Lower Division Five Stars: Round Fourteen

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A weekly list of the top five players or performances of each round in NASL, USL Pro and MLS Reserves in all competitions…

ROUND FOURTEEN (July 1-7)

Player – Club (5 Star Selections)

Sam Adekugbe - Vancouver Whitecaps Reserves
Scored the second goal on a clean finish in a 4-0 thumping of rival Sounders Reserves and added what should be two assists (only credited with one), combining twice with fellow Whitecaps U18 Residency player Marco Bustos to set up Tommy Heinemann, including working with Yassin Essa to create the turnover that led to the final goal.

Lower Division Five Stars: Round Thirteen

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A weekly list of the top five players or performances of each round in NASL, USL Pro and MLS Reserves in all competitions…

ROUND THIRTEEN (June 24-30)

Player – Club (5 Star Selections)

Andrew Dykstra - Richmond Kickers
The keeper shut out league-leading Orlando City in a bit 2-0 victory on Saturday and then posted another clean sheet the following night in a scoreless draw at Tampa Bay.

Jorge Herrera - Charlotte Eagles (2)
Set up the opening goal in the 22nd minute and scored the other go-ahead goal in the 62nd minute in a 2-2 draw at Dayton.

Down the stretch: The final weeks of NASL Spring 2013

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With just three weeks remaining, the race for the spring title and the right to host the NASL Soccer Bowl later this fall is a wide open race with five of the seven clubs still in the hunt with only six points separating the league-leading Atlanta Silverbacks and San Antonio Scorpions, who are tied for fifth.

The top three clubs in the table currently all have a full slate of games remaining whilst the fourth-place Tampa Rowdies, the defending league champion, have a tall task ahead of them, trailing by five points with only two games left on top of a stretch that has seen them go winless (0-3-1) in their last four since US Open Cup play began.

LD Five Stars – Round 5

A weekly list of the top five players or performances of each round in NASL, USL Pro and MLS Reserves in all competitions…

ROUND FIVE (May 1-5)

Player – Club (5 Star Selections)

Hans Denissen – San Antonio Scorpions
Trailing Atlanta, Denissen scored the initial equalizer in the 20th minute and then helped set up the go-ahead strike by Edin Husic eight minutes later as the winless Scorpions played to a 2-2 draw.

Lower Divisions Preview – Part III: North American Soccer League

Part I - USL Pro     ||     Part II - MLS Reserves     ||     Part III - NASL 

The last professional league to kick off the 2013 campaign will do so Saturday night amidst a lot of excitement… though most of it is for the future.

The third season of the league was supposed to be a big deal with the return of the Cosmos, who won’t debut until the fall, and the new split season, but that has been tempered by the spiraling Puerto Rico Islanders and the limelight stealing deal between United Soccer Leagues and Major League Soccer, which has thus far not led to much player erosion from the NASL. The good news is, however, that the league was able to sell Minnesota to new local ownership, though Traffic Sports still owns its club Fort Lauderdale as well as Carolina and a share of Atlanta - a factor that is significantly affecting player budgets according to RailHawks coach Colin Clarke in a report from Neil Morris of Indy Week.

LD Update: NASL Championship Preview; NASL MVP; MISL signings

The defending NASL champion Minnesota Stars are on the cusp of repeating, duplicating last year's surprise run from the position as the sixth and final seed to winners of the Soccer Bowl. Standing in the way are the Tampa Bay Rowdies, who have will be looking to avenge last year's surprising postseason defeat after an unbeaten season series against the Stars.

The Rowdies come into the two-game series with a  4-1-3 advantage in the regular season, but in the lone postseason meeting the Stars were victorious, 1-0, in the opening round contest a year ago courtesy of a deflected free kick from Luke Mulholland in the 27th minute.

Time has a way of changing things though.