July 21, 2009
Behind The Badge - Preview Video
The Rhinos are without one of the great US Open Cup scorers in Johnny Menyongar. It looks like they could be without Ty Harden. Their starting keeper had his bell rung on Saturday night.
But, as well all know, anything can happen in an Open Cup game.
Last year, the Rhinos are playing with DC at the Soccerplex in Boyds, Maryland. Then they fell asleep on a pair of direct free kicks by DC's Marc Burch.
The biggest issue was the Rhinos getting their shots on goal as total shots were 11-7 DC. But, shots on goal were 7-1 for United.
With DC missing Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, and Dejan Jakovic and coach Tom Soehn having to balance a workload that will be expanding with CONCACAF Champions League play beginning a week from tonight, one would expect DC not playing their A squad tonight.
But, like the past couple of rounds of the Open Cup, I would expect the likes of Christian Gomez to be available to be brought in the second half if need be.
News & Notes:
- Abby received a new jersey at dinner last night. Speaking of dinner, apparently a young lady from Rochester thought Leslie Osborne was Heather Mitts at a local restaurant a few nights ago.
- Seattle hosts Pat Onstad and the Houston Dynamo tonight in the other US Open Cup Semifinal.
- What to do now? Personally, I'm hoping that another World Cup outside of Europe means that it is time for another solid performance by the US. I mean, they played well not only at home in 1994, but in 2002 in Japan/Korea. Add in the performance at the Confederations Cup, and hopes shoudl be high, IMO.
- If TV is the key to MLS expansion, that is a lesser knock against Rochester. Obviously Rochester doesn't have the ownership with the resources to make the jump. But, it very well could be a bigger issue than that.
- If that is the finalist list, then I think Montreal and St. Louis should be considered the front runners.
- It's too bad that the Wilpons are out of the mix. It would be interesting to see if they would have been able to bring back the NY Cosmos.
- Pat Onstad was one of the final six MLS All-Stars named by Dominic Kinnear. SBI.net takes a look at what the Starting XIs would be if MLS had a US All-Stars vs the World All-Stars format.
- Articles like this one by Greg Lalas at SI.com is why I think that people that talk down about soccer in the US are wrong. The key is elevating the level of play in MLS to a level that fans will embrace. High level soccer draws in the US. The issue is that MLS isn't there..........yet.
- Getafe may have the coolest jersey design out there with the Burger King king face printed on the inside for the pulling the jersey over the face celebration. AWESOME!
- I wonder if Landon Donovan separating from his wife is a big reason why he's open to a move abroad?
More Beckham Backlash
- Here is some video of the Beckham vs fan interaction from over the weekend and here is the Galaxy's official statement on what happened.
- Andrea Canales has her two cents up at Goal.com.
- The title of this post by Steve Davis is classic.
- Charles Cuttone at Big Apple Soccer.com takes a whack at Beckham.
- The NY Times has some nice coverage of the AC Milan-LA friendly happenings.
- No Short Corners wonders if England is tiring of the Beckham cult.
- MLS Daily has 34 links in the LA Galaxy section with most being about Beckham. If you subscribe to the "good news, bad news, as long as people are talking" theorum, then you have to be happy abotu the buzz.
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.
