The NISA Season that Wasn't

 Note: This is for funzies, so take it with a grain of salt and a large alcoholic beverage. Or chocolate if you’re living a sober lifestyle.

 NISA’s 2020 Spring Season has been shut down, another sports league brought to a grinding halt by COVID-19. We’ll never know how it would have played out. Frustrating, I know. And in frustration, perhaps you shout out something like…

 “Isn’t there anyone who can tell me who would have taken the NISA trophy this spring?”

“Sure – I can tell you who would have taken the NISA trophy this spring.”

Lights, please.

And yes, those are clouds. We are heading into a dream sequence, so keep your arms inside the vehicle until the ride comes to a complete stop.

Going by the alphabet, let’s start with Cal United Strikers. With plenty of firepower, aggressive midfield play, and a solid, competent backline, Cal United would find a way to struggle every week. Enough results would go their way, yet at times they could frustrate the heck out of you. During one of these performances against LA Force, the usually happy and joyful play-by-play voice of the Strikers Simon Allen loses it in midstream, runs onto the field and starts yelling maniacally at the Cal United forwards, “Surely he’s going to shoot now! SURELY HE’S GOING TO SHOOT NOW!” The ref finally stopped play and surely showed Allen a red card. 

Chattanooga FC enjoyed a very sold first season as a professional club. Staying in the top half of the table for most of the spring season, playing in front of crowds that most lower league teams would be jealous of, CFC would punch a ticket to a playoff spot with a home win over 1904 FC. Good times, right? So why were the locals annoyed? In a word: Nashville hot chicken. OK, three words. If the members of the Chattanooga faithful got a nickel for every time visiting fanbases asked where to get the best hot chicken, they would hate the Red Wolves just as much (hah – didn’t see that coming, did ya?),  

Just fill in any gaps with imaginary friends. (Image courtesy of Youtube)

So yeah - Detroit City FC won lots of games, ran away from the rest of the league, blah de blahblahblah.  The more interesting aspect of the Spring Season was in the stands at Keyworth. Limited by a seating capacity of just under 8,000, the Northern Guard schemed up a way to increase this number: imaginary friends. First it was Invite an Imaginary Friend Night. Then those imaginary friends brought their friends. And so on. And so on. When the announced attendance was 27,394 for the Cal United Strikers game, things had gotten pretty weird – even by Northern Guard standards. So the decision was made to ban imaginary friends for the rest of the season. A few invisible tears were shed.   

So the LA Force crowds were practicing social distancing long before COVID-19, evidently. I know – low-hanging fruit. But the club would struggle for points and fans in stands during the spring season. And that’s a shame, because this is how many fans of lower league soccer want to see clubs built – from the ground up. This is an academy club that added a pro team at the top. The hope here is that the club can develop a following of a corps of passionate fans that can spread the word. Hey – they’re not all going to be funny.   

The Michigan Stars would continue to be a collective pain in the butt to play against, challenging offenses with their ability to take away each team’s best players. When Cal United came to Pontiac, the Stars put three men on Christian Thierjung right from the first moment. No, not the start of the game – as soon as he got off the bus. And in the parking lot. And into the locker room. Thierjung never actually got onto the pitch, and the Stars went with the rarely-used 7-1-0 lineup. But Cal United could only manage a nil-nil draw, as Gustavo Villalobos was swallowed up by Zanin Mahic’s hair.   

Only the first of many moments that ended up on tshirts.

Laney College Stadium would finally become that fortress for the Oakland Roots, and the club would make any opponent’s trip to Oakland a tough one. The road would cause some issues, but the club would keep themselves in the top half of the table throughout the spring. And the quick release of T-shirts to capture celebrated moments (like the Jack McInerney game-tying goal on opening night) would continue. A Matt Fondy wonderstrike against Detroit City – on a T-shirt. Taylor Bailey saves to PK against Cal United – on a T-shirt. Ariel Mbumba being subbed on in the 67th minute against LA Force – on a T-shirt. David Abdor taking a point blank shot to his junk – considered, but ultimately not on a T-shirt.

 The move from San Diego State’s stadium to Lincoln High School did not have the effect that 1904 FC – sorry, Ought Four – wanted as far as crowd support. As the season went on, the club would try different venues to get that intimate feel. Local parks. Parking lots. Mini golf courses. Against the Michigan Stars, they tried playing in a bowling alley. Didn’t manage much on the scoreboard (Tito Ramirez was bottled up at the snack bar by the Stars defense), but midfielder Christian Enriquez did bowl an impressive 187. Through it all, the Black Plague kept the faith - except when Enriquez missed an easy spare in the 9th frame. That almost broke them. 

