WAKEMED SOCCER PARK / CARY — The site of the press conference announcing Colin Clarke as the Carolina RailHawks’ new manager took place in one of the hospitality suites at WakeMed Soccer Park, affording attendees a view of bulldozers beyond the east grandstand already busily readying expansion of the park’s facilities.

This preview of the stadium’s future was mirrored across the way by the introduction of the newest chapter in the RailHawks' history. The 49-year-old Clarke comes to Carolina following the departure of Martin Rennie to become head coach of Major League Soccer’s Vancouver Whitecaps. Clarke spent five celebrated seasons managing the Puerto Rico Islanders, leading them to the 2008 USL-1 regular season championship and the 2010 USSF D-2 Pro League Championship. The Islanders also reached the semifinals of the 2008-2009 CONCACAF Champions League. Clarke served as head coach of the Puerto Rico national team from 2008-2011 and managed FC Dallas of Major League Soccer from 2003-2006.

Prior to coaching, Clarke enjoyed a playing career that included time spent in England’s First Division with Southampton, Queens Park Rangers and Portsmouth. He earned 38 caps for the Northern Ireland National Team, recording a goal in the 1986 World Cup and finishing his career as the all-time leading goal scorer for Northern Ireland.

A month removed from the end of the Carolina RailHawks 2011 season, and with it the departure of manager Martin Rennie to become head coach for the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer, the search for RailHawks’ new gaffer has reached its final stages.

When Vancouver announced Rennie’s hire in August, RailHawks’ management indicated at the time they hoped to tab his replacement by early November. That informal deadline has passed as speculation continues to churn.

Speaking to Triangle Offense, RailHawks’ president Curt Johnson says the club now anticipates making an official announcement within the next couple of weeks, most likely following the Thanksgiving holiday. Johnson says the interest level and sizable pool of eager applicants for the post was been robust, and the overall evaluation process and other contingencies have acted to delay finalizing any selection.

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, however, Puerto Rico Islanders’ head coach Colin Clarke is a leading candidate and possible front-runner for the job. Clarke, a former Northern Ireland international and First Division English footballer, managed FC Dallas of MLS from 2003-6 and has helmed the Islanders since 2007. Clarke also managed the Puerto Rico national team from 2008-11.

Clarke’s contract with the Islanders expired after the 2011 season, and according to various sources, he not reached terms to continue managing the Caribbean club. Clarke and Johnson share a relationship dating back to 1998 when Johnson, then general manager of the USL’s Richmond Kickers, hired Clarke to his first head coaching job.

Online reports have linked Clarke with interest in the vacant Northern Ireland manager’s position following the departure of Nigel Worthington. The RailHawks’ delay could well be tied to Clarke’s exploration of that plum position. The bookies’ favorites, however, continue to include Jim Magilton (late of Ipswich Town and Queens Park Rangers) and Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa, Celtic).

In other news, Johnson confirms to Triangle Offense that the RailHawks are in discussions with the Vancouver Whitecaps to stage a friendly between the teams next March at WakeMed Soccer Park. According to Johnson, there is strong interest in the match on the part of management for both clubs, including, naturally, former RailHawks’ and current Whitecaps’ manager Martin Rennie. However, no formal deal has yet been finalized.

WAKEMED SOCCER PARK / CARY - When soccer enthusiasts rhapsodize about “The Beautiful Game,” their mind’s eye pictures the sort of contest that took place Saturday night at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. Yes, the second leg of the NASL semifinals series between the Carolina RailHawks and the NSC Minnesota Stars featured 10 bookings and 28 fouls. But, both teams fought hard and valiantly, toiling through 120 minutes of regular and extra time plus a PK shootout. Both teams left with more respect for their opponent than the considerable amount they already held before their league semifinals series. Both teams carried fans back in Minnesota as well as the 4,002 RailHawks partisans gathered in the autumnal confines of WakeMed Park on an emotional roller-coaster. But, one team has to win and the other must lose, and whenever a regular-season champion falls to the the lowest-seeded playoff team, there is little room for moral victories.

