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Health & Fitness

Eastern Conference Semi-Final Against Ottawa Fury Looms

The Ocean City Nor'easters are taking the No. 1 seed to the 2012 Eastern Conference Championships this weekend with the hopes of making it through to the National Finals.

The Ocean City Nor’easters are taking the No. 1 seed to the 2012 Eastern Conference Championships this weekend with the hopes of making it through to the National Finals. Ocean City travel down to Greensboro, North Carolina to take on the Ottawa Fury while division rivals Reading United and hosts Carolina Dynamo battle it out in the other semi-final.

The Nor’easters will face Ottawa Fury at 4pm on Saturday July 21 at Macpherson Stadium. Ocean City have history with both Carolina Dynamo and Ottawa Fury so the game and venue will hold memories for the franchise. For three seasons Ocean City Nor’easters and Ottawa Fury found themselves in the PDL North East Division (2005, 2006 & 2009). It was the Fury who snapped Ocean City’s longest home unbeaten streak of 28 games back in 2006 but Ocean City beat them in the divisional playoffs back in 2009. Overall, the Nor’easters franchise has a record of 2-3-1 against Ottawa but are 1-0 in playoff games. Every game between them has been tight and this promises to be another wonderful affair.

Ocean City Nor’easters will be familiar with Macpherson Stadium as in 2010 Carolina Dynamo were placed in the Mid-Atlantic Division and Ocean City came away with a 2-2 tie in the great soccer venue. However, in actual playoff play Ocean City are 0-1 to the Dynamo who beat us 3-2 in the Eastern Conference Final back in 2004.

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A win on Saturday will see the Nor’easters play the winner of Reading United vs Carolina Dynamo (Saturday July 21, 7pm) on Sunday evening at 6pm.

Club captain Terry Gibbs took a quick moment to speak to us as they were getting ready to board the bus for North Carolina. "To play in the post-season is the goal for every sportsman or woman in America, we are looking to get down there and give a good showing of ourselves and show the rest of the PDL that we deserve to be where we are. On a personal note I would love to grab some goals and show everyone what goal celebrations I’ve got in my locker". After the deadfish celebration went viral a few weeks ago everyone is excited to see what Gibbs and the Nor’easters will do next.

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Coach Oswald travelled to Ottawa to see the Fury beat GPS Portland Phoenix 3-2 in the North Eastern Divisional playoff game and understands how big this game is for the franchise, "We are looking forward to a road trip as a team and to play at such a phenomenal venue. We are proud of the team accolades and accomplishments we have earned this year as well as the individual honors that have been handed out, but every team that enters the playoffs goes in with the same goal and that’s to advance to the PDL National Championship. Each of us starts out with a 0-0 record and any one of the 4 teams in the Eastern Conference Final 4 this upcoming weekend can win the bracket as there is very little separation between each of us. Although we won the Eastern Conference Regular Season Championship, we narrowly past Carolina on the final night and they were only 1 of 2 teams in the country with 1 loss (other Michigan Bucks), Reading United beat us 2x, and Ottawa has managed to handle a tough travel schedule and still win their own conference. We recognize that only 1 team wins it and we hope to push ourselves to the max and execute our game plans flawlessly in all phases/facets of the game to get that opportunity to advance past this weekend and represent the East in the PDL Final 4."

Oswald also commented on the youth of the Nor’easters, "I do believe that as a young team, we have to handle the pressure of our match Saturday properly and channel that in a positive direction while minimizing the emotion of the match. Everyone of our players has played in big time club and college games, but very few have played in a big time PDL game. We will all get that experience together for the 1st time Saturday, but we need to seize the moment and the opportunity and find ways, as we have done all year, to get results. We have 90 minutes to extend our season and it’s got to be the best 90 minutes that we have played all year to do it."

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