Spring Season Title-Clinching Scenarios

Photo credit: Indy Eleven/Matt Schlotzhauer

The Spring Season concludes this weekend with the title and an automatic bid to The Championship, the NASL’s four-team postseason tournament, on the line. Four teams are in the running – the New York Cosmos, Indy Eleven, the Tampa Bay Rowdies, and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

The Cosmos are idle this week, Indy is at home against the Carolina RailHawks, while Tampa Bay (at Jacksonville Armada FC) and Fort Lauderdale (at FC Edmonton on Sunday) wrap up their seasons on the road.

There are several tiebreakers that could decide the Spring Season Champion, if teams finish level on points:

1. Goal differential
2. Total goals
3. Head-to-head record
4. Away goal difference
5. Away goals scored

Here are the possibilities for each team as one tries to claim the first piece of silverware in the 2016 NASL season:

●      New York finishes first if there is an ...

o Indy loss, tie, or win by three goals or fewer + a Fort Lauderdale loss, tie, or win by five goals or fewer + a Tampa Bay loss, tie, or win by five goals or fewer

●      Indy finishes first if it ...

o Wins by four goals or more + Tampa Bay loses, ties, or wins by five goals or fewer + Fort Lauderdale loses, ties, or wins by six goals or fewer
o Wins by three goals in a game where its scores at least four + Tampa Bay loses, ties, or wins by four goals or fewer + Fort Lauderdale loses, ties, or wins by five goals or fewer

●      Tampa Bay wins if it ...

o Wins by six goals or more + Fort Lauderdale loses, ties or wins by six goals or fewer + Indy loses, ties, or wins by three goals or fewer

●      Fort Lauderdale wins if it ...

o Wins by six goals or more + Tampa Bay loses, ties, or wins by five goals or fewer + Indy loses, ties, or wins by three goals or fewer