The first champion of an unlikely league had an even less plausible rise to the top.
Sky Blue FC won the Women's Professional Soccer title on Saturday by beating the Los Angeles Sol 1-0 in the championship game. The club from New Jersey nearly didn't make the playoffs after its second coach resigned with two games remaining in the season.
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Christie Rampone took over as player-coach in late July when Kelly Lindsey resigned one day before practice.
Now she and the nearly two dozen women she played alongside since March are champions of the United States' second try at a women's soccer league - launched in a worldwide recession - after the first one lasted only three seasons.
"We've been through a lot this year," Rampone said. "But this team stuck together," Rampone said. "Our goal coming into the playoffs was making sure we had each others' backs and playing with no pressure."
Two months before Lindsey resigned, Sky Blue suspended, then fired its first coach, Ian Sawyers - who led the San Jose CyberRays to the first title of the Women's United Soccer Association in 2001.
Sky Blue president Thomas Hofstetter said he became concerned early in the season over how Sawyers treated staffers and players.
Without offering specifics, Hofstetter said he feared the club was becoming an unpleasant work environment.
Under Lindsey, who was promoted from assistant, Sky Blue went 5-4-3 to climb into playoff contention.
General manager Gerry Marrone - also a replacement because Sawyers began the season in that role - said that on the morning Lindsey resigned, he suspended assistant coach Joe Dorini. He didn't disclose the nature of the violation.
Oh, and two weeks before she had to take over as player-coach, Rampone had surgery for a ruptured ovarian cyst.
