2000 PDL season

The 2000 USL Premier Development League season was the 6th PDL season. The season began in April 2000 and ended in August 2000.

Chicago Sockers finished the season as national champions, beating Mid-Michigan Bucks 1-0 in the PDL Championship game. Westchester Flames had finished with the best regular season record in the league, winning 15 out of their 18 games, suffering just three losses, and finishing with a +26 goal difference.

Changes from the 1999 Season

Rules

This is the first year that the PDL used ties in the standings, whereas previous seasons employed a shootout.

Name Changes

The following teams changed their name:

New Teams

10 New teams were added, including 8 expansion teams:

Team Name Metro Area Location Previous Affiliation
Alabama Alabama Saints Birmingham area Birmingham, AL returned from hiatus
Colorado Boulder Nova Boulder area Boulder, CO expansion
Florida Broward County Wolfpack Broward County area Fort Lauderdale, FL expansion
Ohio Dayton Gems Dayton Area Dayton, OH expansion
New Brunswick New Brunswick Brigade Saint John Area Saint John, New Brunswick expansion
New Jersey North Jersey Imperials North Jersey area Paramus, NJ from D3 Pro League
Florida Palm Beach Pumas Palm Beach area Palm Beach, FL expansion
Florida South Florida Future Southwest Florida area Sarasota, FL returned from hiatus
Florida Tampa Bay Hawks Tampa Bay Area Palm Harbor, FL expansion
Ontario Thunder Bay Chill Thunder Bay Area Thunder Bay, Ontario expansion

Folding

Eight teams folded before the season:

Standings

Orange denotes regular season champion and bye into PDL Semifinals.
Blue denotes division champion.
Green denotes clinched playoff spot.

Central Conference

Great Lakes Division

Place Team P W L T GF GA GD Bonus Points
1 Mid-Michigan Bucks 18 14 3 1 64 21 +43 14 71
2 Dayton Gems 18 9 8 1 37 35 +2 7 44
3 West Michigan Edge 18 9 9 0 32 38 -6 7 43
4 Kalamazoo Kingdom 18 9 9 0 37 37 0 7 43
5 Indiana Invaders 18 8 10 0 35 43 -8 5 37
6 Lexington Bluegrass Bandits 18 5 13 0 26 47 -21 5 25

Heartland Division

Place Team P W L T GF GA GD Bonus Points
1 Chicago Sockers 18 13 5 0 45 17 +28 10 62
2 Rockford Raptors 18 9 7 2 38 35 +3 8 46
3 Des Moines Menace 19 10 8 0 63 28 +35 5 45
4 Wisconsin Rebels 18 9 8 1 34 25 +9 6 43
5 Twin Cities Tornado 18 7 9 2 26 33 -7 2 32
6 Thunder Bay Chill 18 4 13 1 20 49 -29 2 19

Provisional Teams

Place Team P W L T GF GA GD Bonus Points
1 Louisiana Outlaws * 12 5 5 2 25 25 0 5 27
2 Alabama Saints * 7 1 4 2 6 14 -8 1 7
3 Central Jersey Riptide * 10 1 9 0 10 31 -21 1 5

Eastern Conference

Northeast Division

Place Team P W L T GF GA GD Bonus Points
1 Westchester Flames 18 15 3 0 47 21 +26 10 70
2 Vermont Voltage 18 11 6 1 37 22 +15 8 53
3 New York Freedom 18 10 7 1 45 24 +21 8 49
4 Brooklyn Knights 18 9 8 1 30 32 -2 4 41
5 North Jersey Imperials 18 7 11 0 38 49 -11 6 34
6 New Brunswick Brigade 18 2 15 1 22 56 -34 1 10

