USL news this week was eclipsed by the press statement released by USL that USL Live would be back in 2009 and offered free, courtesy of Umbro.  As the season creeps closer, signings heated up. Miami FC finally started their preseason camp and, speaking of Traffic Sports and Miami FC, they made quite a splash at the US vs El Salvador game last night. Vancouver Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi thinks MLS has the club system all wrong and wants to build a new model — Hmmm, sounds sort of like USL to me. That plus pre-season exhibition scores on this week’s edition of USL Week in Review.

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League News

The USL front offices announced USL Live will be back in 2009 and Offered FREE! Inside Minnesota Soccer’s USL Week in Review broke the news last Sunday. USL announced Wednesday in a press release that NeuLion will be teaming with USL and Umbro to bring you both live and on-demand USL games world wide. The NeuLion platform will also increase video availability for other USL clubs in addition to providing match highlights and other special video content such as press conferences, interviews and features.

Of course this is huge news for USL fans and Tim Holt has said the league hopes some of the lower league USL teams also take advantage of the service. I think we all understand from a marketing perspective just how big this is and yet hardly a mention was given to it by the major soccer journalists in this country. Why is that?

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Pitchinvasion wrote an open letter to St. Louis Soccer United saying, “come on St. Louis, join the USL.” I think a St. Louis USL team may have unprecedented success in USL. The city has waited far too long.

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Rumors are flying that a USL-1 franchise in New York will become a reality when the owners officially announce the franchise at a press conference at the Yale Club in Manhattan on April 1. It will mark the first time a top-level USL team has played in the metro market since the Long Island Rough Riders did in the A-League in 2001.

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Sometimes I’ve been tough on USL, saying what I think the league should be doing and what they’re not doing. I know it’s not an easy job.  They have done a lot of things correct to get the pyramid system of USL advanced to this point. But if they think I’m tough on them, think what it might be like if the league actually received national media attention. Jamie Trecker checks in at his FSC blog and tells us how Don Garber, commissioner for MLS was “peppered” with tough questions by some of the top soccer media in the US and he reports, “not many of them were particularly friendly.”

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Here’s a really excellent article concerning the Vancouver Whitecaps.  I think team president Bob Lenarduzzi has some really important things to say here about all soccer clubs in North America, MLS or otherwise. The article says Vancouver is already looking to the future and MLS, saying that a training center for the team will be an integral part of their success. Lenarduzzi had this interesting comment, “I’ve said time and time again the rest of the world isn’t wrong. The pro clubs develop their players, so we need to start doing that in North America. Otherwise, I think we’re hastening our own demise….We’ve invested significantly in both financial and a human resources perspective. Right now, the MLS model cannot accommodate our youth development model and we’re not prepared to abandon that youth development model because we feel that’s the future of the game, not only for the Whitecaps, but for our national teams as well. We’ll try to convince the other teams that if they want soccer to thrive in North America, they have to be developing players.”

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USL Fans on Facebook — Check it out!

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Traffic Sports owns the TV and advertising rights to all CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers outside of the US and Mexico. If you watched last night’s US v EL Salvador game in El Salvador, did you notice all the dasher board signage?  What did it say? Prominent signage was everywhere boasting Traffic Sports, Miami FC and USL. There were no “USL Owners Group” signs like we saw last year. That doesn’t mean there isn’t such a thing. Aaron Davidson, who works for Traffic Sports and is president of Miami FC confirmed several weeks ago there is indeed an owners association or “owners union” as Davidson called it. It’s a group of ULS-1 owners who have banded together to try to get USL to listen to and implement some of their requests of market their teams more fervently.  Lots of soccer supporters throughout the US are posting this morning on blogs and web sites, commenting on the signage — it definitely got noticed.  The bar where where we had our watch party last night was all a buzz for a few minutes when the dasher boards were first shown.  Why is Traffic Sports advertising themselves, USL and Miami FC so heavily? They could be selling that space to other advertisers and making revenue. I have some pretty good ideas why, but I’ll hold my thoughts for another time.

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A couple of MN Thunder supporters have created and updated a Google calendar for the team. (See MN Thunder news) What’s cool about this is you add it to your Google calendar, Entourage or I-cal.   The authors of the calendar can add scores and even game reports to the event after the game so you can check back on the results if you missed a game. On the Thunder calender they added the Thunder’s Rochester PDL team events as well as the Lightning games (WPL). If anyone adds a Google cal for their team,  e-mail me and I will add it to the USL Weekly review. This is a GREAT feature.

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Next week’s USL Week in Review (April 5th) will have a special feature.  I contacted supporters of USL teams across our nation who have writing experience. Each was asked to write a 200 word preview of their team. Next Sunday, less than a week before the ULS-1, 2009 season kick-off, Inside Minnesota Soccer will present previews of all 11 teams in the league.

