Ocean City Barons Press Release - www.ocbarons.com
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Ocean City, NJ - After a season that has included an incredible run in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the Ocean City Barons (8-4-3) need just a win or a tie in their season finale to add a playoff berth to their 2009 resume. On Sunday, July 18th they host the New Jersey Rangers (2-11-2) at Carey Stadium, seeking their fourth trip to the PDL playoffs in the last six seasons.
Luckily for Ocean City, they will know exactly what they have to do by the time they kick off against New Jersey at 7 p.m. The other way the Barons can clinch a spot in the post-season is based on the result of a game that kicks off four hours prior.
The Brooklyn Knights (7-5-3, 24 points), who trail the Barons by three points in the standings, travel to Ottawa to take on the undefeated Fury (11-0-4). If they lose or draw with Ottawa, Ocean City will punch their ticket to the playoffs. If the Knights win and the Barons lose, the Knights would finish tied with O.C. for third place and would move on to the playoffs based on the head-to-head tiebreaker as Brooklyn won both regular season meetings against the Men In Red.
If history has anything to say about the result of Sunday's match, and it often doesn't, the Barons are the favorites heading into Sunday's finale. Since New Jersey joined the league in 2008, the two clubs have met four times, with Ocean City winning all four meetings by a combined score of 16-3.
In their last encounter on July 7 in Denville, NJ, the Barons took the lead twice, only to have the Rangers equalize each time. The back and forth battle would conclude with Byron Carmichael scoring his second goal of the game and his 50th in his Barons career in the 60th minute. J.T. Noone would score a penalty kick and set up Carmichael's first goal, while William Swetra assisted on the game-winner, his team-leading fifth of the year.
If the Barons are able to win on Sunday, they will have the second best home record in the entire PDL since they joined the league in 2003. Out of the 68 teams in the league, only the Chicago Fire PDL squad has a better record during those seven seasons.
The Rangers have struggled all season long, with their only wins coming against the Newark Ironbound Express (3-2 on June 2) and the Westchester Flames (2-1 on June 20). Since that win against Westchester on June 20, they have lost six straight games by a combined score of 18-3. Although progress has been made from the year before in terms of competing with nine of their 15 games this year being either a draw or a one-goal game. Their record in one-goal games is 2-5.
If the Barons are able to make the playoffs, they will play their opening round playoff game at Long Island, it's just a matter of when. Here are the potential scenarios:
If Long Island Rough Riders wins the Northeast Division:
Ocean City plays Ottawa at Long Island on Friday, July 24 with the winner playing the Rough Riders the following day at the same site.
If the Ottawa Fury wins the Northeast Division:
Ocean City plays Long Island at Long Island on Wednesday, July 22 with the winner playing the Fury at Ottawa on Saturday, July 25.
Currently Ottawa leads Long Island by two points with one game to play. As mentioned, Brooklyn plays at Ottawa on Sunday, July 19 while Long Island travels to New Hampshire that same day. If Ottawa and Long Island finished tied for first place, Ottawa holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. Both games will be completed before the Barons kick off on Sunday. The Barons will be providing updates from both of those games on their Twitter page at www.twitter.com/oceancitybarons.
