Still learning soccer after nearly five decades. A southwestern Ohio buckeye transplanted to Chester County. Used to teach history, enjoys new ideas, sometimes bakes bread, is a sports fan, and loves apparently unconnected connections.
This week the Bethlehem Steel are getting the attention their season’s performance deserves. Playoff soccer is a different animal. PSP reviews the key points of the regular season games, guesses the Steel’s line-up, and identifies a potentially key Louisville personnel difference.
With a win Bethlehem will finish 6th and play at the Tampa Bay Rowdies. With either draw or a loss, they will finish 8th and play Louisville in Louisville Friday night.
Bethlehem Steel FC qualify for the USL playoffs for the first time in their modern history since the Tampa Bay Rowdies eliminated Orlando City B 2-0 Thursday evening. They could finish 8th, 7th or 6th, and will have an away playoff game the weekend of October 20-22.
The numbers back the eye-test. Cory Burke and Seku Conneh are much more productive strikers in the 2017 season. Standing pat worked.
Soccer Canada has approved the Canadian Premier League for play in 2018. NASL met Friday to try to appeal from U. S. Soccer’s demoting them from division 2. The only certainty about the future of minor league professional soccer in North America is that it won’t be the same in 2018.
PSP looks at the Steel’s playoff chances, both the old-fashioned eyeball instinctual way and using Chris Sherman’s statistics. the techniques both old and new say it will be extremely close against Red Bulls 2 for the final slot and the right to go to Louisville on Friday October 20th.
Bethlehem Steel score two equalizers to take a point from the 4th place Tampa Bay Rowdies, only the second point they have taken from an eastern conference top four side all season. But both have occurred in the last 12 days.
Bethlehem Steel FC returned to the playoff picture with a big win over Pittsburgh, thanks to big days from Santi Moar, Adam Najem, and Cory Burke.
Possible off-season organization roster promotions ranging from plausible to bold. They would clear salary space for needed help, if our salary guesses are anywhere close to reasonable.
PSP analyzes travel time and travel costs for the USL east and the USL west, and guesses what realignment into three conferences might look like.
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