2014 Year in Review

REGULAR SEASON

Several clubs that had made the playoffs in 2013 entered this season in the same good form. After losing in the Semi-Finals, Spartans 1612 opened 2014 to a league record 9 straight wins before finally losing a match. However, the club could not sustain that momentum in this World Cup year and would eventually have to settle for 3rd place in the league table and 8th place in the MCQ before regaining its strength for its successful playoff run. The club that would finish with the league's best record would be last year's BSL Cup Final runner up,  the Orange County Zodiac, who would only lose 3 times all season to win the 2014 Honors Trophy.  The Alamo City Battle followed up its 16 win season with another 14 wins and clinched another playoff berth, but finished in 5th place in the MCQ thus failing to qualify for the tournament and keeping the Battle from its 3-peat Majors Cup hopes. On the flip side, 2013 BSL Champion Burud Town would struggle with only 6 wins and Ohio became big news after quiting in only week 2. In the derbies, Union Southern California would conquer the California Cup. The Capital District Gunners would win both the Founders Cup and the BSL Classic. The Spartans were kings of New York State again winning the Empire Cup.

PLAYOFFS

The newly created Wildcard Round would feature two BSL orginals in Capital District and Gateway United. The match would be dominated by the Saints bringing the owner his first playoff victory after three failed attempts. In the Semi-Finals, Gateway United would face off against #1 ranked Orange County and lose after the Zodiac would score 5 very late points to win 9-7. The other Semi-Final match featured Alamo City and Spartans 1612 with the New York side advancing. Orange County became the first BSL club to be in back to back BSL Cup Finals, and the game itself was the most competitive and highest scoring in history. After ending in a 7-7 draw, the match would go into PK's with the Spartans winning the clubs first championship and the Zodiac being the runner-up again.

MAJORS CUP

This years tournament featured Orange County and Capital District as the only two clubs to be in both the playoffs and the tournament this year. Union Southern California and Rose City were the other BSL qualifiers. Three of these four BSL clubs would advance out of the group stages, with only Capital District being eliminated. The lone MLS club to advance was Sporting Kansas City. SKC would face Union SC in the Semi-Finals. The Union would defeat Sporting 4-2 to advance the BSL club to its first Majors Cup Final. The other Semi-Final match saw Rose City defeat Orange County. In the MC Finals the Flyers completed a perfect 5 win tournament defeating Union SC 4-3 and winning the club its first Majors Cup Championship.