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PDL Championship Saturday Night on FSC

August 7, 2008
 
On Saturday, August 9, the Laredo Heat will play host to the Thunder Bay Chill in the Premier Development League Championship live at 9:00 pm ET on Fox Soccer Channel. Both teams will be out to make league history by claiming the title.

Having already made history as the first team to reach the PDL Championship game three straight years, the Laredo Heat will be looking to become the sixth team to repeat as league champion and the lowest seed to ever capture the title.

The 13th-seeded Michigan Bucks beat the Heat in the first of back-to-back meetings in 2006 to set the previous mark for lowest seed. The other five clubs to win back-to-back championships are the Cape Cod Crusaders (2002-03), Chicago Sockers (1999-00), Central Coast Roadrunners (1996-97), Carolina Dynamo (1993-94) and Colorado Comets (1989-90).

On the opposite side of the ledger, the Thunder Bay Chill, in their ninth year, have found unprecedented success in their franchise history and are looking to cap a remarkable two-year turnaround in which the club has gone from a record of 2-11-3 in 2006 to a mark of 17-2-1 overall in 2008. The Chill are only the second Canadian team to reach the final (Calgary 2001) and could be the first to win the PDL championship.

Canadian teams have only won five previous championships in overall USL history. The Montreal Impact have two USL First Division titles (1994, 2004) and the Vancouver Whitecaps have one USL-1 title (2006) and two W-League championships (2004, 2006).