2008 PDL season

The 2008 USL Premier Development League season was the 14th season of the PDL. The regular season started on April 26, 2008, and ended on July 20, 2008. The playoffs began on July 22, 2008, and ended with the PDL Championship Game on August 9, 2008.

Thunder Bay Chill finished the season as national champions, beating Laredo Heat on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie in the PDL Championship game in Laredo, Texas on 9 August 2008.

Michigan Bucks finished with the best regular season record in the league, winning 13 out of their 16 games, suffering just one loss, and finishing with a +27 goal difference.

Yakima Reds striker Junior Garcia was the league's top scorer and MVP, knocking in 15 goals. Fresno Fuego's Fabricio Codeceira led the league with 13 assists, while Austin Aztex U23 keeper Miguel Gallardo enjoyed the best goalkeeping statistics, with a goals-against average of 0.615 per game, and keeping 9 clean sheets in his 13 games.

Changes From 2007

Name Changes

• Abbotsford Rangers changed their name to the Abbotsford Mariners to reflect the name of their parent organization.
• Los Angeles Storm changed their name to the Los Angeles Legends to reflect the name of their parent organization.
• The expansion Austin Stampede were renamed the Aztex U23 after the Austin Aztex USL-1 franchise was announced for 2009 and acquired controlling interest in the PDL team.

New Franchises

• Nine franchises joined the league this year, including six brand new teams:

Team Name	Metro Area	Location	Previous Affiliation
Austin Aztex U23	Greater Austin area	Round Rock, TX	expansion
Cincinnati Kings	Greater Cincinnati area	Wilder, KY	relegated from USL-2
Houston Leones	Greater Houston area	Richmond, TX	expansion
Kalamazoo Outrage	Kalamazoo area	Kalamazoo, MI	expansion
New Hampshire Phantoms	Hillsborough County area	Manchester, NH	relegated from USL-2
New Jersey Rangers	Northern New Jersey area	Denville, NJ	expansion
Newark Ironbound Express	Newark area	Newark, NJ	expansion
Panama City Pirates	Panama City area	Panama City Beach, FL	expansion
Vancouver Whitecaps Residency	Metro Vancouver area	Burnaby, BC	transferred from PCSL

Folding

• Five teams left the league prior to the beginning of the season:
  • Albany Admirals - Schenectady, New York
  • Austin Lightning - Austin, Texas
  • Cocoa Expos - Cocoa, Florida
  • Delaware Dynasty - New Castle, Delaware
  • Sioux Falls Spitfire - Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Final standings

Purple indicates division title clinched
Green indicates playoff berth clinched

Central Conference

Great Lakes Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Michigan Bucks	16	13	1	2	40	13	+27	41
2	Cleveland Internationals	16	10	3	3	41	19	+22	33
3	Toronto Lynx	16	8	6	2	28	21	+7	26
4	Cincinnati Kings	16	3	10	3	14	32	-18	12
5	West Virginia Chaos	16	1	8	7	17	32	-15	10

Midwest Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Chicago Fire Premier	16	8	2	6	26	12	+14	30
2	Kalamazoo Outrage	16	8	6	2	27	24	+3	26
3	Indiana Invaders	16	6	6	4	20	21	-1	22
4	Fort Wayne Fever	16	2	9	5	16	33	-17	11
5	West Michigan Edge	16	2	10	4	18	40	-22	10

Heartland Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Thunder Bay Chill	16	13	2	1	42	17	+25	40
2	Colorado Rapids U23's	16	8	5	3	34	25	+9	27
3	Des Moines Menace	16	7	4	5	29	18	+11	26
4	St. Louis Lions	16	7	5	4	29	27	+2	25
5	Kansas City Brass	16	6	9	1	23	30	-7	19
6	Springfield Demize	16	0	16	0	8	48	-40	0

The top two teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. The Conference champion receives a bye into the Conference Semifinals, with the third place team from that division receiving a playoff berth.

