United Soccer Leagues Week in Review 5/24/09
League News
A Memorial Day Edition of the USL Week in Review
USL First Division Team of the Week:
For the second week in a row a goalkeeper has been named USL-1 Player of the Week. After a heartbreaking and controversial loss in Portland on the 14th, Scott Vallow rebounded with a stellar performance Saturday May 16, in Vancouver as he stopped 11 shots, including a penalty, to lead the Rhinos to a victory.
Pos Name Team Highlights
G Scott Vallow Rochester Eleven saves in 2-1 win at Vancouver
D Nelson Akwari Charleston Led team in 0-0 draw at Montreal
D Cedric Joqueviel Montreal Led team in pair of shutouts
D Troy Roberts Cleveland Led team in 1-0 win at Minnesota
D Devon McKenney Carolina Led team in 2-0 win at Miami
M Luke Kreamalmeyer Carolina Two goals in 2-0 win at Miami
M Joshua Boateng Cleveland Goal in 1-0 win at Minnesota
M Stephen deRoux Montreal Led team in 4-0 win over Austin
M Brian Farber Portland Goal in 2-1 win over Rochester
M Johnny Menyongar Rochester Goal, assist in 2-1 win at Vancouver
F Roberto Brown Montreal Goal, assist in 4-0 win over Austin
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Goal of the Week?
USL never posted one last week. I guess there was no goal of week-6?
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Colin Clark in trouble with management?
The Offside Rules says the Puerto Rico Islanders’ management was not very happy with coach Colin Clark for starting 7 bench players instead of regular starters. The blog does some translation of an excerpt of a (Spanish) article by Luis Santiago Arce (larce@elnuevodia.com) for El Nuevo Día. Colin Clark’s side lost the Sunday match to W. Connection 2-1. The Islanders still will represent the Caribbean in the CONCACAF Champions League, but have had a rather sluggish start to the USL-1 season.
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USL SoccerFest set for Nov. 19-24
United Soccer Leagues announced the 2009 USL SoccerFest will be held November 19-24 in Tampa, the home of the organization’s headquarters, in conjunction with the Tampa Bay Sports Commission. The USL SoccerFest, launched in the fall of 2005, is comprised of the USL Annual General Meeting, the Super Y-League’s 11th Annual North American Finals, and the Five-A-Side Frenzy.
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The Tampa Bay Rowdies announced they will play in a centrally located stadium to be built in N.W. Hillsborough County, with easy access from Pinellas and Pasco counties. The stadium will feature approximately 5,500 seats and 16 luxury suites. Detailed plans and renderings will be shared here in the next few months.
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An interesting story from IndianFootball.com. Dr. Francis Saldanha is interviewed. He is one of the key persons involved with getting the Indian U-16 national team to the US for a tour. Saldanha says, “Several Indian-American youngsters are in the PDL and USL Leagues. It’s only a matter of time before they qualify for the MLS.”
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Kartik Krishnaiyer with a nice article that asks, Could the Washington DC area be the American London? He has some great points here and USL certainly plays a part in this.
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RESULTS THIS PAST 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 Blue 0-1 Charleston Battery @ Blackbaud Stadium - Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: CHA: Darren Spicer (Nelson Akwari) 77
Attendance: 2554
Fri, May 22, 2009
8:00 pm Portland Timbers 1-1 Puerto Rico Islanders @ Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium – Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: PR: Sean Fraser 52 POR: Mandjou Keita (David Hayes) 59
Attendance: 3011
(Fox Soccer Channel)
8:00 pm Carolina RailHawks 3-0 Cleveland City Stars @ Middlefield Cheese Stadium (Bedford) - Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: CAR: Andriy Budnyy (Daniel Paladini) 18 CAR: John Cunliffe (Daniel Paladini) 21 CAR: Joseph Kabwe (Jeremy Tolleson) 77
Attendance: 1226
Sat, May 23, 2009
7:30 pm Rochester Rhinos 0-2 Charleston Battery @ Blackbaud Stadium - Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: CHA: Randi Patterson (Darren Spicer) 55 CHA: Frankie Sanfilippo (Tyler Hemming) 71
Attendance: 3874
8:05 pm Miami FC Blues 0-0 Minnesota Thunder @ National Sports Center - Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: None
Attendance: 3311
Sunday, May 24, 2009
7:00 pm Portland Timbers 2-1 Puerto Rico Islanders @ Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium - Game Report - Box Scores
Scoring Summary:POR: Mandjou Keita (Brian Farber) 24 PR: John Krause (Jonathan Steele) 34 POR: Mamadou Danso (Brian Farber) 35
Attendance: 2701
7:00 pm Carolina RailHawks 1-0 Austin Aztex @ Nelson Field – Game Report – Box Scores
Scoring Summary: CAR: Daniel Paladini (penalty) 83
Attendance: 2388
Average attendance this week: 2,723 down from 6835 last week. When there are no games in Montreal and Portland the attendance numbers in USL-1 plummet. Is it any wonder MLS has shown interest in those two franchises?
