CHAMPS AGAIN Cosmos win another NASL title, 3-2 over Ottawa as Gaston Cellerino records a hat-trick http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/cosmos2.php?article_id=43277 The old adage is defense wins championships. Not in the North American Soccer League on Sunday night. It was the New York Cosmos offense powered by a hat trick by Gaston Cellerino that gave them a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Fury FC in front of 10,166 fans at James M. Shuart Stadium. Cellerino’s effort offset a pair of goals by Ottawa’s Tom Heinemann. The championship is the second in three years since joining the NASL in 2013, and the seventh in the history of the club. The win sent Spanish international legends Raul and Marcos Senna into retirement as champions, just as the club’s original incarnation did for Pele in 1977.
...or for a team to fold mid-season. (Hopefully, we would be done with either of these situations.) But that is not part of the competition format, in and of itself; more of a sidenote.