2011 North American Soccer League season

The 2011 North American Soccer League season is the 44th season of second division soccer in the United States and the inaugural season of the newly-revived North American Soccer League.

Earlier in 2011, the league's likelihood of earning second tier sanctioning had been thrown into question when the U.S. Soccer Federation rejected the league in January due to its financial instability.^[2] The USSF gave provisional sanctioning at the annual general meeting in Las Vegas on February 12, 2011.^[3]

Competition format

The NASL debuted in 2011 with 8 teams playing a 28 game regular season schedule, with 14 home and 14 away games, playing each opponent four times. The NASL’s playoff format will consist of the top six teams, with the first two teams receiving a bye until the semifinal round and the remaining four teams playing in a single-game playoff to advance to the semi-finals. The semifinals and the finals will each consist of a two-game home and home aggregate goal system.^[4]

Standings

Updated to games played on September 24, 2011
Source: NASL Standings
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.
Head-to-Head: used when head-to-head record is used to rank tied teams.
In the case of two or more teams are tied on points, the first tie-breaker is the head-to-head record among the tied teams.^[5]
(C) denotes regular season champion.

Results table

Source: NASL results table

Playoffs

The 6 qualifying teams will be given seeds 1 through 6 with the top team in the standings receiving the number 1 seed.

The format of the Playoffs will consist of a Quarterfinal Round, Semifinal Round and a Final Round. The Quarterfinal Round will be a single game while the Semifinal and Final Rounds will each be a 2-game series with each team playing at home once and the team with the greater number of aggregate goals in both games winning each series.

The number 1 seed and the number 2 seed will receive a bye directly to the Semifinal Round while the number 3 seed will host the number 6 seed and the number 4 seed will host the number 5 seed in the Quarterfinal Round.

For the Semifinal Round, the number 1 seed will be paired with the lowest seeded team to qualify from the Quarterfinal Round with the number 2 seed being paired with the highest seeded team to qualify from the Quarterfinal Round.

The winners of each series in the Semifinal Round will meet in the Final Round. In the event of a draw in either Quarterfinal Round game, such game will progress to a 30-minute extra time period (the golden goal rule will not be in effect). If the teams are still locked in a draw following the extra time period, the winner will be determined by a penalty shootout.

In each Semifinal Round series and the Final Round series, if the teams are tied on the number of aggregate goals scored in the series at the conclusion of the second game, the teams will progress to a 30-minute extra time period. As in the Quarterfinal Round, the golden goal rule will not be in effect. If the teams are still locked in a draw following the extra time period, the winner of the series will be determined by a penalty shootout.

Top scorers

Source: North American Soccer League

References

External links

• Official website