April 25, 2007
The Rhinos have added a third goalkeeper to the mix as they've signed Virginia Tech grad and former Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Chase Harrison. The addition of Harrison brings the Rhinos roster to 24 players. That leaves them with two open roster spots should they want to add any more players throughout the season.
Harrison joins Kevin Burns as the players that earned contracts this season after showing their wares in the Rhinos combine. Harrison also had the advantage of having spent time with new Rhino midfielder/defender Kevin Novak in Salt Lake last season and as with Scott Palguta during Real Salt Lake's pre-season this year.
It will be interesting to see how the battle goes between Harrison and Hector Zapata for the back up spot behing captain Scott Vallow on game days.
Bloggin' with Scott Palguta back for a 2nd season
Scott opens year two of his blog with a nice recap of the offseason. This year's blog includes comments, so fans can leave responses to Scott's posts right there.
RailHawks snap up Marcio Leite
Milwaukee Wave midfielder Marcio Leite is the Brazilian that the Rhinos were looking at signing. However, he has opted to sign with the expansion Carolina RailHawks and they hope that Marcio can help spark the offense for the first year club. It will be interesting to see how Leite adapts to the outdoor game as he appears to have been primarily an indoor player throughout his young career.
Richmond Kickers to play Virginia Tech in fundraising match
A big thumb's up to the Kickers in their move to help raise funds for Virginia Tech's Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund.
I wonder if the Rhinos are looking into doing anything special given that Chase Harrison is a Virginia Tech alum?
Around and about MLS
LA downed Columbus 1-0 on a Nate Jaqua goal to advance in US Open Hunt qualifying. The Galaxy will play at the New York Red Bulls for a spot in the main draw of this year's Lamar Hunt US Open Cup tournament.
Juan Pablo Angel was at Red Bulls training yesterday. The good news is that Angel will not be traveling back to England and will stay in the US while he waits for his work permit to come through. The Red Bulls want the visa approval yesterday, but they were unwilling to commit to a timeframe as they have no idea how quickly the INS will process their request.
Ives Galarcep has a nice article on Red Bulls and US U-20 forward Josmer Altidore. Galarcep feels that Jozy can handle the hype as the spotlight turns to him as the next great forward coming up through the US Soccer system. While Altidore's hype has yet to hit Freddy Adu levels, he does have a national adidas "Impossible is Nothing" ad spot putting him in the company of athletes such as Gilbert Arenas and one future LA Galaxy midfielder.
One can only hope that Altidore continues to grow as a player and that the early success isn't an issue down the road.
Nick Green of the LA Daily News has a curious article about how the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA are lacking credibility. I'm sorry, but as soon as the Galaxy announced that Beckham deal, I thought that bought them a ton of credibility. And the way that Chivas has spun away from Plan A of trying to force their model on MLS and instead are trying to win playing the MLS game using MLS vets (like Razov), good young American players (like Klejstan, Bornstein, and Guzan), and American coaches (Bob Bradley and Preki), seems to me to buy them credibility in the form of a better won/loss record. But that's my view of things from a few thousand miles away.............
And finally, MLS Underground is claiming to have an exclusive in that the LA Galaxy are in talks to add Zidane. Ummm, I'm sorry, but can it be an exclusive when pretty much everyone is speculating about this and Alexi Lalas is doing interviews on the topic. Now if MLSU had breaking news that the deal was done, then I could see it being an "exclusive".
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.
