NISA (New NASL-allied D3 league) Mega-Thread

Discussion in 'NASL' started by oneeyedfool, Jun 6, 2017.

  1. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    Case in point:
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.la...theme-parks-stadiums-can-amid-covid?_amp=true
     
  2. athletics68

    athletics68 Member+

    Dec 12, 2006
    San Diego & San Jose
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  3. Doogh

    Doogh Member+

    Oct 5, 2019
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    aleaguer repped this.
  4. msilverstein47

    msilverstein47 Member+

    Jan 11, 1999
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  5. Stuart95

    Stuart95 Member+

    Mar 11, 2012
    NoVA
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Weidner Field is actually a public/private partnership:
    "The stadium is slated to receive about $13 million in state funding. Weidner — whose founder, Dean Weidner, grew up in Colorado Springs and graduated from Wasson High School — and the Switchbacks agreed to fund the rest of the facility's $35 million cost. Ground was broken on the stadium in December."
    I also believe that the Switchbacks will operate the stadium bit I can't find a reference for it.
    https://gazette.com/business/apartm...cle_f1bbad7c-dcf5-11ea-a46c-370ddfe1762c.html
     
  6. Paul Berry

    Paul Berry Member+

    Notts County and NYCFC
    United States
    Apr 18, 2015
    Nr Kingston NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Actually Weidner Apartment Homes LLC are a third investor.
     
  7. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    I think the quote is awkwardly worded, but that’s what it’s saying: Weidner [Apartment Homes LLC] and the Switchbacks agreed to fund...
     
  8. Stuart95

    Stuart95 Member+

    Mar 11, 2012
    NoVA
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I lived in Colorado Springs for several years (just moved two years ago). Given that the Springs is the conservative counterweight to the rest of the state, the only way this deal got done was to privately fund most of it. The grant from the state is tied to the City of Champions initiative which seeded several other efforts.

    The AAA baseball team tried to get a publicly funded downtown stadium and were shot down ... hence the owners of the team moved them to San Antonio and the Springs got a Single A and now independent team.

    Ironically, the Switchbacks now have a downtown stadium. Also, besides naming rights, Weidner also got to build apartments overlooking the stadium.
     
  9. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
  10. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    FT first game of Legends Cup:
    Michigan Stars 1 : SD 1904 1

    Just like everyone's first game vs. the Stars, SD seemed really discombobulated by Michigan's high press. Stars mostly controlled the match but couldn't really do anything with. Their goal was nice, but then they gave up a really stupid penalty in the box 3 minutes into the 5 minutes of stoppage time (which resulted in a red for Aidoo) and 1904 equalized.
    Very on brand for the Stars.
     
    Stuart95 repped this.
  11. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    (The red was a result of a second yellow)
     
  12. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    FT 2nd match:
    Detroit City: 0 - Cal United Strikers: 0

    Realistically, this was the “marquee matchup” of the tournament: fall champion vs. the club that everyone thinks “has all of the pieces”. And despite the score line, it was a really good game!

    Detroit, unsurprisingly, played their extremely effective, extremely disciplined, extremely boring style of soccer and the Strikers absolutely were dominating them all game. The Strikers’ offense looked amazing and their midfield and defense were basically giving DCFC nothing, however they could not put anything in the net.

    Late in the 2nd half, it looked like DCFC was going to pull out another one of their signature “make their own luck” wins when, first, Cal’s keeper flubbed a slowly rolling ball and managed to somehow prevent a Detroit player from scoring with it, and another break where a Cal player was dispossessed just outside his own 18 yard line and, again, somehow it didn’t wind up in the goal.

    Anyway, both teams are in a pretty deep hole at this point because the 2nd tiebreaker after goal differential is goals for. Stumptown needs to brace themselves.
     
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  13. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    FT 3rd match, day 1
    Chattanooga FC: 4 - LA Force: 1

    LA looked good out of the gate and it looked like it might be a replay of their match in the fall tournament where a ten man Force gave CFC all they could take.

