9×90 = An NASL Spring Champ

Colin Miller

For the second season in a row, the North American Soccer League will split its season in two. A spring champion will be declared and will earn one of the top two seeds going into The Championship — the NASL’s fancy title for what most other leagues call playoffs.

The fall champion will earn one of the other top two seeds, while the teams with the two next-best records in the league will also go into the post-season knockout stages.

But, with 2014 being a World Cup year — and clubs realizing it’s a tough task to bring fans out on a Saturday to either Clarke Stadium or Carleton University when Italy or BraziI or Argentina or England is playing — the call was made to create a rather unique split.

Actually, split might not be the right word.

Because “split” sort of suggests that each side gets about half of the sked. And that’s not how it works at all. The 10-team league will have each of its clubs play a nine-game schedule in the spring. And, in a season with an odd number of games, each team will have an imbalanced home-road slate.

Half of the teams, including FC Edmonton, will play four at home, five on the road.  The other five, including the expansion Ottawa Fury,  have a five-four home-to-road split.

The league then goes on hiatus through theWorld Cup, then a more reasonable 18-game schedule will be played by each team in the fall, the winner gets the other of the top two seeds.

The short spring season will offer great reward; a high Championship seed and guarantee of at least one post-season home game. Over a longer season, the cash splashed by the likes of the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the defending champion New York Cosmos will be a factor.

But, in a short season, well, a two-game losing streak can eliminate a team.

“I wouldn’t call it a season. It’s a sprint,” says FC Edmonton coach Colin Miller. “I was at the NASL combine with the other coaches and none of them were wringing their hands with anticipation about coming up to Edmonton.

“Definitely, winning at home is critical, but it also means we have to better away from home. We’ll need some away wins, we didn’t have an away win last season.”

Ottawa Fury coach Marc Dos Santos agrees with Miller’s take on the importance of winning at home.

“From the first game, you treat every game like it’s a final. And, in a short season, you cannot miss the opportunities to win at home. You

need to win at your own place, and then if you get some results on the road, you have a chance to be there.”

And, even before the season begins, Dos Santos isn’t going to pass up the chance to play some head games.

“We don’t have any pressure on us. The pressure is on Edmonton and the other established teams in the league.”