USL-2 Semifinal Saturday Preview
Published on August 16, 2007 under United Soccer League Championship (USL) News Release
TAMPA, FL - Both USL Second Division Semifinals are set for 7:00 pm ET Saturday, August 18 as the Cleveland City Stars, Harrisburg City Islanders, Richmond Kickers and Charlotte Eagles square off for the right to move onto the USL Second Division Championship Saturday, August 25. One semifinal will feature a rematch of the 2006 USL-2 Championship as the defending champion Kickers play host to Charlotte, the 2005 champion.
In a way, the composition of the USL-2 Final is already predetermined as it will feature a veteran USL club with several championships represented by either Charlotte or Richmond on one side and a young club looking to plant their flag as one of the elite in either the fourth-year City Islanders or the expansion City Stars.
(4) Charlotte Eagles vs (1) Richmond Kickers
The rematch of last year's championship and the showdown of the last two USL Second Division champions will ensure that one club's run of appearances in the USL-2 Final will come to an end. Charlotte has been in four consecutive USL-2 championship games, playing in the last three after returning from a three-year stint in the USL First Division that followed their first USL-2 championship in 2000. The Kickers have a similar story returning to the USL-2 Final last year after nine seasons in the USL First Division. They fell in the USL-2 Championship in 1996 before making the move up.
Both clubs boast an impressive championship pedigree with Charlotte having won the 2000 and 2005 USL-2 titles. In addition to winning the USL-1 crown last year, Richmond captured the double in 1995, winning the PDL and US Open Cup championships. And the championships are only a fraction of the experience with the Eagles having reached the USL-2 final six times in franchise history. Richmond has been to two USL-2 finals, the PDL final, the US Open Cup final and two USL-1 finals in its storied history.
The winner Saturday will be making a historic seventh championship game appearance in domestic competition, which ranks only second among USL teams to the USL-1 Rochester Rhinos, who have been to six USL-1 finals and two US Open Cup finals. Major League Soccer's DC United (5 league, 2 cup) and Chicago Fire (3 league, 4 cup) also have seven championship appearances with the Los Angeles Galaxy leading the way with eight (5 league, 3 cup).
2007 Head-to-Head: Richmond swept the three-game season series in impressive fashion with an aggregate score of 8-2. Last year's Rookie of the Year Nowaf Jaman provided the lone strike in a May 19 victory in Richmond to open the series. The Kickers started a back-to-back set with a 4-1 win at home July 13 on two-goal, two-assist performance from Matt Watson. Ricky Schramm and David Bulow scored the other two with Jacob Coggins setting up Daniel Harvey for Charlotte's. The following night in Charlotte, Watson added a third for the weekend to cap the game in which Evan Harding scored and Charlotte put two in, one from Adam Ruud to level it at 1-1 and one in their own net to give the Kickers a 2-1 lead en route to the 3-1 result.
2006 Championship Flashback: A ninth minute penalty from USL-2 MVP Robert Ssejjemba gave the Kickers the early lead with Chris Carrieri pushing the advantage to 2-0 in the 34th on an assist from Kevin Knight. Ross Spencer gave the Eagles a late chance with a goal in the 90th, but it proved too late for the defending champions. Mike Burke would be honored as the Championship MVP.
(3) Harrisburg City Islanders vs (2) Cleveland City Stars
In stark contrast to the 30 combined years of play between the other two semifinals (15 each), Harrisburg and Cleveland will meet with just five years between the two.
The more experienced side of the two, fourth-year Harrisburg is in their second semifinal appearance in the past three years. The City Islanders missed the playoffs for the first time last year after a heart-breaking 2-1 series overtime loss to Charlotte in 2005 in which they won the first leg 1-0 only to see Charlotte tie and take the series in the second leg and subsequent overtime. In their expansion season, Harrisburg made the divisional playoffs only to be sent home in convincing fashion 7-1 on aggregate in their two-leg series against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, the runaway regular season champions that year.
On the other side, the City Stars put forth one of the best campaigns in the history of the league in just their first season of existence, compiling only the fourth one-loss season in the 13-year history of the league - the first since the introduction of draws in 2000. Only two since 2000, the 2004 Pittsburgh Riverhounds and 2003 Carolina Dynamo, finished with two losses, but neither went on to win the championship.
Perhaps the most peculiar aspect of the team's one-loss campaign is that they only finished second in the league due to the nine draws (10-1-9) while Richmond won the regular season mark with a 12-3-5 record. In fact, Cleveland's nine draws set a new league high in the category, surpassing Charlotte's record of eight established last year.
2007 Head-to-Head: Cleveland won the two-game season series by the narrowest of margins at 1-0-1, playing the City Islanders to a 2-2 draw June 2 and winning at home 1-0 August 3. The Stars saw a two-goal lead created by goals from Mark Schulte in the 20th and Ian Leibbrandt in the 28th disappear in the second half of their first showdown. Harrisburg erased the deficit on a fantastic performance off the bench from Matt Tanzini, who scored back-to-back in the 65th and 69th to put the game on level terms. In their meeting just two weeks ago, Chris Lemons' eighth minute penalty proved the difference in the game as well as the standings as Harrisburg outshot Cleveland 14-6 in the match and ultimately finished one point back of the City Stars for the right to host the semifinal.
United Soccer League Championship Stories from August 16, 2007
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