UPDATED - January 31, 2007

A-League Archives Home

A-League

2002 Season

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlanta Silverbacks - Charleston Battery - Charlotte Eagles

Hampton Roads Mariners - Montreal Impact - Pittsburgh Riverhounds

Richmond Kickers - Rochester Raging Rhinos - Toronto Lynx

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Calgary Storm - Cincinnati Riverhawks - El Paso Patriots

Indiana Blast - Milwaukee Rampage - Minnesota Thunder

Portland Timbers - Seattle Sounders- Vancouver Whitecaps

 

2002 Home - 2002 Results - 2002 Stats

 

2002 FINAL STANDINGS
Before the season, Calgary was promoted from the PDL

Hampton Roads returned from hiatus.
                           
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Northeast Division          GP   W   L   D   GF  GA  BP Pts
Rochester Raging Rhinos     28  17   8   3   38  25   1  72
Montreal Impact             28  16   3   9   39  29   5  72
Toronto Lynx                28  10  13   5   37  35   3  48
Pittsburgh Riverhounds      28   8   5  15   39  44   4  41

Southeast Division          GP   W   L   D   GF  GA  BP Pts
Charleston Battery          28  19   6   3   46  16   7  89
Richmond Kickers            28  13   6   9   44  37   7  65
Atlanta Silverbacks         28  13   2  13   47  44   8  62
Charlotte Eagles            28  10   4  14   46  46   6  50
Hampton Roads Mariners      28   6   3  19   25  57   2  29

WESTERN CONFERENCE
Central Division
            GP   W   L   D   GF  GA  BP Pts
Milwaukee Rampage           28  16   5   7   48  29   6  75
Minnesota Thunder           28  14   5   9   55  35   9  70
Cincinnati Riverhawks       28   8   0  20   35  68   6 *35
Indiana Blast               28   6   4  18   29  67   1  29

Pacific Division            GP   W   L   D   GF  GA  BP Pts
Seattle Sounders            28  23   4   1   71  27  14 107
Portland Timbers            28  13   3  13   47  39   8  63
El Paso Patriots            28  10   7  11   38  48   7  54
Vancouver Whitecaps         28  11   5  12   41  39   5  54
Calgary Storm               28   4   3  21   26  66   3  22
*-deducted 3 points for using an ineligible player.
Win-3pts, Draw-1pt

 

After the season, Milwaukee folded

2002 PLAYOFFS

*-after extra time

First Round (Two-leg aggregate)

Charleston, Rochester, Seattle and Milwaukee receive byes

9/5/02   Richmond    1-1  Atlanta

9/8/02   Atlanta     1-2  Richmond

Richmond advance on 3-2 aggregate

 

9/4/02   Charlotte  1-0  Montreal

9/8/02   Montreal   1-0  Charlotte

Aggregate drawn 1-1

Montreal advance on penalty kicks, 6-5

 

9/5/02   Portland    0-1  Vancouver

9/7/02   Vancouver   1-0  Portland

Vancouver advance on 2-0 aggregate

 

9/5/02   El Paso     1-2  Minnesota

9/7/02   Minnesota   1-1  El Paso

Minnesota advance 3-2 aggregate

 

Second Round (Two-legs aggregate)

9/13/02  Charleston  2-1  Richmond

9/15/02  Richmond    3-1  Charleston

Toronto advance on 4-3 aggregate

 

9/12/02  Montreal    0-0  Rochester

9/14/02  Rochester   1-0  Montreal

Rochester advance on 1-0 aggregate

 

9/13/02  Vancouver   2-0  Seattle

9/15/02  Seattle     2-6  Vancouver

Vancouver advance on 8-2 aggregate

 

9/12/02  Minnesota   0-0  Milwaukee

9/14/02  Milwaukee   2-1  Minnesota

Minnesota advance on 2-1 aggregate

 

Semifinals (Two-legs aggregate)

9/19/02  Richmond    1-1  Rochester

9/21/02  Rochester   0-0* Richmond

aggregate drawn 1-1

Richmond advance on penalty kicks, 9-8

 

9/19/02  Vancouver   0-0  Milwaukee

9/21/02  Milwaukee   2-1* Vancouver

Milwaukee advance on 2-1 aggregate after extra time

 

A-League Championship

9/28/02  Milwaukee   2-1* Richmond

Leading Goalscorers

McKinley Tennyson, Portland       18

Fadi Afash, Portland              18

Eduardo Sebrango                  18

Brian Ching, Seattle              16

Leighton O'Brien, Seattle         13

Johnny Torres, Minnesota          12

Niki Budalic, Toronro             12

Ryan Lucas, Toronto               11

Josh Henderson, Richmond          11

Johnny Menyongar, Minnesota       10

Dustin Swinehart, Charlotte       10

John Wolyniec, Milwaukee          10

Velko Iotov, Atlanta              10

Rodrigo Costa, Indiana            10

 

