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Winner of Heat and Fuego to host championship

TAMPA, FL – With the Premier Development League Semifinals just one day away, United Soccer Leagues announced Thursday that the winner of the Fresno Fuego and Laredo Heat semifinal match will play host to the winner of the Brooklyn Knights and Michigan Bucks semifinal in the PDL Championship Saturday."The Fuego and Heat are outstanding organizations off the field and leaders in the league in attendance," PDL Director of Operations Lee Cohen said.

"Either club will do an excellent job as hosts of the final based on their regular season and previous postseason hosting experience. They will provide a fantastic atmosphere fitting of a championship event."

Championship host aside, the PDL semifinals present intriguing match-ups as two latin-style clubs in Fresno and Laredo will collide in Texas while the defending champion Bucks play host to 14-seed Brooklyn in a role reversal from last year.

The Match-Ups At A Glance The conference playoff tournaments have become infamous for upsets over the past few years and 2007 was no different as the 14th-seeded Brooklyn Knights shocked the unbeaten regular season champion Hampton Roads Piranhas in the opening match of the postseason 6-5 in seven rounds of penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw through 120 minutes of regulation and overtime play. The Knights then downed their division champion and eighth-seeded Cape Cod Crusaders, who had drubbed Brooklyn the week before 5-0. The Knights will be looking to take inspiration from their semifinal host Michigan, the highest remaining seed at three.

Last year as the 13th overall seed, the Bucks became the lowest seeded team to ever win the league championship, stunning the third-seeded Boulder Rapids Reserve (now Colorado Rapids U23), fourth-seeded Chicago Fire Premier and fifth-seeded Laredo Heat en route to capturing a long-awaited championship.

This year, Michigan tamed the St Louis Lions 4-1 and extinguished division rival Chicago 3-0.

The Laredo Heat, seeded sixth overall in the playoffs, and the Fresno Fuego, seeded ninth, will square off. After missing the playoffs for the first time in their four-year history last year, the Fuego returned to the league semifinals for a second time after previously reaching the final four in 2004. Fresno won the Southwest Division July 21 and came into the playoffs on a four-game unbeaten run. The Fuego burned the Tacoma Tide in their conference semifinal before blanking the BYU Cougars, seeded second overall, 3-0 for the conference title.

Laredo, on the other hand, are looking to return to the PDL championship, where they fell short against the Bucks last year 2-1. The 2006 league finalist Heat locked up a return to the postseason July 14 and clinched the division title July 17. The fourth-year club are in the playoffs for the third straight year and came into the postseason unbeaten in their last five games. Laredo scorched the Central Florida Kraze to open the playoffs before taking a narrow 2-1 decision over the Carolina Dynamo in the conference championship.

Historical Benchmarks It is also the first time since the league adopted a semifinal format in 1997 that two teams have returned to the semifinals in back-to-back seasons.

Should Michigan and Laredo advance to the final, it would be the first time in the 19 years of the league that there would be a rematch in the league championship. Only five teams have even repeated championship game appearances in league history. The Cape Cod Crusaders (2003, 2002), Chicago Sockers (2000, 1999), Central Coast Roadrunners (1997, 1996), Carolina Dynamo (1994, 1993) and Colorado Comets (1990, 1989) all repeated as champions in their back-to-back appearances.

Back-to-back league semifinal appearances are also quite rare as only seven teams, including this year's duo, have accomplished the feat since the semifinal format was set in 1997. In addition to the back-to-back champion Chicago and Cape Cod sides, the San Gabriel Valley Highlanders (1997, 1998) and the Westchester Flames (2000, 2001) found success in their second appearances, going on to win the championship. The Orange County Blue Star (2005, 2006) fell to the eventual champion Des Moines Menace and Michigan Bucks in their repeat appearances.