12 goals for an average number of goals scored per game: 1.7. Down from 2.16 last week.
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.
Fri, May 29, 2009
(Fox Soccer Channel)
8:00 pm Cleveland City Stars at Carolina RailHawks @ WakeMed Soccer Park
8:30 pm Puerto Rico Islanders at Austin Aztex @ Nelson Field
Sat, May 30, 2009
7:30 pm Cleveland City Stars at Charleston Battery @ Blackbaud Stadium
7:35 pm Montreal Impact at Rochester Rhinos @ Rochester Rhinos Stadium
10:00 pm Vancouver Whitecaps at Portland Timbers @ PGE Park
Sunday, May 31, 2009
6:05 pm Puerto Rico Islanders at Minnesota Thunder @ National Sports Center
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Team News
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Austin Aztex
The Aztexan with a summary of the injured players for the Aztex. (I predicted that the Aztex would be a decent side this year, but I also said that they are not very deep and the long, tough USL season could wear on the team.)
The Independent with another article on coach/manager Adrian Heath.
Heath also tells the Austin Statesman what he thought of the controversial PK given late in the game to give the win to Carolina. “I thought the penalty decision was ludicrous” Austin coach Adrian Heath.
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Carolina RailHawks
An injury update on Jack Stewart. He had 4 screws and a plate inserted into his broken leg. Ouch!
Our friend Jarret Campbell of Triangle Soccer Fanatics site sits in on RailHawk Talk this week. I enjoyed listening to this because there are a lot of similarities to why Jarret started his site and the reason IMS came to be. As well, Campbell talks about the struggles of marketing a USL team. Go here to listen.
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Charleston Battery
The Battery’s midfielder Tyler Hemming has been called up to the Canadian National Team.
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Cleveland City Stars
The City Stars are doing a nice little video wrap up of each week’s play. Check out week 6 here.
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Miami FC
Diego Serna talks to the Miami Herald about his latest red card. ”There’s no excuses. I’m old enough to know not to do that,” said Serna, 35. “I want to apologize to the fans, especially the children. They shouldn’t have to watch that dangerous play.”
Two ex-Cuban national team players started in the team’s loss to Charleston.
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Minnesota Thunder
No news.
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Montreal Impact
No news.
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Portland Timbers
No news.
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Puerto Rico Islanders
The Islanders Off-Side.com is interpreting a Spanish site that says Colin Clarke is in some trouble with the board of the Islanders after he made a decision to bench many of his starters in the final of the Caribbean title which saw the Islanders lose.
More controversy from Pasion Naranja! I agree with the article. There are definitely communication issues with the Islanders, their website and the news that we get out of the team. This is a good read.
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Rochester Rhinos
Rochester fans have no idea how lucky they are to have an experienced sports journalist in Jeff DiVeronca who actually enjoys soccer and does a fantastic job reporting on his Rochester Rhinos. As always, check out his blog.
You also have a weekly radio program in the Soccer Sam Show with Devo and James Weise. There are many of us throughout the league that are very jealous of that sort of coverage. Don’t ever take them for granted.
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Vancouver Whitecaps
Canada.com is saying, Jeff Parke is not just a tourist with the Whitecaps.
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Comments are closed.
Three former Thunder players on the team of the week. Niiice.
Ya, and to top that off, Farber had two assists in the Portland game the other night. We couldn’t ever get him to pass the ball in an effective way when he was here at MN. Also, the first goal of the game was scored by Danso, A guy we sort-of-kind-of missed out on in preseason. He was here for a couple of weeks and then he ended up going to Portland which was not MN fault really. But still…