2007 United Soccer Leagues

The 2007 Season is the 21st edition of the United Soccer Leagues season.

The season kicked off on Friday, April 13 when the 2006 league runners-up Rochester Raging Rhinos traveled to the Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium in Bayamon to take on the Puerto Rico Islanders.

General

• Two new teams join the First Division: the California Victory (San Francisco, CA), and the Carolina RailHawks (Cary, NC).
• The Virginia Beach Mariners franchise was terminated by the league.
• The Toronto Lynx depart the First Division for the Premier Development League (PDL).
• Three new teams join the Second Division: the Bermuda Hogges (Hamilton, Bermuda), the Cleveland City Stars, and Crystal Palace Baltimore.
• The Long Island Rough Riders depart the Second Division for the PDL.
• The Pittsburgh Riverhounds will be on hiatus during 2007 to reorganize.
• Many new teams join the PDL, for a complete list see here.

Honors

Competition	Champion	Runner-Up	Regular Season Champion/Best USL team
USL First Division	Seattle Sounders	Atlanta Silverbacks	Seattle Sounders
USL Second Division	Harrisburg City Islanders	Richmond Kickers	Richmond Kickers
USL PDL	Laredo Heat	Michigan Bucks	Hampton Roads Piranhas
U.S. Open Cup	New England Revolution (MLS)	FC Dallas (MLS)	Carolina Railhawks/Seattle Sounders

Standings

First Division

The schedule was not a balanced home and away affair; to make up the four extra games to total 28, each team played their four geographically closest competitors. The playoff format was changed to qualify eight instead of six teams; therefore the first and second league champions obtained seeding to determine home field advantage instead of a first round bye as in previous seasons. The previous bidding to host between the two playoff finalists for the one game cup final was discontinued for this season.^[1]

  Commissioner's Cup, quarterfinal round of playoffs
  Quarterfinal round of playoffs

Pos	Club	Pts	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD
1	Seattle Sounders	54	28	16	6	6	37	23	+14
2	Portland Timbers	51	28	14	5	9	32	18	+14
3	Montreal Impact	50	28	14	6	8	32	21	+11
4	Atlanta Silverbacks	43	28	12	9	7	40	30	+10
5	Rochester Raging Rhinos	42	28	12	10	6	39	36	+3
6	Puerto Rico Islanders	40	28	10	8	10	35	34	+1
7	Vancouver Whitecaps	39	28	9	7	12	27	24	+3
8	Carolina RailHawks	32	28	8	12	8	24	34	−10
9	Miami FC	31	28	9	15	4	31	41	−10
10	Charleston Battery	30	28	8	14	6	32	39	−7
11	Minnesota Thunder	26	28	5	12	11	32	35	−3
12	California Victory	19	28	4	17	7	17	43	−26

Playoffs

	Quarterfinals September 14/16							Semifinals September 21/23							Final September 29
	1	Seattle Sounders	2	1	3
	8	Carolina RailHawks	0	0	0
								1	Seattle Sounders (PK)	2	1	3 (4)
								6	Puerto Rico Islanders	1	2	3 (2)
	3	Montreal Impact	3	0	3
	6	Puerto Rico Islanders	2	3	5
															1	Seattle Sounders	4
															4	Atlanta Silverbacks	0
	4	Atlanta Silverbacks	2	1	3
	5	Rochester Raging Rhinos	1	1	2
								4	Atlanta Silverbacks (PK)	1	0	1 (3)
								2	Portland Timbers	1	0	1 (1)
	2	Portland Timbers	0	3	3
	7	Vancouver Whitecaps	1	0	1

Second Division

Purple indicates regular season champion
Green indicates playoff berth clinched
Bold indicates regular season winner

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Richmond Kickers	20	12	3	5	37	15	+22	41
2	Cleveland City Stars	20	10	1	8	31	14	+17	39
3	Harrisburg City Islanders	20	11	4	5	26	15	+11	38
4	Charlotte Eagles	20	11	7	2	40	29	+11	35
5	Crystal Palace Baltimore	20	9	6	5	27	20	+7	32
6	Western Mass Pioneers	20	7	7	6	25	26	-1	27
7	Wilmington Hammerheads	20	4	9	7	22	30	-8	19
8	Cincinnati Kings	20	4	11	5	29	41	-12	17
9	New Hampshire Phantoms	20	3	12	5	16	34	-18	13^1
10	Bermuda Hogges	20	3	14	3	16	45	-29	12

¹New Hampshire was penalized 1 point for circumstances not released by the USL.

Playoffs

	Semifinals August 18, 7:00 EDT					Final August 25, 8:00 EDT
	1	Richmond Kickers (AET)	2
	4	Charlotte Eagles	1
						1	Richmond Kickers	1 (7)
						3	Harrisburg City Islanders (PK)	1 (8)
	2	Cleveland City Stars	0
	3	Harrisburg City Islanders (AET)	1

Premier Development League

• See 2007 PDL Season

See also

• United Soccer Leagues

References

1. "Playoff format overhauled". The Vancouver Sun Newspaper. April 20, 2007. Retrieved March 14, 2014.

External links

• Official USL Site