International Soccer Network

"Your Source for the Beautiful Game"

Category Archives: NASL

Silverbacks Sign Lavery

Mark Lavery, an integral member of the Georgia Revolution’s Southeast Conference East Division Championship season of 2012, has signed a professional contract with the NASL’s Atlanta Silverbacks.

“We are excited for Mark and know he will do a good job at the next level,” Revolution GM Rafe Mauran stated. “Although we will certainly miss him, we are so proud that he has signed a pro contract. We hope that this is a trend that continues for years to come as players can use the Georgia Revolution as a platform to launch their soccer careers.”

“Mark is a very good player and was an integral part to the success of the Georgia Revolution during the 2012 season,” Revolution Head Coach John Sprague added. “I feel his commitment, versatility and infectious ‘need to win’ attitude will help him break into the mix for the Atlanta Silverbacks. Although he will be sorely missed by teammates, staff, and fans here at RYSA, we wish him the best of luck and will be cheering him on from the stands.”

Lavery grew up in the Atlanta area and played for one year at the University of Kentucky before moving on to Oglethorpe. At Oglethorpe, he garnered a number of awards including Conference Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-Conference, First Team All-Region, First Team All-American, and College Athlete of the Year.

“The Georgia Revolution was instrumental in helping to prepare me to play professionally,” Lavery concluded. “My time spent playing with the Revs last summer was an excellent one. I was able to compete at a high level and play in some great games. The facilities, coaching staff, and the fans were unbelievable, and I credit the professional environment that was created in my development as a player.”

The NASL Championship

2012 has been a brilliant year for the Minnesota Stars FC. It began at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis as the Stars took on the 2011 regular season winners, the Carolina Railhawks. The “Dome Opener” was the first chance Minnesota supporters had to parade the Championship trophy the Stars had improbably won in 2011. I say improbable because in 2011, Minnesota barely secured that last playoff spot and then went on a postseason run that would make the NFL’s New York Giants blush. The Stars were in a corner, they had nothing to lose and everything to gain—and these are mere sport clichés. The Minnesota Stars were a league-owned team in 2011 (and they still are in 2012), there was a looming anxiety that if the team didn’t perform and if supporters didn’t come out the team would be dissolved. There has been professional soccer in Minnesota for well over twenty years. The supporters in Minnesota refused to let their team down.

That supporters’ group, the Dark Clouds, showed up in force at every home game in Blaine, MN. They showed up and they cheered, they sang, they taunted (famously getting the better of Jonny Steele, who now plays for Real Salt Lake, with their smacktalk), they drummed and trumpeted, they set off smoke bombs and they struck flares. The Dark Clouds let their team know that the supporters in Minnesota valued them and had their back. It would be safe to say that this commitment bolstered the players. Come 2012, player-coach and front-office-jack-of-all-trades, Kevin Friedland designed an away jersey that literally allowed every player to take a bit of the home supporters away with them—the faces of the fans make up the team numbers on the back.

The Stars went into the 2012 season feeling strong, looking to defend their trophy. They’ve again made it to the NASL Final in much the same manner as they did in 2011. Once again the still league-owned Minnesota Stars secured the last playoff spot and faced a gauntlet of superior (at least on paper) teams. The quarterfinal pitted the Stars against the Puerto Rico Islanders, a team that regularly sees postseason action, who they overcame 2-1. The semifinal saw the Stars have to take on the regular season winners, expansion San Antonio Scorpions and their Golden Boot (20 goals) winner Pablo Campos. San Antonio not only towered over Minnesota in terms of the league table and goal scoring, but also literally. San Antonio’s starting XI is taller and heavier than Minnesota’s, a fact that has led some Dark Cloud supporters to refer to the Scorpions as “corn-fed bruisers.” The semifinal between the Scorpions and the Stars was a classic competition—the tall, strong versus the short, scrappy; the expansion team versus the team on the verge of dissolution; the upstarts versus the champions. When the dust settled Pablo Campos as been red carded, the Stars had scored all the goals and were on their way to the Final.

