November 6, 2008
The Rhinos have suffered their first big loss of the off season with assistant coach Steve Guppy leaving the organization to take the same job with the Colorado Rapids of MLS.
Guppy will be working for long time fried Gary Smith who was the interim coach in Colorado after Fernando Clavijo was let go in the middle of the 2008 season.
This would appear to signal that Smith has been given the Rapids job on a permanent basis.
It will be interesting to see what ripple effect this has on the Rhinos. Guppy was instrumental in bringing Danny Earls to the Rhinos in 2008 and it would appear that it might be harder to get Earls to return with Guppy leaving the club.
On the positive side for the Rhinos, this move would appear to clear out some sizable budget space. And with a healthy number of free agents from the 2008 team still unsigned.
Pat Onstad named to the USL Hall of Fame
Rhinos legend Pat Onstad has been named to the USL Hall of Fame as a player. He goes in with Amos Magee whom Onstad faced in the A-League title game.
Pat joins former Rhinos head coach Pat Ercoli and former Rhinos owners Steve Donner, Frank DuRoss, and Chris Economides in the USL Hall of Fame.
News & Notes:
- Columbus Crew defender Chad Marshall was named the MLS Defender of the Year. The funniest part of the release is that Kermit Quisenberry was named the adidas Assistant Referee of the Year.......
- Is MLS really rooting for the Fire this year? I hope not.
- The rumor mill has Kansas City DP Claudio Lopez heading back to Mexico. I still get a laugh about the fact that Jimmy Conrad had as many goals this season as Lopez did.
- Ze Roberto could be headed to FC Dallas. And it's Bayern Munich's Ze Roberto and not Rochester's Ze Roberto.
- The USWNT and South Korea played to a scoreless draw last night. US Soccer has also announced that the US will play China on December 13th at the Home Depot Center in LA.
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.
