April 23, 2007
Joe Spector's latest article on PAETEC Park should have come as no suprise to Rhinos fans that frequent this little corner of cyberspace. Almost three weeks ago, I had this update from Rhino's Executive Vice President Matthew Ford about how the team is still awaiting the promised funding from New York State and that work was on hold until that money came through.
Well, With about a week and a half until the home opener, Joe Spector has an article today saying the same thing, only using a lot more words to do it.
And I'm still disappointed in how this has all gone so poorly from the beginning. What should have been a great thing for the Rochester soccer community and the Rhinos has been botched on some many levels by so many people, that there have to be serious doubts about whether PAETEC Park can ever reach the potential that many fans felt it had when it was merely a dream in the heads of the Rhinos ownership.
US Women's National Team learns it's draw for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup
I could say that I was surprised that the US got drawn into an extremely hard group like they got with North Korea, Sweden, and Nigeria, but it would be a lie. With the way things have gone for US Soccer recently when it comes to the draw for the 2006 World Cup and the 2007 U-20 World Cup in Canada, I had this feeling that bad things would come in threes and the US would likely get drawn into the "Group of Death" for this tournament as well.
The good news is that this is that these three teams are the same teams that the US drew in group play for the 2003 World Cup. It will also be the third straight World Cup where the US has played North Korea and Nigeria.
Looking ahead, the US would face a team out of Group A, which includes Germany, England, Japan, and Argentina, should they advance by finishing first or second in Group B.
A look at how former Rhinos did this past weekend in the USL 1st Division
Friday - Charleston 0 - Minnesota 0
Dusty Hudock got the clean sheet for the Battery
Saturday - Minnesota 1 - Carolina 1
Scott Schweitzer made his coaching debut and he had four former Rhinos in his starting lineup. Chris Carrieri, Jonny Steele, and Frankie SanFilippo went the full ninety and Connolly Edozien started and was subbed out in the 84th minute in the inaugural match for the RailHawks.
Montreal 2 - Atlanta 2
Gabe Gervais played the full ninety, Mauro Biello started and played the first 74 minutes, and Charles Gbeke was a second half sub for the Impact as they had to rally from a 2-0 hole to get a point in Atlanta. Former Rhino David Hayes started for the Silverbacks.
Puerto Rico 1 - Portland 3
Neil Dombrowski and Chris Bagley started for the Timbers and Noah Delgado started for the Islanders. Dombrowski was the only former Rhino to make it on to the scoresheet with a 40th minute yellow card.
Seattle 0 - Vancouver 1
Eddy Sebrango scored the loan goal as the defending champion Whitecaps opened the defense of their title with a home win over the Sounders. Martin Nash went the full ninety for Vancouver and Greg Howes was not on the gameday roster for Seattle.
Razov joins MLS' century club over the weekend
Chivas USA's Ante Razov became the third player in MLS history to break the century mark for goals scored. Razov joins Jason Kreis (108 career goals) and Jaime Moreno (105 career goals) in the exclusive club. One interesting fact is that Razov is the career goal scoring leader for not one, but two MLS clubs. His 74 career goals is the best in Chicago Fire history and his 16 goals is the most in the history of Chivas USA.
The century club is likely to expand to four members this season as Real Salt Lake forward Jeff Cunningham is at 92 career goals. Given that he was able to produce 16 goals in 2006 for Real Salt Lake, Cunningham is expecting to top the 100 goal mark sometime this season.
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.
