November 29, 2007
The USL has unveiled the details of the 2008 USL 1st Division season.
With 11 teams in the league, there will be a 30 game regular season. Unfortunately, it appears that both Montreal and Carolina will be amongst the 5 teams that only visit PAETEC Park once in 2008. On Kick This! last Saturday, Rhinos CEO Steve Donner said that the team is trying to get two home games against one of those two rivals, but it doesn't appear that it will happen.
The fact that seven teams will make the postseason is a weird hybrid of the six and eight playoff team setups that the USL 1st Division has used over the past few seasons.
Other News & Notes
- Big Apple Soccer.com and NJ.com both have tidbits about how construction of Red Bull Park is set to finally begin next week. It will be interesting to see if the Red Bulls are able to play any games at their new digs in 2009 or not.
- Soccer by Ives talks about how Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu were left off a list of the 50 most exciting teenage soccer players in the world. Just when you think that US soccer players are getting respect on the world stage......
- Jeff Bradley of MLSNet.com is a bit late with his "Give Thanks" article....... But I like the sentiment.
- The KC Kansan.com talks about how much progress is being made to allow the Wizards to play games at a minor league baseball stadium. This will now mean that two MLS teams share their stadium with a baseball team. I thought MLS said once upon a time that they wouldn't allow that........
- Metro Fanatic.com has some of the known Red Bull coaching rumors (Preki and Osario) and some ones that are new to me (Kinnear and Nowak). I'd love to see them go after Osario if only to see what MLS would do as the Fire have not given the Red Bulls permission to talk to their coach who is under contract currently.
- The Washington Post has a piece where Don Garber pumps up Becks. It's stunning, I know.
- The Washington Post has a piece in which the saga of where DC United will build their stadium continues..........
- If anyone cares, the MLS Waiver Draft is this afternoon. There are a couple of big names (Zach Thornton and Carlos Llamosa) and one that is really familiar to USL fans (Adam Braz).
- Bob Bradley can't like this news coming out of Rangers' Champions League clash in Stuttgart on Tuesday. Hopefully Beasley gets well soon.
- US Soccer.com has an article on Peter Nowak's first camp as the U-23 National Team head coach. It will be interesting to see how this team comes together prior to Olympic qualifying.
- The official poster for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa has been unveiled and I think it looks really nice. That would make a really cool t-shirt as well.
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.
