The 2008 USL First Division season may go down as the most amazing campaign in league history. As several clubs rose from the bottom of the table midseason to make the playoffs and others successfully balanced multiple competitions with great success.
In the end, it was the top two seeds in the championship game. But in the beginning it was two completely different stories and expectations. The Puerto Rico Islanders opened the campaign with just one win in their first seven games (1-3-3) while the Vancouver Whitecaps were off to a slow start that relied heavily on defense as they went on to a 7-2-1mark in the first third.
Their paths went in different directions in regards to the non-league theme of the year which saw tremendous success for the league in the US Open Cup and CONCACAF-related competitions. Vancouver lost out on the bid for the Canadian Championship and a spot in the Champions League with a pair of defeats by Montreal while Puerto Rico won their Caribbean qualifier to join the Impact in the Champions League.
While Vancouver, who experienced a brief downturn in fortunes midseason, went on to a steady campaign that would finish one point shy of the regular season title, the Islanders would make an astonishing run up from the bottom of the table.
Facing a daunting series of six road games, the Islanders rebounded from a 1-0 loss in Miami to run off five straight victories, outscoring the opposition 11-3, in the rest of the away stretch. Their return home perhaps spoiled the effort, falling 2-1 to the defending champion Seattle, but they would close out the campaign unbeaten in the final 12 matches (6-0-6), including a mark of 2-0-4 on the road.
The Islanders run to finish out the season was exponentially impressive considering they also squeezed in three wins and two draws in Champions League Preliminary Round and Group Phase matches into the mix for an astonishing 17-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
Puerto Rico was not the only team to show great strength in recovering from a bad start. The Rochester Rhinos and Montreal Impact also made similar climbs from the bottom of the table. After a 0-4-3 start, the Rhinos began a steady climb under first-year coach Darren Tilley to finish fourth on the year. Montreal was at the bottom of the table with a record of 2-6-2 when John Limniatis was installed in a coaching change.
Limniatis immediately began to make a difference, guiding the club to the Canadian Championship and posting a mark of 10-6-4 to reach third in the league table. Like Puerto Rico, the team’s rise to the top portion of the standings was accompanied by an incredible unbeaten run in the Champions League as they went 4-0-2 in the Preliminary Round and Group Phase.
While Montreal and Puerto Rico were making headlines in the Champions League, the American USL sides were following suit in the US Open Cup with Seattle and Charleston marking only the second time two semifinalists hailed from USL in a single year since MLS started in 1996. The Battery eliminated Seattle in the final four to become the third USL team to have a shot at the title in the MLS era, only to see their hopes dash in a thrilling 2-1 road loss to DC United.
Although the Quarterfinals and Semifinals went according to the seedings on paper, the playoff rounds were anything but ordinary as the home teams went unbeaten in all 10 games, forcing several higher seeds to come from behind to advance.
In the end though, it was a rare meeting of the top two seeds, and as may have been expected given the top two defenses were also facing one another, the final proved to be a tight affair. The difference, however, would be midseason trade acquisition Charles Gbeke as he scored two goals on corner kicks to lead the home side to victory 2-1. Sandy Gbandi scored the loan goal for Puerto Rico to equalize, but it was not enough for the regular season champions as Gbeke scored his second of the half for the win, giving Vancouver, under new coach Teitur Thordarson, its second championship in three years.
