Charleston Battery and Wilmington Hammerheads will Face Off in 2012 USL PRO Championship
TAMPA, Fla. – Friday, August 31, 2012
Battery to host Hammerheads on Saturday, Sept. 8 at Blackbaud Stadium
The USL PRO Championship Game will see the No.3-seed Charleston Battery host the No.5-seed Wilmington Hammerheads at Blackbaud Stadium on Saturday, September 8 after the two teams advanced in the semifinals of the USL PRO Playoffs on Friday night. The Hammerheads recorded the upset of the season as they defeated defending champion and No.1-seed Orlando City 4-3 at the Florida Citrus Bowl, while the Battery came through a penalty shootout to defeat the No.2-seed Rochester Rhinos at Sahlen’s Stadium after the two teams played to a 1-1 draw after regulation and extra time.
The only side to beat regular-season champion Orlando in the regular season, Wilmington took an early 2-0 lead as Corey Hertzog first converted from the penalty spot after being brought down in the penalty area in the fourth minute before Luke Holmes finished a turning shot in the ninth minute.
Hagop Chirishian made it 3-0 for the Hammerheads on the half-hour mark, but Matt Luzunaris gave the Lions hope of a comeback as he scored a minute before halftime to reduce the deficit to a pair of goals. The Hammerheads restored their three-goal advantage in the 59th minute, however, as Hertzog scored his second goal of the game, and while the Hammerheads were reduced to 10 men, Dylan Riley being sent off with 25 minutes to go, Wilmington was able to hold on to take victory, stoppage time goals by Jamie Watson from the penalty spot and George Davis IV leaving the Lions just short.
The Battery claimed victory in the seventh round of penalty kicks, earning a 4-3 win in a dramatic shootout as J.C. Mack scored the decisive goal to give his side victory. The Rhinos had the opportunity to win from the penalty spot in the fifth round, only for Troy Roberts to shoot wide, and after Andrew Dykstra saved from Tyler Rosenlund to open the seventh round, Mack made no mistake to send the Battery on to the final.
Charleston almost didn’t have the chance to even get to a shootout, but sent the game to extra time in second-half stoppage time as Tony Donatelli headed home from close range against his former team. Kendell McFayden scored 10 minutes into the second half to score the goal that almost put the Rhinos in their first USL Championship Game since 2006.
The Battery and Hammerheads split three contests in the USL PRO regular season, with the Battery taking a 3-1 victory at Charleston’s Blackbaud Stadium on July 14 before the teams played to a 2-2 draw at the same location on August 3. The Hammerheads won the final game of the season series, 2-1 at Legion Stadium on August 4.
For live updates from the USL PRO Championship Game, and the announcement of the USL PRO All-League Teams and awards, follow the league on Twitter (@USLPRO) and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/USLPRO).
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another reason why NASL playoff format is way better:
the Semifinal and Final Rounds will each be a 2-game series with each team playing at home once and the team with the greater number of aggregate goals in both games winning each series.
Semifinals and Finals to be one game is idiotic.
WSW, you do realize that the single game format is much more economical. I know the NASL contemplated the format as well for that very reason.
In general, teams lose money on the playoffs. Home and away can get very expensive for teams. It prolongs the season and means you have to pay your players longer. You also have the extra air fair, travel stipends hotel and transportation cost.
I actually talked to Chris Economides about this once. If I recall, the format being used now by the USL was voted on by the board of governors.
but it’s funner for the fans.
Yes, very true. It’s also very true that it’s funner spending other peoples money.
Rather than the issue of the format is the issue of who made the finals. Neither Orlando nor the Rhinos, those teams that the fans on this site have mandated to be in the NASL made it.
Orlando, with all of its higher salaries and MLS visions, could not beat the Hammerheads.
What a great country this is and what a great game!
Good on you, Wilmington. Bring it home.
Will the game be televised? I am in California.
@Shin, the match won’t be on national TV, the Charleston Battery website will have an online stream. Fox soccer used to show the championship game, but not anymore
I could not believe Orlando lost
Wilmington is making a statement-a small city can cast a very big shadow
Wow
OMG
That is all I can say
Wilmington is beast
Oh yeah the the single elmination game is economical beneficial
I just don’t know why NASL Final match is a two match game I hate that.
So its not true that Rochester Rhinos is being sold to Traffic USA
Orlando played a good match. Well Respected.
2014 AC Miami in USL Pro
Lets Get It
any attendance figures out there for the two matches?
Attendance is almost always available for most USL matches. Just like the NASL site the USL (actually had this feature first) puts the attendance figures in the box scores for the matches which can be found on the USL PRO schedule.
