Carolina RailHawks take aim at fall season

The Carolina RailHawks start the second half of the season Saturday. The North American Soccer League’s split-season format means teams like the RailHawks have had about a month off since wrapping up the spring season in early June.

The RailHawks finished third in the spring and start the fall season – which is twice as long because each NASL team plays each other twice instead of once – at 5 p.m. Saturday against the visiting Minnesota United.

At stake is an automatic spot to the fall champ, one of four NASL playoff berths. The New York Cosmos won the spring to clinch their automatic spot, and the two non-champs who end with the next-best overall records will also get berths. The RailHawks were just outside of the final playoff spot last year. Here five things to watch:

1. Goalkeeper roulette

The RailHawks entered the year with Hunter Gilstrap as the starter and Brian Sylvestre as the backup, both hoping to fill in for the departed Akira Fitzgerald. By the end of the spring season, Gilstrap was the backup, Fitzgerald was back to reclaim the starting spot and Sylvestre was starting for a Major League Soccer team.

Fitzgerald, a NASL veteran who was on loan from MLS’ New York City FC, was recently released from NYCFC and the RailHawks will have him for the remainder of the year. Fitzgerald went 2-0-1 (W-L-T) for Carolina with two shutouts and just one goal allowed.

Slyvestre’s loan to the Philadelphia Union has expired, but the Union was reportedly working to acquire him from the RailHawks after he went 4-4-1 with four shutouts.

2. Da Luz on the field?

The RailHawks’ third-place finish in the NASL was surprising if for no other reason than the team’s rash of injuries. None of those injuries was more evidenced than Austin Da Luz’s.

Da Luz spent most of the spring as a color analyst on broadcasts.

The pinpoint passer hopes to play this fall, where he can change the RailHawks drastically with his distribution as a central midfielder.

3. Super-subs needed

A penchant of recent Carolina RailHawks teams was that there was always a goal-scoring threat on the bench who could sub in late and use his fresh legs to pull off a timely goal.

This year’s edition was unable to do that after Simone Bracallelo was injured a few games into the season. Bracallelo’s goal in the opener is the only one scored by a non-starter in the second half this season.

4. Date, time changes

The RailHawks’ spring games were all on Saturdays and all at 7:30 p.m, as the team has aimed to have only Saturday home matches with one consistent start time.

But the fall schedule will be different as teams try to cram in 20 games before Nov. 1, the last day of the regular season.

Carolina will host two matches on Wednesday and two more on Friday. All home start times are 7:30 p.m. except for July 4.

The team will also play three road games on Sunday and one more on Wednesday.

5. Uncertainty remains

There has been no meaningful update in what happens to the franchise now that Aaron Davidson, the president of the company that owns the RailHawks, was indicted in the FIFA corruption scandal in late May.

The team is still functioning, and fans still want to see Traffic Sports USA sell the team to a local owner or let the NASL operate the team until a local owner can be found.

This story was originally published July 3, 2015 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Carolina RailHawks take aim at fall season."