In Stumptown, chasing a playoff spot would be a constant throughout the season. It would ultimately be not in the cards for the club, but they would be there right to the end. A home-and-home series with Detroit City to end the season would be Stumptown’s undoing. But here was one other storyline that hung over the season: the progress of the building behind one of the goals at OrthoCarolina Soccer Complex. When the Michigan Stars arrived, the siding had been completed. By the time of the Cal United game, some landscaping had been placed. Things looked good. Then came the Detroit City game, and an errant shot from George Chomakov sailed over the fence, crashed through an upper-story window, and blasted a hole through the roof. Deemed unfit to occupy, the building was razed – with new construction to start at the beginning of the fall season.

When the season ended in June, the table stood thusly:

Team                            Pts

Detroit City FC              987

Cal United Strikers         34

Chattanooga FC             31

Oakland Roots SC          29

Stumptown Athletic        24

San Diego 1904 FC         18

Los Angeles Force          16

Michigan Stars FC            9

(My math is impeccable, by the way).

 Since Cal United had already qualified for the playoffs due to the Fall Showcase, they somehow ended up having to face off against themselves in the semi-finals – much to the chagrin of the Oakland Roots! And that chagrin found its way onto a T-shirt. Playing itself to a nil-nil draw, Cal United managed to get past themselves on penalties.

In the other semi-final, it was Detroit City and Chattanooga FC hooking up for tense battle between old NPSL rivals. Evenly played throughout the first half, things got unraveled in the second half when the Northern Guard started chanting “Where’s your hot chicken?” which seemed to unnerve CFC. The floodgates opened, and DCFC was going to the finals!

Now it was down to Detroit City and Cal United. And in the final, the Strikers would pass and move with a veracity and determination that was impressive and almost led to a goal. But the final whistle would come, and both teams were without a goal. Extra time would be needed. For the Northern Guard, this meant extra extra smoke. A billowy blast would emanate from the stands, and slowly cover the entire field. Nobody could see a damned thing. Industrial fans would quickly be brought in to blow the smoke off the field. And when order was restored – the NISA trophy had disappeared!

Who’s laughing now? (image courtesy of Forbes.com)

Suddenly, the sound of wheels peeling out could be heard as a black limousine sped away. And leaning out the back window, Rocco Commisso held out the trophy, laughing.

So who took the NISA trophy? The New York Cosmos, of course.  

- John Howard-Fusco

If you enjoyed John’s approach to NISA in this article, you should check out his NISA podcast, the Knights Who Say NISA - available on the Protagonist Podcast feed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get podcasts.

Dan Watches NISA: Week Two

Each week, I’ll be writing a recap of the NISA matches, give my thoughts on the matches and give a short power ranking of the clubs at the end. All matches were watched on Mycujoo, because I don’t live within 500 miles of any NISA clubs. Matches will be in random order.

Week 2 in the books. Two draws and a win, there’s going to be weeks like this in any league. Certainly hard to match the intensity and excitement of week 1, especially with Chattanooga and DCFC on bye weeks. But we’ll soldier on! Time to look at the matches of week 2.

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LA Force 1 - Stumptown 1

• A note on officials - Has anyone noticed how many women officials there have been in these matches? Three matches tonight and two of them had head officials that were women and (at least) one had a woman as a side judge. I haven’t heard any specific talk about this from the league and maybe it’s just a coincidence, but this is a great move on the part of the league. Honestly, they should be trumpeting it. And, as my podcast cohost John would say “if you aren’t noticing the officials, they’re doing a good job.” So far so good!

• It’s clear to me that Stumptown is taking the “fire at will” approach early in matches. Long shots, yards outside of the box, are flying in both their matches so far this season. Funny enough their goal this match was more build up play, but they are definitely trying to test the keeper early and often AND from distance.

• Pitch notes - this match had the best looking rug of the evening. Oakland has that patchwork abomination they bought and 1904 FC is playing on a football field. Yikes.

1904 FC 0 - Cal United Strikers FC 0

• There are different kinds of draws. There are the kind where both teams score goals and end up even at the end of the match. There are the kind where the keepers stone their opponents and it ends in a stalemate. Then there are the kind where the viewers are bored out of their minds the entire match…

• Cal United looked flat this match, especially compared to Week 1. Not sure if the hour commute really wore them out, but they looked disinterested and slow, almost as bored as I was watching the match. I kept waiting to see the slick passes and smooth interchange between players of Week 1 and the club looked zombie-like instead. Just not there in the way I expected. They could have won this match and left one on the table. Hope it doesn’t bite them in the ass at the end of the season.

