November 21, 2008
If you are a member of My Football Club.co.uk, then you are a part owner of the club that former Rhinos forward Matthew Delicate has signed on with during his trip back to England.
It will be interesting to see how long Deli stays in England and if he returns to the States for the 2009 USL season or not.
Atlanta Silverbacks sitting out the 2009 season
The Atlanta Silverbacks are going to sit out the 2009 season claiming that the economy and the potential for MLS to move to Atlanta drove their decision.
Personally, I'm buying the financial reason more than the MLS reason. While there are some rumors that the Houston Dynamo could be moving to Atlanta due to their talks for a new stadium in Houston haven't exactly been moving at a brisk pace, I'm not buying them.
I think that Atlanta, along with perhaps Montreal, has become the latest market that MLS is using to scare cities into giving them new stadiums.
But, it will be interesting to see where players like David Hayes end up now that they are on the market. With Danny Earls possibly following Steve Guppy to Colorado, the Rhinos could use a starting left back................
News & Notes:
- The Evening Times is reporting that the Rhinos approached former Dundee manager Alex Rae and were turned down. Rae did not want to move his family to the US, which I can completely understand. It will be interesting to see where the Rhinos search goes next.
- Devo's latest blog posting says that John Ball and Ryan Heins have agreed to new contracts with the Rhinos and just need to be signed. Hopefully there are more signings in the works.
- Beckham isn't the only member of the LA Galaxy to move to Europe on loan during the MLS off season. Landon Donovan will be going back to Bayern Munich it appears.
- Freddy Adu scored his first USMNT goal on Wednesday night versus Guatemala in the 2-0 win for the US.
- Steven Goff thinks that MLS will have a hard time telling Barca no when it comes to the next round of MLS expansion. I tend to agree and that is one reason why I think MLS to Atlanta is a ways off. I also wonder if that could potentially hurt Montreal's bid should MLS want one East Coast team and one West Coast team (like say Vancouver....)
- It looks like the KC Wizards stadium project has cleared it's last major political hurdle.....
- But, it looks like the San Jose Earthquakes stadium project isn't in as good a shape......
- Jack Bell at The NY Times had an interview with MLS commish Don Garber. As usual, Garber says alot without saying much.
- The Minnesota Thunder have removed the interim tag from head coach Donny Gramenz.
- The Bay Area WPS team will be named FC Gold Pride. Wow.....
- Schelotto ran away with the MLS MVP, as well he should have. He was the best player on the best team in 2008.
- You have to read Michael Lewis' latest Offside Remarks column at Big Apple Soccer.com.
- Woly is getting some love from the hometown newspaper!
- Grant Wahl has a nice piece on SI.com about the Red Bulls finally getting to an MLS Cup Final.
- Apparently clashes with FIFA match dates isn't an MLS-specific issue.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
