Colin Clarke and the rest of the North American Soccer League needed a different mind-set to start the 2013 season.
Clarke, the coach of the Carolina RailHawks, probably didn’t mind too much because his team didn’t have a win nine games into the 2012 season before getting a victory. Carolina still rallied to finish 10-8-10, which was good enough for fourth in the final league standings.
The RailHawks then hit their stride, beating the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the quarterfinals of the league playoffs before falling to the Tampa Bay Rowdies on goal differential in a two-game semifinal round playoff.
This season, the landscape has changed for Clarke and the NASL. Not only are the RailHawks off to a much faster start, but they and the league are still adjusting to a new split-season format for the 2013 campaign.
Last September, the NASL Board of Governors voted unanimously to change from a traditional one-season schedule to two separate and distinct round-robin competitions. The winners of each competition will meet in one game to see which team wins the Soccer Bowl trophy as NASL champion.
“The biggest thing is home games become very, very important,” Clarke said. “You can’t afford to lose a home game because it is tough to go on the road and win.”
Clarke knows that all too well considering the RailHawks limped out of the gate in 2012, going 0-4-5 before finally earning their first victory in June.
Along the way, though, Carolina showed its potential beating Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Cup before the largest crowd at WakeMed Soccer Park, a sellout of close to 8,000. Carolina then lost to MLS’ Chivas USA on a stoppage time penalty kick in June.
Clarke admits he isn’t a lover of the new format and that there are pros and cons to the set-up. Under the new format, the first, or spring, championship kicked off in April and will end July 4. Teams will have about a month before the start of the second championship, and each squad can use that time any way it wishes.
The break coincides with the international transfer window that is open throughout much of Europe, Latin America and North America, which could lead teams to schedule tours or exhibition matches.
The second, or fall, championship will start late in July or early August and run through Nov. 2. The winner of the spring championship will play host to the winner of the fall championship to determine a champion. If the same team wins both competitions, the team with the second-best record for the full year’s games will play the other team.
Carolina has a solid head start to earning the first championship. At 3-0-2, the RailHawks lead the seven-team league.
“Getting that first win was important because we got it early and then we can move on from there,” Clarke said. “A couple of teams have struggled to get that first win.”
Clarke is curious to see how teams handle the split season. He said there is a big reward for winning the spring championship, especially considering if a team changes its approach in the second half of the season knowing it has a spot locked up later in the year. Clarke isn’t sure if teams would opt for that approach.
However, he believes he and other coaches would share the strategy that if you win the first half, why not go ahead and win the second half, too.
“It is what it is,” Clarke said. “We know the rules and we’re going to accept it. We’re off to a good start, and we’ll see where we end up.”
Each part of the season will feature a full round-robin schedule in which each team plays every other NASL team once at home and once on the road. Other than the tiebreaker rules to determine the opponent for the spring winner in the Soccer Bowl, the points from the first part of the season won’t carry over to the second half of the year.
“Our Scheduling Sub-Committee arrived at this recommendation after an exhaustive review of a number of alternatives,” NASL Commissioner David Downs said. “The new format takes into consideration a variety of factors including fan and player comfort in our many warm-weather cities.
“The bottom line is 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.”
As Downs mentioned, several of the NASL’s teams in the Southeast dealt with challenging weather conditions in July. The other side of the issue is that Northern teams like FC Edmonton and Minnesota typically don’t draw well in colder months and attract bigger crowds late in the summer. RailHawks (R) Vs. SilverbacksThe schedule change doesn’t give teams in those areas an alternative, but they would be able to schedule other matches to fill in the time lost.
Carolina has made the most of its time, winning all three of its home games. Clarke said the team brought back most of its 2012 roster, even though it started slowly.
He said a high quality preseason that included a number of games against local college teams and USL squads prepared it well for the 2013 season. A year ago, he said the team competed against a similar level of competition and started strongly.
However, the difference he said was that the Railhawks didn’t face any adversity in last year’s preseason. As a result, he said they struggled to adjust to that at the start of the 2012 season and then found their stride.
This preseason, a few losses tested the team’s mettle and showed areas where improvement is needed. With those areas addressed, Clarke said the team has capitalized on its experience with each other and with his system.
“We have a lot of local players who play with a lot of pride for the local area,” Clarke said. “We have 12 or 13 players who were born here or lived here or have family ties in the area. It is something we stress before the season, you’re not playing for yourself, you’re playing for something bigger than yourself.
That helps to motivate people. I think the boys are ready and really looking forward to the season. They really want to win it.”