What to expect from Terry Boss in Lexington
Breaking down Lexington Sporting Club's first-ever USL Championship manager
Few teams in the USL Championship are as fascinating as Lexington SC, who are making the difficult jump up from USL League One for the 2025 season. With a full year at the still-new Lexington SC Stadium ahead and expectations high, it’s vitally important the club improve on the pitch. Terry Boss - Lexington’s new head coach - is the man for the job.
After two poor seasons on the field in the third division, Lexington can’t replicate North Carolina FC’s formula; their division-hopping predecessors won a League One title and kept much of their on-field personnel in place for their Championship return. Hence the introduction of Boss, a 43-year-old with unique experience across the levels of the American game.
A former goalkeeper in MLS, Boss spent a decade in the college ranks between stops at Tulsa, Virginia, and Oregon State. An Oregon native himself, Boss’ first head gig would come in 2018 with the Beavers. Named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in his first season in Corvallis, Boss would lead the program to unprecedented success. By the time he left in 2022, Oregon State could boast of seven all-time NCAA College Cup appearances. He was responsible for four of them.
During his NCAA run, Boss also served as a goalkeeping assistant for the US Men’s National Team - he was a goalkeeper as a player - under Gregg Berhalter. Post-Oregon State, he spent two seasons as an assistant coach with Austin FC1 in MLS. That opportunity provided Boss with a crucial grounding in the pro game, one that’ll pay off in Lexington.
Even so, it’s the college-centric resume that makes Boss such a fascinating and potentially impactful hire. Darren Powell, who was hired to turn Lexington around in 2024, was very much a known quantity with years of USL experience under his belt. You weren’t necessarily getting brand-new ideas or teaching the proverbial old horse any new tricks with Powell - and it showed.
Lexington assembled a roster with an average age of 26.9 years old when weighted for minutes played, one with double-digit players boasting of USL Championship experience. The veteran nature of the squad mattered little, which flitted between formations, never nailed down a philosophy, and limped to a ninth-place finish in League One.
Powell’s side tended to prefer short passing from the back - their average pass progressed play by a very slight 6.1 vertical yards - but only managed to hold a lowly 48% of possession. In 2024, Lexington placed third-from-bottom with 3.0 final third recoveries per game and dead last in terms of midfield takeaways. The system felt overwhelmingly tepid and incongruent.
Hence, Powell is set to “transition to a technical leadership role” at the club, and that means Boss will have the opportunity to re-make the squad and style in his image.
Boss is no stranger to managing younger players, and he coached familiar USL names like Sofiane Djeffal, Eric Bird, Colin Shutler, and Jeff Caldwell during his time in the NCAA. Beyond the developmental chops, the new Lexington manager also illustrated a fiercely modern grasp on tactics while at Oregon State.
Consider this example from the 2021 NCAA College Cup versus Virginia Tech, excerpted below.
You’ll see the Beavers without the ball in this instance, holding a 4-3-3ish defensive shape that’s highlighted in the cover image.
As the play itself begins, there’s a noticeable bout of weak-side closing from the left winger. It doesn’t make an impact in the clip, but it’s evidence of the space-limiting traps that Boss imbues throughout his defensive system.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech builds down the Beavers’ right side in hopes of working around the three-man midfield. In practice, there’s a very organized and compact push to the flank from the midfield and forward lines that prevents such a break from succeeding.
As the ball is pushed back, Boss allows his center forward and a center mid to close down and tighten any sort of controlled angle down the middle. The end result? Oregon State forces an errant long ball.
The takeaway here is less about that one play and more about the principles. There’s a back four at the base of the shape, and it’s the backstop for spirited pressure. Boss’ unit wants to win the ball back quickly, but they’re structured about doing so.
Now, compare the 4-3-3 from above to the possessive formation in this still, and you’ll spot a bit of ingenuity. When the Beavers possess here, they tuck their right back inside to become a No. 8 in the midfield. Suddenly, what starts as a 4-3-3 becomes more of a 3-1-2-4 or “three-box-three” with the ball.
That’s a very progressive system to roll out in the NCAA, but Boss’ track record - Oregon State posted a full 2.0 goals per game in 2021 - shows that it was a successful gambit.
At the same times, the new coach in Lexington isn’t tactically or formationally doctrinaire. Take this Pac-12 match from 2022 against UCLA, with Boss’ Oregon State side in more of a defensive 4-2-3-1 from the jump. In this match, the Beavers still used their right back as a hinge point between phases, but that player became an additional winger rather than a center mid.
You’ll see that strategy deployed in the counterpress above. Oregon State’s right-sided center back in the possessive back three tries a pass to one of the dual No. 10s between the lines of yet another “three-box-three”-ish shape, but a turnover ensues. Immediately, though, the Beavers seek to regain.
Post-giveaway, one of Boss’ center mids steps up to close down and prevent UCLA from exiting their defensive zone. That challenge forces an errant back pass, and Oregon State has found their trigger to press. The ball-side winger and hinged right back close down, the Bruins can’t cleanly escape, and a challenge from an Oregon State center back ends the danger.
That’s a fairly standard sequence, but it’s extremely well-executed and indicative of Boss’ tenets. As compared to the Powell-led Lexington of 2024, it’s a system that’s entirely more pressureful and energetic. In other words, it’s just what this club needs.
How the roster looks is the big question in Kentucky henceforth. Lexington as already announced the returns of forwards Cameron Lancaster and Ates Diouf, midfielder Yannick Yankam, and teenaged defender Kimball Jackson. Upwards of 15 players from the League One roster have been released already, with more likely to come.
It was an open secret that Lexington boasted one of the fattest wage bills in League One in 2024; some estimates had it as an upper-half number even by Championship standards. If that’s the case and if the club keeps it up amidst their divisional transition, Terry Boss will have the resources to build a winner. If his past is any indication, he has the ideas and fresh perspective to do just that in Lexington.
Remember the last time an Austin coach got the nod? It went extremely well for a Las Vegas team in the pits. They hired Dennis Sanchez, played a terrific style of soccer, and established themselves as a Western contender.