July 8, 2008
The Rhinos are out of this year's tournament, but there are a few story lines to watch for tonight:
- The Seattle Sounders are in the midst of their East-West-East roadtrip. Having lost in Charleston on Saturday, the Sounders play host to the Kansas City Wizards at Qwest Field.
With the Rhinos hosting Seattle on Friday night, one would hope that this game goes at least to OT.
And while I usually love KC defender Jimmy Conrad, I don't like the sucking up he did ahead of tonight's match. The Taylor Graham crack was pretty good, though.
- Can Crystal Palace Baltimore keep the Cinderella story going after they defeated the NY Red Bulls 2-0. Steve Nicol is saying that some of his reserves will see time tonight, so perhaps another upset isn't out of the question.
- Charleston travels to Pizza Hut Park to take on FC Dallas, as well. Last year, FC Dallas bounced Charleston in OT. This year's Battery team is playing really well and could easily pull the upset here.
- The lone all-MLS matchup is Chicago traveling to Maryland to play DC United. DC has been idle since dispatching the Rhinos last Tuesday night, so it will be interesting to see if they go with their A squad versus Blanco and the Fire. It will also be interesting to see if Chicago plays Blanco and their A squad......
News & Notes:
- Both Scott Vallow and Tiger Fitzpatrick have cool blogs this season. And if anyone wondered about Darren Tilley telling Devo that some fans gave the team an earful on the way to the locker room on Saturday night, Tiger says it happened as well in his in depth recap of the match.
- Greg Lalas' latest on SI.com is his version of the The U.S. soccer fan's Bill of Rights. This is awesome. Although, I did like Chris Mannix's piece in SI a few weeks ago.
- DC United midfielder Ben Olsen is undergoing surgery on his left ankle yet again and will be out for another month.
- TIAS.com talks to Frank Dell'apa getting bumped from the Revs beat for the Boston Globe to the Celtics beat.
- Jack Bell dreams about Ronaldinho signing with the Red Bulls.
- First Argentina announces a monster Olympic Men's Soccer roster and then Brazil names Ronaldinho and Robinho to their Olympic squads. What's next? Germany naming Ballack, Podolski, and Schweinstager to their team?
- Gotta love Metro Fanatic.com's Bum of the Week. Classic.
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.
