August 29, 2011
Devo's Direct Kicks - Rapid Recap
Devo's Direct Kicks - Match Recap
Devo's Direct Kicks - Match Highlights
Dirty Tackle on the four legged pitch invader
Thank goodness I wasn't asked to predict what was going to happen on Saturday.
I did expect that the match would be tight. But, I was leaning towards Philadelphia winning despite wanting the Flash to prevail.
In the end, after 120 minutes by two gutty teams, it wook a diving save by Ashlyn Harris to give the Flash the 2011 WPS title. The Flash also claimed the record for the largest crowd ever to take in a WPS Championship match with over 10,000 fans in attendance on Saturday.
As a lot of Flash players head to Europe to play during the WPS off season, it will be interesting to see how the Flash prepare to defend their title. There are talks of two expansion teams joining the league in 2012. Marta's contract is up. Plenty of players on the Flash and throughout WPS are free agents.
It's going to be really fun to see what the Flash have up their sleeves as they start the work to defend their WPS playoff and regular season titles.
Rhinos fall to Harrisburg and Orlando City dispatches with Richmond
This clip sums up my feelings on Friday night's match where the Rhinos season ended at the hands of the Harrisburg City Islanders.
It was a wild first half with 3 goals and 3 red cards.
The Rhinos didn't finish on any of their 10 corner kicks and they didn't score after the half despite playing a man up the entire time. The Rhinos had a few glorius looks that they didn't finish.
Now they need to get back to the drawing board for the 2012 season as they try and make one more step forward. At least they didn't get bounced in the first round of the playoffs this season......
And while I like Chase Harrison, I'm going to pick Orlando City to win at home in the USL PRO Championship game on Saturday.
News & Notes:
- The MISL officially announces that they will have 8 teams this season. Plus, they have all the home openers including Syracuse at Rochester on November 19th.
- No Short Corners has the latest on Clint Dempsey's club future.
- MLS Soccer.com has the latest on Michael Bradley's club future.
- Apparently FC Dallas won't be losing George John to Blackburn.
- Seattle watched Sammy Ochoa drop in the allocation process and then they traded up to add the forward.
- Puerto Rico's national team schedule may hurt the Islanders down the stretch of the NASL season.
- Stuart Holden looks to make the next step in his rehab process tomorrow by getting into a reserve match for Bolton.
- Check out this interview with Jozy Altidore.
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 jamesrweise@gmail.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
