Season Previews

PART I: A Silly Place   PART II: The Team

The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May. – Edwin Way Teale

Midwest Region – Great Lakes Division

Overall, the 2019 schedule looks fairly balanced, at least better than most years. There are no more than two consecutive home or away matches at any time, and both are pretty evenly distributed throughout the schedule.

The month of May looks manageable; the only real away trip is to FC Indiana, which should be the weakest team in the division and possibly the entire NPSL, while the toughest match – Ann Arbor – is home at Keyworth Stadium.

June is much more packed, including back-to-back two-match weekends on 6/7-6/9, and 6/14-6/16. The first of those, while it begins at home against FC Indiana, concludes with a challenging Sunday afternoon away to Grand Rapids.

The second weekend, ending with a match at Toledo, looks a little less difficult. While it’s always tough to predict how new teams will do, I’m willing to bet one with multiple high school players on its roster may struggle a bit.

By far the toughest part of the schedule comes in early July, where a Friday home match on the 5th against Grand Rapids is followed by a Sunday away day at Ann Arbor on the 7th. That weekend could very well decide the division’s playoff participants and could also have a big impact on seeding.

Continue reading “Season Preview 2019: Predictions”

PART I: Rebel Scum   PART II: Forwards   PART III: Attacking Mids & Wingers   PART IV: Center Midfielders   PART V: Fullbacks   PART VI: Centerbacks   PART VII: Goalkeepers   PART VIII: Team Overview   PART IX: Predictions

In honor of that special night two years ago, a trip down memory lane:

A special thank you to everyone who helped contribute to this season preview series, especially Sean Grogan (player scouting reports), Mike Kitchen (videos), Jon DeBoer (photos), and Robert Sherman (photos).

In case you hadn’t heard, Robert is now the official BIR photographer and beat reporter/journalisto/Caesar interrogator. You can check out his first two articles and photo galleries below:

Detroit City FC draw with Chattanooga FC in home-and-home series finale

Offensive struggles lead to draw with Harpos FC in final preseason test

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Lastly, if for some reason you needed any more help getting hyped, Joe Novak has the medicine:

PART I: Rebel Scum   PART II: Forwards   PART III: Attacking Mids & Wingers   PART IV: Center Midfielders   PART V: Fullbacks   PART VI: Centerbacks   PART VII: Goalkeepers   PART VIII: Team Overview

U.S. Open Cup

City finds itself back in the Open Cup after a one-year absence. Although I understand and partially sympathize with the viewpoint that these games create too many physical demands on our players, I feel that, playing at the NPSL level, there are no better opportunities to grow the club’s on-field reputation and raise its profile in the domestic soccer landscape.

When we last saw City in the competition, they were falling to Louisville City on penalty kicks after extra time – a valiant, Thermopylae-esque effort in which Nate Steinwascher etched his name into club lore forever. That match, of course, came one week after an equally epic win over the Michigan Bucks, who just so happen to be City’s first round opponent this year.

This matchup is tough to predict because, as is the norm, the Bucks’ roster likely won’t be set until matchday. Regardless, I’m going with the home field advantage and picking City to win. Not only that, I’m going to put my imaginary internet money on the table and make an even more reckless prediction: City will also catch FC Cincinnati (currently 1^st place in USL’s Eastern Conference) napping and beat them as well. I will gladly put 1000 BIRbucks up against anyone who wants to take that bet.

Midwest Region – Great Lakes West Conference

The format for the Midwest Playoffs, believe it or not, is the same as it was last year. In short:

• Three Midwest divisions, top two teams from each division qualify for the playoffs.
• Seeding is determined by points-per-game. #1 and #2 get first-round byes.
• #3 hosts #6 and #4 hosts #5 on Saturday, July 14^th.
• The winners of those two matches advance to play #1 and #2 the following Friday (July 20^th), with the Midwest Championship taking place on Sunday the 22^nd.
• Each of the final four teams can submit bids to host the regional tournament.

Helping to offset what will hopefully be a deep Open Cup run, City will play 12 league matches this season, down from 14 a year ago. The league schedule breaks evenly into two distinct, “mini-seasons”: Between May 13^th and June 10^th, they’ll play Ann Arbor, Columbus, and Indiana twice, and they’ll do the same with Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Milwaukee between June 15^th and July 7^th.

Continue reading “Season Preview 2018: Predictions”