NASL Podcast Episode #13; Playoffs Here We Come
Welcome to episode #13 of the IMS Soccer News North American Soccer League Podcast.
It was the final week of the North American Soccer League regular season last weekend. The playoffs are set and the IMS Soccer News IMS Podcast staff of Jay (Yankiboy) Long, Gerry Wittmann and yours truly, quickly review the weekend’s games and the effect they had on the playoff seedings.
•We look at the first round of the playoffs coming up this weekend, which are single game elimination quarterfinals. We give you our predictions and Gerry gives you some statistics to make your own prediction for this weekend’s quarterfinal predictions.
•And “How bout them Carolina RailHawks!?!” With 4 consecutive losses , will it affect them psychologically as they head into a bye week before their semifinal game?
•Who’s the hottest team in the second half of the season? We tell you who but also explain why it may not matter as they will be missing nearly a whole squad of players come the semifinals.
•We all know who the NASL MVP will be. Without a doubt, Etienne Barbara. But what if Barbara missed his ride and couldn’t make it to the awards show? Who would take his place? In other words who had the second best performance in the league? We will give you some names and tell you why we think so.
•Lastly, we put all the ribbing and jokes aside and give tribute to a man and his team that are now on their way out of the 2nd division and on their way to MLS. Say what you want about Joey Saputo and the Montreal Impact, the man will go down in the journals as having a major “impact” on the North American soccer scene. We also tell you why a Montreal Impact team in MLS may be exactly what the league needs to spice things up a bit.
Please join us for this 30 minute podcast as Jay Long, Gerry Wittmann and I present to you another IMS Soccer News NASL Podcast.
You can find all past episodes of the North American Soccer League Podcast here.
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Great stuff as always guys. I too am predicting that both Florida teams advance to set up semifinal matchups of Carolina/Ft. Lauderdale and Puerto Rico/Tampa. If Shore would just put out his best 11 players and stop with the constantly changing lineups, you’ll see them realize some of that potential we’ve all been expecting all year.
Anyway, I think Tampa has been very hot of late, and the Stars, give them credit for winning on the final day to get in, might just have spent themselves to make it in. I expect a very large crowd Saturday at Lockhart, possibly biggest of the year, and I fully expect the Strikers to take care of business. I’m going with Tampa 2 – 1 over Minnestoa, and the Strikers 2 – 0 over the Eddies.
Agree with you guys completely about Joey Saputo and what he’s meant to second division soccer over the years. If there aren’t any rules against it, and the Impact are as successful as I expect they are going to be, would love to see him be able to field a reserve team in NASL at some point down the road. But regardless, he’s been a stalwart, and you have to hope that his team leaving won’t cause things to crumble.
Etienne Barbara is a third-rate lazy bum who is not even good enough for my Tuesday night men’s rec team at the NSC. I have seen him knock so many balls high and wide this season that if I got a dime for every time he did it, I would be a millionaire with a private island some place nice.