2005 United Soccer Leagues

The 2005 Season was the 19th edition of the United Soccer Leagues season.

General

A-League renamed USL First Division.
Pro Soccer League renamed USL Second Division.
The newly renamed top two divisions each become single table.
The Syracuse Salty Dogs, Milwaukee Wave United, Edmonton Aviators, and Calgary Mustangs of the First Division folded following the 2004 season.
The Utah Blitzz of the Second Division folded following the 2004 season.
The Cincinnati Kings joined the Second Division, as an expansion club, for the 2005 season.
The Westchester Flames, San Diego Gauchos, and California Gold switched from the Second Division to the PDL for the 2005 season.

Honors

Competition	Champion	Runner-Up	Regular Season Champion/Best USL team
USL First Division	Seattle Sounders	Richmond Kickers	Montreal Impact
USL Second Division	Charlotte Eagles	Western Mass Pioneers	Western Mass Pioneers
USL PDL	Des Moines Menace	El Paso Patriots	Orange County Blue Star
U.S. Open Cup	Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS)	FC Dallas (MLS)	Minnesota Thunder (Lost in Semi-final)
Voyageurs Cup	Montreal Impact	Vancouver Whitecaps	n/a

First Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Montreal Impact	28	18	3	7	37	15	+22	61	Commissioner's Cup, bye to semifinal round of playoffs
2	Rochester Raging Rhinos	28	15	7	6	45	27	+18	51	Bye to semifinal round of playoffs
3	Vancouver Whitecaps	28	12	7	9	37	21	+16	45	First round of playoffs
4	Seattle Sounders (C)	28	11	6	11	33	25	+8	44
5	Portland Timbers	28	10	9	9	40	42	−2	39^[a]
6	Richmond Kickers	28	10	9	9	28	30	−2	39^[a]
7	Puerto Rico Islanders	28	10	10	8	46	43	+3	38
8	Atlanta Silverbacks	28	10	15	3	40	52	−12	33
9	Charleston Battery	28	9	14	5	27	36	−9	32
10	Minnesota Thunder	28	7	11	10	37	42	−5	31
11	Virginia Beach Mariners	28	7	14	7	26	39	−13	28
12	Toronto Lynx	28	3	17	8	26	50	−24	17

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
(C) Champions
Notes:

^ ^a ^b POR: 4 pts; RIC: 1 pt

Playoffs

Each round except the final was a two-game aggregate goal series decided by extra time and a penalty shoot-out immediately following the second game of the series, if necessary. The away goals rule was not used as a tie-breaker. Tournament was re-seeded after the first round.

Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Finals

					1	Montreal Impact	2	1	3
4	Seattle Sounders	1	2	3	4	Seattle Sounders	2	2	4
5	Portland Timbers	0	0	0						4	Seattle Sounders (p)	1 (4)
										6	Richmond Kickers	1 (3)
					2	Rochester Raging Rhinos	1	1	2
3	Vancouver Whitecaps	0	0	0 (4)	6	Richmond Kickers	1	3	4
6	Richmond Kickers (p)	0	0	0 (5)

Quarterfinals

September 16, 2005

7::00 PM ET

Leg 1

Richmond Kickers	0 – 0	Vancouver Whitecaps
Cephas 13' Worthen 69'	Report	Clarke 58' Dasovic 64'

University of Richmond Stadium
Richmond, Virginia

Attendance: 2,476

Referee: Joe Cardecio

September 18, 2005

10:00 PM ET

Leg 2

Vancouver Whitecaps	0 – 0	Richmond Kickers
Nash 42' Morris 49' Lyall 112'	Report	Brown 15' Williams 99'
Penalties
Corazzin Franks Nash Kindel Dasovic	4–5	Ssjjemba Delicate Gorres Worthen Jeffrey

Swangard Stadium
Burnaby, British Columbia

Attendance: 5,332

Referee: Steve De Piero

Richmond Kickers won 5–4 on Penalty kicks after tying both games 0–0.