    LA scored early (Hoffman, 6’) and were very impressive, but CFC eventually found their footing and scored 3 in the first (Hernandez, 23’; Woodfin, 29’; Nagelstad, 40’) and never looked back.

    The second half looked like 2015/16 CFC: beautiful, possession game. Dominant midfield. They scored one more (Hoffstader, 65’), and things slowed way down.

    Perhaps in an homage to the fall matchup, a Force player was shown a red card (Oliveira, 2nd yellow) in the 90th minute.

    Also, CFC’s chairman, Tim Kelly, won the runoff mayoral election for Chattanooga today, which was announced at the half. So a pretty good day for him all around.
     
    Stuart95 repped this.
  14. Doogh

    Doogh Member+

    Oct 5, 2019
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    While not wearing a mask apparently.



    But congrats on that bureaucrat role! :whistling: Muzzles are for peasants and the ill-minded - him, probably.

    I wonder how many new COVID cases will go unnoticed from this tom foolery especially from traveling Michigan teams. The league didn't bothered to report cases last year, and I think there's still little to no coverage of the games, so whatever.
     
  15. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    “Among our many notable accomplishments was the crowning of a 2020 Fall Champion in a bubble tournament that saw ZERO COVID cases.”

    https://www.calunitedstrikers.com/news/2020/12/21/a-letter-from-our-nisa-commissioner

    My understanding is that they’re treating this tournament the same way, but mask compliance is absolutely horrible here, so I have no idea how well they can maintain the bubble.
     
  16. Doogh

    Doogh Member+

    Oct 5, 2019
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Tennessee removed their statewide mask mandate months ago. That's all I needed to know.

    Michigan has been hit the hardest right now and COVID symptoms might take up to two weeks to show. Michigan teams recently traveled to Chattanooga. That's a bit concerning.
     
  17. Paul Berry

    Paul Berry Member+

    Notts County and NYCFC
    United States
    Apr 18, 2015
    Nr Kingston NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just stay clear of Oklahoma.

    Covid deaths per 100k, last 7 days.
    Screenshot_20210415-150252_Chrome.jpg

    Source: CDC
     
  18. newtex

    newtex Member+

    May 25, 2005
    Houston
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    I'm skeptical of this chart unless Oklahoma just released some new death totals or changed their reporting. How could the rate increase that much in virtually every county?
     
  19. newtex

    newtex Member+

    May 25, 2005
    Houston
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
  20. msilverstein47

    msilverstein47 Member+

    Jan 11, 1999
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  21. Paul Berry

    Paul Berry Member+

    Notts County and NYCFC
    United States
    Apr 18, 2015
    Nr Kingston NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  22. Doogh

    Doogh Member+

    Oct 5, 2019
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, thought it was a late April Fools joke - but it's real, and it's awful.
     
  23. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    I never got around to writing up the results of Day 2, so quickly before Day 3 starts...

    Game 1: DCFC: 2 - Stumptown AC: 0

    I missed the first half of this because noon is really early, but lots of people reported about how well they thought Stumptown held up against Detroit.
    I... saw none of that in the 2nd half, so, frankly, I'm kind of skeptical. They definitely have some talent on the squad, and there were moments of individual ability that, had they not been playing Detroit City, might have seen them put something on the scoreboard. But their midfield shape in the second half was... non-existent. Frankly, in the midfield, it looked a little like a U-8 game.
    Twice, twice!, a midfielder back passed directly to the feet of a breaking DCFC player. The first one somehow did not result in a goal, and despite being bailed out by fate, they managed to do it again (DCFC scored easily on that one).

    Any team that was not named "Detroit City FC" would have hung 5 goals on this Stumptown team, I think. But Detroit's offense is so conservative and non-dynamic that they only wound up with 2. Honestly, any critique of Stumptown where the argument is "they only gave up two goals and Detroit didn't spend much time in their 1/3rd" is much more of an observation of Detroit City.