• Oh, but 1904 woke up in extra time. Suddenly all the pressure in the world was coming from San Diego. I guess they were well rested from being so slow and disengaged all match? They looked dangerous and aggressive in the few minutes of extra time, in a way they hadn’t looked the entire match. More of that please, 1904!

Oakland Roots 2 - Michigan Stars 1

• I’ve said it multiple times already, but Stars deserve more points than the goose egg they are sitting on right now. They’ve played long stretches of punishing, patient defense, and each match they’ve conceded and lost the match. You work that hard, you deserve more credit and certainly a point or two.

• Jack McInerney continues to be the most dangerous man in NISA. 8 goals in 8 matches. He could have gotten two more than his lone goal in this match. He had one called back for offsides (debatable) and a second went off the crossbar. I’ll predict it now, barring some crazy matches from another player, JackMac will end the season as the golden boot winner.

• First win for Oakland. Big deal. Glad they didn’t blow it in the final minutes.

• Michigan Stars looked downright threatening in the second half. Scoring chances, good passing, and all without their defense falling apart. I think it might be time to rethink their bunkering strategy and look for something more balanced. They have the attacking talent on the roster, let those horses run.

That’s it for this week. Check out our Protagonist Podcast feed on almost every major podcast outlet, brand new episode of Knights Who Say NISA out Monday night. Every match recapped and broken down by Dan Vaughn and John Howard-Fusco.

- Dan Vaughn

NISA Week 2 Preview

John Howard-Fusco is half of the Knights Who Say NISA podcast. He dug into the upcoming weekend and has the preview of every match.

LA Force v Stumptown Athletic

Friday, 3/6 10:30PM ET

Jesse Owens Stadium, Cal State LA, Los Angeles CA

It’s an All-Cali Weekend as all three matches in NISA will be played on the left coast. LA Force is once again hosting some Friday night footy, with Stumptown Athletic making its first cross-country journey. The home team needs to find some offense, and possibly a few more fans in the stands. Facing Detroit City FC in its opening match was a tall order, but LA Force showed some capacity to press and create chances.

Stumptown demonstrated some offensive prowess in its opening draw with 1904 FC and look to continue their scoring ways. The midfield earned both goals last week, between Tate Robertson’s wonder strike off a free kick from distance and pacy Jalen Brown delivering the other.

Should Stumptown come away with a result, we must give this club some early consideration for being a potential playoff candidate.        

Oakland Roots v Michigan Stars FC

Saturday, 3/7 8:10PM ET

Laney College Football Stadium, Oakland CA

The Roots played a rock-‘em, sock-‘em 1-1 draw with Chattanooga FC last weekend, the highlight match of NISA’s opening card of games. And while Michigan Stars may not be the same level of opponent, their defense will deliver plenty of rock-‘em and sock-‘em. It will be interesting to see how the capacity home crowd will react to seeing their local lads get a little roughed up.

In comparison to last week’s game, don’t expect the same back and forth kind of action from Oakland. Expect Michigan to bog down the middle and look to counter. But with a poacher like Jack McInerney, the Roots may only need one chance to break through.   

The Roots produced a limited-edition T-shirt celebrating McInerney’s game-tying goal from last week. Just imagine what will happen if they win a game. This is the game they need to win.

1904 FC v Cal United Strikers FC

Sunday, 3/8 8PM ET

Lincoln High School, San Diego CA

Fifteen goals given up in six games during the fall, 1904 gave up two more in the opener against Stumptown Athletic. So who’s coming to the club’s home opener? Why, it’s Gustavo Villalobos, Christian Thierjung et al from Cal United – the club that handed Ought Four losses of 3-0 and 4-1 last fall. Yikes.

The good news is that it is 1904’s home opener, and playing their home games at Lincoln High School’s field should help create a more lively atmosphere. Will it help in the win column? That all depends if the club can do a similar job in slowing down Cal United that Michigan Stars did last week. It says here that’s not likely to happen.

With back-to-back games against 1904, along with Detroit City FC having two weeks off, Cal United has a chance to be the spring season’s early pace setters.

Dan Watches NISA: Week One

Each week, I’ll be writing a recap of the NISA matches, give my thoughts on the matches and give a short power ranking of the clubs at the end. All matches were watched on Mycujoo, because I don’t live within 500 miles of any NISA clubs. Matches will be in random order.

What a week 1! Great rollout for the league with solid attendance in two of four matches and close to 15,000 views of the matches through their online platform partner, Mycujoo. For the most part the broadcasts looked and sounded professional, offering a great connecting point for potential fans of the league. The matches were exciting and delivered goals, cards, and some late minute heroics. I, for one, enjoyed every second of this week’s matches, so let’s get into them.

