March 16, 2009
Since we had John Ball in studio on Saturday, we got one name of a guy that is in Rhinos camp.
That player is Kwame Sarkodie who played college soccer for the Cincinnati Bearcats, spent the 2008 season with the Cleveland City Stars of the USL 2nd division, and then signed on with the Colorado Rapids. Kwame was released by the Rapids earlier this month.
John said that he is a physical freak that could jump out of the gym during testing.
Also, we had Mike Ambersley on as he is coming back from missing the 2008 season with Atlanta due to a knee injury.
He also had nothing but nice things to say about a guy that was his roommate in Atlanta: new Rhinos defender Brent Sancho.
If Ambo sticks, that makes two teammates that Sancho will have known prior to showing up in Rocehster.
News & Notes:
- If the Rapids tipped their opening day starting lineup in their last pre-season game, that means that Palguta will have to work his way into the lineup. That's not surprising since we are less than a week until the Rapids opener and they have yet to make the Palguta signing official.
- The 2011 Expansion Race is still alive and kicking. Toronto FC's players are all for more Canadian clubs and apparently the Trailblazers almost scuttled Portland's bid at the 11th hour.
- Real Salt Lake won the 2009 edition of the Carolina Challenge Cup.
- The NY City area looks to be joining the Tampa Bay Rowdies as 2010 USL 1st Division expansion clubs. The stadium near JFK in Queens sounds really interesting.
- Defender Stephen Keel was cut by Colorado last week and has landed with the Portland Timbers.
- Drew Carey is on tour and Michael Lewis can't seem to find him.
- Goal.com has their list of the top 25 players in MLS. Quick thoughts: Shalrie Joseph at 3 is a tad high, I need to see more of Javier Morales (#9), Jaime Moreno (#13) is ageless, ditto for Steve Ralston (#17), Kyle Beckerman (#18) ahead of Kenny Cooper (#19) is interesting, Taylor Twellman (#22), Brian Ching (#24), and Brian McBride (#25) all seem a tad low to me.
- I just found a great trivia question: What two teams play for the Coffee Pot Cup?
- Goal.com has a good piece on the keys to Seattle's early success in making the jump to MLS. I wonder if the Rhinos know about this?
- Two more vets from the USL edition of the Sounders have stuck with the MLS club.
- The US U-20s flamed out in the final versus Costa Rica by a 3-0 score.
- I hate it when there are NCAA football and basketball polls before the season starts, so I have to hate this one.
- For some reason the song Instant Karma keeps going through my head when I read this.
- Yup, he's only getting USMNT minutes because his dad's the coach.........
And here is the Beckham round up for the weekend:
- Piers Morgan blasts Beckham.
- John McAuley puts down MLS.
- Ian Winwood gives four reasons why LA fans should be happy that Becks is almost gone.
- Angel Magana hopes that LA has learned it's lesson.
- Harry Redknapp is dreaming of Beckham in a Tottenham kit.
- And finally, Mark Davies says that Beckham was too good for the Galaxy.
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
