July 25, 2008
Montreal is coming off a big win in Toronto that gained them a Canadian championship.
Rochester is coming off a highly successful road trip that saw them gain their first two road wins of the season and propel themselves into 4th place in the USL 1st Division.
And while many of the names involved have changed, this weekend's home and home series between the Rhinos and Impact could see a renewal of the age old rivalry as Montreal is desperate to get out of the basement and the Rhinos are aimed at keeping their run of good fortune going.
There are a boatload of injuries on both sides into tonight's match, so it will be interesting to see how that affects things on both sides.
But given the gameplan that Coach Tilley talked about last night, I'm really interested in seeing how things go tonight.
News & Notes:
- Jeff had not one, but two articles in yesterday's D&C on former Rhino's coach Pat Ercoli who will be honored at tonight's game. As the years have passed, I wonder how hard it would be for Pat to get back into the professional soccer game.
- If you have $50 and want to head to Sunday's game in Montreal, then check out the Stampede's bus trip.
- Scott Vallow has his Rockstar Soccer Clothing Company gear up on his website. I want to see what the hats look like,but I like the ringer t-shirt!
- Check out this photo from Wednesday night's Houston-DC game!
- There is a bunch of stuff coming out after last night's MLS All-Star game in Toronto versus West Ham. Andrea Canales wasn't impressed with TFC's fans, Steven Goff breaks down all the player movement rumors, SBI.net takes a look back at the game, Jamie Trecker talks about Vancouver and Montreal to MLS.
All I have to say is that DeRo's PK was sick!
- SBI.net has dirt on Chad Barrett heading to Toronto FC for Brian McBride's rights and a couple of FC Dallas players denying rumors that they are on the move out of MLS.
- I had a fun time at the Q&A at The Distillery last evening. It was really fun to get an inside look at how things have gone and where things are going.
My biggest takeaways were the comments about how hard Darren Tilley works from Scott Vallow and Steve Guppy, Matthew Ford quickly answering that more moves will happen before the August 14th roster freeze date (at a minimum, the Rhinos appear to be adding a player that has already suited up once this season for the team), how Darren broke down Montreal and shared some of the gameplan with those in attendance, and that Darren sees Miami FC's defensive posture in the two matches at PAETEC Park as a challenge and not a pain in the rear.
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.
