Expansion franchises usually take time to find their footing.

It’s a classic conundrum at any level of sports, as new teams have new owners, new staff and new players.

The Spokane Velocity are one win away from the championship game after beating second-seeded Colorado Hailstorm FC in the USL League One playoffs last week.

The perception around the league is that Velocity FC’s 3-0 win over Jägermeister Cup champions Colorado is one of the biggest upsets in USL League One playoff history. People point out the difference in starting positions and the fact that expansion teams typically don’t get that far, let alone make the playoffs.

In its fifth season, USL League One is a newer league in American soccer, but Spokane has still found a way to claw its way to prominence within it.

The Velocity became the third team to win a postseason game in its inaugural season, while becoming the first team to enter postseason play with an active winless streak of four games or more.

“It’s unbelievable,” Velocity head coach Leigh Veidman said. “I think the group’s work over the year has brought them to this point. “The fact that we have put ourselves in this position is a huge credit to the players, to the club staff and to the community for helping us get through this this season.”

In the postseason, everyone has an 0-0 record, Veidman said, so the past doesn’t matter. It’s all about who shows up on game day.

That mentality will be important Saturday when No. 7 Spokane takes on No. 3 Forward Madison FC at Breese Stevens Field in Madison, Wisconsin, in the semifinals of the USL League One playoffs at 4 p.m.

Spokane is 0-2 against Forward Madison, with a goal difference of 5-0.

Veidman said the experienced Flamingos – who were one of the original League One teams in 2019 – have an established culture and squad with strong depth.

After suffering a 2-0 loss to Madison on the road, Veidman thought Spokane did enough to win the match until a red card in the 59th minute changed the course of the match.

“They are a strong team on the ball, they want to play possession, they want to play through the lines,” Veidman said. “Very, very compact defensively, high numbers in the back line. They don’t give you much space and they pressure you at the right time. Their overall game plan is very solid and they are a very well coached team.

In the first round of the playoffs, Forward Madison held Charlotte Independence to six shots, none on target, while making 16 shots.

Christian Chaney and Devin Boyce lead the Flamingos with six goals each, but Mitchell Osmond has completed a league-leading 1,422 passes this season.

This week has been spent coming up with a game plan that has a chance of getting Spokane to the title game.

In the third match, Veidman said Spokane will stay true to its principles and tactical approach. There will be some adjustments to the way Forward Madison plays, but Veidman said they will maintain the strategy that makes them one of the final four teams.

After taking a 3-0 lead over Colorado, the tactic paid off last week and held that lead for 90 minutes.

Having Veidman at the helm during the playoffs has been beneficial due to his 2023 season with the Charleston Battery when he was an assistant coach. Last season, The Battery reached the final.

“The most important thing I learned along the way is that consistency is key, you shouldn’t change your environment and you shouldn’t treat this game differently,” he said. “Emotionally it already feels different, but when you start changing your environment, how you train, when you train, what you do during training, your tone changes. As a coach you just start to change.”

Football players are superstitious and have their routines. They can see when something is being adjusted.

Veidman said those changes could change the atmosphere and build pressure, and Spokane doesn’t need that. The play-offs already create a natural pressure point with their one-off nature.

No changes are needed, he says. Spokane plays like Spokane plays.

“By the end of this season, someone who is a bystander, a fan, a neutral fan, can look back at our team and say, ‘Hey, that’s a Spokane Velocity team. We can identify that by the way they play, their work and their playing style,” Veidman said.

Implementing an identity is not an easy task in the first year, which is why teams often fail to make the playoffs.

Spokane, one of three teams to make the USL League One playoffs in its inaugural season, was confident from day one.

Veidman said his logical brain knew history was going against his team, but his competitor brain said otherwise.

“Deep in my soul I wanted to be in the playoffs this year, yeah, I want to go win this thing,” he said. “There are still two games to play for and the championship to play for. But what we have already done is incredible.”

The winner will face Union Omaha or Greenville Triumph SC in the final.