While purists (often justifiably) deride the playoff system in American professional soccer, its survive-and-advance format has the ability to produce some of the finest renderings of the sport in this country, whether it be the USL PRO championship match between Orlando City and Harrisburg City last month or, now, NSC Minnesota’s 5-3 shootout win over the RailHawks to advance to the NASL Championship finals.

The fault, dear readers, is not in the Stars. Yes, the Carolina RailHawks, winners of the 2011 North American Soccer League regular season title, face a one-goal deficit entering the second leg of the league playoff semifinals against the NSC Minnesota Stars, the only team in the NASL Carolina has not beaten this year.

But, a loss to the sixth-seeded Stars this Saturday evening at WakeMed Soccer Park would be especially devastating considering how Carolina arrived at this point. Merely three months ago, this RailHawks squad laid claim to the mantle of most dominant American soccer team. Their record at the midpoint of the 28-game regular season was 12-1-1, including a 10-match winning streak.

Since July 3, the RailHawks’ mediocre mark consists of five wins, eight losses and two draws, including a five-match skid currently gripping the club. Over those five straight losses—the last two being defeats at the hands of NSC Minnesota—the highest-scoring team in the NASL has netted a grand total of one goal and been outshot by a margin of 62 to 35.

WAKEMED SOCCER PARK / CARY — The Good: The Carolina RailHawks celebrated their 2011 NASL regular season crown Saturday night under seasonable weather and before a near-capacity crowd of 6,234 at WakeMed Soccer Park, the third-largest attendance in RailHawks history and the most since September 1, 2007. NASL commissioner David Downs took a hastily-planned trip to Cary to stand behind a banner after Saturday’s regular season finale and present the RailHawks with a replica claret jug commemorating the otherwise unofficial title.

“I hope it means a lot to the club and the franchise because I think it gives the organization something to build upon,” said RailHawks manager Martin Rennie. “Sponsors and fans like to be a part of a winning team, and we provided that.”

The Bad: Before the post-match photo opp (for which newly named team MVP and Offensive Player of the Year Etienne Barbara was noticeably absent, having stormed off the field to hit the showers the moment the final whistle blew), Carolina fell to the NSC Minnesota Stars by a final score of 2-1. The Stars’ win clinches them the sixth and final spot in the upcoming NASL playoffs and eliminates the Montreal Impact, who can now focus in earnest on their transition to MLS next season.

The Carolina RailHawks hope to avoid ending the regular season the same way they began it. The April 9 home opener versus the Puerto Rico Islanders was a 2-1 loss on a game-winning goal surrendered in stoppage time, fought amidst a monsoon that delayed the match for nearly two hours.

With the RailHawks forecasting a near-sellout for tonight’s regular season finale against the NSC Minnesota Stars at WakeMed Soccer Park, it figures that the weather forecast is answering with precipitation.

Between these two soggy bookends to Carolina’s season, the RailHawks have clinched the NASL regular season crown, an unofficial title that nonetheless holds great import with aficionados of the sport for whom the regular season table is paramount and “the playoffs” are a foreign concept.

Nonetheless, they only pass out silverware in American D-2 soccer for playoff success, and the RailHawks’ journey starts in two weeks. Carolina’s first-place finish affords them a bye beyond next week’s quarterfinal round and into the two-leg semifinal that begin Oct. 8.

WAKEMED SOCCER PARK / CARY - It has been a pivotal fortnight for the Carolina RailHawks. Going into their August 20th match against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, the RailHawks were in the midst of a three-match winless streak and had witnessed their once-formidable lead atop the NASL table shrink to just four points clear of the surging Puerto Rico Islanders.

