Atlanta Silverbacks Win NASL Spring Title

The winter of 2008 was indeed a cold, bitter one in Atlanta for soccer fans. The Silverbacks, who had already not enjoyed the greatest levels of success since their inception in 1995, announced that they would be going on an indefinite hiatus, leaving the city without its longest running professional soccer club and likewise leading many fans to wonder if the Silverbacks would ever return to the field.

The cold winds of that winter would continue to blow until 2011, when the Silverbacks returned to competitive action in the NASL. However, to put it as diplomatically as possible, the results were hardly of a championship caliber once they were reincarnated. The rekindled Silverbacks limped to a paltry haul of 16 points from 28 games in that 2011 season, and a goal difference of -38 only served to cruelly illustrate just how far off the pace Atlanta had fallen in their time away. Indeed, the opening stages of 2012 looked to be more of the same, as loss after loss mounted and the Silverbacks looked set to make the bottom of the table all their own once more.



It was at this very low point last year that Atlanta's fortunes began to change, though surely nobody could have guessed the heights to which the Silverbacks would vault to in only a year's time. With Eric Wynalda first becoming involved with the club last summer as the interim manager before shifting to his more permanent role of technical director, a significant transformation of the culture of the club in almost every imaginable department followed soon after. Along with a shift in ethos, Wynalda's influence also meant that now vital players such as Pablo Cruz, Pedro Mendes, Danny Barerra, Mike Randolph and Beto Navarro would make their way to Atlanta from Wynalda's Cal FC in an attempt to right the ship.

While Atlanta's Wynalda-inspired roster moves have provided the backbone for what is now a championship winning side, perhaps Wynalda's best stroke of genius came in the form of appointing Brian Haynes as his managerial successor. Under Haynes, Atlanta has not only implemented a highly attractive brand of soccer that has seen them climb to dizzying heights, but they have also fostered a unifying team spirit that is sometimes hard to come by in this modern era of the game. For all of the on-field attributes that one can point to when analyzing Atlanta's success, perhaps there is even more to be said for a team truly functioning as one.

And yet, for all of the progress Atlanta has made under the likes of Wynalda and Haynes, there they were on the final day of the NASL's Spring Season, still needing a win at Minnesota and a Carolina loss at San Antonio to bring a long-awaited, if not unlikely, trophy to Atlanta. Maybe rightfully so, fate conspired to take Atlanta to a summit that few Atlanta fans have imagined. To say that such an ascent is something of a rise from the ashes for the Silverbacks would be an understatement.

With Atlanta's first trophy now comfortably resting at Silverbacks Park, there is scarcely any time for the Silverbacks to rest on their laurels before the NASL's Fall Season begins in a month's time. With Ruben Luna departing following the Minnesota game, there is now some work to be done in the player market before the Silverbacks hunt for more silverware, but regardless of this bit of pending roster turnover, there is one thing that Atlanta fans and the rest of the NASL can rest assured of: this club is now, finally, built to win in the long term. It's almost hard to imagine that a team embodying the perfect blend of flair, grit and solidarity won't continue to do just that.