Eastern Conference

Mid Atlantic Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Reading Rage	16	11	3	2	32	12	+20	35
2	Fredericksburg Gunners	16	8	8	0	27	23	+4	24
3	Hampton Roads Piranhas	16	6	7	3	22	23	-1	21
4	Virginia Legacy	16	4	8	4	16	31	-15	16
5	Northern Virginia Royals	16	3	8	5	20	34	-14	14
6	Richmond Kickers Future	16	2	8	6	17	27	-10	12

New England Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Cape Cod Crusaders	16	9	3	4	33	16	+17	31
2	Ottawa Fury	16	9	4	3	38	22	+16	30
3	Vermont Voltage	16	8	7	1	28	30	-2	25
4	New Hampshire Phantoms	16	3	9	4	14	28	-14	13
5	Rhode Island Stingrays	16	2	9	5	21	38	-17	11

Northeast Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Brooklyn Knights	16	10	2	4	33	17	+16	34
2	Newark Ironbound Express	16	8	2	6	33	17	+16	30
3	Long Island Rough Riders	16	8	4	4	36	26	+10	28
4	Westchester Flames	16	7	7	2	30	30	0	23
5	Ocean City Barons	16	6	5	5	29	25	+4	23
6	New Jersey Rangers	16	2	12	2	12	42	-30	8

The Division Champions and the Second Place team with the most amount of points qualify for the playoffs.

Southern Conference

Mid South Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Austin Aztex U23	16	10	5	1	25	11	+14	31
2	Laredo Heat	16	8	4	4	33	15	+18	28
3	El Paso Patriots	16	8	5	3	22	20	+2	27
4	Mississippi Brilla	16	7	6	3	26	23	+3	24
5	Baton Rouge Capitals	16	7	8	1	20	23	-3	22
6	DFW Tornados	16	6	7	3	17	20	-3	21
7	New Orleans Shell Shockers	16	5	8	3	18	28	-10	18
8	Houston Leones	16	3	11	2	17	38	-21	11

Southeast Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Central Florida Kraze	16	11	3	2	38	18	+20	35
2	Bradenton Academics	16	10	2	4	37	13	+24	34
3	Cary RailHawks U23's	16	9	5	2	40	29	+11	29
4	Atlanta Silverbacks U23's	16	9	6	1	38	29	+9	28
5	Panama City Pirates	16	7	6	3	35	20	+15	24
6	Carolina Dynamo	16	7	7	2	35	31	+4	23
7	Nashville Metros	16	3	13	0	12	42	-30	9
8	Palm Beach Pumas	16	1	15	0	9	62	-53	-1*

The top two teams in each division qualify for the playoffs.
* Palm Beach deducted 4 points for failing to fulfil three fixtures.

Western Conference

Northwest Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Tacoma Tide	16	11	4	1	46	23	+23	34
2	Vancouver Whitecaps Residency	16	11	4	1	34	14	+20	34
3	Yakima Reds	16	9	6	1	31	25	+6	28
4	BYU Cougars	16	7	6	3	21	20	+1	24
5	Ogden Outlaws	16	6	8	2	18	21	-3	20
6	Abbotsford Mariners	16	5	8	3	26	32	-6	18
7	Cascade Surge	16	3	8	5	17	35	-18	14
8	Spokane Spiders	16	3	11	2	20	43	-23	11

Southwest Division

Place	Team	P	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	San Fernando Valley Quakes	16	8	2	6	32	25	+7	30
2	Fresno Fuego	16	9	5	2	38	27	+11	29
3	Ventura County Fusion	16	8	5	3	24	14	+10	27
4	San Francisco Seals	16	8	5	3	21	17	+4	27
5	San Jose Frogs	16	7	6	3	26	20	+6	24
6	Los Angeles Legends	16	6	6	4	32	25	+7	22
7	Bakersfield Brigade	16	4	5	7	16	21	-5	19
8	Orange County Blue Star	16	5	8	3	24	31	-7	18
9	Southern California Seahorses	16	3	8	5	15	27	-12	14
10	Lancaster Rattlers	16	2	10	4	18	39	-21	10

The top two teams in each division qualify for the playoffs.

Playoffs

The Divisional Round for the Central Conference took place July 22–23, 2008, with the Conference Championships taking place between July 25-27. The PDL Semifinals took place on August 2, and the final was played on August 9.

Playoff Bracket

Divisional Round

Conference Semifinals

Conference Finals

National Semifinals

PDL Championship Game

C1

Michigan Bucks

1

MW2

Kalamazoo Outrage (AET)

3

MW1

Chicago Fire Premier

0

MW2

Kalamazoo Outrage

2

MW2

Kalamazoo Outrage

0

Central Conference

HL1

Thunder Bay Chill

4

HL1

Thunder Bay Chill

3

HL2

Colorado Rapids U23's

1

HL1

Thunder Bay Chill

2

GL1

Cleveland Internationals

0

GL1

Cleveland Internationals

2

GL2

Toronto Lynx

1

HL1

Thunder Bay Chill

2

NW2

Vancouver Whitecaps Residency

1

NW1

Tacoma Tide

3

SW2

Fresno Fuego

0

NW1

Tacoma Tide

1

Western Conference

NW2

Vancouver Whitecaps Residency

4

SW1

San Fernando Valley Quakes

1

NW2

Vancouver Whitecaps Residency (AET)

