March 6, 2009
Today the Rhinos announced the signings of midfielder Chris Nurse and forward Tai Atieno who played the 2008 season with Puerto Rico, but who had been traded to Charleston during the off season.
These two signings bring the Rhinos roster to 17 players with 15 days remaining before their first pre-season game versus the Cleveland City Stars at Rhinos Stadium.
Here is the roster breakdown:
GK (2): Scott Vallow and Tim Melia
D (5): John Ball, Kenney Bertz, Scott Palguta, Brent Sancho, and Danny Earls
MF (5): Tiger Fitzpatrick, Andrew Gregor, Ryan Heins, Chris Nurse, and Ze Roberto
F (5): Johnny Menyongar, Mauricio Salles, Chris Sanders, Tai Atieno, and Andrew Lorei
As it stands today, the team could use some defensive depth and perhaps a true outside midfielder or two. Other than that, the roster looks pretty set right now.
Montreal Meltdown
Montreal Impact.com - Game Summary
I know that on one hand, I should be pulling for a USL club in the CONCACAF Champions League.
But, it's Montreal, so I can't help but laugh at how they went out last night.
Montreal took a 2-0 lead into the second leg of their Quarterfinal match up with Santos Laguna.
By halftime last night, Montreal was ahead 4-1 on aggregate.
But alas, it was not to be as the Impact gave up four second half goals, including the series tying and winning goals in stoppage time.
That is crashing and burning.
News & Notes:
- Apparently Beckham has reached into his own pocket to stay with AC Milan through the end of their season.
- Goal.com looks at the biggest losers in this Beckham deal.
- And Michael Lewis says that we don't need Beckham. I wonder if the honchos at MLS will like an MLSNet.com writer putting out a column like that, even if it's not on their site?
- Landon Donovan is heading back to LA as planned, though. And Ives Galarcep thinks this should be his last season in MLS before going back over to Europe again.
- Austin has signed forward Eddie Johnson. No, not THAT Eddie Johnson......
- If Carlos Johnson doesn't stick with the Red Bulls, I wonder if he'd come to Rochester?
- I love a good Blues Brothers reference......
- The Houston Chronicle has a nice story about a young goalkeeper that plays behind Pat Onstad with the Dynamo.
- The Pro-MLS in Portland vs the Anti-Spending Public Funds for Pro Sports argument is on!
- SportNet.ca says that Vancouver was a front runner all along in the MLS Expansion race.
- Jack Bell looks at the age old question of when is the right time for MLS to play games. Given the climate in North America, the schedule would have to look like the one in Sweden and the rest of the Northern European countries. But even then, you'll face competition with the NFL early and MLB late.
- I have to give it up to Seattle. This Scarf Seattle campaign looks really cool.
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
