January 6, 2009
Former Rhino and long time nemesis Gabe Gervais is retiring after suffering a bunch of injuries last season with the Impact.
Gervais retires as the first and only player to be named the USL 1st Division/A-League Defender of the Year three times.
It will be interesting to see how the Impact fill the rather sizable hole that will be left in Gabe's wake.
News & Notes
- Fellow long time Montreal Impact player and former Rhino Mauro Biello isn't hanging up his boots. In fact, he's signed a new deal with Montreal. Also, Patrick Leduc has signed a new two year deal with Montreal.
- Seattle Sounders FC have signed another USL Sounder with goalkeeper Chris Eylander signing on to back up Kasey Keller.
- There is also a rumor floating around that Seattle may go after a 2nd DP slot to try and nab Valencia's Fernando Morientes. I wonder if he'll require major surgery before suiting up for Seattle as well?
- David Falk at the Examiner.com has his list of the top 5 questions for Seattle in Year 1. I had to laugh at Kasey Keller feeling heat from Chris Eylander.
- MLS has finally made the Landon Donovan to Bayern Munich loan official. SBI.net had a laugh that it took this long for LA and MLS to announce what everyone knew was happening.
- There are some people that are all for the Portland to MLS deal: the people in the next county over who have a short drive and no impact on their taxes!
- If this writer is correct and Beckham still has the ability to dominate in MLS, then why didn't he? I know that outside of Landon Donovan and a few others his supporting cast stunk, that still doesn't explain why Beckham was largely a non-factor in the second half of the 2008 season for LA.
- SBI.net is outraged at the StubHub prices for US-Mexico (even though tickets have yet to go on sale). As a public service announcement, The American Outlaws supporters group has them for sale at much lower prices.
- And if only for Sam's sake, I have to link to this nice little indoor soccer piece on TIAS.com.
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.
