November 12, 2007
Over 48,000 people came out to see the David Beckham circus aka the LA Galaxy in Vancouver. Last night there were slightly over 20,000 people in the Metrodome to see Becks and company take on the Minnesota Thunder.
Last evening's affair, which saw current Rhinos Johnny Menyongar and Kenney Bertz suiting up for the home team, went to PKs as the match was even at one at the end of regulation.
With further friendlies scheduled in such far off locations as Australia, it will be interesting to see if the Galaxy will allow Beckham and his teammates enough down time to recover from the MLS season. And in Beckham's case, it is even longer as he went from the 2006-07 La LIga season with Real Madrid to the end of the 2007 MLS season with LA. Although, he did get some downtime to heal his ankle injury and then was shelved with the knee injured suffered with the Galaxy.
Add in new head coach Ruud Gullit who wants to bring "sexy football" to LA and the three ring circus would appear to be coming to plenty of MLS cities in 2008.
The real question to many is will LA win anything of note while trying to be sexy?
MLS Cup 2007 is set
Pat Onstad's clean sheet Saturday night led the defending MLS Cup Champion Houston Dynamo back to the MLS Cup final.
But, the Dynamo's victory was not without a major cost as Brian Ching picked up a left calf injury and it seems unlikely that the US International forward will be able to play on Sunday afternoon.
It appears that head coach Dominic Kinnear will go with a strike tandem of Nate Jaqua and Joseph Ngwenya against the New England Revolution.
Sunday's match up will be a rematch of the 2006 final between the Dynamo and Revolution. Last year's final came down to PKs with the Dynamo prevailing.
A win on Sunday would give Onstad three MLS Cup rings in five seasons in MLS.
PS: Check out what Onstad has listed as his hometown on his bio.
Bradley tweaks US roster for game against South Africa
Eddie Lewis is out and Heath Pearce and Jonathan Spector are in as the US MNT prepares to take on 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa on Saturday.
The moves bring the US roster to 18 players.
Former Rhinos amongst players that appear to be returning in Carolina
It appears that Frankie Sanfilippo, Connally Edozien, and Chris Carrieri will be among the core players returning to the Carolina RailHawks in 2008.
Also, there are rumors that the RailHawks are close to adding 2007 USL 2nd-Division leading scorer Jacob Coggins who spent last season with the Charlotte Eagles. If that happens, that will mean that the USL 1st Division team that scored the second fewest goals will have added the USL 1st and 2nd Division leading scorers during the offseason as the RailHawks have already signed Dan Antoniuk away from Atlanta.
If you missed Steve Donner on Kick This!
If you missed Saturday's edition of Kick This!, then you may want to check out the archive as Rhinos CEO Steve Donner was on and talked about what's going on with the additional $4 million for PAETEC Park, potential new investors, and many more items ahead of next weekend's USL league meetings in Florida.
And if you thought PAETEC Park was in a bad neighborhood.............
Check out this story from the area near where MLS Cup 2007 will be played on Sunday.
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.