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Team News

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Austin Aztex
The Austin Aztex announced the signing of four players for their inaugural USL First Division season, inking local Aztex PDL product Josh Alcala as well as Mike Callahan, Ryan Caugherty and David Sias. The Aztex have now signed 6 players from their PDL team.
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Carolina Railhawks
The Carolina RailHawks announced the addition of MLS champion, Turks and Caicos International Forward Gavin Glinton, pending League and USSF approval. Glinton was expected to play in the match against CD Olimpia of Honduras on Friday, March 27 at 8:00 p.m.

The team also announced the signing of Sierra Leone International defender Mustapha Pa Sama.

Santiago Fusilier has been dropped from RailHawks roster. Fusilier was a tough, tenacious Argentine winger who provided more than his share of highlights on last year’s sluggish team.

Despite a 2-1 loss in a friendly against CD Olimpia on Friday night at WakeMed Soccer Park, Martin Rennie said his Carolina RailHawks are right on schedule with their season opener two weeks away.
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Charleston Battery
The Charleston Battery have signed veteran defender Matt Bobo and Japanese midfielder Tsuyoshi Yoshitake for the upcoming USL First Division season. Bobo has spent the last three years with the USL-1 Atlanta Silverbacks while Yoshitake comes to the Battery from Japanese Club, Tokyo Verdy 1969.

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Cleveland City Stars
The City Stars have been blogging from their training camp in North Carolina. It’s a pretty cool feature from the newly elevated USL-1 Club.  My favorite is a story from guest blogger Evan Bush whose tooth fell out while waiting in line at Subway. He wrote, “After getting over the shock and picking the tooth up off the floor, the lady behind the counter commented, “Are you going to have anything else on your sub?” Not are you all right, did you find your tooth, do you need a dentist, do you want a free sub, a hug? Nothing!  She said it like that was something that happens everyday, people losing their teeth in line.”
There’s more to the story but I’ll let you read it yourself.  It’s great stuff  you couldn’t make up if  you tried.

The team have signed midfielder Gordon Kljestan from the MLS New York Red Bulls.  Kljestan made his MLS debut in a US Open Cup third round game against Crystal Palace Baltimore on July 1st, 2008.

The City Stars and the Montreal Impact have announced the rescheduling of the City Stars final two home matches. The September 5th match has been moved from 7 p.m. to 2 p.m. while the match originally scheduled for September 11th has been moved to August 18th at 7 p.m. Fan appreciation night will now take place September 5th during the last home match of the regular season.

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Miami FC
Miami FC opened its pre-season soccer camp on Wednesday, at Tropical Park Stadium. Approximately 30 players participated.

Miami FC & Traffic Sports Marketing media and PR Director Marcos Ommati is no longer working for the team. Ommati had worked tirelessly in campaigning to save Miami FC this season. Anyone who worked with Ommati knows how much he cared about the organization and how hard he worked in his three years at the club. Good luck to Marcus in his future endeavors.

Miami FC confirmed today the location for its first pre-season game against the Montreal Impact this Sunday, March 29, at 11 a.m. at the Holiday Inn sports complex located in Sunrise (3003 North University Dr. Sunrise, FL 33322). Fans will get a chance to see the trialist being tested to be part of the 2009 Miami FC squad.

The press release actually said at the Holiday Inn. I thought that was a mistake and laughed about it. I had to contact my friend Kartik Krishnaiyer who set me straight.  The Holiday Inn is actually a sports complex in Miami with two soccer fields and a hotel to house the athletes that attend games. Real Salt Lake played Colorado there a year ago. TFC played RSL there also. He said the US National team has trained there and the Honduras National Team trains at it before every qualifier.  It might be clearer to call it the Holiday Inn Sports Complex in the next release.

The Miami Herald is reporting the team is close to announcing a deal with Lockhart Stadium and says some games, if not all, will be played at the venue. The team had previously played at Tropical Park and announced their venue may change this year when they made the commitment to stay in Miami for the 2009 season.

Here is a nice article on former Miami FC goalkeeper, Josh Saunders who is now in nets for the LA Galaxy.

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Minnesota Thunder
Minnesota natives Geoffrey Myers and Dan O’Brien were signed to contracts.  Both players have signed three year contracts.
Myers joins the Thunder as only the second player in Minnesota soccer history to be named Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year twice while in high school. The only other player to reach such honors is Thunder president Manny Lagos. O’Brien joins the Thunder for his second season in 2009.

The team continues twice a day training. Mexican defender Angel Garcia is on trial as is defender Mamadou “Futty” Danso. The Thunder will announce the signing of a US National team U-20 player this week.

Thanks to Dave and KJ, the MN Thunder now have an updated Thunder Google calendar. If you have use a calendar on your computer like Entourage or I-Cal, try clicking here. It should automatically load it into the application.