Oakland 1 - Chattanooga 1

• Several production points and a general point about the pitch. First, Roots (as I guess I should have expected) had the best production of the week. The broadcast also featured the only REAL advertising I spotted this weekend. Even the opening lineups were sponsored. In the end, to survive you have to make money, Roots appear to be in the groove on that part. Laney looked good in the broadcast, with a large crowd, over 5k. But the FIELD. Ugliest field in the history of soccer. Just looked like trash. Gotta find a way to get onto a better rug.

• The match itself was a banger. Hella enjoyable. Both sides looked aggressive and hungry, so early in the season, with all the issues Chatta faced in the preseason, that’s exceptional.

• The goal for Chatta, how was McGrath THAT open? Defenders fell asleep on that one.

• The red card to Hines was the softest red I’ve seen. Yes, he tried to pull the ball from McGrath, but that happens 10 times a match. Defender was stalling to let his defense get into shape and the attacking player was trying to get the ball rolling. And that’s when the ref reaches into his back pocket, so the resulting bump between the players wan’t the trigger, it was the original struggle for the ball. I don’t get it. Shaped the entire rest of the match. Sucks.

• Jack McInerney is a bad man. Dangerous the entire match, multiple scoring chances. He will be a handful all season and I bet his kit will be a hot item for Oakland. The equalizer was a thing of beauty and was the best moment of Week one. If you haven’t seen it, skip to 5:40 and you’re welcome.

Stumptown Athletic 2 - San Diego 1904 2

• Didn’t expect this match to be as good as it was, but Stumptown looked better than I expected, especially considering their disappointing Fall campaign.

• On the production side, went with a solo announcer and dude seemed a little lonely. He was fine, but could have used someone to bounce conversation off. The camera angle was poorly chosen, with an empty field beyond the sideline, fans are part of the match, SHOW them - though it sounded pretty poorly attended on the feed.

• Stumptown kits look good. I like that pattern/gradient combo look. Solid. And SD1904 has maybe the blandest uniforms in NISA. White. Neat. Ok.

• Tate Robertson’s goal, what a banger. That was easily 30 yards out. Crushed it. 

• That first goal for San Diego was ugly. Just a ball in the scrum happening to fall into the net.

LA Force 0 - Detroit City FC 2

• Definitely the match everyone wanted to see on Mycujoo, drawing close to 6,000 views. Easily dwarfing the number of people there to see the match. LA needs to get things together and connect with their market. They are SLOW on social media and the shots posted on twitter of their stands showed a basically empty stadium. Some claimed it was close to a thousand and to those people I say, you’re nuts. I’d guess 400 max. And that included the guys from Michigan Stars who played the next day. If you can’t draw a crowd to see Detroit City come to town, I don’t understand.

• This match was a tale of two halves, with Detroit dominating possession in the first half and LA becoming the aggressor in the second half. The difference, DCFC converted their chances. The first goal resulted from a set piece, when a deflected ball was passed to Matt Lewis, who buried the shot.

• Both clubs pressed this entire match. It was FUN to watch.

• Roddy Green’s goal, which made little difference in the result, was beautiful. The result of Detroit’s press, he could have passed once in the box, but finished confidently. Dude signed his pro contract 5 days earlier. Ice cold.

• One player that caught my eye for Detroit was Tendai Jirira who is listed as a defender on the roster. He is silky smooth on the ball. He has a touch that won’t quit. I was very impressed with his play the entire match.

• Detroit is going to be very good this season.

California United 1 - 0 Michigan Stars

• So the announcer has European charm and gravitas, that’s fine. But did he have to constantly refer to the Michigan Stars as “the red men” the ENTIRE match. The red men sounds vaguely racist, though that wasn’t his intent. If anything, it just sounded dumb. What also sounds dumb is the other announcer calling NISA “N-I-S-A” the entire match. Everyone calls it NISA (nee-suh), get with it, dude.

• Crowd at the match looked legit, filled most of the stands, but would have loved to see a little more “soccer” things - flags, smoke, drums. Maybe there are bans at the stadium?

• Michigan Stars play HARD ASS defense. Aggressive tackles, studs up, teeth clattering challenges, two early yellow cards didn’t stop them from beating up Cal United the rest of the match. The stacked their lines most of the match, bunker style, 9 players against their own box, with a single roving attacking player trying to pick off a pass. I suspect they will end the season with the most cards AND give up the fewest goals.

