We finally made it to October, with the 2024 NISA Playoffs just a few days away. Last week, the NISA league announced that the 2024 NISA regular season champions, Maryland Bobcats FC, would be excluded from the postseason, citing the club not being in compliance with the league or the U.S. Soccer Federation. This latest news has changed the playoff schedule and format dramatically, and now we have one semifinal match as the Michigan Stars FC take on Irvine Zeta FC this weekend. The Los Angeles Force has received a bye and will host the NISA championship next weekend at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach, CA. Before diving into my NISA semifinal preview, I would like to share my thoughts on the Maryland Bobcats situation and where we could go from here.
As I mentioned in my intro, the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) announced last week that the Maryland Bobcats FC are ineligible to participate in the 2024 NISA playoffs due to a lack of compliance with the league and USSF. The club issued a statement on social media responding to their exclusion from the playoffs, stating, “We would love to challenge league officials for the sake of consistency that all standards and expectations that are required of one team is required for all participating teams.” The club also called on the league to be transparent. This decision by the NISA league has caused a lot of backlash on social media, considering this is the best team in NISA this season, leading with 50 points and having 16 wins, which is the most in club history for Maryland. I was surprised by the news and frustrated to see the Bobcats season end like this, especially when the Bobcats had a legit shot of winning a NISA championship. Despite having no playoff match, the Bobcats elected to host its community outreach event over the weekend and play a friendly at the Maryland Soccerplex, defeating Bridge Sports Soccer Club 3-1. The players celebrated their win in front of their fans, celebrated youth night with games and autograph sessions, and closed out their 2024 season. During the match, the club also displayed their 2024 NISA Eastern Conference championship and NISA Independent Cup East regional trophies. Now, everyone is asking, where do we go from here? The Bobcats have removed all mentions of NISA from their bio page on their respective social media pages. It’s hard for me to see a path forward between the Bobcats and the league at the moment regarding next season, but as many of you know, the NISA offseason is long and can be full of twists and turns. I know fans wonder on social media if the Bobcats will leave NISA. If they do, where would they go? If MBFC leaves, how will this impact NISA’s plans for next season if the league loses another community-based club like Maryland after the departures of Chattanooga FC and Flower City Union last offseason? There are so many questions but not many answers at this point. We’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out after the postseason concludes on October 19. Now that I’ve addressed the big story from the past week let’s return to our preview of the lone NISA semifinal matchup this weekend.
It will be the first meeting between these two sides as the Michigan Stars FC (11-3-6, 36 points) travel to California to face Irvine Zeta FC (11-4-3, 37 points) at Championship Stadium on Saturday, October 12. The Michigan Stars enter this match-up after not playing a match in almost a month. Their last matches were back-to-back losses to the Maryland Bobcats FC on September 11 and September 14. The Stars form, as of late, has been a roller coaster. Michigan has technically been winless in their last eight matches (unless you count their recent 3-0 forfeit wins over Savannah, Georgia FC, and CDL). Their last win in a match they played in was a 2-1 victory over Club de Lyon FC on June 2. Their leading goalscorer, Leon Maric, hasn’t scored since August 21 against Maryland. Still, the Stars finished second in the East with 36 points. After the departures of key players Colin Stripling, Niels Lellouch, Brayden Walker, Steven Juncaj, Andres Chalbaud, and Hunter Olson in the middle of the summer, the Stars brought back familiar faces such as Anthony Bowie, Kotaro Umeda, and Iakov Shmelev. I guess the question is, will the Stars be able to snap this run of bad form they’ve been on for months? They have plenty of NISA veterans with championship experience from their 2022 run, so they know what it takes to win it all. The Stars playoff record is 4-0-1.
Irvine Zeta FC have won three out of their last five matches. Those losses came against the Los Angeles Force at home. Zeta FC’s leading goalscorer, George Almeida, leads the team with seven goals, and their goalkeeper, Mitch North, finished the season with six clean sheets. You must keep an eye on key players like Shinya Kadono, Harold Hanson, Alex Culwell, and Andrew Kleszewski. Since this team has some players and coaches that were part of ALBION San Diego last season, that club lost to the Michigan Stars 3-2 in the semifinals last year at Romeo Stadium, so I know players like Kadono, Hanson, and Kleszewski and Head Coach Tyler Silva will be looking to avenge that loss. Another area to watch is the goalkeepers, as I would expect Michigan goalkeeper Tatenda Mkuruva to battle it out against Zeta FC’s Mitch North in the net. The winner of this matchup will face the LA Force next weekend. Will the Stars be able to snap this run of bad form and book a spot in another NISA championship final for the third straight year, or will we get another rematch in the 405 derby in the final for the seventh meeting this season? You might as well call it a game 7 if we get LA vs Zeta FC in the final. We’ll find out on Saturday.
It’s been a while since I wrote a preview article, but that concludes my preview for this weekend’s NISA semifinal match. You can watch the match on NISA+. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. See you all next week.
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