El Paso wrapped up a playoff berth from the Mid-South Division with their win over DFW and have tied Chicago for best point total at 39, though Chicago has yet to lose.

The Patriots are 13-3-0, and there are a couple of teams with better records, but perhaps the thing that sets the Pats apart is their schedule: Every single weekend save one this team has played back-to-back matches and have lost only one on the road. They will end their season playing back-to-back at home July 16-17. Checking South Jersey and Chicago, they will have played back-to-back matches four times and five times this season, respectively.

Looking toward the playoffs, it's all speculative, but I'm wondering about everyone's thoughts going in. Certainly, the Heartland Division plays some tough soccer, as I'm sure the Southeast Division does, too. The Mid-South seems to have its problems, but the Pats have played a more challenging schedule than most, so I'm hoping a battle- and road-tested El Paso team will do well.

El Paso has never had playoff success at any level in their 14 seasons, but they never had road success, either, and that is a big difference this season.

Fire Reserves clinch a playoff spot tonight with a 4-1 win over Wisconsin.

They must be a solid team at 14-0

Depth is a wonderful thing,

A very educated and well thought out guess at the PDL finals see's El Paso and Chicago playing in the finals IF the Western plays the Southern and the Eastern plays the Central.

It is NOT my guess it is the guess of someone that is really well educated and knows his stuff, I am just repeating it.

While I'm partial to CFR, the last couple of years point to the following.

- I believe the last 3 pdl champions came out of the Northeast - Westchester '01 and Cape Cod '02,'03.

- Top seeds seem to get knocked off with great regularity in the conference championships.

- Teams that come from tighter division races seem to do better than teams that blow through the regular season

These are the teams that I think will have the most impact in the playoffs, of course some are still playing to get in.

Cape Cod .. if they get in they know how to win.
Carolina Dyanamo .. playing well
South Jersey Barrons .. playing well
Indiana Invaders .. best kept secret in PDL with Mo as their coach and Chisoni on top, deadly.
Michigan Bucks .. they have a habit of winning the big game
Orange County .. best of the west last year, they will be hungry to be back
CFR .. First season top seed, knocked out second game, Second season top seed, knocked out first game, Last year made the finals, this year, who knows
Boulder .. Tuff, always

Long shot pick, Thunder Bay, they still have a chance - great organization.

my pick CFR (have to) vs Dynamo or Barrons

Man, no love for the Southern Conference...

Why no mention of El Paso, DFW, Central Florida, or Cocoa\Ajax? 5 good teams to look out for.

see items 1 and 3 in the my first post above.
"- I believe the last 3 pdl champions came out of the Northeast - Westchester '01 and Cape Cod '02,'03.

- Teams that come from tighter division races seem to do better than teams that blow through the regular season"

It's been a Northeast/Heartland final each of the last two years. I think the two items above are the reason for this.

To be truthful I know little of the south and southeast teams, maybe someone with more knowledge on them will jump in. It is a discussion board...

I probably know more about the MidSouth teams but not the Florida ones. I know that the Express represented the Southern Conference last year in the final four, playing against Cape Cod and they said that Cape was MUCH better, in a whole different league. That told me right there that the Southern conference was one of the weaker ones. I know the Express are as good or better than last year but cannot budge against DFW or El Paso. DFW has at least SOME of the Dallas Sidekicks indoor team on their roster and El Paso is said to have many of last years A-League team playing for them, though I did not find out if that is true or not (you can compare the Sidekicks website with the game day roster for DFW and see some of the same players).

Anyway there is no reason El Paso or DFW cannot win it all, or Chicago or any other good team. There might be trends out there that you can expect to happen again and again, but the trends do not know anything about the new or reorganized teams that appear from year to year.

EDITED becaues of a misspelling that changed the meaning of a sentence. Sorry.