    Game 2: MD Bobcats: 1 - SD 1904 FC: 2

    To be completely on the level here, my prediction was that Bobcats were going to come out of the group stage as the number 1 seed, because I thought they had the best chance to sweep their group.

    That prediction was... very wrong.

    1904 looked very different from Tuesday's match: they were moving the ball very well and showed a lot of good offense. Bobcats defense looked... bad. Very bad. Very undisciplined. All over the shop, out of position repeatedly.

    1904 scored both of their goals by the 16th minute and it's not really clear if Maryland got their feet under them or San Diego let up on the gas. They shouldn't have, because it probably ruined their chance to get out of the group stage.

    Bobcats clearly came out of the locker room in the 2nd half with the tactical plan of physically taking 1904 out of the game. There were 37 fouls called.

    Bobcats got on the board by capitalizing on an absolutely horrible defensive flub by 1904.

    Then they proceeded to melt down.

    First the keeper got two yellows in two minutes and was sent off. They ended the game with 9 men. They had a midfielder in goal wearing a pinny. I am not entirely sure why they didn't use their last sub to put in their backup keeper, but...

    Anyway - welcome to pro soccer, Bobcats.

    Game 3: New Amsterdam FC: 0 - Chattanooga FC 3

    This scoreline is very unfair for New Amsterdam, honestly. Chattanooga was the better team, but New Amsterdam was not outclassed.
    CFC's first goal by Ian McGrath was really pretty beautiful:


    Their 2nd goal (also by McGrath)... well, the less said about it, the better. Let's just say that it really shouldn't have counted. Like, at all. While that didn't happen until the 74th minute, it pretty much sealed the game for CFC.

    They scored again in stoppage to make the result look worse for New Amsterdam, but it also extended NAFC's reputation for giving up 3 goals every game.

    The win means CFC is the number one seed and automatically is in the finals, next Sunday. That's 9 days from this game until they play next.

    Today, the New Amsterdam/LA Force game is mostly meaningless, but the last two: Cal United/Stumptown and Stars/Bobcats have implications on the semi-finals.

    If Stars win by 2 goals or more, they're in, if Cal United wins by 3 goals or more, they're automatically in. If they win by 2 but Stumptown scores anything, they'll lose out to DCFC by the goals against tiebreaker. If they win 2-0, it will be decided by coin toss!
     
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  24. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    Day 3 - reporting these late, but with still over 12 hours until kickoff on day 4 :D

    Game 1: LA Force: 3 - New Amsterdam FC: 2

    This was an odd game - both teams looked fine, LA didn’t look quite as dynamic as usual, but they seemed fine. New Amsterdam looked pretty good. They scored first off of what seemed like an unfortunate own goal for LA, but the Force evened things up before halftime. After halftime, New Amsterdam took the lead and for a while looked like they could get their first ever win. But, this is New Amsterdam, and they’re apparently contractually obligated to give up 3 goals a game (they have played 8 league games and only once held a team under 3 goals: a 9 man Stars in the fall tournament) and with that, Chandler Hoffman score two goals and New Amsterdam has zero points.

    Game 2: Cal United: 1 - Stumptown AC: 1

    Cal United needed to win this game by at least two goals to possibly qualify for the semifinals and I have no idea why I keep thinking this team is capable of scoring, because I have never actually seen proof of it.
    I missed the first half, but the announcers for the rest of the game were talking about how Cal kept Stumptown on their heels and their goal was apparently from another bad back pass that Darwin Lom intercepted and scored with.
    Stumptown also scored in the first half, so I actually saw no goals in this game.
    What I did see was a Stumptown that looked the polar opposite of what I saw last Friday: their midfield looked great and they moved the ball and had quite a few chances. The goal keepers on both sides were really good.

