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Major Indoor Soccer League
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Major Indoor Soccer League | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sport | Indoor Soccer |
| Founded | 2001 |
| No. of teams | 6 |
| Country |  United States |
| Current champions | Baltimore Blast |
The Major Indoor Soccer League is the top professional indoor soccer league in the USA. The league is a member of both the United States Soccer Federation and FIFA.
Contents |
In the summer of 2001, the National Professional Soccer League disbanded. The six surviving teams organized the MISL as a single-entity structure similar to Major League Soccer. In 2002, the MISL absorbed two teams from the World Indoor Soccer League, the Dallas Sidekicks and San Diego Sockers. The St. Louis Steamers, another former WISL team, joined the following year.
The current MISL recognizes NPSL history which dates back to 1984 when the NPSL was started as the American Indoor Soccer Association.
The MISL is currently organized in a single table playing a 30 game schedule. Traditionally, the season begins in October and ends in March. Traditionally, the league also conducts an All-Star Game at midseason. It has pitted Eastern teams against Western teams and USA All-Stars against World All-Stars. No All-Star Game was scheduled for the 2004-2005 season, and there will be no game in 2006-2007 as a Mexican All-Star team will travel the MISL instead. However, Milwaukee hosted the 2005-2006 All-Star Game, which pit the MISL All-Stars against a team from Mexico. California will host the 2008 All-Star Game.
The top four teams qualify for the playoffs, which begin in March or April. The first place team faces the fourth place team while the second and third place teams face off. In 2006, the first round was a two-game series with a sudden death tie breaker if the teams split the two games. The two-game Championship Series pits the winners of the first round against each other, and games in the Championship Series were broadcast on ESPN2 in 2005 and 2006.
The MISL has a relative lack of television coverage for being a national professional sports league. In February 2007 the league and Versus announced a partnership to deliver a nationally televised game of the week starting in March 2007. For the 2006 - 2007 season, Versus will show two regular season games, a MISL Championship Series Semifinal game on April 14, and the MISL Championship Series Final on April 21. Additionally, the MISL will produce its first-ever live magazine show on April 7, to preview the 2007 MISL Championship Series. Before the 2006 - 2007 season national television coverage was limited to the MISL Championships of the 2004 - 2005 and 2005 - 2006 seasons, which were shown on ESPN2.
In addition to national television, certain games are shown in local markets over local cable networks like CN8.
- Kansas City Comets (formerly of the NPSL) (2001-2005) (scheduled to return in 2007)
- St. Louis Steamers (formerly of the WISL) (2003-2006) (scheduled to return in 2007)
- Newark, NJ (2007)
- Orlando Sharks (2007)
- Monterrey, Mexico (2007) [1]
- Dallas, Texas (2007) [1]
- Cleveland Force (formerly of the NPSL) (2001-2005, as Cleveland Crunch from 2001-02)
- Dallas Sidekicks (formerly of the WISL) (2002-2004)
- Harrisburg Heat (formerly of the NPSL) (2001-2003)
- Monterrey Fury (2003-2004)
- Monterrey Tigres (2004)
- San Diego Sockers (formerly of the WISL) (2002-2004)
| Season | Champion | Series | Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-02 | Philadelphia Kixx | 2-1 | Milwaukee Wave |
| 2002-03 | Baltimore Blast | 2-1 | Milwaukee Wave |
| 2003-04 | Baltimore Blast | 3-0 | Milwaukee Wave |
| 2004-05 | Milwaukee Wave | 2-0 | Cleveland Force |
| 2005-06 | Baltimore Blast | 2-1 | St. Louis Steamers |
The MISL game is the standard North American version of indoor soccer. It is different from the FIFA-sanctioned futsal.
Each MISL game consists of four 15-minute quarters. There are breaks between the first two and the last two quarters. There is also a 15-minute halftime. Ties result in consecutive 15-minute sudden death overtimes.
An MISL field is roughly the size of an ice hockey rink, measuring 200 feet by 80 feet. Goals measure 14 feet by 8 feet and are set into the boards. Players are allowed to bounce the ball off the dasher boards. Play stops if the ball leaves the field of play.
During an MISL game, each team is allowed to have 6 players on the field at a time. One player is the goalkeeper who may handle the ball while in the penalty arc. The other players are generally divided as two defenders, one midfielder, and two forwards. Substitution is unlimited and may happen "on the fly" during play.
Fouls and misconducts are generally the same as outdoor soccer with a few changes. First, all kicks are direct, with no whistle to restart play, which usually results in a "quick start". Also, the MISL utilizes blue cards in addition to the traditional yellow and red cards of outdoor soccer.
Blue cards are for fouls that earn possible two minute power plays. Yellow cards are given for dissent, resulting in a 5 minute penalty but the offending team does not play short.
All red cards in the MISL result in a two minute power play. Red cards are awarded for violent conduct or accumulation of cards (3 blues or 2 yellows).
Originally, the MISL had a multiple point scoring system where goals were worth 1, 2, or 3 points depending upon the distance that they were scored or game situation. The former WISL teams objected to this. After the 2003 Championship, the league began using a traditional one-point-per-goal rule because of a controversial goal scored during the deciding game. However, the league went back to multipoint scoring in 2006 with 2- and 3-point goals.
- 2001-02: 5,065
- 2002-03: 5,420
- 2003-04: 5,587
- 2004-05: 4,388
- 2005-06: 4,737
- 2006-07: 4,635 Through Games of 3/18/07
| Major Indoor Soccer League |
| Baltimore Blast | California Cougars | Chicago Storm |
| Detroit Ignition | Milwaukee Wave | Philadelphia KiXX |
| Expansion 2007: Newark | Orlando Sharks |
| Current Arenas in the Major Indoor Soccer League |
| 1st Mariner Arena | Stockton Arena | Sears Centre
Compuware Sports Arena | U.S. Cellular Arena | Wachovia Spectrum |