July 1, 2009
Crew Xtra - Devo's game story for the Columbus Dispatch
Another Open Cup game, another OT/PK thriller for the Rhinos.
After the weather delay, the Rhinos were able to go through against the Crew's B squad thanks to a nice left footed finish by on loan defender Ty Harden and then Tim Melia's hustling save in PKs.
The glass half full take is that the Rhinos couldn't win the game in regulation against an MLS B squad, especially after they were awarded a PK and went up a man in the early stages of the second half.
But, the Rhinos did enough to not only entertain the crowd (announced at a decent 6098), but they advanced to host the USL 2nd Division's Wilmington Hammerheads next Tuesday in the Quarterfinals.
Should the Rhinos get through Wilmington, they will be looking at a Semifinal match up with the winner of the Harrisburg (USL-2) vs DC United (MLS) match.
More Confed Cup Post-Mortum:
- The Colbert Report chimes in on the Confed Cup run by the US.
- Is the US gaining respect from the average fan?
- Here is a take from a US fan in Baghdad.
- Is it me, or is Pat Johnston looking for the Captain Obvious award with this take?
- MatchFit USA wonders why Landon Donovan wasn't the Bronze Ball winner ahead of Clint Dempsey.
- SBI.net has the tournament's top 10 goals.
- Sunil Gulati is excited about the increasing interest in the USMNT.
- Advantage Played has a very funny rewind on the tournament.
- Yanks Abroad has some lessons that were learned during the tournament.
- Ridge Mahoney has some props for Landon Donovan.
- Boston.com talks about the USMNT attempts to remain relevant. Winning in Mexico City would be a nice next step!
- The US is up to 12 in the FIFA rankings and Brazil knocked Spain from the top spot. And I know the FIFA rankings are a bunch of junk. But, the non-soccer sports media doesn't know that!
- The USMNT Blog has the player's reaction to the Brazil loss.
News & Notes:
- Here is what the Open Cup bracket looks like with 2 3rd Round games still to be played. It's unfortunate that MLS isn't taking this competition as seriously as they should, IMO.
- Mike Ambersley was named to the USL 1st Division Team of the Week.
- Gerry Dobson votes Real Salt Lake's Rio Tinto Stadium as the best in MLS.
- The Austin paper focused the gameday story on Pat Onstad ahead of tonight's Dynamo-Aztex US Open Cup match.
- I wonder what the news of Colorado signing French defender Julien Baudet means for Scott Palguta and Ty Harden's loan to the Rhinos?
- Sunil Gulati feels that Beckham will receive an inevitable bad reaction upon returning to MLS. After reading the excerpt of Grant's Wahl's The Beckham Experiment, I hope he gets killed by LA and opposing fans alike.
- The Kartik Report has a nice post on Edgar Castillo.
- The USMNT will get an expanded Gold Cup roster due to playing in the Confed Cup.
- It looks like ESPN will pull out all the stops for next year's World Cup coverage.
- Chris Pozniak could be headed back to Toronto FC.
- With the build up to tonight's Seattle Sounders FC vs Portland Timbers US Open Cup match, I would be stunned if Osvaldo Alonso and the Sounders didn't go all out tonight. They obviously care enough to pull on the Rave Green unis and I'm sure Drew Carey and company want to start putting some hardware in their trophy case.
- Scott Vallow has a few spots left for a goalkeeper camp on July 26th at TSE. Tim Melia will be there as well. So at a minimum, they should get some great PK tips!
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.
