2005 United Soccer Leagues

The 2005 USL season was the first following a rebranding of two United Soccer Leagues operated leagues. The A-League and the Pro Soccer League were renamed to the USL First Division and USL Second Division, respectively. These leagues also became single table this year, ending the use of regional conferences.

Changes from 2004

• The Syracuse Salty Dogs, Milwaukee Wave United, Edmonton Aviators, and Calgary Mustangs of the First Division folded following the 2004 season.
• The Utah Blitzz of the Second Division folded following the 2004 season.
• The Cincinnati Kings joined the Second Division as an expansion club.
• The Westchester Flames, San Diego Gauchos, and California Gold switched from the Second Division to the PDL.

Summary

Competition	Champion	Runner-up	Regular season champion/best USL team
USL First Division	Seattle Sounders	Richmond Kickers	Montreal Impact
USL Second Division	Charlotte Eagles	Western Mass Pioneers	Western Mass Pioneers
USL PDL	Des Moines Menace	El Paso Patriots	Orange County Blue Star
U.S. Open Cup	Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS)	FC Dallas (MLS)	Minnesota Thunder (lost in semifinal)
Voyageurs Cup	Montreal Impact	Vancouver Whitecaps	n/a

First Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Montreal Impact (S)	28	18	3	7	37	15	+22	61	Semifinal of playoffs
2	Rochester Raging Rhinos	28	15	7	6	45	27	+18	51
3	Vancouver Whitecaps	28	12	7	9	37	21	+16	45	First round of playoffs
4	Seattle Sounders (C)	28	11	6	11	33	25	+8	44
5	Portland Timbers	28	10	9	9	40	42	−2	39
6	Richmond Kickers	28	10	9	9	28	30	−2	39
7	Puerto Rico Islanders	28	10	10	8	46	43	+3	38
8	Atlanta Silverbacks	28	10	15	3	40	52	−12	33
9	Charleston Battery	28	9	14	5	27	36	−9	32
10	Minnesota Thunder	28	7	11	10	37	42	−5	31
11	Virginia Beach Mariners	28	7	14	7	26	39	−13	28
12	Toronto Lynx	28	3	17	8	26	50	−24	17

Source:
(C) Champions; (S) Commissioner's Cup (regular season winner)
Notes:

Playoffs

Each round except the final was a two-game aggregate goal series decided by extra time and a penalty shoot-out immediately following the second game of the series, if necessary. The away goals rule was not used as a tie-breaker. Tournament was re-seeded after the first round.

	Quarterfinals							Semifinals							Finals
								1	Montreal Impact	2	1	3
	4	Seattle Sounders	1	2	3			4	Seattle Sounders	2	2	4
	5	Portland Timbers	0	0	0										4	Seattle Sounders (p)	1 (4)
															6	Richmond Kickers	1 (3)
								2	Rochester Raging Rhinos	1	1	2
	3	Vancouver Whitecaps	0	0	0 (4)			6	Richmond Kickers	1	3	4
	6	Richmond Kickers (p)	0	0	0 (5)

Quarterfinals

September 16, 2005

7::00 PM ET

Leg 1

Richmond Kickers	0–0	Vancouver Whitecaps
Cephas  13' Worthen  69'	Report	Clarke  58' Dasovic  64'

University of Richmond Stadium
Richmond, Virginia

Attendance: 2,476

Referee: Joe Cardecio

September 18, 2005

10:00 PM ET

Leg 2

Vancouver Whitecaps	0–0	Richmond Kickers
Nash  42' Morris  49' Lyall  112'	Report	Brown  15' Williams  99'
Penalties
Corazzin Franks Nash Kindel Dasovic	4–5	Ssejjemba Delicate Gorres Worthen Jeffrey

Swangard Stadium
Burnaby, British Columbia

Attendance: 5,332

Referee: Steve De Piero

Richmond Kickers won 5–4 on Penalty kicks after tying both games 0–0.

