Published for Lexington SC fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
🐎 Lexington SC Fans — Your Greens Is Waiting!
Back-to-back hat tricks, the West’s most exciting attack and the first playoff berth in club history — the Greens are galloping. Wear the green and ride with Lexington.
The Club: Lexington SC, the Greens of the Bluegrass
Lexington Sporting Club were awarded a USL League One expansion team on October 5, 2021, revealed their name and crest in March 2022 — the vibrant green rearing horse against dark green, for the Bluegrass region’s rolling hills — and played their first match in March 2023. After two League One seasons, the club exercised its option to move up and joined the USL Championship in 2025, playing in the Western Conference despite the Kentucky address. Home is Lexington SC Stadium, a 7,500-seat soccer-specific ground that opened September 8, 2024 as part of an $80-million club investment, surrounded by seven training fields. Fans call it The Stables. The Lexington SC schedule has become Kentucky soccer’s fastest-rising ticket.
Head coach Masaki Hemmi, appointed December 9, 2025 in an unusual in-house move from the club’s women’s team, has turned the Lexington SC roster into the West’s great entertainers: 54 goals, a six-match unbeaten run into the final day, and the first playoff berth in club history. The Lexington SC roster’s star is Phillip Goodrum, signed from arch-rivals Louisville for a six-figure fee. If the Greens are your club, the fan-inspired Lexington SC jersey designs in our Fan Favorite block below carry the horse proudly.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#9 Goodrum — Lexington SC Style Jersey
$59.99
Back-to-back hat tricks in September. A fan-inspired Greens jersey honouring the striker who drove Lexington into the playoffs.
Last Season: One Point Short
Lexington’s first USL Championship season in 2025 was a season of near misses. The Greens opened with a landmark 2-0 home win over Hartford Athletic — their first-ever match at this level — stayed in the playoff hunt all year, but a final-day defeat away to Oakland Roots SC left them ninth in the West on 36 points, one point behind the final playoff place. Forster Ajago was the top league scorer with six goals; Marcus Epps added five goals and four assists. The near miss cost head coach Terry Boss his job — and set up the bold Hemmi reset that has transformed 2026.
Best Players Right Now
Phillip Goodrum — #9, Forward. The star: 12 league goals in 2026 and 73 in his USL Championship career. Signed from Louisville City for a six-figure fee after leading LouCity’s scoring in 2025, he was voted USL Championship Player of the Month for September 2026. See the spotlight below.
Nick Firmino — #8, Midfielder. Seven league goals after his brace at Las Vegas on October 17 — his second brace of the season — including a first-minute strike at Monterey Bay in September. Named to the Week 33 Team of the Week.
Marcus Epps — #7, Forward/Wide Midfielder. Seven league goals by late September, scoring in four straight matches during the autumn surge, plus two assists in the 5-3 win at Las Vegas. A veteran of ten professional seasons, drafted by Philadelphia Union in 2017.
Blaine Ferri — #16, Midfielder. The creator: tied for the league assist lead with nine assists and first among all USL Championship players with 69 chances created. His goal at Las Vegas was his fourth of the campaign — and his 10th Team of the Week honour of the season.
Aaron Molloy — #6, Midfielder, Captain. The set-piece engine alongside Ferri, with four league goals — including Lexington’s first goal of the 2026 league season in the March home opener against Louisville.
Oliver Semmle — #17, Goalkeeper. The first-choice keeper behind the club’s first-ever double-digit clean-sheet season — Lexington’s 10th shutout came against FC Tulsa on October 9.
Star Spotlight: Back-to-Back Hat Tricks
September 2026 belonged to Phillip Goodrum. On September 12 he scored a hat trick away to Oakland Roots (22′, 78′, 87′) in a 4-1 win; seven days later he did it again at home to Orange County (9′, 24′, 49′) in a 6-0 rout — becoming, per league coverage, only the second player in USL Championship history with consecutive hat tricks, and earning Player of the Week and then Player of the Month honours. Then, on October 17, Lexington won an eight-goal thriller 5-3 at Las Vegas to clinch the first playoff berth in club history and a home playoff game — Goodrum’s backheel assist for Firmino’s second was a Goal of the Week finalist. Add the October 3 statement win over West leaders El Paso, 3-1 at The Stables, and the Greens arrive in the playoffs as the team nobody wants to draw.
The supporting cast keeps producing moments of its own. Defender Xavier Zengue has scored five league goals — a remarkable return for a back — including strikes at Tampa Bay in July and in the Las Vegas clincher. Braudílio Rodrigues has chipped in league goals against San Antonio, Monterey Bay, Phoenix and El Paso. And when the attack finally paused, the defence delivered the club’s 10th clean sheet of the season against FC Tulsa on October 9 — the first double-digit shutout season in club history. This is not a one-man team riding a hot striker; it is the deepest squad Lexington has ever fielded.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
Two more green shirts Lexington fans are wearing this fall.