3

HL1

Thunder Bay Chill (AET/PSO)

1 (4)

MS2

Laredo Heat

1 (1)

MA

Reading Rage (AET)

4

WC

Newark Ironbound Express

2

MA

Reading Rage

1

Eastern Conference

NE

Brooklyn Knights

0

NE

Brooklyn Knights (AET/PSO)

0 (5)

NWE

Cape Cod Crusaders

0 (3)

MA

Reading Rage

0

MS2

Laredo Heat

2

MS1

Austin Aztex U23

2

SE2

Bradenton Academics

1

MS1

Austin Aztex U23

1

Southern Conference

MS2

Laredo Heat

3

SE1

Central Florida Kraze

1

MS2

Laredo Heat

2

Divisional Round

July 22, 2008 5:00 ET	Kalamazoo Outrage	2 – 0	Chicago Fire Premier	Toyota Park Bridgeview, Illinois Attendance: 75 Referee: Pawel Wydra (USA)
	Warmer 19'  42' (OG) Alvino 62' Muckey  63'	(Report)	Cutshaw 52'

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July 22, 2008 7:30 ET	Colorado Rapids U23's	1 – 3	Thunder Bay Chill	Fort William Stadium Thunder Bay, Ontario Attendance: 1,005 Referee: Mike Delecruz (CAN)
	Warner  7', 78' Schmoker 28' Charles 49'  84' Howlan 76' Hemmi  90'	(Report)	Oliveira  9'  56' Coronado 33' Gold 60' Swartzendruber  74' Paterson 86' Putrus 90' Zendejas  90'

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July 23, 2008 7:00 ET	Toronto Lynx	1 – 2	Cleveland Internationals	Coughlin Field Lakewood, Ohio Attendance: 45 Referee: Chris Ponso (USA)
	DeAbreu 42' Scott  44' 54' Binstock 82'	(Report)	Williams 20' Nanchoff 26' Nagbe  54' Zemanski  83'

Conference Semifinals

July 25, 2008 5:00 ET	Bradenton Academics	1 – 2	Austin Aztex U23	Seminole Soccer Complex Sanford, Florida Attendance: 1,500 Referee: Robert Mauws (USA)
	Ingvarsson 17' Gavin 25' Bello  74' Maxwell 83'	(Report)	Papandrea  39', 66' Godbolt  56' 59' Bernard 64' Vincens  65'

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July 25, 2008 5:30 ET	Cape Cod Crusaders	0 – 0 (AET)	Brooklyn Knights	Don Thomas Stadium Reading, Pennsylvania Attendance: 280 Referee: Tim Snyder (USA)
	Maloney 33' Munro 73'	(Report)	Damiani 27' Gonzales 82' Ortega 93' Dos Santos 108'
		Penalties
	Munro Maloney Lynn Vercollone	3 – 5	Matteo Damiani Guerra Dos Santos Kulkov

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July 25, 2008 7:30 ET	Laredo Heat	2 – 1	Central Florida Kraze	Seminole Soccer Complex Sanford, Florida Attendance: 1,500 Referee: Agostino Minasola (USA)
	Cruz 21' Garcia  52' 90+' Mulamba 53'  63' Infante 87'	(Report)	Araujo 45' Wolfe  54' Mattson  90'

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July 25, 2008 8:00 ET	Newark Ironbound Express	2 – 4 (AET)	Reading Rage	Don Thomas Stadium Reading, Pennsylvania Attendance: 657 Referee: Bo Maroo (USA)
	Kotynski 4' Robinson 29' Karcz  30'  62' Grato  82' Bilbao 83' Chencinski 100' Stamatis 100' Ruesgen 102'	(Report)	Ports  22' O'Connor 66' Burgess 67'  109' (PK) Taranto  74' Benson  92'

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July 26, 2008 5:30 ET	Cleveland Internationals	0 – 2	Thunder Bay Chill	Ultimate Soccer Arena Pontiac, Michigan Referee: Clifton Ellis (USA)
		(Report)	Putrus 17' Coronado 21'  45' Alvarado  27' Swartzendruber  66' Intermoia  82'

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July 26, 2008 7:30 ET	Vancouver Whitecaps Residency	3 – 1 (AET)	San Fernando Valley Quakes	Chukchansi Park Fresno, California Attendance: 1,291 Referee: Mike Kampmeinert (USA)
	Leslie 65' Davies 69' Dosanjh 86' Edwini-Bonsu  90+6'  110' Russell 114'  116' Sandhu 118'	(Report)	Borak 72' Agwu  82'  84' Tracy 104'

