2003 USL A-League
Football league season
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The 2003 USL A-League was an American Division II league run by the United Soccer League during the summer of 2003.
| Season | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Teams | 19 |
| Champions | Charleston Battery (1st Title) |
| Premiers | Milwaukee Wave United (1st Title) |
| Matches | 266 |
| Goals | 754 (2.83 per match) |
| Best Player |  Thiago Martins, Pittsburgh Riverhounds |
| Top goalscorer | Thiago Martins, Pittsburgh Riverhounds (22 goals) |
| Best goalkeeper |  Greg Sutton, Montreal Impact |
← 2002 2004 → | |
League standings
Eastern Conference
Northeast Division
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montreal Impact | 28 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 40 | 21 | +19 | 54 |
| 2 | Rochester Raging Rhinos | 28 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 55 | 36 | +19 | 51 |
| 3 | Pittsburgh Riverhounds | 28 | 15 | 4 | 9 | 50 | 41 | +9 | 49 |
| 4 | Syracuse Salty Dogs | 28 | 11 | 5 | 12 | 42 | 38 | +4 | 38 |
| 5 | Toronto Lynx | 28 | 11 | 4 | 13 | 29 | 38 | −9 | 37 |
Southeast Division
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charleston Battery | 28 | 15 | 7 | 6 | 41 | 27 | +14 | 52 |
| 2 | Virginia Beach Mariners | 28 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 51 | 34 | +17 | 47 |
| 3 | Richmond Kickers | 30 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 41 | 32 | +9 | 43[a] |
| 4 | Charlotte Eagles | 28 | 6 | 7 | 15 | 29 | 59 | −30 | 25 |
| 5 | Atlanta Silverbacks | 28 | 4 | 7 | 17 | 27 | 48 | −21 | 19 |
- 2 points deducted?
Western Conference
Central Division
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milwaukee Wave United | 28 | 18 | 0 | 10 | 61 | 32 | +29 | 54 |
| 2 | Minnesota Thunder | 28 | 17 | 2 | 9 | 44 | 28 | +16 | 53 |
| 3 | El Paso Patriots | 28 | 9 | 3 | 16 | 33 | 48 | −15 | 30 |
| 4 | Cincinnati Riverhawks | 28 | 9 | 0 | 19 | 38 | 62 | −24 | 24[a] |
| 5 | Indiana Blast | 28 | 3 | 2 | 23 | 28 | 67 | −39 | 11 |
- 3 points deducted?
Pacific Division
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle Sounders | 28 | 16 | 5 | 7 | 45 | 24 | +21 | 53 |
| 2 | Vancouver Whitecaps | 28 | 15 | 7 | 6 | 45 | 24 | +21 | 52 |
| 3 | Portland Timbers | 28 | 15 | 2 | 11 | 39 | 33 | +6 | 47 |
| 4 | Calgary Storm | 28 | 4 | 3 | 21 | 16 | 62 | −46 | 15 |
Playoffs
Bracket
| Division finals | Conference finals | Final | ||||||||||||||||
| S1 | Charleston Battery | 0 | 4 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
| S2 | Virginia Beach Mariners | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Charleston Battery | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Eastern Conference | ||||||||||||||||||
| Rochester Rhinos | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| N1 | Montreal Impact | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| N2 | Rochester Raging Rhinos | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||||||||
| Charleston Battery | 3 | |||||||||||||||||
| Minnesota Thunder | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| C2 | Minnesota Thunder (a.e.t.) | 0 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| C1 | Milwaukee Wave United | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Minnesota Thunder | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||||||
| Western Conference | ||||||||||||||||||
| Seattle Sounders | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| P2 | Vancouver Whitecaps | 0 | 1 | 1 (5) | ||||||||||||||
| P1 | Seattle Sounders (p) | 0 | 1 | 1 (6) | ||||||||||||||
Division finals
Northeast Division
| Rochester Rhinos (NY) | 2–1 | Montreal Impact (SC) |
|---|---|---|
Ian Fuller  6'Stoian Mladenov  8' (pen.)Doug Miller 50'Kirk Wilson  90' |
Report | 6' Nevio Pizzolitto 84' Zé Roberto |
| Montreal Impact (SC) | 0–0 | Rochester Rhinos (NY) |
|---|---|---|
| Zé Roberto 4' Martin Nash 63'  90'Abraham Francois 89' |
Report | 15' Scott Schweitzer 65' Yuri Lavrinenko 72' Kirk Wilson 81' David Hayes |
The Rochester Rhinos advance 2 – 1 on aggregate.
Southeast Division
| Charleston Battery (SC) | 4–1 | Virginia Beach Mariners (VA) |
|---|---|---|
| Chris Goos 3' Josh Henderson 14', 71'Russell Hutchison  17' (o.g.) |
Report | 10' Hamisi Amani-Dove 37' Roland Vargas-Aguilera 58' Stephen Danbusky |
The Charleston Battery advance 4 – 2 on aggregate.
