5 THINGS | In Week 15, Minnesota Locks Down A Berth In The Championship

The race to The Championship got even tighter with one place remaining after Minnesota United earned its berth win a win over the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The Loons continued their offensive output, while New York got its attack back in gear in Week 15

Here are the key five things from last week's matches:

1. 10,000 Lakes, 50 Goals: Minnesota United (10-5-2, 35 Fall; 13-10-4, 49 Combined) clinched a spot in the postseason, cut Ottawa’s lead in the Fall Season Standings to three points, and inched ahead of Fury FC in the Combined Standings on a tiebreaker (50 goals to Ottawa’s 37). The rampaging Loons have scored 35 of those goals in the Fall Season alone, led by 10 from Christian Ramirez. What’s more, United has three players (Pablo Campos, Ibson and Daniel Mendes) on six goals and Justin Davis, a defender, on five. United has been lethal when building from the back flanks with Davis and Kevin Venegas.

2. Cosmos Ramp It Up: The New York Cosmos (8-6-4, 30 Fall; 13-11-4, 50 Combined) answered some questions with two victories (3-0 at Atlanta; 3-0 vs. FC Edmonton) in Week 15, vaulting back into first place in the Combined Standings. The two wins marked a turnaround for the winners of the Spring Season after the Cosmos went four games (0-2-2) without a victory, failing to score more than one goal in four of five games. Sebastián Guenzatti scored a goal in each of last week’s games, and Gastón Cellerino appears to have settled into the role of target man for Raúl, Marcos Senna and the rest of the Cosmos’ dangerous attackers. With next weekend off, the Cosmos have three matches left before hosting a semifinal at MCU Park in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn on Saturday Nov. 7.

3. Much Adu About The Rowdies: Tampa Bay (4-4-9, 16 Fall; 9-8-10, 35 Combined) may have struggled at times in the Fall Season, losing nine games and sitting alone in eighth place. But a strong Spring Season and a second-place finish one point in back of the New York Cosmos has offered a lifeline. And without losing perspective, that lifeline has been grabbed and is being towed by Freddy Adu. Making his third consecutive start after returning from injury, Adu chipped in (actually scooped) with his second assist in three games as the 10-man Rowdies fought back to grab a point against league-leading Ottawa on Saturday night. That point pushed Tampa Bay into the fourth and final postseason berth with three games to play.

4. One Spot Remains: Minnesota, New York, Ottawa have all clinched a spot in The Championship, the NASL’s four-team postseason tournament, with seeding still to be determined. The fourth and final spot remains open with the Rowdies as the No.4 seed currently. FC Edmonton (7-4-6, 25 Fall; 9-7-11, 34 Combined) and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers (6-5-5, 23 Fall; 9-7-10, 34 Combined) both lost over the weekend to dampen their postseason hopes slightly. Fort Lauderdale, though, still has a game in hand to reclaim the fourth and final postseason position.

5. Highlight-Reel Saves: Romuald Peiser still leads the chase for the Golden Boot award with a 0.78 goals against average (GAA), but Jimmy Maurer, on the strength of some acrobatic saves and two shutouts in Week 15, has dropped his GAA to 0.96. Despite the 3-0 loss by the Eddies to the Cosmos, Matt VanOekel had a number of key saves, scraping a ball off the line from a Ruben Bover shot and getting a strong palm on a Raúl chip. Sammy Ndjock had another strong match in goal for the Loons, posting a 1.00 GAA in his first year in the NASL so far.