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September 16, 2005

10:00 PM EDT

First Leg

Portland Timbers	0–1	Seattle Sounders
Miranda  30'	Report	Levesque 2' Scott  32' Sleeth  45' O'Brien  72' Gregor  90'

PGE Park
Portland, Oregon

Attendance: 5,667

Referee: Yader Reyes

September 18, 2005

10:00 PM EDT

Seattle Sounders	2–0	Portland Timbers
Levesque 5', 54' O'Brien  29'	Report	Marcum  17' Alvarez  22' Lines  25'  27'

Starfire Sports Complex
Tukwila, Washington

Attendance: 2,543

Referee: Fotis Bazakos

Seattle Sounders won 3–0 on Aggregate.

Semifinals

September 23, 2005

7:00 PM EDT

First Leg

Richmond Kickers	3–1	Rochester Raging Rhinos
Delicate 12', 55' Brown  41' Worthen 65'	Report	15' (o.g.) Sedgewick  56' Miller  68' Howes  70'

University of Richmond Stadium
Richmond, Virginia

Attendance: 2,672

Referee: Tony Crush

September 25, 2005

7:00 PM EDT

Second Leg

Rochester Raging Rhinos	1–1	Richmond Kickers
Carrieri  55' Bobo  88' Carabajal  90' Miller 90+5' (pen.)	Report	Delicate 51' Vallow  55' Schweitzer  81' Cephas  90'

Frontier Field
Rochester, New York

Attendance: 6,195

Referee: Agusto St Silva

Richmond Kickers won 4–2 on Aggregate.

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September 23, 2005

10:00 PM EDT

First Leg

Seattle Sounders	2–2	Montreal Impact
Sturm 10' O'Brien 22'  34' Sleeth  44'	Report	Gervais  21' Vincello  22' Burpo  62' Gbeke 86', 88'

Starfire Sports Complex
Tukwila, Washington

Attendance: 2,698

Referee: Ramon Hernandez

September 25, 2005

4:00 PM EDT

Second Leg

Montreal Impact	1–2	Seattle Sounders
Pizzolitto  28' Gervais  67'	Report	Edwards  32' Levesque  52' 90' Whitfield 59' Gregor  78' Sakuda  90'

Claude Robillard Sports Complex
Montreal, Quebec

Attendance: 10,124

Referee: Silviu Petrescu

Seattle Sounders won 4–3 on Aggregate.

Final

October 1, 2005

11:00 PM EDT

Seattle Sounders	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Richmond Kickers
Scott  19' Edwards  45' Klaas  65' Galindo 73' Gregor  79'	Report	Carrieri  17' Brown  19' Gorres 24' Burke  29'
Penalties
Gregor O'Brien Levesque Somoza Graham Sakuda Jenkins	4–3	Delicate Ssejjemba Gorres Williams Jeffrey Pauls Pascale

Qwest Field
Seattle, Washington

Attendance: 8,011

Referee: Ricardo Valenzuela

Awards and All-League Teams

First Team
F: Fabian Dawkins (Atlanta Silverbacks); Jason Jordan (Vancouver Whitecaps) (MVP & Leading Goalscorer); Mauricio Salles (Puerto Rico Islanders)
M: Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar (Portland Timbers); Mauro Biello (Montreal Impact); Steve Klein (Vancouver Whitecaps); Kirk Wilson (Rochester Raging Rhinos)
D: Gabriel Gervais (Montreal Impact); Taylor Graham (Seattle Sounders) (Defender of the Year); Scot Thompson (Portland Timbers)
G: Greg Sutton (Montreal Impact) (Goalkeeper of the Year)
Coach: Nick De Santis (Montreal Impact) (Coach of the Year)

