United Soccer Leagues Week in Review 5/17/09
League News
USL First Division Team of the Week:
Goalkeeper Hunter Gilstrap was named Week Five USL First Division Player of the Week after his 11-save performance May 9, in a 0-0 draw with the Portland Timbers. It marks the second Player of the Week award in Gilstrap’s career, as he was named the USL Second Division Player of the Week on August 7th 2007.
Pos Name Team Highlights
G Hunter Gilstrap Cleveland 11 saves in 0-0 draw against Portland
D Wes Knight Vancouver Assist in 1-0 win over Puerto Rico
D Cameron Knowles Portland Led team in 0-0 draw at Cleveland
D Brent Sancho Rochester Led team in 2-1 win at Montreal
D Cristian Arrieta Puerto Rico Goal in 1-1 draw at Austin
D Frankie Sanfilippo Charleston Goal in 2-1 win at Carolina
M John Michael Hayden Cleveland Led team in 0-0 draw against Portland
M Yordany Alvarez Austin Goal in 1-1 draw against Puerto Rico
M Tiger Fitzpatrick Rochester Goal in 2-1 win at Montreal
F Dan Antoniuk Charleston Goal, assist in 2-1 win at Carolina
F Charles Gbeke Vancouver Goal in 1-0 win over Puerto Rico
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Frankie Sanfilippo of the Charleston Battery had the USL-1 Goal of the week-5. Former Carolina RailHawk players combined to provide the Charleston Battery with what proved to be the 2-1 winner when Dan Antoniuk dropped the ball back to defender Frankie Sanfilippo, who placed a perfect shot to the far upper corner.
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Suputo and Garber say Impact heading for MLS and could be announced at month’s end.
In a sort of crazy turnabout, Canada.com is saying that before Friday night’s game, news was delivered by Impact president Joey Saputo that a bid to join Major League Soccer was alive and headed in the right direction. Saputo met with MLS commissioner Don Garber and league president Mark Abbott in New York last week, and told reporters Friday that efforts to join North America’s top league were “definitely back on the rails.”
According to Suputo, the Quebec government has agreed to get involved to the tune of $25 million to increase the capacity of the stadium to 21,000.
Garber said this week, “We continue to be impressed by the Saputo family’s commitment to the sport in Montreal. The Impact is a very popular team and play in a soccer-specific stadium in downtown Montreal.
Joey Saputo is working with a variety of local government entities on a plan to expand the capacity of Stade Saputo. I believe Montreal is a very viable MLS market and I plan to keep in regular contact with the Saputos as we continue to develop our future expansion plans.”
All this comes 6 months after the league turned down Suputo’s request for an MLS team while Suputo said he turned down the League’s request of $40 million for a franchise fee. Whatever the case, it looks as if the two sides have kissed and made up.
On a personal note, I know that Joey Suputo has had enough money that he has always done his own thing in USL. He has not really been part of the Team Owners Union nor has he been in favor of some of the decisions of USL’s front office. One more successful USL-1 team leaving the league is not a good thing for USL.
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The New Boy in Town
The surging attention on USL after the run from Montreal and Puerto Rico in the CONCACAF Champions League has been evident this season as more and more news seems to be available concerning USL. Now a new boy on the block showed up this week in the form of a website called USL News. USL News seems to be aggregating news from other USL-driven sites, Inside Minnesota Soccer being one of them. However, they are in the process of securing USL correspondents and creating their own content as well. Rumor has it that these are the same guys who run the site called MLS Rumors.
Here’s my concern. This past week the site has been reporting on some rumors concerning USL and Umbro. I know I’m just furthering the rumors by reporting this, but these are things Inside Minnesota Soccer has known about for months with much more information as well. However, I’ve been asked to keep this information off-the-record for now by numerous sources throughout the US. I also know other journalists who know some of these same things and were also asked to keep them quiet until things unfold a bit more with the league.
Is it a good idea to be recklessly throwing rumors around concerning the league? How will rumors effect possible negotiations? Is this responsible journalism and good attention for the league (any pub is good pub?), or is this irresponsible blogging with no regard for the effect it has on the league and its dealings and just looking for advertising revenue?
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More rumors
Speaking of rumors, if you can wade through all the advertising, MLS Rumors has an article up saying MLS expansion may have doomed USL-1 and the league could re-form with USL-2 Clubs or fold. I will hold most of my comments on this for the time being. (Note the comment above concerning rumors and journalistic standards.) However, USL is indeed going through a tremendous time of sorting things out from the USL-1 league owners to the USL front office. There will be changes coming in the near future but what those changes look like are up in the air with both the League front office and the Team Owners Union, as reported by IMS previously. However, the idea that the league owners would pull their teams from USL-1 and form some sort of second division with MLS just made me laugh.
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USL attendance in Portland and Montreal outstanding
Montreal has hosted only 3 games thus far in the season and nearly all have been sellouts of over 12,ooo. I would think those are numbers that MLS officials have been keeping a close eye on this season. Sunday’s game was cloudy and 48°F and yet they still drew 11,470. Their average after those three games is 11,965.
