Stormwatch912

 We're going to get to what happened with Tormenta and what the plans are for 2026 soon, I promise. But for now, the season starts this weekend and I'm not sure what to do with my time that I'd planned to spend watching games this season. I could work to develop better relationships with my family and friends, or take up a hobby or develop a skill that I've always wanted to learn, but that sounds like a lot of work when, instead, I could kick my feet up on the couch, enjoy a cold beverage and watch some USL1 games like I was going to do anyway.  But who should I watch? And why? I don't know. And if my blog post ended there, this would have been a waste of your time. Fortunately, some kindhearted souls were willing to help me out. I asked some of the people covering USL1 teams not to convince me to become a fan of their team, but why I should follow their team in the upcoming season. You know when there's three games happening at once and you're trying to dec...

I need to write something fun. I make no promises that it'll be good, but it'll be fun for me and you all get to be my therapist who listens to me ramble for a bit and says "well, our time is up, we'll see you next week. I think we made some good progress today" before taking a strong drink and savoring the fact that the minute I leave is the longest possible time before I come back. I'm merely throwing this idea out into the world and I'm not suggesting that a team's social media people get together to make it happen, but I'm saying that if Boise or Madison (the two clubs that I looked at that could make this work the best) wanted to make it happen, I wouldn't be upset. I know ya'll are busy with other events and promotions, but hear me now and believe me later, you're going to want to make this work. So here's what we need. We need a team with three home games in a row, all in close proximity to each other. Boise, you all have fo...

Same, Bolt. Same. So this is hard. My North Star of this blog, my guiding principle, is that sports are supposed to be fun. We can take them seriously and while there's a lot I've learned about how the world works through sports, we start watching and we keep following sports primarily because they're enjoyable. I like watching athletes do incredible things and, I'm assuming that if you're reading this, so do you. On this blog, I've ranked cities based on where I'd like to vacation, I've written preseason game stories like I was writing for a newspaper in 1910 and I annually rank the handsomeness of the USL League One Managers. It's all (hopefully) in good fun because the whole reason we all keep doing this is because we enjoy it. There's a reason I ask my oldest to try to guess the Tormenta starting lineup and gave it the grandiose title of "America's Favorite Game" despite the fact that literally only one person in the country pla...

Photo Credit: Tormenta FC Tormenta's USL-W League schedule is out and if past seasons are any indication, there's a game you're going to want to circle on your calendar. South Georgia is once again in the South Atlantic Division with several familiar foes including the SC United Bantams, NC Fusion, Charlotte Eagles and nemesis North Carolina Courage U-23. New this year is Port City FC out of Wilmington, NC.  What that means is an imbalanced schedule where Tormenta will play some opponents twice while playing others only once during their 12-game regular season.  Unlike the USL League One season that stretches from March to October and you have a chance to build momentum and develop over the course of the season, the W-League is a sprint from the get go. Tormenta will play those 12 games in basically six weeks, opening on May 14 at SC United Bantams while ending the regular season on June 27 at Port City FC.  Tormenta opens with three straight road games before their home ...

Welcome back to the third annual USL League One Most Handsome Manager rankings. I can’t believe this will be the third year of such nonsense, but here we are.  If this is your first time here I’m glad you’re joining us. And I’m sorry.  Read on and you'll understand. I do this for a couple of reasons. First is because it’s kind of fun to put together each year. Second, it’s actually helpful for me to do a little research on all the managers. I mean, how else would we have found out last year that Knoxville’s Ian Fuller’s Honeyfund site was still active and you could leave a comment in the guest book. I mean, there’s no reason we should know that, but sometimes you come across something and just have to share it. (I did not leave a comment.) With this being the third year, we have a few interesting wrinkles on the list. First, we say goodbye to a few managers from last year. Dominic Casciato (Omaha), Rick Wright (Greenville), Adrian Forbes (Texoma), Dave Carton (Westchester...

  Hi and welcome back to a weekly wrap up of Tormenta news. I keep hoping to get out to practice but it hasn’t worked out yet for me and I feel bad about that. Hopefully I can get out there soon and actually meet some of the guys and talk to the coaches and do some actual reporting and newsgathering. Until that time comes, we’ll do a weekly wrap up of Tormenta news as we continue our slow march to March 8 and the season opener. Where to start? US Open Cup Let’s start with the US Open Cup, which announced the first round games for the 2026 edition. Tormenta will be kicking off the whole shebang as they host (takes a deep breath) FC America CFL Spurs on March 17 at 6 p.m. That will be the first game of the opening round, so for at least 30 minutes, the eyes of the US Open Cup world will be on Tormenta Stadium. The two teams met back in the first round of the 2024 US Open Cup with Tormenta coming away with a 1-0 win on a Nick Akoto early goal. South Georgia advanced to the third roun...