Last season, the Richmond Kickers pulled away from the pack as they cruised to the regular season championship and, ultimately, the league title. The Harrisburg City Islanders and expansion Cleveland City Stars made it a photo finish in 2007 as the race came down to the final weekend of the campaign.

It was apparent early in the season that the foursome of Richmond, Harrisburg, Cleveland and the perennial power Charlotte Eagles were pulling clear from the rest of the league in the chase for the postseason. Charlotte took the early lead in the table courtesy of a front-loaded schedule, but the lead faded as the others continued to keep pace, including the first-year City Stars, who went unbeaten through their first nine before suffering their first and only loss of the campaign to the Eagles.

The final weekend of the campaign saw the four hottest clubs in the league facing one another with Richmond hosting Cleveland and Harrisburg taking on the red-hot expansion Crystal Palace Baltimore side that had reversed their fortunes midseason and came just short of playoff contention.

Baltimore capped their remarkable second-half campaign with a 1-0 road victory over Harrisburg to finish the season 9-6-5 after losing their first four games, running off a string of 6-1-1 over the last eight. Harrisburg’s loss left the other match to determine the regular season champion, but a 1-1 draw would give the Kickers the league title by two points over Cleveland, whose unbeaten second half campaign would give them a second-place finish on the year and the first one-loss campaign (10-1-9) in the league since 1998, the first since draws were introduced in 2000.

Richmond and Cleveland, the two unbeatens at home on the season, would host the semifinals with the Kickers prevailing in a 2-1 overtime thriller against Charlotte and Cleveland suffering their first-ever home loss 1-0, also in overtime.

In a thrilling final between two clubs that reached the US Open Cup Quarterfinals with wins over MLS teams, Richmond’s home unbeaten status for the season would remain intact. But it was the visiting City Islanders raising the cup after winning the championship in the penalty kick tiebreaker after a 1-1 draw. Harrisburg got on the board first just before the break and the Kickers leveled 15 minutes from time. The pair battled through overtime and needed nine rounds of penalties to find a winner with Harrisburg prevailing 8-7.

In a way, it was a just finish to a spectacular season as Harrisburg was the lone club of the fantastic four that went unheralded into the final in individual honors. Charlotte’s Jacob Coggins captured the scoring honors for the third time in four years. Richmond’s Mike Burke finished as the assist leader and Cleveland’s Hunter Gilstrap would capture the GAA Championship. Richmond goalie Ronnie Pascale would net Goalkeeper of the Year and Cleveland’s Mark Schulte (Defender of the Year) and Martin Rennie (Coach of the Year) would join league MVP Mike Burke among the major award winners.