Goalkeeping Leaders                GAA

Dusty Hudock, Charleston           0.60

Pat Onstad, Rochester              0.75

Greg Sutton, Montreal              0.99

Preston Burpo, Seattle             1.00

Dan Popik, Milwaukee               1.09

Ronnie Pascale, Richmond           1.15

Alex Marques, Vancouver            1.15

Theo Zagar, Toronto                1.19

John Lowry, Minnesota              1.24

Randy Dedini, Pittsburgh           1.27


2002 A-League Award Winners

Most Valuable Player:  Leighton O'Brien, Seattle Sounders
Goalkeeper of the Year:  Dusty Hudock, Charleston Battery
Defender of the Year:  Mark Watson, Charleston Battery
Rookie of the Year:  Niki Budalic, Toronto Lynx
Coach of the Year: Brian Schmetzer, Seattle Sounders

2002 A-League First XI

G - Dusty Hudock, Charleston Battery
D - Gabriel Gervais, Montreal Impact
D - Destin Makumbu, Milwaukee Rampage
D - Mark Watson, Charleston Battery
M - Andrew Gregor, Seattle Sounders
M - Leighton O'Brien, Seattle Sounders
M - Brian Piesner, Atlanta Silverbacks
M - Lenin Steenkamp, Rochester Ragin' Rhinos
F - Brian Ching, Seattle Sounders
F - Eduardo Sebrango, Montreal Impact
F - McKinley Tennyson, Portland Timbers

 

Home Attendance     G    Total    Avg.

Rochester          14  140,109   10,008

Portland           14   87,648    6,261

Montreal           14   72,486    5,178

Seattle            14   57,223    4,087

Minnesota          14   54,072    3,862

Vancouver          14   52,762    3,769

Charleston         14   46,483    3,320

Richmond           14   34,029    2,431

Pittsburgh         14   31,829    2,274

El Paso            14   31,165    2,226

Indiana            14   30,415    2,173

Milwaukee          14   28,805    2,058

Toronto            14   24,216    1,730

Calgary            14   20,408    1,458

Charlotte          14   15,133    1,081

Hampton Roads      14   14,249    1,018

Atlanta            14   14,079    1,006

Cincinnati         14   10,274      734

LEAGUE            252   764,55    3,034

 

Overview of the 2001 A-League Season - From the American Soccer History Archives

This season, the Calgary Storm were promoted up from the PDL, and Hampton Roads returned from a 1 year layoff. They partially made up for the loss of the relegated Connecticut and Long Island franchises, as well as San Diego and Hershey which folded.. A number of players waived by MLS found their way to the A-League. The Charleston Battery picked up Eric Wynalda, Raul Diaz Arce, Andrew Lewis, Mark Watson and Justin Evans. Pittsburgh Riverhounds added Mario Gori and Henry Gutierrez, and former Project 40 players Tim Sahyadak and Mike Green, among others. Other clubs were more sparing, cognizant of their limited budgets, although Minnesota did sign three ex-MLS'ers including former Revolution star Johnny Torres.

The league was reorganized into four divisions this season, based on geographical lines. The Eastern divisions saw some tight races develop, with a battle between Rochester and Pittsburgh in the East and Charlotte and Atlanta in the Southeast, but Milwaukee and Seattle took command of the Central and Pacific divisions right from the get-go. Seattle was simply unstoppable this season, cruising to a 21-1-4 record, nearly doubling the points earned by second place Portland. Milwaukee had to fend off Minnesota almost to the end before taking the Central Title. Charleston had an easier time of it, winning the Southeast division with a comfortable lead over Richmond. Rochester and Montreal had a real dogfight in the Northeast, finishing tied at 60 points, with Rochester winning 1st place on total wins.

Rochester and Milwaukee continued their success into the playoffs, winning the conference finals, but Charleston was upset by Richmond, and the Vancouver Whitecaps, a sub .500 team, stunned Seattle by outscoring them 8-2 in the two-leg series, and took Milwaukee into OT before succumbing in the semifinals. Likewise, Richmond needed OT to finally dispatch the tenacious Rhinos. Milwaukee retained the league trophy, defeating Richmond 2-1 for their 2nd consecutive title. The two teams battled without scoring until the final seconds of the first half when John Wolyniec took an Angel Rivillo pass into the box, cut across the middle, marked by three defenders. He pivoted, headed back and took a right footed shot from 10 yards than landed to give Milwaukee a 1-0 lead. The Rampage defense held for 15 minutes when Richmond's Marco Ferruzzi converted a penalty kick. Milwaukee got a penalty kick five minutes later but failed to capitalize. The two teams battled fruitlessly through the remainder of regulation and the first overtime period. But the game was decided less than a minute into double overtime as Sinisa Angelovski, a fresh substitute, got the ball which squirted out from a battle between Wolyniec and Richmond's Chris Fox, and sent in a 19 yard shot for the game winner.

Total attendance fell to 764,554, mainly due to the loss of three teams, but average game attendance rose from 2,954 to 3,034 fans per game. In a welcome development, the A-League did not lose a single franchise after the season, and in fact added a franchise in Syracuse while Hampton roads moved across the bay to Virginia Beach's new SportsPlex.

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