The rollercoaster ride that was the 2010 season finally came to a close for the Harrisburg City Islanders on Saturday night with a 1-1 home tie against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. For just the second time in the franchise’s seven-year history, the City Islanders missed the playoffs and will spend the off-season ruing squandered goal-scoring opportunities and defensive lapses. In 2010, Harrisburg posted a 4-9-7 record in the USL-2, went 3-1-0 in the U.S. Open Cup, and tied their lone exhibition match against the Philadelphia Union. This season saw many ups and downs, so let’s look back at the Harrisburg City Islanders in 2010.

                          

Slow out of the gate – In many ways, the City Islanders were doomed by a horribly slow start. They went 0-4-1 in their first five league games, putting themselves in the basement of the six-team USL-2. With the regular season consisting of only twenty matches, climbing out of that hole seemed impossible.

A torrid June – But that impossibility nearly happened as Harrisburg put together an incredible string of results, going 6-2-3 and leaping back into playoff contention by July. Along the way, the City Islanders beat the USL-2’s best team, the Charleston Battery, and stunned the New York Red Bulls in the U.S. Open Cup.

Another losing streak – City Island was buzzing about this team and their late-match heroics, but just as soon as things came together, they fell apart. Going on an eight-game winless streak to close the season (0-4-4), Harrisburg was eliminated from USL-2 playoff contention as well as the U.S. Open Cup. Several factors contributed to the City Islanders’ poor USL-2 campaign:

• Injuries – Teams at this level do not have expansive rosters and this unfortunate reality hit the club hard in 2010. A slew of injuries kept David Schofield, Brian Ombiji, Kai Kasiguran, Tyler Ruthven, Nate Jafta, Mpho Moloi, Vince Petrasso, and others sidelined for parts of the season. The club simply lacked the depth to make up for those losses.

• Offensive inconsistency – The City Islanders struggled to score goals in 2010—only 21 goals in 20 games—and the club clearly missed having a reliable goal-scorer up top. Sheanon Williams netted 3 times from his forward position, but little else came from his running mates. These offensive shortcomings became hard to stomach as two former City Islanders—Chad Severs and Brandon Swartzendruber—had fantastic seasons just one year removed from Harrisburg. Severs, the City Islanders’ all-time leading scorer, led Pittsburgh to the USL-2 playoffs with 6 goals and 2 assists. Swartzendruber led the PDL in scoring with 15 goals and 5 assists, and his Thunder Bay Chill advanced to the national championship. Why weren’t these players retained by the club? They were exactly the type of players the team lacked: good finishers with the ability to hold possession and build up the attack.

• Victims of their own success – Fatigue hit the club hard, especially as injuries mounted and the schedule became congested in late June. The City Islanders ran out of gas down the stretch partially because they did well in the U.S. Open Cup. The more they won in the tournament, the more matches were added to the docket. Many of these games went into overtime, and without a full-strength, deep roster, the busy schedule took its toll. Harrisburg played four additional matches thanks to the U.S. Open Cup, plus they had an exhibition match against the Union in the middle of their playoff chase, thus increasing their workload by a quarter. This is a problem worldwide as teams play too many matches, but in Harrisburg’s case, it may have cost them a playoff spot. Ironically, they may have been victims of their own success.

• "You can’t win anything with kids” – These words were uttered by Alan Hansen in the 1990s to criticize the youth movement at Manchester United. Although the Red Devils would make Hansen eat those words, a similar criticism might be made of the City Islanders. This team featured many young, unproven players. Sheanon Williams, Anthony Di Biase, J.T. Noone, Tyler Ruthven, Vince Petrasso, and Tishan Hanley are all twenty-three years old or younger. While they’ve shown talent and glimpses of potential, their youth and inexperience became noticeable at times. Harrisburg put a lot of faith in these newcomers, especially on attack, and they were often punished by more experienced, tactically savvy opponents. A better balance of youth and experience was needed, particularly at the forward position.