I have looked and they are Orlando’s is there. Rochester did not report their attendance. You will have to look to see if it’s in a match report or something.
Here is the link. click on the score and you will get the box score report.
http://uslpro.uslsoccer.com/schedules/2012/43140262.20128.html
So its not true that Rochester Rhinos is being sold to Traffic USA????
when did this rumor start?
i dont know i saw information talked on this website and big soccer
but if it is making presence on both websites, it could have some truth to it
^ Just like the rumor that MLS is going to buy the USL? Don’t pay attention to any rumors.
And for such a huge fan of the NASL, it is amazing that WSW has never understood the numerous economic problems that minor league soccer faces. The NASL’s playoff format costs them money. Even the SA Scorpions will find this out when they get the bill.
well what if the additional game is a sellout compared to lower attended games.
they will make money off that right?
Not for the visiting team, they won’t.
Folks, for those that don’t know, it is all about the HOME game (for each team that is). The hosting team keeps all the gate receipts and snack fare (assuming that is in their stadium lease contract). The visiting team gets squat, nadda, nothing, AND they have to pay for the travel costs to the host city and pay all other associated costs, such as player salaries. Generally, the host team will offer some sort of game meal (not always) and places the visiting team with a certain number of hotel rooms.
That is why during the scheduling process prior to the beginning of the season, it is critical for teams to consier how their home games line up, compared to what else is going on nationally and what other local venues are competing with the home game.
This is a very small needle eye, with an even thinner piece of thread.
I gotta give the USLPRO props. Their playoff games have been really exciting. The semis were great and last year’s final was ridiculously entertaining.
The Barrister is right on that one. Orlando and Rochester going out in the semis-the way that the matches were contested-the type of drama that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
An all Carolina final. I’m cised!
with orlando out who is going to win it all
Charleston or wilmington
So if the away team loses money in a 1 game playoff game it’s fair to have a 2 game playoff that way the team can get a profit for their home game.
i like having the playoff a two game series and the final a one game match
but usl pro is helping teams save money
WSW- You are assuming that the home is making a profit. They may have the opportunity to sell a game but that does not mean they are making a profit. They could be losing money from both games.
@WSW and @Silly
A home game does not mean the home team makes money, it just means they lose a little less money, but not much less.
NASL teams lose close to $1,000,000 a year. The shorter the season, the better for them Frankly, they break even if no season exists. That would be the business math. Go figure.
This is a business where there is not enough fan base, and neither the hot dogs nor the cotton candy is priced high enough to offset that.
so this is a question for brian
how do a team like Minnesota achieve an attendance like san antionio without attaching itself to a mls expansion
If I knew that I’d be the GM of the Stars and bringing in enough fans to actually make a nice income and a profit for the owners.
Every market is different and what is happening in SA is very rare for lower level soccer. Also, I don’t think attaching yourself to an MLS team means that you are automatically going to draw fans either.
@bart
SA is making a profit
Rowdies are the only tenants so they don’t pay high rent fees, they make money off concessions and merchandising and if attendance is above 3k they are making a profit.
Probably same for Carolina and FTL.
@WSW
Unless you are looking at the balance sheet, the income statements and the general ledgers of the teams, there is no way you will know if SA or any other team is making a profit. SA has an admittedly high attendance, but you don’t know the number of comped tickets that have been handed out, or the marketing costs expended to get the tickets sold.
Just because it glitters does not mean it is gold.
Looks like the NASL brass don’t think their current playoff format is way better, and are going to a consolidated idiotic route.
Y’all will have to excuse the tone of my next few posts; I’m still despondent over watching my Rhinos symbolically drop a turd in a punch bowl not once, but twice, in losing their playoff match to the Battery. As if giving up the tying goal in the last minute of stoppage time wasn’t bad enough, I also had to witness our team captain step up for a potential winning PK, only to shank it wide left. Oh the humanity! Much like a vexing wench, they teased me with a 6-0 start and made me believe that this would be the season that the 11 year championship-less streak would end. Why didn’t Clark listen to his mentor King Joey and take the team to the NASL when he had the chance? There would have been no chance of challenging for a championship in that vastly superior league before I’m forced into my dirt nap, and I wouldn’t have to be subjected to this kind of torture!
Ironically enough, I sat in the same stadium roughly a month earlier watching the WPSL-Elite championship match and saw the WNY Flash SCORE a tying goal in the last minute of stoppage, and then go on to WIN the match in PKs. Apparently, it all evens out in the end.