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RailHawks head to Vancouver for playoffs
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close xAll season, the Carolina RailHawks have set club records and crossed off their own goals, one by one.
After finishing in second place in the regular-season standings, their aim of a top-three finish was complete. Now there's only one more item on Carolina's to-do list.
On Thursday, the USL-1 playoffs start, and the RailHawks' quest for a championship will begin.
"We know that if we play our best we have a chance," coach Martin Rennie said. "We know we have to play our best, but if we do - our absolute best - we do have a chance against any team."
With their first playoff match in Vancouver, the squad flew out to Canada on Tuesday to have an extra day to adjust from the long flight and the three-hour time difference.
Because in a home-and-away series, where the two will face off twice in four days to determine who moves on to the semifinals, there's more to consider than just the few hours on the pitch.
In an away game, the other squad dictates the tempo, which means its Carolina's job just to stay in the game, Rennie said.
"You can let the game come to you a little bit," he noted. "And that can suit us a little bit too, 'cause we've got good players who can win the ball and then attack quickly from that position."
Both the RailHawks and the Whitecaps will have to make a quick return to Cary this weekend, where Rennie said his squad can be a little more creative and loose in a second leg.
With seven squads in the playoffs, the first six will play this weekend before No. 1 Portland joins in the semifinals, when the teams will be reseeded.
Because Carolina ended with the second-best league record, they won't have to face Portland - the only squad in USL they didn't beat this season - until the finals, if both make it.
But Rennie's not focusing on a finals matchup yet - he's more concerned about the two rounds that would come before that.
The RailHawks play the Whitecaps in Vancouver at 10:30 p.m. Thursday. The game can be viewed on www.usllive.com.
On Sunday the RailHawks return to face off in the second leg at 5 p.m. at WakeMed Soccer Park.
Shields named to USL-1 Team
Carolina RailHawks defender Greg Shields was named to the season's final USL-1 Team of the Week on Tuesday.
Shields is the 18th different RailHawk and seventh different defender to earn a Team of the Week selection this season. And it is the 17th time this year at least one Carolina player has made a Team of the Week.
From RailHawks news release
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