ROCKFORD, Ill. - After a season of work, the ECNL U14 and U18 seasons spill out onto two final, hectic days here at the ECNL National Playoffs.

Daily standouts: U14, U18 stars from opening day | U15-U17 standouts from Friday | Saturday's best

While the U15-U17 teams begin and end in Rockford with group play, the 32 combined U14 and U18 teams were always going to be whittled down to here, just four left on either side. The semifinals go off Monday, and each age group will crown a new champion on Tuesday morning. Here's a look at the remaining finals field in both groups and a view to how we got here.

U14 National Final Four

Matchups
- Solar Chelsea vs. Arsenal FC
- Jacksonville Armada vs. Eclipse Select

How they got here
- Jacksonville Armada was perhaps the outsider in the pack, and many picked the San Diego Surf to progress out of that group with their development pedegree. But Armada's tone-setting day one victory over the Surf, a 1-0 result that rattled the league, ultimately proved enough. Armada fell in a 3-0 loss to the Seattle Reign on day two, but a 2-0 win over the Indiana Fire on the last group day was enough to secure passage. Both Surf and Armada finished on six points, but Jacksonville advanced by virtue of its head-to-head breaker. Can the outsiders pull the upset and win it all?

- Eclipse Select largely danced through its group with relative ease. Which is no surprise considering how often the Illinois super-club puts teams in ECNL finals. Eclipse took all nine points from its three group games, all while sporting an impressive plus-eight goal differential. They opened with a rollicking 5-3 win over the Dallas Texans and shut up shop at the back for a pair of shutouts against development blue bloods: a 4-0 win over De Anza Force and a 2-0 result over PDA.

- Solar Chelsea didn't have the easiest go of it in the group stage, but they were also burdened with an almost comically difficult group. GSA, Michigan Hawks and Strikers FC all finished with at least three points, and Solar Chelsea was forced to grit through with just a win from three games to qualify. But it was enough, thanks to the fact that everyone in this group simply beat each other up.

- Arsenal FC has been a surprise package this tournament, not in how good they've been just at the U14 level but across the age board as well. The U14s were the most dominant team in the group phase, sporting a hefty plus-11 goal differential in a group that featured Real Colorado, Western New York Flash and Charlotte SA. No easy pickings. And yet they still managed to rack up three wins from three games en route to being arguably the on-form favorites to rope a trophy and bring it home with them.

U18 National Final Four

Matchups
- Michigan Hawks vs. Jacksonville Armada
- San Diego Surf vs. Tophat SC

How they got here
- Jacksonville Armada has a chance at a rare thing indeed; a pure U14/U18 national title sweep in a matter of hours. It won't be easy, of course, but they came through a tough group to make it happen. The defense was the guiding force with just two goals against in three games, and they cleared the No. 2 Boston Breakers by three points with a total of seven; a 4-2 win over McLean and a 4-0 win over Mustang SC nullified the draw against the Breakers, and here Jacksonville is. Deservedly, it should be added.

- Michigan Hawks entered this tournament as the odds-on favorite to win it all, and they did little to dispell that idea in the group stage. That said, they did have to grit out some results, and four goals in three games won't strike fear in the heart of the Armada in preparation for this game. The Hawks ultimately won their group with seven points from nine, including a 1-0 win over the Concorde Fire and a 2-1 result over FC Dallas before a highly entertaining 1-1 draw against West Coast FC clinched their spot here.

- San Diego Surf has a number of intriguing storylines coming out of the group phase, but there's one that stands above the rest: Catarina Macario's quest for a second ECNL national title. The leading scorer in ECNL history scored within the opening five minutes of this tournament this week, and her Surf side squeaked out a tiebreaker over St. Louis Scott Gallagher to qualify for the semifinal. Macario is the single most dangerous player in the field, and as usual it'll take something special to even slow her down. Macario of course couldn't have done it without a stellar team around her, but there's little question the Stanford commit is the show-stopper on Monday.

- Tophat SC was one of the most prolific scoring teams in the country during the regular season, and while sledding was a bit tougher in Rockford they rode that form to a final four. The Atlanta-area club took seven points from nine and racked up seven goals in that span. After an entertaining 2-2 draw with Crossfire on the opening day, Tophat reeled off wins against PDA (2-1) and Ohio Elite (3-0) to book passage here. Coming out of a grinder of a group like that should only help Tophat deal with what could ultimately be a high-scoring semifinal affair.

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