Preview: AUDL Championship Weekend 2014

AUDL Playoffs continue this weekend after each team won their first round playoff game. These four teams are, by record and performance, the best in the league. Saturday's game is being billed as "the 4 best Ultimate teams in North America will meet to determine which 2 teams will play in the AUDL Championship game."

The winner of each semifinal game plays in the finals on Sunday, July 27 at 1pm. All games will be played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. $20,000 in prize money goes to the winning team.


New York Empire (#4) vs Toronto Rush (#1)

:When:
Saturday, July 26 @ 3p ET. Streamed via ESPN3.

:Records:
Empire (11-4; 5-2 home, 5-2 away, 1-0 playoffs)
Rush (14-1; 6-1 home, 7-0 away, 1-0 playoffs)

:History:
(15-1) = Toronto Rush's overall record at home.
(6-0) = Toronto Rush's all-time record versus New York Empire.
2014: Rush won both meetings (April 13, June 21) against Empire by 2 scores and 3 scores, respectively. The April game was played at New York, and the second match-up was played in Toronto.
2013: Rush won all 3 regular season meetings versus Empire, and again in the playoffs.

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Madison Radicals (#3) vs San Jose Spiders (#2)

:When:
Saturday, July 26 @ 7p ET. Streamed via ESPN3.

:Records:
Radicals (13-2; 7-0 home, 5-2 away, 1-0 playoffs)
Spiders (14-1; 7-0 home, 6-1 away, 1-0 playoffs)

:2014 Season Scoring:

:Notes:
Madison Radicals had the best goal differential in the league (+127); San Jose Spiders were third (+112).
Spiders scored the highest number of goals with nearly 400 goals in the regular season (398).
Radicals allowed the lowest number of goals (211) during the regular season.

Radicals Defense = 15.07 avg goals / game
Allowed 20 or more goals in only 2 regular season games; both times were on the road with one being a loss versus Minnesota (Week 3), the other was a win against the Revolution (Week 1).

Spiders Offense = 28.42 avg goals / game
Scored 20 or more goals in all regular season games.

:Travel:
Three out of the 4 teams require travel to the AUDL Finals location in Toronto. San Jose has the furthest trip to attend from the west coast. Not to mention, the expense of booking a flight to YYZ only 6 days ahead. Madison and New York teams are traveling by bus.