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5 THINGS | What To Watch For In Fall Season Week 10

A classic rivalry match and the continued race to The Championship highlights the upcoming action in Week 10
Jack Bell (@JackBell} | Sep 4, 2015

In the United States, the Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer, but in the North American Soccer League it is basically the halfway point of the Fall Season and the beginning of the stretch run to The Championship, which will culminate in November when one team gets to hoist the Soccer Bowl trophy.

Here are the five keys to keep an eye on this weekend:

1. Combined Madness Continues: With the New York Cosmos sitting comfortably atop the Combined Standings with a seven-point lead (and having already clinched a spot in The Championship, the NASL’s four-team postseason tournament after winning the Spring Season) it is beginning to look more and more like a mad scramble. While Ottawa holds a precarious two-point lead over New York in the Fall Standings, Fury FC took only two points from its two recent home games as the Cosmos moved up. If New York should also win the Fall Season title, the teams that finish Nos. 2-4 in the Combined Standings will move on.

2. Classic Matchup: The Tampa Bay Rowdies are celebrating the club’s founding 40 years ago, in 1975, over the Labor Day weekend against one of the team’s most enduring rivals – the Cosmos. By nearly any yardstick, the rivalry defined the NASL’s Golden Era in the late 1970s, drawing big stars and big crowds to big games, with the arrival of Pelé in 1975 and then Rodney Marsh in Florida the next year. It is a long history that lives on today. The Rowdies are hosting a number of festivities over the weekend that surround Saturday night’s match at Al Lang Stadium. Tampa Bay last week ended a three-game losing streak with a furious finish to tie at Ottawa while the Cosmos have not lost in eight games.

3. Ottawa Hopes To Get Back On Track: Fury FC, which had been sailing along in first place in the Fall Season Standings on the strength of a 12-game unbeaten streak, has hit a rough patch of late. Fury FC pocketed only two points from three home games (a loss and two draws) and now heads to Texas to play last-place San Antonio. To bring matters into stark relief, Fury FC has 10 games left in the Fall Season, but only three at home at TD Place and with difficult games at New York and Tampa Bay. It does not get any easier for coach Marc dos Santos and his players.

4. Solid Silver: Atlanta has inserted itself into the Fall Season and Combined Standings conversation on the strength of having only lost once in their past seven games. A free kick by Junior Burgos (who was named to the league’s Team of the Week) was all the Silverbacks needed last week to overcome FC Edmonton and goalkeeper Steward Ceus (now away on World Cup duty with Haiti) authored another shutout.

5. The Strikers At Rest: Fort Lauderdale is the lone team in NASL that will not have to labor over the Labor Day weekend. The Strikers have the week off after winning three straight and going unbeaten in four games. That run was capped by last week’s 7-1 thrashing of visiting Indy Eleven in which Stefano Pinho, who won his second straight Play of the Week honor and was named the August Player of the Month, struck for three goals. The striker from Brazil has now scored six goals in his last three games. With the streak, the Strikers have moved away from the bottom of the Fall Season Standings and now sit in fifth, only two points behind Atlanta and are fourth in the Combined Standings and clearly in the conversation for The Championship.

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