NPSL Week 3 Review/Preview: South Region

South Atlantic Conference

Myrtle Beach Mutiny won a 3-2 shootout with Gate City and tied Carolina Railhawks at 1 last week to stay at the top of the ladder with 7 points. Upward Stars are one point back after having the week off. Gate City and FC Carolina Discoveries are tied with three points and the Railhawks U-23 are still looking for their first win.

This week, Carolina plays at Upward and the Railhawks are at Myrtle Beach and travel to Gate City.

South Central Conference

This is the conference that seems to have the biggest amount of offense in the league.

Three points separate the top-half of the table from each other.

OKC FC is on top with ten points after five matches. Last time out, they tied Joplin Demize at ones.

Tulsa Athletics finally gave up some goals on the season, but they remain undefeated after their 5-4 win over Liverpool Warriors and are second on nine points. Tulsa's goal difference is plus-19.
((HT: Tulsa Athletics their own selves/Philip Sumner))


Dallas City FC put 12 on BCS Clash to stay in step with 9 points. Joplin Demize are fourth with 7 after a four-point weekend of their own on the road- a win over Liverpool and the draw with OKC FC.

Corinthians are a point behind in fifth after a 4-1 loss to Dallas City and Liverpool have four points on the season after getting a huge three points in a 3-2 win over OKC.

As a side note, Fort Worth Vaqueros hung tough in the first match involving the Trinity River Cup- a 2-0 loss to Dallas City FC. Here's the Vaqueros recap of the day


BCS Clash are still searching for win one this season. They have scored only once while giving up 49.

This week is fairly light with Joplin at Tulsa, Corinthians at BCS, and OKC at Liverpool.

Southeast Conference

The largest story in the NPSL over the last week was the folding of Pensacola City FC and the impact it has had on the league and the PCFC players. OSG Sports continues to cover the story as it develops.

The latest entry can be found as former midfielder Joe-Tyla Butcher addressed the claim by owner Bill Fetke that the team came to a practice "hung over."

The game scheduled with the Georgia Revs has been credited as a 3-0 win for the Revs and OSG Sports is still trying to get word from the league if the rest of the season will be walkovers as well.

Chattanooga shut out Knoxville 4-0 to stay on top
((HT: Mad Kemp))


Nashville FC are second after a 1-1 draw with Rocket City United.
((HT: Williamson Source))


"It was just 'one of those games,'" keeper Stephen Lunney told OSG. "I felt like we dominated the second half and were very unlucky not to score a winning goal in the last 15 minutes. We are extremely motivated now to go on the road this weekend and get a very valuable 3 points away to New Orleans, but we know that it won't be easy. I would also like to point out that the attendance was overwhelming once again. The change of venue did not keep people away and I hope we can continue in this vein for the rest of the season, and beyond."

And the Silverbacks Reserves are third with Rocket City FC at seven points. Silverbacks Reserves beat the New Orleans Jesters 3-1. Sam Carrell scored first to give New Orleans a 1-0 lead, but goals by Fofana, Habtan, and Morgan gave the Silverbacks Reserves the win.

"The game was kinda interesting," Jesters coach Kenneth Farrell told OSG Sports after the game. "I think it should have been 2-0, but then they equalized and took over the rest of the first half. I just don't think we managed the game all that well. They had two good goals and left us chasing the game. We defended well at times, but left areas behind us as well."

"I think, in the beginning, we were trying to handle the temperatures," Silverbacks head coach Alejandro Pombo said. "The players tried to jump in the game for the full 9-0 minutes. But in the second half, we changed things a full 100-percent. Our style was different. We didn't lose passes and we changed it from down 1-0 to a 3-1 win."

This week, the Silverbacks host Knoxville- who only has one game now that Pensacola folded. New Orleans hosts the Georgia Revolution and Nashville. Chattanooga was supposed to host Pensacola as well, but all they'll do now is travel to Rocket City.

Sunshine Conference

Five games in, it's all Miami United- four wins, a draw, and a 7-point gap ahead of Tampa Marauders. Tampa, Storm FC, and Jacksonville United are separated by two points while Cape Coral needs some help- having lost four and drawing one.

This week, Miami hosts Tampa. Tampa plays twice with a game at home against Jacksonville thrown in. Storm FC plays twice- hosting Cape Coral and traveling to Jacksonville.

NPSL: The First Weekend Without PCFC

The only thought is to have the remaining six games be walkovers and let people get their points since they may not play each other in true round-robin fashion. But the end is currently in discussion at the NPSL league level.

The Southeast Conference is one short with the shocking folding of Pensacola City FC and the whole saga is far from being over.

At least, that's the gut feeling at the HQ. PCFC was supposed to play the Georgia Revs Friday night before their next meeting was supposed to be in Chattanooga FC, but that's now in the wind.

As is the rest of their season...

The other teams carried on as they did: Nashville was hosting Rocket City. Chattanooga FC was playing Knoxville Force and New Orleans traveled the eight hours to Atlanta to take on Silverbacks Reserves against that backdrop (pictured right, thanks New Orleans Jesters their own selves). It was as everything was normal save the fold/dissolving/whatever-you-want-to-call-it after only three games into a season.

The opinions have been documented from both sides over the last few days from both ownership and players of the franchise- you can catch up with them hyah for starters...

So, what do the rest of the league think of what has gone down...???

"It surprised me," Silverbacks head coach Alejandro Pombo admitted. "It has never happened before. When you're here, you commit to the league and I have always thought that you end the season. Three years ago, when we were Atlanta FC, we had on-the-field problems. But we finished the season.

"What happened there... that's not the way. You have to figure it out to the end. They were supposed to travel to Chattanooga to play, but now they're not. They should have talked with the league to see if they could get some help to continue to play and finish the season.".

New Orleans Jesters head coach Kenneth Farrell was more matter-of-fact about it:

"Irresponsible. Unprofessional. Embarrassing...

"We can pull together as brothers in times like this," he admitted. "Once you have committed, you have committed to the league. You should have talked to the league about it and figured out what to do. And the league would have done that. You don't blame the league in a situation like this. It happened without them knowing- any of us knowing... we're a good league and you just don't do that."

Sources close to the league that OSG Sports talked to about this raise the standard financial questions. Did the re-branding and name change from the Texans family to PCFC come as a result of partners pulling out and, therefore, create a loss of funds that Bill Fetke counted on for financial stability...? There were plans, we are told, of bringing in players from all corners- including Asia. That did't happen, either.

So, is this a part of a larger cascade for Fetke and PCFC that created the dissolving...???

Only he can answer... and now some of the Internationals on the roster have to still find a way to pay bills and have a roof over their heads starting tomorrow...

And that prospect is daunting at least and scary at most...

More when we know more...