    Game 3: Michigan Stars: 1 - MD Bobcats: 1

    Like Cal United, Michigan knew what they needed to do have a chance to qualify: win by 2 goals (or by 1 and score at least 3) and automatically qualify, or score 2 and win by 1 and qualify for a coin flip vs. 1904.
    Well, spoiler alert, they didn’t.
    This game was extremely entertaining, though. I’m not sure I’ve seen a game with 43 penalties(!!!) also happen to be a wide open, free flowing game.
    Maryland looked much better in this game, especially their defense. They actually switched 3 of their 4 back line for this game.

    Ultimately, Stars are not the sort of team that can just score goals when they need to, and Bobcats weren’t put off by their high press.

    At one point, Michigan’s keeper was 2/3 of the way to the midfield line and the Bobcats broke past him and looked to have a wide open goal, but Abu-Mensah somehow managed to get back and head the shot away.

    Michigan’s goal came off of a free kick, but it’s not exactly clear how the goal scorer (Aidoo) was eligible to play in the game, since he was given a red in their first match. He was also offsides, so there are a lot of layers to this goal.

    Just like in their first game, Stars’ defense caused a foul in the box and Maryland tied the game on the awarded penalty. Same old Stars!

    So the final standings are:

    1. Chattanooga FC

    2. Detroit City FC
    3. SD 1904 FC

    4. LA Force
    5. Michigan Stars

    6. Cal United
    7. MD Bobcats

    8. Stumptown AC
    9. New Amsterdam FC

    The semi-final match is DCFC vs. Aught Four tomorrow at 8PM, and I must confess, that is almost certainly the only one I will watch any of. It is kind of neat that none of the games tomorrow will feature teams that have already played each other.
     
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  25. Expansion Franchise

    Chattanooga FC
    United States
    Apr 7, 2018
    Day 4: Consolation games + semi-final

    As I said previously, I wasn't going to see all of these games in full, but I did watch some of every game and I'll summarize what I saw.

    Game 1: Stumptown AC: 1 - New Amsterdam FC: 0
    There's nothing really to talk about with this one. Stumptown continued to improve and they looked pretty good out there. NAFC continues to just be unlucky, really. They had chances, both teams were pretty evenly matched, they just couldn't get the ball in the net.

    Game 2: Cal United Strikers FC: 3 - MD Bobcats: 2
    So when Cal United scored their first goal 27 seconds into the game, I thought maybe I had been too hard on them. When they had 3 goals 15 minutes in the game, I wondered where the hell this team had been all tournament. Bobcats' defense was a complete shambles. The whole team looked like they had just met.

    I left to go pick my kids from school thinking that Cal was going to continue crushing the Bobcats. How wrong I was, apparently!

    Maryland came out in the second half much more composed, apparently, scored twice and apparently looked like they could have equalized. Cal, I guess, turned back into pumpkins.

    Game 3: LA Force: 0 - Michigan Stars: 2
    Despite this being the game I watched the most of, I remember almost nothing about it. Both teams looked pretty good and evenly matched until LA's Chandler Hoffman went down with what looked like a knee injury before halftime. After that, LA looked very anemic offensively and Michigan kept building momentum.

    They scored first on an absolutely gorgeous goal:


    Then added to it with a PK.

    Semi-final: Detroit City FC: 1 - San Diego 1904 FC: 0
    I missed the first half, so I don't really know what happened. The goal was off of a corner:


    San Diego looked really good in the 2nd half: lots of movement, a couple of opportunities, but Detroit's defense is simply quite extraordinary. They are an especially boring team to watch, but they are very easy to admire.

    Detroit and Chattanooga meet in the final tomorrow night at 8PM. It will be broadcast on BeIN Xtra.

    Although I think both teams will have plenty to play for, interestingly, this matchup means there are no consequences for losing the final. Detroit is already in the season final by virtue of winning the fall season, and because of that, if they win the Legends Cup, the runner-up gets the berth in the spring season semi-final.
     
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