• The goal for Cal United was interesting because the shot from Michael Bryant was from so far out. Far enough out that, if he was off target he would have been WAAAAYYYY off target. Instead he smashed it and the keeper couldn’t cleanly handle it, spilling the ball into the path of Kevin Jeon, who finished it off.

• Two Cal United players caught my eye. First, Gustavo Viallobos’ footwork and ball handling were a thing of beauty the entire match. The other was 15 year old Shane Kaemerie, who came on as a sub. He’s a product of Cal United’s academy and an exciting prospect for the club. You love to see the next generation.

Dan’s NISA Week 1 Power Rankings

1. Detroit City FC

2. Cal United

3. Stumptown Athletic

4. Chattanooga FC

5. SD 1904

6. Oakland Roots

7. Michigan Stars

8. LA Force

Editor’s Note: There was a point about who owns the rights to DCFC’s Matt Lewis. This was deleted when a twitter user corrected us.

Ranking the NISA Home Openers

For those that missed it, NISA put out a list of the home openers for the Spring 2020 season. With the first match kicking off on the weekend of February 29, we’re sitting 6 weeks out from the kick-off of the expanded season of NISA play with the addition of Chattanooga, Detroit City, and Michigan Stars. The full schedule won’t be released until later this month, so for now, let’s rank the home openers.

- Dan

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★

Stumptown Athletic vs. 1904 FC (2/29/20)

Stumptown Athletic was the runner up in the East to Miami FC, but with Philly Fury forfeiting the season and Atlanta SC’s 2 wins coming in matches that Philly vacated, they have a tremendous amount to prove heading into this season. The addition of heavy hitters in the East will mean that task will be even harder. 1904 only managed two wins in the stronger West and will be desperate to start off their season with a win. This will be a match most will skip out on and, with Stumptown’s attendance issues last season, the stands will reflect that.

★★

Cal United Strikers FC vs. Michigan Stars FC (2/29/20)

This isn’t going to come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the NPSL, Michigan Stars was the little brother in a conference dominated by big name clubs, including their fellow NISA expansion, DCFC. Stars have a lot to prove in their league and will have to kick off their season on the road, heading to Orange County to face Cal United Strikers. Strikers finished the last regular season in second position in the standings. They followed that up by beating LA in the playoffs on PKs. Kicking off their season against an unproven NISA expansion side should be a recipe for a quick 3 points.

Chattanooga FC vs. Michigan Stars FC (3/14/20)

CFC is one of two big names to cross over into NISA during the offseason. With their ability to fill Finley, it’s reasonable to expect a crazy crowd for this first professional match for Chatta. The club should make quick work of their fellow ex-Members Cup opponent. Speaking of Members Cup, Michigan finished with only 2 wins and a negative 8 goal differential. Not good, man.

★★★

Michigan Stars FC vs. Los Angeles Force (3/21/20)

So I’ve dunked on Michigan Stars in two previous previews, so let’s give this home opener a 3 star rating. I’d expect the club to be on a losing streak and this will be a chance to bounce back, facing a club that had to travel over 2,000 miles. Is anyone else a little troubled the match is scheduled at a location TBD? Seems a little late in the game for details like that to not be settled. Anyway, back to the match, so good chance for a bounce back for the hosts, EXCEPT their opponent was the regular season champ in the West and lost on PKs in the playoffs. LA Force will have faced DCFC at home for their opener (more on that later) and we don’t know the rest of the schedule yet, but without a doubt this appears on paper to be a big win opportunity for LA.

★★★★

Detroit City FC vs. Oakland Roots (3/21/20)

Detroit City FC heads into NISA with a ton of steam after soundly defeating the rest of the Members Cup participants in the Fall. Detroit really matched their support and swagger with solid play on the field and look to be the favorites of this first season in NISA. Their first NISA opponent at Keyworth will be Oakland Roots, a club that nailed every aspect of their rollout in 2019, except for their on-field play. With a new coach and a renewed roster, Oakland will be looking to match their looks with substance in 2020.

Oakland Roots vs. Chattanooga FC (2/29/20)

Everything I said about Oakland in the previous preview, but now they get to host the other big boy expansion club, Chattanooga FC. It’s a long trip from Chattanooga, so maybe that helps Oakland? Especially considering Oakland draws well, something that CFC rarely has rarely seen outside of Detroit. I think this match is sneaky good and should show us where Oakland is headed into 2020.

★★★★★

Los Angeles Force vs. Detroit City FC (2/29/20)

Yet another match to be played at TBD, but WHAT a match. The 2019 regular season winner from the West hosts the bad boys of Detroit on the first week of the 2020 season. This should bring all the eyes on opening weekend. Circle this match.