PASL-Pro Championship Weekend

March 10, 2009 - Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL) News Release


Six teams will enter Stockton Arena on Friday and one team will walk away on Sunday as the PASL-Pro North American Champion. The three day, single elimination playoff tournament starts Friday, March 13 at 5:00pm and ends with Sunday's 1:00pm championship game.

The host Stockton Cougars are in as the #2 seed. 1790 Cincinnati is #1 after a 13-3 regular season. The 9-3 Edmonton Drillers are #3. Tigres Dorados MRCI Oaxaca, who won the LMFR Central Division are #4. The Denver Dynamite qualified as the #5 seed by clinching the PASL-Pro Wildcard spot, and La Cabana get the #6 spot after upsetting Cuernavaca in the LMFR Baja Division playoffs.

The US and Canadian teams engaged in interleague play all season, but have never faced the Mexican LMFR teams.

Stockton was 1-1 against CMISL Canadian teams. Cincinnati did not face them and Denver was 0-2.

The Cougars and 1790 earned first round byes and will face the respective winners of Friday's games on Saturday.

PASL-Pro League Action

When St. Louis lost 11-4 to Cincinnati on Saturday, Denver merely needed to win on Sunday to come out on top of a three way tie with Texas and St. Louis. All three teams went into Sunday with an 8-7 record, but Denver held the tiebreakers over both of them.

St. Louis played in Detroit at the same time as Denver's game in Colorado, but both games' outcomes were not in doubt for long. Detroit routed the disillusioned Illusion 15-7 and the Dynamite led in their 9-5 win over Colorado throughout most of the game.

The Outlaws game became academic when Denver won, but they never got to play because they were stranded at the airport in Calgary in blizzard conditions.

KICK STARTERS - Conversations you should be having about the PASL-Pro

PASL-Pro Season Ending Awards

The PASL-Pro will hold an awards ceremony between Friday's two quarterfinals games. Each of the 11 US and Canadian teams and league officials voted on All-League 1st and 2nd Teams as well as Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year. Player/coaches were not eligible for All-League or MVP honors and players receiving MVP votes had to come from their 1st Team selections.

Liga Mexicana de Futbol Rapido

La Cabana lost their first game and did not lose again in regulation time. They finished the regular season with two wins and two shootout losses and then avenged losses to Machado and Cuernavaca in the playoffs.

Tigres Dorados MRCI Oaxaca had a more straightforward path the playoffs besting Auge del DF 8-4 to gain the tiebreaker edge.

Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League

The Edmonton Drillers had a clear edge in the Canadian Division, but with the top two teams qualifying for a one game playoff they had to beat Calgary United one more time. They did just that, a 7-6 overtime win that ran their record against their chief rival to 5-0. All five wins were by one goal and three of the five games went to overtime.

Bernie "the Bolt" Lilavois, Stockton Cougars

The indoor superstar and USNAST player led the PASL-Pro with 68 points in 15 games. The Cougars player/coach had a league high 40 goals and 28 assists. His next closest competition was teammate Brian Farber who finished with 55 points.

PASL-Premier National Championships

From 51 PASL-Premier teams, 12 were good enough to travel to Las Vegas for Nationals. It came down to Vitesse Dallas and the Kansas City Kings. Vitesse came away with a 5-4 win for their first national championship. Last year's champion, Waza FC, did not qualify after the bulk of their roster moved up to the new Detroit Waza PASL-Pro team.

The Week Ahead

The PASL-Pro's successful first season comes to an end at Stockton Arena this weekend. Stockton was an early season favorite after playing the last three years in the MISL, but Cincinnati, whose roster was made up of several players from the AISL Cincinnati Excite, was not expected to make the playoffs, let alone dominate the league.

Friday March 13 (all games at Stockton Arena)

5:00pm Edmonton vs. La Cabana

7:15pm PASL-Pro Awards Ceremony

8:00pm Denver vs. Tigres Dorados MRCI Oaxaca

Saturday, March 14 (Semifinals)

5:00pm Game 2 winner vs. Cincinnati

7:30pm Game 1 winner vs. Stockton

Sunday, March 15 (Championship)

1:00pm Semifinal winner vs. Semifinal winner all times local

About Professional Arena Soccer League

PASL-Pro is a new professional league which began play on October 25, 2008 when the Stockton Cougars defeated the Colorado Lightning, 10-5 at Stockton Arena. The 2008-09 season concludes with Championship Weekend March 13-15 at Stockton Arena. PASL-Pro consists of 8 US teams, the CMISL, and LMFR. The San Diego Sockers have been added for the 2009/10 season. PASL-Premier enters its 12th season as the nation's top amateur arena soccer league with 51 teams in nine divisions. PASL-Pro and PASL-Premier are members of Federacion Internacional de Futbol Rapido (FIFRA).



Professional Arena Soccer League Stories from March 10, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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