April 20, 2009
The Rhinos got off to a rocky start to the 2009 season in Carolina on Saturday evening as they dropped their season opener to the RailHawks by a 1-0 scoreline.
Add to that the fact that they will be reduced to 16 healthy players next week as both starting outside backs in Danny Earls and John Ball saw red in the second half.
Carolina defender Devon McKenney received two yellow cards and was sent off in the 84th minute to even things up until Ball was sent packing in the 90th minute.
Glass Half Full:
- Vallow was stellar in net
- Salles was dangerous when he came on
- The reception on MyCountry was way better than last season
Glass Half Empty:
- Carolina possessed the ball way too much for my liking
- The Rhinos got a handful of looks on goal and didn't convert
- Losing to the RailHawks!?!?!?!?!
- Going into Puerto Rico off of this effort.........
Where are they now?
Here is a look at some of the former Rhinos playing in the USL are in 2009:
Carolina: Luke Kreamalmayer and Hamed Diallo
Miami: Connally Edozien, Patrick Hannigan, and Alen Marcina
Puerto Rico: Noah Delgado and Jonathan Steele
Charleston: Ian Fuller, Dusty Hudock, Frankie Sanfilippo, and John Wilson
Montreal: Mauro Biello and Edy Sebrango
Vancouver: Charles Gbeke and Martin Nash
Portland: David Hayes
Cleveland: Pato Aguilera
Richmond: Matthew Delicate
Harrisburg: Chase Harrison and Chad Severs
Pittsburgh: Tenywa Bonseu
Wilmington: Chris Bagley
News & Notes:
- Devo has the scoop at the USWNT will play Canada at "Your Name Here" Stadium on July 19th.
- I like the new look Rhinos website, especially the video player!
- MLS attendance is off by 7% against 2008 numbers. The scarier part is that if you take Seattle out of the equation attendance is off by 18%!
- A couple of players that the Rhinos looked at this off season have landed in USL-2 in Yomby William in Richmond and Sean Cameron in Pittsburgh.
- Mac Kandji is getting some chemistry going with Juan Pablo Angel in NY.
- Avery John could be headed to DC United after spending 2008 with Miami FC.
- Is Seattle falling back down to expansion levels with back to back shutout losses? At least the media is still in love with Ljungberg.
- Let's count The Oregonian as against the proposed stadium plan for the MLS stadium.
- It looks like Colorado is adding another new defender.
- Tim Howard backstopped Everton into the FA Cup Final versus Chelsea and Maurice Edu scored for Rangers. Oh yeah, Oguchi Onyewu scored twice as well!
- Ottawa could have a football/futbol stadium with an MLS club getting first crack at home dates ahead of the CFL team that would play there.
- Manchester United and Liverpool involved in "financial doping". Perhaps those that were worried about Americans buying EPL clubs had a right to be worried after all...........
- Awesome!
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.