September 16, 2005

10:00 PM EDT

First Leg

Portland Timbers	0–1	Seattle Sounders
Miranda 30'	Report	Levesque 2' Scott 32' Sleeth 45' O'Brien 72' Gregor 90'

PGE Park
Portland, Oregon

Attendance: 5,667

Referee: Yader Reyes

September 18, 2005

10:00 PM EDT

Seattle Sounders	2–0	Portland Timbers
Levesque 5', 54' O'Brien 29'	Report	Marcum 17' Alvarez 22' Lines 25' 27'

Starfire Sports Complex
Tukwila, Washington

Attendance: 2,543

Referee: Fotis Bazakos

Seattle Sounders won 3–0 on Aggregate.

Semifinals

September 23, 2005

7:00 PM EDT

First Leg

Richmond Kickers	3–1	Rochester Raging Rhinos
Delicate 12', 55' Brown 41' Worthen 65'	Report	15' (o.g.) Sedgewick 56' Miller 68' Howes 70'

University of Richmond Stadium
Richmond, Virginia

Attendance: 2,672

Referee: Tony Crush

September 25, 2005

7:00 PM EDT

Second Leg

Rochester Raging Rhinos	1–1	Richmond Kickers
Carrieri 55' Bobo 88' Carabajal 90' Miller 90+5' (pen.)	Report	Delicate 51' Vallow 55' Schweitzer 81' Cephas 90'

Frontier Field
Rochester, New York

Attendance: 6,195

Referee: Agusto St Silva

Richmond Kickers won 4–2 on Aggregate.

September 23, 2005

10:00 PM EDT

First Leg

Seattle Sounders	2–2	Montreal Impact
Sturm 10' O'Brien 22' 34' Sleeth 44'	Report	Gervais 21' Vincello 22' Burpo 62' Gbeke 86', 88'

Starfire Sports Complex
Tukwila, Washington

Attendance: 2,698

Referee: Ramon Hernandez

September 25, 2005

4:00 PM EDT

Second Leg

Montreal Impact	1–2	Seattle Sounders
Pizzolitto 28' Gervais 67'	Report	Edwards 32' Levesque 52' 90' Whitfield 59' Gregor 78' Sakuda 90'

Claude Robillard Sports Complex
Montreal, Quebec

Attendance: 10,124

Referee: Silviu Petrescu

Seattle Sounders won 4–3 on Aggregate.

Final

October 1, 2005

11:00 PM EDT

Seattle Sounders	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Richmond Kickers
Scott 19' Edwards 45' Klaas 65' Galindo 73' Gregor 79'	Report	Carrieri 17' Brown 19' Gorres 24' Burke 29'
Penalties
Gregor O'Brien Levesque Somoza Graham Sakuda Jenkins	4–3	Delicate Ssejjemba Gorres Williams Jeffrey Pauls Pascale

Qwest Field
Seattle, Washington

Attendance: 8,011

Referee: Ricardo Valenzuela

Awards and All-League Teams

First Team
F: Fabian Dawkins (Atlanta Silverbacks); Jason Jordan (Vancouver Whitecaps) (MVP & Leading Goalscorer); Mauricio Salles (Puerto Rico Islanders)
M: Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar (Portland Timbers); Mauro Biello (Montreal Impact); Steve Klein (Vancouver Whitecaps); Kirk Wilson (Rochester Raging Rhinos)
D: Gabriel Gervais (Montreal Impact); Taylor Graham (Seattle Sounders) (Defender of the Year); Scot Thompson (Portland Timbers)
G: Greg Sutton (Montreal Impact) (Goalkeeper of the Year)
Coach: Nick De Santis (Montreal Impact) (Coach of the Year)

Second Team
F: Dan Antoniuk (Portland Timbers); Johnny Menyongar (Minnesota Thunder); Melvin Tarley (Minnesota Thunder)
M: Darren Caskey (Virginia Beach Mariners); Jeff Matteo (Minnesota Thunder); Rodrigo Rios (Atlanta Silverbacks); Petter Villegas (Puerto Rico Islanders))
D: Ben Hollingsworth (Charleston Battery); Peter Luzak (Richmond Kickers); Nevio Pizzolitto (Montreal Impact)
G: Preston Burpo (Seattle Sounders)