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July 26, 2008 7:30 ET	Kalamazoo Outrage	3 – 1 (AET)	Michigan Bucks	Ultimate Soccer Arena Pontiac, Michigan Referee: Marc Lawrence (USA)
	Alvino 34' Oatley  86' 111'  120' Muckey  98'	(Report)	DeMartin  31' Morisset 39' Clark  120'

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July 26, 2008 10:30 ET	Fresno Fuego	0 – 3	Tacoma Tide	Chukchansi Park Fresno, California Attendance: 3,214 Referee: Maurizio Laudini (USA)
	Alvarado 32' Calvo 89' Nunes 89'	(Report)	Scott  18' Mueller 30' Schomaker  76' Tangney  90'

Conference Finals

July 26, 2008 7:00 ET	Laredo Heat	3 – 1	Austin Aztex U23	Seminole Soccer Complex Sanford, Florida Attendance: 100 Referee: Martin Bell (USA)
	Galvan 4' Mulamba 12'  68' Quinones 17' Cruz 26' Garcia  47'  51' Morales 80'	(Report)	Alvarez 4' Vega  5' Watson  26' (PK) 64' Godbolt  36', 41'

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July 27, 2008 4:30 ET	Brooklyn Knights	0 – 1	Reading Rage	Don Thomas Stadium Reading, Pennsylvania Attendance: 510 Referee: Ian Bongaardt (USA)
	Matteo 40' Smith 43' Gonzalez 53' Damiani 61' Carrizo 77' Alvarado  90'	(Report)	Burgess  40' 45' Rowling 69'

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July 27, 2008 7:00 ET	Kalamazoo Outrage	0 – 4	Thunder Bay Chill	Ultimate Soccer Arena Pontiac, Michigan Referee: Jason White (USA)
	Howard 10'		Milroth  11' Intermoia 20' Oliveira  45' (PK) Swartzendruber  59' C. Gold 75'  81'

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July 27, 2008 10:00 ET	Vancouver Whitecaps Residency	4 – 1	Tacoma Tide	Chukchansi Park Fresno, California Attendance: 510 Referee: Colin Arblaster (USA)
	Edwini-Bonsu  41'  64' Semenets  66' Russell  86' Johnstone 87'	(Report)	Mueller 46' Knapp 54' Agu 82' Schomaker  90'

PDL Semifinals

August 2, 2008 7:00 ET	Vancouver Whitecaps Residency	1 – 2	Thunder Bay Chill	Fort William Stadium Thunder Bay, Ontario Attendance: 1,546 Referee: Frank Carpino (CAN)
	Leslie 41' Dosanjh 56' Davies 81' Edwini-Bonsu  89' 90+4'  90+4'		Alvarado 52' Milroth  61' 79' Zendejas  90+4'

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August 2, 2008 9:15 ET	Reading Rage	0 – 2	Laredo Heat	Texas A&M International University Soccer Complex Laredo, Texas Attendance: 1,693 Referee: Carlos Salas (USA)
	O'Connor 50' Sanders 84'		Quinones 29' Ramos  41' Garcia  78' Humphrey 87'

PDL Final

August 9, 2008 8:45 ET	Thunder Bay Chill	1 – 1 (AET)	Laredo Heat	Texas A&M International University Soccer Complex Laredo, Texas Attendance: 3,451 Referee: Jasen Anno (USA)
	Putrus 34' Da Silva 44' Milroth  56', 76' Oliveira  63' 76' J. Gold 64'	(Report)	Blackwell 33' Ibarra  46' Infante 83' Galvan 90'
		Penalties
	Oliveira Swartzendruber C. Gold Intermoia	4 – 1	Galvan Ordaz Su

Awards and All-League team

F: Carlos Araujo (Central Florida Kraze); Felix Garcia (Laredo Heat) (U19 Player of the Year); Junior Garcia (Yakima Reds) (league MVP)
M: Will Beaugé (Ottawa Fury); Fabricio Codeceira (Fresno Fuego); Adam Gazda (Reading Rage); Nate Jafta (Michigan Bucks)
D: Darrius Barnes (Cary RailHawks U23's); Mike Holody (Michigan Bucks); Norberto Papandrea (Austin Aztex U23) (Defender of the Year)
G: Miguel Gallardo (Austin Aztex U23) (Goalkeeper of the Year)
Coach: Wolfgang Suhnholz (Austin Aztex U23)

See also

• United Soccer Leagues 2008