October 29, 2009
The press conference is happening a couple of days later than the rumor mill had expected over the weekend.
But, the head coach that brought the Rhinos their 3 A-League and one US Open Cup titles is returning as the team's GM with Pat Ercoli being named as the new GM and Director of Soccer at a 4pm press conference today.
The next step will be naming a head coach.
It will be interesting to see if Ercoli moves the coaching search towards a former player, like say Scott Schweitzer or perhaps towards someone that Pat coached against during his time in the league.
I just hope that Pat can help bring back some of the fans that followed the club when he was the coach, but have not been coming to games over recent years.
Getting a winning team on the field that plays an attractive, attacking style, and scores lots of goals should help cure some of the attendance ills as well.
News & Notes:
- The Offside Rules , The CBC , and TSN both had reactions to the TOA/USL news of the day yesterday. Today, The Kartik Report takes a look at the situation, as well. Kartik downplays the whole MLS2 angle, which I think is closer to the truth.
- Will Vancouver need to split time between two venues in 2011?
- MLS fined DC United president Kevin Payne $5000 for questioning the style of play of clubs like Colorado and New England. I hate it when leagues feel the need to fine people who are right.
- Luis Bueno looks at the road to MLS Cup 2009 at SI.com.
- SBI.net wonders if the Red Bulls will hire Richie Williams. They should hire him which means that they probably won't.
- Steven Goff looks at who is on coaching thin ice in MLS.
- Peter Wilt's latest at Pitch Invasion looks at Chris Armas getting inducted into the Ring of Fire.
- Chris Cummins takes some swipes on TFC on his way back across the pond.
- I wonder how much soccer clubs could learn from the WWE?
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.
