A-League 2002 Season

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

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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