Now the match that will decide the 2012 Champion will be Saturday’s second leg of the NASL Final in Tampa. Already supporter groups of other pro teams in Florida are talking about making the trek to cheer and/or berate the NASL teams. Midfielder Jamie Watson is on loan to Minnesota from Orlando City of the USL and their supporter groups (Iron Lion Firm and The Ruckus) are already calling on their members to make the trip to cheer on their boy. Watson and the Minnesota Stars stand in a strong position to repeat having taken the first leg last Saturday by a score of 2-0. The NASL Final is determined by pure aggregate; there is no advantage for away goals. So being two goals up means that the Rowdies need to win by three or more goals on their home pitch—certainly possible, but if accomplished it will probably have more to do with some kind of grand collapse by the Stars.

But the Minnesota Stars refuse to fold; they are again fighting for their existence as the NASL board will meet soon to decide the fate of the organization. It’s entirely possible that Minnesota could repeat as champions and be dissolved by the league because of a lack of ownership. This fact hangs over every Minnesota supporter and every player on the team, which is why the bonds between the two are growing stronger. After the second goal was scored by Martin Nunez in the last seconds of stoppage time of the first leg match, the entire team rushed to the Dark Clouds section in the NSC Stadium and inspired a pile on that had to be broken up by the referees to see out the rest of the match.

Was it Minnesota’s last home game? If it was, after the final whistle the Minnesota Stars came over to the Dark Clouds section yet again to not just applaud the supporters but to serenade them. The Minnesota Stars sang to their fans; they cheered on their supporters with a heartfelt rendition of Oasis’s Wonderwall.

NASL Announces New Format for 2013

The North American Soccer League (NASL) has announced a change in its regular season competitive format for the 2013 season. Beginning in 2013, the NASL’s regular season will feature two separate and distinct round-robin competitions with the winners of each competition meeting in a single game on the weekend following the conclusion of the second competition. The winner of that match will claim the Soccer Bowl trophy as the NASL’s 2013 champions.

The first, or spring, championship will kick off in late March or early April and will culminate on Thursday, July 4. NASL member teams will then have roughly one month before the start of the second championship and each team is free during that period to prepare for that competition as they see fit, including touring or scheduling exhibition matches. The break will occur during the international transfer window that is open throughout much of Europe, Latin America and North America.

The second, or fall, championship will commence late July or early August and run through November 2. Following the conclusion of the fall championship the winner of the spring championship will host the winner of the fall championship (or, in the event the same team wins both competitions, the team with the second-best record for the full year’s games) to determine which team will be inscribed on the Soccer Bowl as the NASL’s annual champion.

Each individual championship will consist of a full round-robin schedule in which each NASL team plays every other NASL team once at home and once on the road. Other than the tie-breaking procedure to determine the opponent for the spring championship winner in the Soccer Bowl, there will be no carryover of points from the spring to the fall competition.

The new competitive format for the 2013 season was adopted by a unanimous vote of the NASL’s Board of Governors on August 24, 2012. It had been under discussion since the inception of the league.

“Our Scheduling Sub-Committee arrived at this recommendation after an exhaustive review of a number of alternatives,” said NASL Commissioner David Downs, “and the new format takes into consideration a variety of factors including fan and player comfort in our many warm-weather cities.” “But the bottom line,” Downs added, “is that we believe this new competitive format will bring more excitement and meaning to each of our regular season matches for all of our teams throughout the year.”

The 2012 NASL Regular Season will end on September 23 with the 2012 NASL Playoffs set to start the following weekend, September 29-30. Please visit NASL.com for the latest news and information about the NASL Playoffs.

Review: Geauxing Galt by Jason Garey

On the surface, Jason Garey’s Geauxing Galt is a great “rags to riches” story about a likeable, hard-working everyman that makes it big.