Southeast Division

Place Team P W L T GF GA GD Bonus Points
1 Tampa Bay Hawks 18 12 5 1 52 35 +17 9 58
2 Bradenton Academics 18 11 6 1 43 27 +16 8 53
3 Cocoa Expos 18 11 6 1 38 27 +11 6 51
4 Central Florida Kraze 18 10 6 2 46 34 +12 8 50
5 Palm Beach Pumas 18 8 8 2 39 43 -4 7 41
6 South Florida Future 18 8 10 0 30 43 -13 3 35
7 Broward County Wolfpack 18 4 12 2 36 56 -20 7 25
8 Miami Breakers 18 3 14 1 27 46 -19 5 18

Western Conference

Rocky Mountain Division

Place Team P W L T GF GA GD Bonus Points
1 Colorado Comets 18 12 5 1 51 29 +22 7 56
2 Wichita Jets 18 8 8 2 46 60 -26 7 41
3 Boulder Nova 18 8 9 1 38 32 +6 7 41
4 Kansas City Brass 18 5 11 2 41 56 -15 6 28
5 Colorado Springs Stampede 18 5 11 2 27 46 -19 3 25

Northwest Division

Place Team P W L T GF GA GD Bonus Points
1 Yakima Reds 18 12 5 1 59 29 +30 11 60
2 Spokane Shadow 18 11 4 3 43 36 +6 7 54
3 Seattle Sounders Select 18 11 6 1 33 28 +5 6 51
4 Abbotsford 86ers Select 18 8 9 1 49 44 +5 9 42
5 Cascade Surge 18 5 11 2 34 28 +6 6 28
6 Willamette Valley Firebirds 18 3 15 0 28 71 -43 4 16

Southwest Division

Place Team P W L T GF GA GD Bonus Points
1 San Fernando Valley Heroes 18 11 7 0 57 48 +9 12 56
2 Central Coast Roadrunners 18 11 7 0 51 39 +12 9 53
3 Nevada Zephyrs 18 7 11 0 32 43 -11 4 32
4 San Gabriel Valley Highlanders 18 4 14 0 35 66 -31 4 20

Playoffs

Format

Mid-Michigan won the PDL Regular Season title and a bye to the National Semi-Finals. This moved Dayton up to the Great Lakes Division first place spot and allowed West Michigan into the playoffs, taking the second place spot for the division.

For the Central and Eastern divisions, the top seeds from each division face the second place team from the opposite division. For the Western Conference, the division champion with the most points will play the wild card, while the two remaining division champions play each other.

Conference Playoffs

Central Semifinals Central Finals
      
HL1 Illinois Chicago Sockers 6
GL2 Michigan West Michigan Edge 0
HL1 Illinois Chicago Sockers 1
GL1 Ohio Dayton Gems 0
GL1 Ohio Dayton Gems 1
HL2 Illinois Rockford Raptors 0
Eastern Semifinals Eastern Finals
      
NE1 New York Westchester Flames 1
SE2 Florida Bradenton Academics 0
NE1 New York Westchester Flames 1
SE1 Florida Tampa Bay Hawks 0
SE1 Florida Tampa Bay Hawks (AET/PSO) 2 (4)
NE2 Vermont Vermont Voltage 2 (2)
Western Semifinals Western Finals
      
NW Washington (state) Yakima Reds 2
WC Washington (state) Spokane Shadow 0
NW Washington (state) Yakima Reds 1
RM Colorado Colorado Comets 0
RM Colorado Colorado Comets 1
SW California San Fernando Valley Heroes 0

PDL Championship

  PDL Semifinals            
  PDL  Michigan Mid-Michigan Bucks 5  
  NW  Washington (state) Yakima Reds 2   PDL Finals
      PDL  Michigan Mid-Michigan Bucks 0
  PDL Semifinals   HL1  Illinois Chicago Sockers 1
  NE1  New York Westchester Flames 0
  HL1  Illinois Chicago Sockers 5   PDL Third Place
    NW  Washington (state) Yakima Reds 2
    NE1  New York Westchester Flames 5

[1]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 16, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.