The USL Championship Final is the post-season championship match of the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, p ...

, the second tier of professional men's

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

in the United States. The winner is crowned champion in the same manner as in other North American sports leagues (i.e. via a

playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

following a

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of ...

). Unlike most soccer league, but much like North American sports leagues, the USL champion does not earn promotion into

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

, due to the fixed membership structure found in the league. As of 2022, the USL Championship Final is typically held in mid-November and features the Eastern Conference champion and Western Conference champion. The predecessor to the USL Championship Final was the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

Championship and the

USL-1 The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States ...

Championship.

Champions

A-League era (1996–2004)

USL-1 era (2005–2009)

USL Championship era (2010–)

Records and statistics

USL Championship titles

As of the 2021 season, 52 teams have competed in USL under its current branding. Twelve of these teams have appeared in a cup final, with six of these teams having won the USL Cup.

References

{{Soccer in Canada USL Championship matches Lists of association football matches