A-League

Richmond, Milwaukee meet to decide championship.

MILWAUKEE (Thursday, September 26, 2002) -- It has been five years since the A-League championship featured two new teams from the year before, but the 2002 finalists are familiar to league championship matches.

The Milwaukee Rampage takes on the Richmond Kickers Saturday night at the Milwaukee Rampage Sports Complex. The 8 p.m. (ET) match to decide the U.S. second-divison professional champion will be televised on Fox Ports World.

Milwaukee is five years removed from its 1997 A-League title, a 2-1 shootout victory over the Carolina Dynamo. The Kickers are longing to return to glory since winning the Premier Development League (fourth division) crown in 1995.

Richmond also won the U.S. Open Cup in 1995, bringing two titles to the Milwaukee Rampage Sports Complex Saturday night.

The three previous meetings between the teams over the last two years have finished in draws with the lone difference being a series overtime winner for Milwaukee in the A-League playoff quarterfinals last year. The clubs played to a 2-2 tie in Milwaukee in the first leg and a 1-1 draw in Richmond in the second leg, sending the series into a sudden-death mini-game tiebreaker.

Three minutes into extra time, Alen Soso scored the series winner to send the Rampage on to face eventual champion Rochester in the semifinals.

This season, the two teams drew 1-1 in Milwaukee on June 16.

Richmond's Josh Henderson scored in all three games. He scored the opening goal in the first leg of last year's series and a 90th minute equalizer on a penalty kick in the second leg. In this season's tilt, Henderson opened the scoring in the 31st minute with Milwaukee's Matt Bobo finding net to level the game in the 71st.

Richmond has two former Rampage players on its roster. An original Kicker in 1993, Khary Stockton helped lead the club leading the club to the PDL and U.S. Open Cup titles in 1995 before moving on to play for Milwaukee in 1996. He played for three other teams before returning to Milwaukee in 2001 and then Richmond this season.

After bouncing back and forth between the A-League and MLS in 1999 and 2000, David Hayes became a regular for the Rampage in 2001, seeing action in 24 games. During the offseason, Hayes moved on to Richmond.

Milwaukee midfielder Jeff Bilyk and Richmond goalkeeper Ronnie Pascale played club soccer together in New York.

Both sides will look a little different from their previous three meetings.

In this season's earlier matchup, both clubs fielded backup goalkeepers with the Chicago Fire's Henry Ring in goal for Milwaukee and Cincinnati's Michael Ueltschey minding the net for Richmond, which originally drafted the goalkeeper. In 2001's playoff series, Mike McGinty, who is now with D.C. United, was Richmond's starting goalkeeper. Regular starters Dan Popik (Milwaukee) and Ronnie Pascale (Richmond) are expected to play Saturday.

The 2000 A-League Most Valuable Player Digital Takawira, who tallied a goal and an assist in the first leg of last year's playoff series, will not be in action for Milwaukee because of a season-ending injury, a broken right ankle suffered August 30 against Minnesota.

The game is expected to be a low-scoring defensive affair with Milwaukee missing Takawira and midseason addition Ranko Golijanin, a forward who proved an immediate offensive impact before suffering a left medial collateral sprain against Cincinnati August 18.

Missing the two impact players up front, the normally attack-minded Rampage switched into a more defensive mode to close the season and for its playoff run. Milwaukee scored seven goals, six in a blowout against Cincinnati, in their final four games without the duo. Through four playoff games, the Rampage has one victory and three ties with four goals for and two against, winning both series 2-1 on aggregate.

Despite finishing eighth in goals for on the season with 44, Richmond has had trouble recently finding the net. The club finished the regular with three straight losses, scoring only two goals. The Kickers were shutout 1-0 in their final two games at Charlotte and against Charleston at home, respectively.

Through six postseason matches, Richmond is 2-1-3 with eight goals scored and six allowed. After a first-leg 1-1 draw against Rochester in the Eastern Conference final, the Kickers advanced via penalty kicks with Pascale converting the winner in the ninth round of the tiebreaker to win 9-8 after 120 minutes of scoreless soccer in Rochester.

Henderson, however, scored a goal in each series and is atop the 2002 A-League playoff scoring table with seven points. Conversely, Milwaukee's leading scorer is defender Bobo, who scored two goals in their last outing on corner kicks to defeat the Vancouver Whitecaps. Bobo leveled the game and aggregate score in the 56th minute to send the series to overtime, where he scored his second header of the night 11 minutes into extra time.

Milwaukee's defense, which tied for third in the league with 29 goals allowed, could be in trouble Saturday with Jeremy Aldrich doubtful with a left hamstring injury suffered in the second leg against Vancouver. Aldrich was a key component of the back line along with Destin Makumbu, who was named the A-League "Yung Defensive Player of the Year."