The USL vs NASL drama is over? Compromise postpones the inevitable

Last night the rumor came out that Second Division Soccer will be played in 2010. It looks like there will be 12 teams in 2 conferences, all playing under the USSF banner in a temporary league, with each team either aligned with USL or NASL.

A few sites that I will list at the bottom of this post have detailed from a number of sources that the compromise is only for the 2010 season and for 2011 we will see what I like to call the inevitable rise of NASL.

No word on what teams will be in what groups but we can assume the Minnesota Thunder and the NYFC will not be part of the party this year. The Thunder, though not totally closed down seem to be gone and NYFC has shown little if any signs of life. A possible addition to the 12 teams that will be part of this temporary league may include a new Minnesota team replacing the Thunder. The situation with the Atlanta Silverbacks is not clear either. It's possible they will not play and the New Minnesota team might be the 12th team.

Here is a Map of the possible teams:Uncle Ed's Prediction on how the League will look:

NASL:
Montreal Impact
Vancouver Whitecaps
Miami FC Blues
Carolina Railhawks
Minnesota Thunder
AC St Louis

USL:
Puerto Rico Islanders
Austin Aztex
Portland Timbers
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Baltimore Crystal Palace
Rochester Rhinos

Links:
Metro Montreal
NY Times Blog

The Kartik Report
Inside Minnesota Soccer
The 24th Minute

More links to come!

UPDATE: 10:00 AM

Representatives from the USSF, USL and the NASL will discuss plans for a Division 2 professional soccer league in 2010 during a call today Thursday, Jan. 7, at 3 p.m. ET. We will give further details.

NASL teams will be meeting Friday and Saturday in Ft Lauderdale to plan the upcoming season. I will try to attend.