April 27, 2009
With a scoreless draw in Puerto Rico and a 2-1 win in Miami, the Rhinos are looking really good heading into Friday night's USL Game of the Week on FSC.
The Rhinos had a couple of solid firsts for the 2009 USL 1st Division season:
- They were the first road team to win in 2009
- They were the first road team to score more than 1 goal in a game in 2009
With a win on Friday night, the Rhinos can jump all the way up to second place with 7 points in 4 games.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves even though Cleveland is 0-2-0 with 6 goals allowed and only one goal for in two games away from home.
Seeing Yellow
After Danny Earls (straight red) and John Ball (two cautions) were sent off and Chris Nurse and Mauricio Salles were cautioned in the opener, the Rhinos picked up three cautions versus Puerto Rico (Nurse, Ryan Heins, and Darren Kenton) and fout cautions versus Miami (Tai Atieno, Ball, Kwame Sarkodie, and Nurse).
The Rhinos depth could end up being tested even more this season if they continue to get booked at this rate.
Go Johnny, Go
By scoring both goals yesterday, Johnny Menyongar is now in a six way tie for the goal scoring lead in the league. He is also tied for third in the league with four points.
Other Rhinos showing up towards the top of the stats listings early in the year:
- Atieno and Andrew Gregor are in a fifteen way tie for third in the league with one assist each.
- Menyongar and Atieno are in an eight way tie for third with seven shots.
- Brent Sancho is in a two way tie for third with nine fouls.
- Scott Vallow is in a tie for third in five categories: wins (1), shutouts (1), saves (12), games played (3), and minutes played (270).
News & Notes:
- Pittsburgh made the T-Bone Bonseu signing official on Friday.
- Toronto FC head coach John Carver resigned on Saturday. Carver said it was for "personal reasons" and the move surprised many as the team was doing well this season.Carver's two assistants ran the team this weekend and it may be that way for a bit.
- If you are looking for a solid look around the USL 1st Division, here is the place to go.
- I wonder if the Jurgen Klinsmann fan club will still be calling for him to be the next US Men's National Team coach after he was fired by Bayern Munich?
- Apparently MLS needs dumber fans!
- Houston, we have a contract extension for Dominic Kinnear.
- Abby is back. She scored two goals yesterday, including the game winner in stoppage time. Hopefully this game gets Abby and the Freedom on a roll.
- I wonder if this will help DC United's attempts at getting a stadium deal done somewhere?
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.