Portland, who will be moving to MLS in 2011, has also shown great numbers so far this season with the team pulling in about 7,500 for each game. It’s a nice number for USL-1 and a number I’m sure the USL front office hopes every team could achieve.
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Tampa Bay Rowdies Sued
A Texas company that deals in classic sports logos is suing the owners of the Tampa Bay Rowdies professional soccer team for trademark infringement, alleging an improper use of the team name on sports gear. Classic Ink has filed a lawsuit against the owners of the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the USL First Division expansion team, along with the two companies marketing Tampa Bay Rowdies apparel for trademark infringement. Classic Ink claims the former owner of C.S. Anderson Enterprises (the company that became Classic Ink) executed a false assignment of the Tampa Bay Rowdies trademark to the new team’s owners. Now Classic Ink says the former owner had no right to do so and thus the expansion team is in violation of trademark law.
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Montreal Fires Head Coach
The Montreal Impact fired their head coach John Limniatis this week and replaced him with Marc Dos Santos who was assistant coach and will be the interim coach until a replacement can be found.
I have to totally agree with the Metronews take on why Limniatis was fired. Can you say — away leg of CONCACAF Champions League meltdown against Santos?
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CONCACAF Champions League
It looks like Canada will not be represented by a USL-1 team this year in the CONCACAF Champions League as Toronto FC seems to be in the driver’s seat in the Nutrulite Canadian championship.
However, the 2009 CFU top seed Puerto Rico Islanders defeated the 2008 Haitian Champions Tempête FC in overtime by a 2-0 score at the 2009 CFU Club Champions’ Cup semifinals at the Marvin Lee Stadium, in Macoya, Trinidad & Tobago. The Islanders semifinal victory earned them a spot in the upcoming 2009-10 CONCACAF Champions League (CCL). The Islanders were semifinalists in the 2008-09 CCL edition.
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Former USL Star Sebastien Le Toux Featured
MLSnet.com has a nice feature story on the French native who made his name in USL-1 for the Sounders.
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Brian Zygo with a story of an American Tradition: The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup
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Kartik Krishnaiyer at Major League Soccer Talk talks to Dan Duggan of the Michigan Bucks PDL team who says he wants to move up to USL-2.
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CONCACAF tourney needs tweaking by Luis Bueno of SI. Take a look at option #2. He says, MLS should have, at most, two spots, with one of them going to the USL.
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Kartik Krishnaiyer has his own ideas about a new format for the CONCACAF tourney.
RESULTS THIS PAST WEEK:
Thu, May 14, 2009
11:00 pm Rochester Rhinos 1-2 Portland Timbers @ PGE Park- Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: POR: Brian Farber (Mandjou Keita) 40 ROC: Darren Kenton 66 POR: Ryan Pore (penalty) 90
Ejections: ROC: Nano Short 61
Attendance: 7556
Fri, May 15, 2009
(Fox Soccer Channel)
7:45 pm Charleston Battery 0-0 Montreal Impact @ Saputo Stadium- Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: None
Attendance: 12180
Sat, May 16, 2009
8:00 pm Carolina RailHawks 2-0 Miami FC Blues @ Lockhart Stadium- Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: CAR: Luke Kreamalmeyer (Gavin Glinton) 40 CAR: Luke Kreamalmeyer 58
Ejections: MIA: Diego Serna 70
Attendance: 1875
8:05 pm Cleveland City Stars 1-0 Minnesota Thunder @ National Sports Center- Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: CLE: Josh Boateng (Pato Aguilera) 63
Attendance: 2642
10:00 pm Rochester Rhinos 2-1 Vancouver Whitecaps @ Swangard Stadium- Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: ROC: Chris Nurse (Johnny Menyongar) 17 ROC: Johnny Menyongar (Taiwo Atieno) 37 VAN: Dever Orgill (Ansu Toure) 90
Attendance: 5288
Sunday, May 17, 2009
3:45 pm Austin Aztex 0-4 Montreal Impact @ Saputo Stadium- Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: MON: Roberto Brown 51 MON: Joey Gjertsen (Roberto Brown) 57 MON: Tony Donatelli 62 MON: Simon Gatti (Rocco Placentino) 89
Attendance: 11470 (even though it was 48°F at game time)
Average attendance this week: 6,835 up from 5,624 last week.
13 goals for an average number of goals scored per game: 2.16. Up from 1.8 last week.
25 Yellow cards and 2 red cards
IIMS~IMS~IMS~IMS~IMS
GAMES THIS COMING WEEK:
Games times are listed EST. Games all available on USL Live except Friday night game available on Fox Soccer Channel.
Wed, May 20, 2009
7:30 pm Miami FC Blues at Charleston Battery @ Blackbaud Stadium
Fri, May 22, 2009
8:00 pm Portland Timbers at Puerto Rico Islanders @ Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium
(Fox Soccer Channel)
8:00 pm Carolina RailHawks at Cleveland City Stars @ Middlefield Cheese Stadium (Bedford)
Sat, May 23, 2009
7:30 pm Rochester Rhinos at Charleston Battery @ Blackbaud Stadium
8:05 pm Miami FC Blues at Minnesota Thunder @ National Sports Center
Sunday, May 24, 2009
7:00 pm Portland Timbers at Puerto Rico Islanders @ Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium
7:00 pm Carolina RailHawks at Austin Aztex @ Nelson Field
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Team News
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Austin Aztex
Aztex head coach Adrian Heath was featured on Soccernet with a question and answer article and saying that the USL is a viable alternative to MLS.
