May 11, 2009

Thanks to Saturday's 2-1 win in Montreal, the Rhinos are now tied for 2nd in the USL 1st Division and trail Vancouver by one point. The Rhinos also own a game in hand over Vancouver and Carolina (the team that the Rhinos are tied with).

The win also gives head coach Darren Tilley a 2-1-1 record versus Montreal and two wins in three trips to Stade Saputo over the past season plus.

The Rhinos now head out to Portland for Thursday night's Fox Soccer Channel Game of the Week. Since it's an 11pm local start, I'll be DVR-ing the match!

The two cent scouting report on Portland is that they haven't scored a lot this season (2 goals for in 4 matches) and they have given up even less (1 goal allowed in 4 matches). So after saying that, you can expect a crazy shootout with the Rhinos winning 4-3!

Then it's on to Vancouver on Saturday where the Rhinos can solidify their spot atop the table!

Fun with stats - USL 1st Division Table edition

Right now the Rhinos are 1st in the league in Points per Game Played (2.0), 1st in Goal Differential (+4), 3rd in Goals For per Game (1.4), and 3rd in Goals Against per Game (0.6).

The Rhinos are also 3rd in the USL-1 "Normalized Standings" through four games.

All in all, things couldn't look much better through the first five games on this opening eight game road trip.

News & Notes:

- I'm a day late, but the USWNT says thanks to their soccer moms on Mother's Day.

- Here is an interesting take on the target dempgraphic for MLS and the USL.

- Philadelphia Union it is. And it is a union that at least one person can get behind.

- Two MLS teams in Toronto? That would be interesting......

- Tim Howard is gearing up for the FA Cup final.

- Bleacher Report.com has an interesting piece on following a minority sport in NYC (aka being a Red Bulls fan).

- Toronto and DC played a crazy game over the weekend and here are the highlights.

- The DC United blog has a video of the fans march in support of a new DC United stadium before the match.

- Bruce Arena believed in Seattle as an MLS market.

- Becks isn't going to back out on returning to the Galaxy this summer. Isn't that nice........

- MLS commissioner Don Garber talks about Barca coming and the stadium issue for markets like DC.

- I didn't know that Bob Bradley needed to be defended.......

- Greg Lalas talks about what the USMNT starting XI would look like if the best athletes in the US played soccer. The problem I have with this theory is that the problem with the USMNT of late hasn't been a lack of athletes on the roster, but a lack of soccer players. You know, people that have dribbled to school and back home since kindergarten. Players that have played pick up soccer as much as a lot of kids in this country have played pick up basketball. And while soccer coaches are dreaming of year round practices and drills, that is not what this country needs.

End rant

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.

We LOVE Montreal?????