Second Team
F: Dan Antoniuk (Portland Timbers); Johnny Menyongar (Minnesota Thunder); Melvin Tarley (Minnesota Thunder)
M: Darren Caskey (Virginia Beach Mariners); Jeff Matteo (Minnesota Thunder); Rodrigo Rios (Atlanta Silverbacks); Petter Villegas (Puerto Rico Islanders))
D: Ben Hollingsworth (Charleston Battery); Peter Luzak (Richmond Kickers); Nevio Pizzolitto (Montreal Impact)
G: Preston Burpo (Seattle Sounders)

Second Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Western Mass Pioneers (S)	20	13	3	4	41	22	+19	43	Playoff berth clinched
2	Charlotte Eagles (C)	20	13	5	2	44	20	+24	41
3	Harrisburg City Islanders	20	12	3	5	43	24	+19	41
4	Wilmington Hammerheads	20	12	6	2	45	23	+22	38
5	Cincinnati Kings	20	7	8	5	28	23	+5	26
6	Long Island Rough Riders	20	7	13	0	29	42	−13	21
7	Pittsburgh Riverhounds	20	6	11	3	32	25	+7	21
8	New Hampshire Phantoms	20	6	11	3	29	38	−9	21
9	Northern Virginia Royals	20	2	18	0	16	90	−74	6

Source: rsssf.com
(C) Champions; (S) Regular season winner

Playoffs

	Semifinals							Finals
	1	Western Mass Pioneers	0	3	3
	4	Wilmington Hammerheads	1	1	2
								1	Western Mass Pioneers	2 (4)
								2	Charlotte Eagles (a.e.t.) (p)	2 (5)
	2	Charlotte Eagles (a.e.t.)	0	4	4
	3	Harrisburg City Islanders	1	1	2

Semifinals

August 17, 2005

7:30 PM EDT

Wilmington Hammerheads	1–0	Western Mass Pioneers
Miller  45' Bagley 57' Krupnik  64' Corrie  86' Webb  90'	Report	Augustine  12' Mahoney  41' Fletcher  69' Maciel  90'

Legion Stadium
Wilmington, North Carolina

Attendance: 1,237

Referee: Kai Goodrich

August 20, 2005

7:30 PM EDT

Second Leg

Western Mass Pioneers	3–1	Wilmington Hammerheads
Willis  1' Maciel 18', 72' Krause 75'	Report	Chase  28' Bagley 53' Nylen  57' Gledhill  81'

Lusitano Stadium
Ludlow, Massachusetts

Attendance: 2,970

Referee: Gus St Silva

Western Mass Pioneers won 3–2 on Aggregate.

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August 18, 2005

7:05 PM EDT

First Leg

Harrisburg City Islanders	1–0	Charlotte Eagles
Potteiger 83'	Report	Swinehart  88'

Skyline Sports Complex
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Attendance: 1,468

Referee: Matt Hamilton

August 20, 2005

7:30 PM EDT

Second Leg

Charlotte Eagles	4–1 (a.e.t.)	Harrisburg City Islanders
Coggins 3', 102'  28' Johnson 64' Guastaferro 96'	Report	Severs 25' Bixler  48' Potteiger  75'

Waddell Stadium
Charlotte, North Carolina

Attendance: 1,172

Referee: Ken George

Charlotte Eagles won 4–2 on Aggregate. Charlotte lost 0–1 and then on the second leg won 2–1. The tied series in aggregate then went into overtime periods where Charlotte scored 2 goals.

Final

August 27, 2005

7:30 PM EDT

Western Mass Pioneers	2–2 (a.e.t.)	Charlotte Eagles
Willis  25' McFarlane 43' Fernandes 46'  56' Maciel  58' Fletcher  79'	Report	Coggins 1'  81' Swinehart  57' DiNunzio  58' Meek  67' 90+3'
Penalties
Fletcher Maciel Fernandes Deren Augustine Moya	4–5	Swinehart Coggins Guastaferro DiNunzio Watkins Meek

Lusitano Stadium
Ludlow, Massachusetts

Attendance: 4,722

Referee: Lee Suckle

See also

• 2005 PDL season

External links

• Official USL Site