Chantico’s Army is reporting on the health status of Sam Reynolds.
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Carolina RailHawks
No news.
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Charleston Battery
No news.
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Cleveland City Stars
The Cleveland City Stars reached an agreement on Friday to add defender Stephane Guillaume to the roster. The 25-year old Haitian last played with Miami FC in the USL First Division and has been capped by the Haitian National Team. Guillaume was on the roster Saturday evening when the Stars faced the Thunder in Blaine, MN.
The City Stars also announced Friday the addition of two players, midfielder Alioune Gueye and defender Justin Valentin. Gueye is a native of Senegal and joins the City Stars after playing professionally in Nigeria, while Valentin comes to Cleveland on loan from the L.A. Galaxy of MLS. These player also traveled to MN for their Saturday match-up with Cleveland.
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Miami FC
No news.**
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Minnesota Thunder
IMS conducts a Q and A with head coach Don Gramenz.
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Montreal Impact
A nice story on 31-year-old Panamanian, Roberto Brown.
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Portland Timbers
No news.
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Puerto Rico Islanders
The 2009 CFU top seed Puerto Rico Islanders defeated the 2008 Haitian Champions Tempête FC in overtime by a 2-0 score at the 2009 CFU Club Champions’ Cup semifinals at the Marvin Lee Stadium, in Macoya, Trinidad & Tobago. The Islanders’ semifinal victory earned them a spot in the upcoming 2009-10 CONCACAF Champions League (CCL). The Islanders were semifinalists in the 2008-09 CCL edition.
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Rochester Rhinos
Devo is saying that the Rochester Rhinos were not happy with the injury time penalty kick given to Portland on Thursday evening. The game was televised on Fox Soccer Channel. Team owner Rob Clark has filed a complaint with the league and asked them to review the call.
DiVeronica also talks about the $420,000.00 the city is putting towards Rhinos Stadium. Jeff DiVeronica’s blog is the place to go if you want Rhinos news.
Rochester and Vancouver Fans, here are some great video highlights from Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Saturday evening’s game.
Soccernet is saying the Rhinos are ruling the road. ttp://www.rnews.com/Sports/Story_2004.cfm?ID=72083&rnews_story_type=24***
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Vancouver Whitecaps
See the video highlights (or low lights) for Saturday’s game by going here.
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Comments are closed.
>Is it a good idea to be recklessly throwing rumors around concerning the league? >How will rumors effect possible negotiations? Is this responsible journalism and >good attention for the league (any pub is good pub?), or is this irresponsible >blogging with no regard for the effect it has on the league and its dealings and just >looking for advertising revenue?
Welcome to journalistic ethics 101. There are no good answers to these questions. In your case, you were asked by the source not to report it, and you didn’t. Good on you. I have no idea where these guys got their information, but obviously they felt it was important enough to report.
…and it is. A journalist (and I note that blogs are still fleshing out where they fall in the spectrum of journalism) has a responsibility to report the news. It is not for them (generally) to determine whether that news will do more harm than good.
I’m pretty sure that MLS Rumors/USLNews/etc. are probably not going to hit Soccernet or FSC any time soon. I suspect that most of the sources in these negotiations, whatever they may be, are already aware of the league’s problems, and this won’t be a blip on the radar.
The only direct consequence of this I can think is Chantico’s Army asking our own FO if there’s any truth to it. Past that, more power to them.
To me, the fact that the authors of USL News are hiding behind anonymous handles (“the operator” and “the fifth official”) speaks volumes about how seriously they should be taken.
Posting stories about or based on rumors, as long as they’re identified as rumors, is fine in my book. So why the secrecy? Unless they’re dishing information that they know should be off the record, perhaps? Or maybe they’re just rehashing old BS to drive traffic to their site.
I guess it’s a sign of the league’s growth that such a site would appear. Too bad it seems so shady. Don’t worry, Brian. They’re a very long way from replacing your site’s feed in my newsreader!
Thanks for your support Chris. I’m not saying the site is necessarily a bad thing and as you stated, it is certainly a sign of the leagues growth. They did come up with a clarification statement this morning concerning rumors and news. Evidently they got the message.
Brian,
Awesome summary, this is some serious heavy lifting.
Have you heard anything relating to the Revs relocating to Montreal? While I would be surprised if the Krafts sold, I do have to think that they could put that money to good use. I went to the Santos Laguna-Revs match at Gilette last summary and the amount of development that was ongoing around the stadium was impressive.
Perhaps they’re looking to harvest their investment in the Revs now that they have been able to finish the master development plan in Foxborough.
Joey Suputo does quite well for himself as does his family. I would expect that the Revs would stay put and Montreal would be come another expansion team. However, being that I said that probably means you will be proven correct and me incorrect. Thanks for following George and for the kids words.