This Season: The Breakthrough
The 2026 Lexington SC schedule has delivered the breakthrough: fourth in the Western Conference on 47 points (14 wins, 10 losses, 5 draws), 54 goals scored — the West’s most prolific attack at the top end — and a top-four finish with a home playoff match already guaranteed after the 5-3 win at Las Vegas on October 17. The Lexington SC standings question for the final day is only whether the Greens finish third or fourth; the quarterfinal opponent is set on Saturday. A club that had never reached the playoffs in League One or the Championship now hosts one — the defining season in Lexington’s young history, built on Goodrum’s goals, Ferri’s creation and a six-match unbeaten run (five wins, one draw) that carried them over the line.
The cups were the only quiet front: Lexington exited the USL Cup at the group stage — a 4-2 win over Forward Madison and two shootout nights against Detroit City and Indy Eleven in the group — and did not take part in the 2026 U.S. Open Cup. None of it dims the league story. Owners Bill and Donna Shively and Stephen Dawahare built this club from a League One expansion award in 2021; club president Vince Gabbert’s project has now delivered a Championship playoff berth in year four of the men’s team. The Greens’ 2026 home shirt — black with dark-green striping woven into running-horse shapes, the “Year of the Horse” kit — has become the uniform of a breakthrough.
🐎 Love the Greens? Wear it. Browse the full fan-inspired range — every design in the Bluegrass green. Shop Fan Sportswear →
Mark Your Calendar
Sat, Oct 24, 2026 — at Phoenix Rising FC, Phoenix Rising Soccer Stadium, Phoenix, 7:00 p.m. PT / 10:00 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Golazo Network. Phoenix need a win to reach the playoffs; Lexington play for third-versus-fourth seeding with a home quarterfinal already secured. The final date on the regular-season Lexington SC schedule.
Oct 30 – Nov 1, 2026 — USL Championship Playoffs, Conference Quarterfinals: Lexington SC at HOME, Lexington SC Stadium. The first playoff match in club history — the date, kickoff and opponent are confirmed once Saturday’s results are in.
Nov 6–8, 2026 — Conference Semifinals. Uncharted territory for the Greens — every round from here is a first.
Nov 13–15, 2026 — Conference Finals. One win from the league final.
Sat, Nov 21, 2026 — USL Championship Final, 12:00 p.m. ET on CBS. The trophy game. Lexington’s fairy tale has four more chapters to write.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Louisville City FC — The Commonwealth Cup. Kentucky’s derby: the state’s two largest cities, about 80 miles apart. Formalized as the Commonwealth Cup when Lexington joined the Championship in 2025, it has so far gone Louisville’s way — both 2025 meetings, the March 2026 league match at Lexington (2-1, before a club-record 8,277 crowd) and the July USL Cup tie. The sting is personal: Goodrum arrived from Louisville. Lexington’s first Commonwealth Cup win is one of the great unfinished stories of 2026.
2. One Knoxville SC — the bourbon-barrel rivalry (dormant). Both clubs launched together in League One in 2023 and created a rivalry trophy from day one: a full-size whiskey barrel, Kentucky bourbon versus Tennessee whiskey. Lexington’s first-ever match was at One Knox in March 2023. The rivalry sleeps while the clubs sit in different divisions — cup draws can wake it.
3. Indy Eleven — the regional rivalry. Flagged by the USL itself as a natural regional rival when Lexington moved up. The 2026 meetings were tight and testy: Indy won 3-1 at home in May, and the USL Cup tie at Lexington finished 0-0 before Indy took the shootout 7-6.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does Lexington SC play its home games?
Lexington SC Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky — a 7,500-seat soccer-specific stadium (expandable to 11,000) that opened on September 8, 2024, off Athens-Boonesboro Road near I-75, surrounded by seven training fields. The men’s team played its first match there on September 13, 2024, after starting life at Toyota Stadium in Georgetown.
Who is Lexington SC’s best player right now?
Forward Phillip Goodrum (No. 9). Signed from rivals Louisville City FC for a six-figure fee, he has 12 league goals in 2026, scored back-to-back hat tricks against Oakland Roots (Sep 12) and Orange County SC (Sep 19), and was named USL Championship Player of the Month for September 2026.
Has Lexington SC won any trophies?
Not yet at men’s first-team level — no league title in League One (2023-24) or the Championship. The near misses are the story: the Greens missed the 2025 Championship playoffs by a single point, and in 2026 they clinched the first playoff berth in club history and a home playoff game. The Commonwealth Cup rivalry trophy vs Louisville City FC has gone to Louisville in its first year (2025).
How can I get tickets or watch Lexington SC?
Tickets are digital via SeatGeek, and the club’s ticket office can be reached at (859) 201-3932. Matches stream nationally on ESPN+ and the CBS Sports Golazo Network, with local coverage on FOX 56 in Lexington for selected matches.
🐎 Lexington SC Fan Shop
All three green shirts — Goodrum, Firmino and Epps. Fan-inspired designs, made for matchday at The Stables.
Sources & official links: Lexington SC official site · USL Championship official site · Lexington SC tickets
From League One to a home playoff game in four years — the Greens are just getting started. The Stables will shake on playoff night. Come on you Greens!