The RailHawks’ win over the Strikers two weeks ago stemmed the dismal tide. A victory at Atlanta last Saturday clinched an important first round bye in next month’s NASL playoffs. And, Puerto Rico drew with FC Edmonton last Tuesday before losing at Atlanta last night, snapping the Islanders’ six-game unbeaten streak.

Finally, the Carolina RailHawks (17-4-3) completed a season-sweep over FC Tampa Bay, defeating them 2-0 at WakeMed Soccer Park Saturday evening before 3,015 assembled partisans, an impressive crowd considering the game was competing locally with the first day of the college football season, including N.C. State’s home opener being played at the same time approximately three miles down the road.

WAKEMED SOCCER PARK / CARY — It was a relieved cast of RailHawks that left the field following their 2-0 win over the Fort Lauderdale Strikers Saturday night at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary. The same club that reeled off 10 straight victories earlier this season was suddenly 0-for-August, enduring a three-match winless drought that started with an Aug. 6th loss to the Strikers at Lockhart Stadium and ended with a listless home draw with the NSC Minnesota Stars three days ago.

On this late-summer evening, however, it was the Carolina RailHawks of old that flocked around WakeMed Park’s pristine pitch. Before 4,629 eager partisans, Carolina was as keen as mustard, finding goals from familiar wellsprings while earning their first 90-minute clean sheet since the July 3rd whitewash of Montreal.

WAKEMED SOCCER PARK/ CARY—Playing for the first time at WakeMed Soccer Park since manager Martin Rennie was tapped to lead the MLS's Vancouver Whitecaps in 2012, Carolina RailHawks offered fans a pre-game parking lot feast at the annual Taste of the Triangle and a 1-1 draw with the NSC Minnesota Stars that was hard to digest.

The result snapped a nine-match home winning streak for the table-topping Cary club (14-3-4). It also means that after three attempts, the RailHawks still lack a victory this term against Manny Lagos' well-organized, fourth-place Minnesota squad (7-8-6).

RailHawks striker Pablo Campos saw his ninth goal of the season, a neatly tucked away 48th-minute shot that slid through goalkeeper Joe Warren's legs, cancelled out just seven minutes later from a deft side-netting finish from Lucas Rodriguez.

Jonny Steele set up the Carolina goal with a delicate chip across the mouth of the goal to Campos, who took a heavy touch before finding an acute angle to slot the ball home.

Rodriguez used his purple boots to draw the match level in the 55th minute. He was put in from a sweet, scooped ball from Simone Bracalello over the heads of a stranded Carolina back four that he ran onto and parlayed into an angled, expert equalizer.

"There was a free runner coming across the back, probably a little bit of miscommunication there," said new signing Tony McManus, who deputized at right back in his home debut and second match with the side.

"It was a good goal, you can't really say much about it, but it's something that we should never give up."

The rockets’ red glare of July 3, 2011 now seems like a distant flicker for the Carolina RailHawks. It was Independence Day weekend that the RailHawks downed rival Montreal Impact 2-0 to win their amazing 10th consecutive match. The post-game atmosphere assumed an especially celebratory air, with fans gathered alongside players on the pitch as fireworks exploded against the nighttime Cary sky. Manager Martin Rennie and team president Curt Johnson shared cheerful conversation. Team captain Brad Rusin surveyed the setting wearing a noticeable look of contentment.

Two days later, Rusin would be gone, bound for HB Køge of Denmark’s top division. And over the coming month, the team would become enveloped by rumors regarding other players possibly departing for greener pitches, including leading scorers Etienne Barbara and Pablo Campos. Then last Tuesday, Rennie was announced as the next head coach of Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps effective at the end of this season, capping weeks of speculation about possible job offers from Montreal and elsewhere.

The RailHawks’ most important fortnight thus far this season got off to an inauspicious start Saturday night, as Carolina fell to the Puerto Rico Islanders 2-0 in Bayamón. It was Carolina’s second straight defeat, the first time they have lost consecutive games this year.