season and will play host to the National Premier Soccer League's Midwest Region playoffs this weekend.

With a 10-1-3 record, DCFC won the Great Lakes Conference and secured the No. 2 seed in the region. The lively Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck, City's home since 2016, will hold the region's semifinals on Friday, with the winners advancing to the finals on Sunday at 1 p.m., with a spot in the national semifinals on the line.

DCFC will face Minneapolis City SC or Med City FC (Rochester, MN) at approximately 7:30 p.m. Friday. That game will follow the first semifinal, which features No. 1 seed Cleveland SC taking on AFC Ann Arbor or Rochester (NY) Lancers at 4:30 p.m.

Ann Arbor and Detroit City have formed a rivalry over the last few years, competing in the Great Lakes Conference, one of three conferences in the Midwest Region. Each of the NPSL's four regions -- Midwest, Northeast, South and West -- is comprised of multiple conferences, most of which hold playoff tournaments to qualify for the region's tournament. Each region's winner advances to the national semifinals to compete for the NPSL championship.

Detroit won at Ann Arbor on July 7 to secure the conference crown, in front of a large traveling DCFC contingent.

This is what it’s all about. #DCTID pic.twitter.com/9ty2691lVb

— Detroit City FC (@DetroitCityFC) July 7, 2019

Ann Arbor edged out City for the 2017 conference championship, but DCFC earned revenge in the regional championship, getting a win at Keyworth with a late stoppage time goal that sent City to its first ever national semifinal.

Playoff soccer is returning to Detroit. #DCTID pic.twitter.com/Yamut0sT4v

— Detroit City FC (@DetroitCityFC) July 14, 2019

DCFC would lose that game to Midland-Odessa FC (TX) on penalty kicks before a record crowd of more than 7,500 at Keyworth Stadium, the last time Detroit saw playoff soccer action.

Despite DCFC's success in the Great Lakes Conference this season, Cleveland edged them out by winning the East Conference title, thanks to a shorter schedule that led to a better points per game average. 

Tickets are available to purchase on the DCFC website. General admission tickets for both games on Friday are $12 online or $15 at the gates. Weekend passes for both semifinals and the final are available for $20. Visit the DCFC website for details on pre-match festivities.
The team, nicknamed "Le Rouge," for Detroit's French roots and team colors, has been offering one of the most unique soccer experiences in the country since 2012. DCFC has quickly gained popularity -- not only locally, but globally, thanks to its grassroots success  -- despite no clear path to move up in the ranks of the US Soccer "pyramid."

DCFC was set to become a professional team in the NASL in 2018, but the US Soccer Federation announced just before the move that it was revoking the NASL's status as a tier 2 league in the federation. Unlike soccer systems -- or football, as it's known to most across the globe -- in pretty much any other country in the world, the US system does not have promotion and relegation, which rewards the best teams by sending them up a division and punishes the worst by sending them down.

Instead, DCFC competes in the fourth-tier NPSL, despite a rapidly growing fan base and great attendance that would rival many clubs in higher tiers. DCFC is set to join the NPSL Founders Cup this fall, which will feature 10 teams from across the country, with the intent of becoming a league of its own in the future.