Central Division
| Milwaukee Wave United (WI) | 1–0 | Minnesota Thunder (MN) |
|---|---|---|
| Greg Howes 14' (pen.) Chris Morman 78' |
Report | 54' Steve Shak |
| Minnesota Thunder (MN) | 2–0 (OT) | Milwaukee Wave United (WI) |
|---|---|---|
| Johnny Torres 62', 92' |
Report | 84' Todd Dusosky |
The Minnesota Thunder advance 2 – 1 on aggregate.
Pacific Division
| Seattle Sounders (WA) | 0–0 | Vancouver Whitecaps (BC) |
|---|---|---|
| Marco Vélez 14' Scott Jenkins 15'Ryan Edwards 34' |
Report | 35' Carlo Corazzin 87' Ollie Heald 90' Paul Dailly |
| Vancouver Whitecaps (BC) | 1–1 (a.e.t.) | Seattle Sounders (WA) |
|---|---|---|
| Jean Piette 11' Dave Morris 90'Steve Kindel 117' |
Report | 2' Roger Levesque 4' Chad Brown 18' Andrew Gregor 77' Zach Scott 78' Darren Sawatzky |
| Penalties | ||
Ollie Heald  Tiarnan King Chris Franks Carlo Corazzin Dave Morris Jeff Clarke  |
5–6 | Kyle Smith Chad Brown Darren Sawatzky Herculez Gomez Andrew Gregor Viet Nguyen |
The Seattle Sounders advance 1 – 0 on aggregate.
Conference finals
Eastern Conference final
| Charleston Battery (SC) | 1–0 | Rochester Rhinos (NY) |
|---|---|---|
| Josh Henderson 41' |
Report | 41' Ian Fuller |
The Charleston Battery advance 1 – 0 on aggregate.
Western Conference final
| Seattle Sounders (WA) | 0–1 | Minnesota Thunder (MN) |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Gregor 9' Zach Scott 53'Scott Jenkins 57'Chad Brown 59' |
Report | 79' Steve Shak |
| Minnesota Thunder (MN) | 1–0 | Seattle Sounders (WA) |
|---|---|---|
| Johnny Torres 59' Duncan Tarley 90' |
Report | 8' Viet Nguyen 23' Ryan Edwards 85' Craig Tomlinson |
The Minnesota Thunder advance 2 – 0 on aggregate.
Final
| Charleston Battery (SC) | 3–0 | Minnesota Thunder (MN) |
|---|---|---|
| Ted Chronopoulos 13' Terry Phelan 15'Paul Conway 21'John Wilson 32'Steve Klein 37' |
[1] |
Points leaders
| Rank | Scorer | Club | GP | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thiago Martins |
Pittsburgh Riverhounds | 25 | 22 | 7 | 51 |
| 2 |  Doug Miller |
Rochester Rhinos | 28 | 17 | 4 | 38 |
| 3 | Dante Washington |
Virginia Beach Mariners | 26 | 18 | 1 | 37 |
| 4 | Greg Howes |
Milwaukee Wave United | 28 | 11 | 12 | 34 |
| 5 | Todd Dusosky |
Milwaukee Wave United | 26 | 11 | 7 | 29 |
 Roland Vargas-Aguilera |
Virginia Beach Mariners | 26 | 10 | 9 | 29 | |
 Kevin Jeffrey |
Richmond Kickers | 27 | 10 | 9 | 29 | |
| 8 | Josh Henderson |
Charleston Battery | 20 | 10 | 5 | 25 |
 Byron Alvarez |
Portland Timbers | 21 | 12 | 1 | 25 | |
| McKinley Tennyson |
Portland Timbers | 27 | 11 | 3 | 25 | |
| 11 | Lourenço Andrade |
El Paso Patriots | 20 | 9 | 4 | 22 |
 Dino Delevski |
Milwaukee Wave United | 23 | 8 | 6 | 22 |
Awards and All A-League Teams
All A-League First Team[2]
F: Thiago Martins (Pittsburgh Riverhounds) (MVP & Leading Goalscorer); Doug Miller (Rochester Raging Rhinos); Dante Washington (Virginia Beach Mariners)
M: Roland Aguilera (Virginia Beach Mariners); Marco Ferruzzi (Minnesota Thunder); Andrew Gregor (Seattle Sounders); Ricardo Villar (Pittsburgh Riverhounds)
D: Gabriel Gervais (Montreal Impact) (Defender of the Year); 
Danny Jackson (Seattle Sounders); John Wilson (Charleston Battery)
G: Greg Sutton (Montreal Impact) (Goalkeeper of the Year)
Coach: Bob Lilley, Montreal Impact) (Coach of the Year)
All A-League Second Team
F: Byron Alvarez (Portland Timbers); Greg Howes (Milwaukee Wave United); Kevin Jeffrey (Richmond Kickers)
M: Ted Chronopoulos (Charleston Battery); Ollie Heald (Vancouver Whitecaps); Zé Roberto (Montreal Impact); David Testo (Richmond Kickers)
D: Scott Schweitzer (Rochester Raging Rhinos); Steve Shak (Minnesota Thunder); Alan Woods (Atlanta Silverbacks)
G: Rich Cullen (Seattle Sounders)