You dig a little deeper and you have a story about good vs. evil.  Wyatt Bourgeouis, a character in the vein of Horatio Alger, spends his life preparing to take on corrupt politicians like Harry Maddow.  Wyatt becomes a self-made billionaire thanks to hard work and determination. But he risks losing it all to Harry, a man who has been given everything in life.

But there is so much more to the story.  It is a treatise on government and the way it interacts with its people. It is political discourse wrapped up in a crafty narrative with some serious Libertarian themes.

Let’s start with the characters.  Garey does a great developing them; they have depth and are certainly dynamic in every sense of the term.   The protagonist/antagonist relationship is clear and helps move the plot throughout the story.  There is plenty of conflict, whether it is Wyatt working towards his dreams or Harry trying to destroy them.

Garey does a nice job with regional dialect, creating real-life conversation that helps move the story along.  The setting is easily recreated and shows the fondness the author has for the area.

The events of the story help drive home a message on government, economics, and the environment.  It honestly was a book I couldn’t put down and I finished it quickly because it was thought-provoking and questioned many aspects of American society.

Personally I am not a big fan of politics of any kind, but Garey makes those discussions accessible.  The key to reading this text is having an open mind.  Whether you agree with his views and opinions, it is a great story that many will enjoy.

And the best part is the author is one of the good guys in professional soccer. You might say that a guy that kicks a ball around for a living might not have the tools to write a book.  But this is Jason Garey, a great striker that brings passion and enthusiasm for both the pitch and the page.   Someone with a bright future as an author or whatever he puts his mind to.

Jason Garey: An Intellectual on the Pitch

The last time I saw Jason Garey in Columbus, he was wearing the Black & Gold of the Crew.

He was finishing up his 5th MLS season and unbeknownst to me, he soon would be plying his trade with the Houston Dynamo.  The Dynamo would make it to the 2011 MLS Cup Final, but Garey wouldn’t get another championship win as the Dynamo fell to the star-studded LA Galaxy.

Major hip surgery would sideline Garey for nearly 5 months. He would miss out on the start of the 2012 MLS season and would find himself signing instead with the Carolina Railhawks of the NASL.  For the first time in his professional career, Garey wouldn’t be with a MLS side.  You have to feel for a player that has worked so hard to get this far, only to have an injury delay his upward progress.

But Garey is not afraid of hard work on or off the field.  Known as a goalscorer on the pitch, he was just as intense off it when it came to social concerns.  He was the Crew Humanitarian of the Year in 2010 after helping with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and speaking out about the aftermath of the BP oil spill in his native Louisiana.  He has also been active on several Habitat for Humanity projects.

Garey is one of the good guys in the game of pro soccer, a fan favorite and a people person.  He would do anything for a teammate and shared his passion and enthusiasm for the game with everyone he encountered.  Simply put, Garey made the people around him better.

He was a high school and collegiate star before turning pro in 2006 and winning the MLS Cup with the Crew in 2008. Now as he looks toward the future, he adds yet another experience to his résumé: author.  A soccer player writing a book? Yeah and a deep one at that.

Rehabbing his injury gave him time to put pen to paper on some ideas he had.  Always interested in economics and politics, Garey composed an entire book with a libertarian vibe.  Geauxing Galt is a fictional adventure story with some serious political and economic themes. He realizes not everyone will embrace his beliefs with open arms.

“Some people will like it,” Garey stated. “Some people won’t.”

Garey is a true intellectual, a big reader that goes through 2 or 3 books a week.  He has strong beliefs and puts them into action for the betterment of others.

He has become a leader for the Railhawks, giving the young team a veteran presence along with former Crew midfielder Cory Elenio and goalkeeper Ray Burse, Jr.

Garey knows that even though he is only 28, he won’t be playing pro soccer forever.  Armed with a finance degree from the University of Maryland, Garey hopes to get involved with the financial services industry after his playing days are over.

One thing is for certain, he will approach the next step of his career with the same intensity and tenacity he does everyday in the beautiful game.