The Thunder defeated the Minnesota Thunder Academy U-18 team, 3-2 in a scrimmage on Saturday. Scott Kerssen has a game report. It was sunny but only 42° at game time.

The team will take on Marquette University this morning in a 60 min game and then play the Schattuck Academy U-18 team in another 60 min. match. The Thunder will finish their pre-season friendlies with a game against the  University of Green Bay on Saturday, April 4, at 12:00 p.m. at Mc Murray fields.

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Montreal Impact
Montreal is confident it will land MLS one day.

The Impact fell to Honduras 2-0 in Miami.

The team also registered a 4-1 win (halftime 0-0) against a Haitian selection, Wednesday, at Westminster Academy field in Lauderdale Lakes, near Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Soccer fans will be able to follow the Montreal Impact’s activities on AM radio with the live broadcast of all home games in French on CKAC Sports and in English on THE TEAM 990.The broadcast in 2009 will include 15 regular season home games and two Nutrilite Canadian Championship games at Saputo Stadium, as well as all playoff matches, including those on the road. Each show will be preceded and followed by pre-game and post-game commentary.

The Impact plays its third and final preseason game of its training camp in Florida against its USL First Division rivals, Miami FC, Sunday at the soccer complex in Sunrise. The game that was supposed to be played at 5 p.m. will instead kick off at 11 a.m. due to expected thunderstorms in the region.

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Portland Timbers
The Timbers added two more pieces to the puzzle this week as defender David Hayes and forward Mandjou Keita have joined the team for preseason training camp at PGE Park. Keita traveled to Portland from Northwest Africa, while Hayes made the trip to the Rose City from the Atlanta area.

There are four trialist in preseason training camp last week, including three who have been in camp since its start — goalkeeper Brian Visser, defender Takura Nishimura and midfielder Mutanda Kwesele. The fourth trialist in camp this week is defender Kyle Schmid. Wilkinson is expecting another trialist in town later this week.

The Timbers announced the club signed goalkeeper Brian Visser for the 2009 USL First Division season and midfielder Mutanda Kwesele as the club’s first Timbers U-23s player.

The Timbers dominated but drew against the University of Portland Pilots Friday night at the Clive Charles Soccer Complex. Friday’s match was the Timbers’ final preseason exhibition event leading up to the 2009 USL First Division campaign. The team will face the Vancouver Whitecaps in an informal scrimmage in Burnaby, B.C. on April 3.

Brian Costello is a guest writer for Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer. He was at the Portland Press conference a week ago when MLS announced that Portland was the next team to move to MLS. That same evening he was at the NY Red Bulls v Portland Timbers friendly a day after the Red Bulls had gotten bounced 3-0 to former USL team and newest MLS member, Seattle Sounder. Brian gives us his impressions of a very full day of Portland soccer.

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Puerto Rico Islanders
The Islanders Offside web site has a nice compilation video of their CONCACAF Champions League goals.

The team really needs to get their website translated into English as well. It’s tough to give you guys any sort of media coverage when everything is in Spanish. I wish I spoke Spanish but I don’t and neither do most of the US population. They need a bilingual site.

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Rochester Rhinos
The Rhinos beat the University of Rochester in a friendly 4 – 0.

The Rochester Rhinos announced they have come to terms with defender/midfielder Kwame Sarkodie on a one-year contract. Sarkodie spent a portion of 2008 USL season as a member of the Cleveland City Stars, helping them to the USL Second Division championship. Additionally, the 23 year old defender from Dayton, Ohio saw action with the Colorado Rapids reserve squad in 2008.

The Rhinos also announced on Friday, the signing of midfielder Mike Ambersley to a two year contract and defender Nathaniel “Nano” Short to a one year deal. Ambersley was a former Rhino in the 06 and 07 season. He spent time with the Atlanta Silverbacks in 08 before suffering a season-ending knee injury during the preseason.

The Rhinos beat the Canadian Soccer League’s Italia Shooters today, 1-0, at Rhinos Stadium on a 59th-minute penalty kick by forward Maurico Salles. The win improved Rochester to 2-0-1 on the preseason as it hits the road this week. Jeff DiVeronica has the story.

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Vancouver Whitecaps
A week ago Wednesday, Vancouver was announced as one of two cities which would receive a Major League Soccer expansion team in 2011. By the following Monday the city has sold out its initial batch of 5,000 ticket deposits. Amazing and fantastic.

The Whitecaps made a winning return to preseason action on North American soil when they defeated University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 5-2 on Tuesday evening.

Veteran Major League Soccer defender Jeff Parke began training with the Whitecaps on Saturday, four days after leaving the Seattle Sounders, who selected him in the 2008 MLS expansion draft but couldn’t come to a contract agreement.

Here is a question and answer session with Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi.