CARY -- One way or another, whether it's tonight or two weeks from now, in victory or defeat, something is coming to an end for the Carolina RailHawks.
Martin Rennie, who in three years built the RailHawks into the best team in the NASL, is leaving for the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS when the season ends.
Players will come and go, as they always do at this level of soccer, but coaches build the foundation, and few have proven themselves better at it than Rennie.
When the RailHawks fell short last year, losing in the championship series to Puerto Rico, there was still a sense that the franchise was moving in the right direction - one validated by the remarkable season the RailHawks put together this year.
Now, after a 1-0 loss to the NSC Minnesota Stars in the first leg of their total-goals NASL semifinal series, they find their season on the line tonight.
Win, and they move on to the finals, again. Lose or draw, and everything Rennie built here will be for naught.
"That's just the nature of this league that there's changes every year," Rennie said. "This year there's a change with the coach, so that will make a difference as well, but every year there's a lot of changes and there are a lot of new players on this team compared to the last team.
"I think it's more just a sense of purpose. Our purpose is to win the championship having already won the regular-season title, to do that would give us the perfect season, and that's what we're really focused on."
Nothing short of a championship will be good enough for the RailHawks, who were a preposterous 12-1-1 in the first half of the season, with Maltese forward Etienne Barbara scoring at a record pace.
"We want to win everything," Barbara said. "We won the league, now we're going for the championship. We want to make the double. Martin will leave. Some of the players are definitely going to go too. A championship is something meant to last."
A win tonight would serve another purpose. It would remove the sour taste from the mouths of the players, who have now lost five straight games, including the final game of the regular season three weeks ago where they paraded the NASL regular-season trophy around WakeMed Soccer Park in slightly halfhearted fashion after a 2-1 loss to the same Minnesota team they'll face again tonight.
Once runaway leaders in the league by as many as 16 points, the RailHawks ended up finishing first by only two points. They have one last chance to play the way that got them here, one last chance to recapture that feeling.
"It was like ... magic," Barbara said, searching for the right word. "Everything was going the right way. We're trying to get that spirit again."
It comes down to this, one last chance, in front of a home crowd that has steadily grown throughout the season. Win, and the RailHawks will play for the title again. It's that simple.
"I believe we are the best team when we play to our best," Rennie said. "It's just a case of finding that best form again. It would mean a lot, just because the players deserve it and the front office deserves it and I would like to leave knowing that I've made the club better than it was when I came here."
Rennie has certainly done that, but the job won't be complete without a title. For this team, anything less than a championship won't be enough.
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When: 7 p.m. today
Where: WakeMed Soccer Park,
Cary
