2012 Harrisburg City Islanders

What a night. The guys really earned this one.

Though not the full match, my post below has clips from local news broadcasts plus some Youtube clips along with loads of photos.
http://blog.pennlive.com/upper90/2012/05/harrisburg_vs_new_england_us_o.html

 

Back from exile in time for the Open Cup rematch versus the Red Bulls! Well, not exile, but lots of travel and work. A couple of notes heading into the Open Cup:

1. Excited to see Tyler Ruthven return to City Island? Don't be, he's suspended after receiving a red card in the Open Cup two years ago while playing for Harrisburg. Ruthven should've served his suspension against the Charleston Battery last week but appeared on the bench. He wasn't allowed to do that, so the Red Bulls were fined $500 and now he has to sit out this match. Rumor had it that Harrisburg tipped off the authorities, but in fact it was the Battery. Settle down, Tyler, why the animosity towards the City Islanders?

2. Speaking of suspensions, unless I'm mistaken, we won't be seeing Brian Ombiji against the Red Bulls because he's received two yellow cards already in the tournament. If this is the case, it's a big loss as Ombiji tallied goals against Long Island and New England in the past two Open Cup games. Look for Morgan Langley, Sainey Touray, and Yann Ekra in his absence.

3. Thierry Henry, pretty big deal, right? Too bad he's not coming to Harrisburg. Don't let the pregame banter fool you, he's still recovering from a hamstring injury and won't risk it at Skyline. The Red Bulls still feature some potent scorers, including Kenny Cooper who leads the MLS in goals with 11. New York also has a forward you may have heard of, Jose Angulo! That's right, our leading scorer from last year signed with the Red Bulls in the offseason, although he's been slowed by injuries this season.

4. Corey Hertzog, a local product and former star at Penn State, is another Red Bull attacker, although he's been loaned to Wilmington and his status for the Open Cup remains unclear. Either way Hertzog will play at Skyline this weekend as the Hammerheads visit the City Islanders in league play on Saturday.

5. The all-important forecast. The weather gods pretty much hate City Island and the Open Cup game may prove no different. The forecast calls for a chance of thunderstorms and cool temperatures, well, cool for June that is. Expect the thermometer at 60 degrees for the game, and bring an umbrella just in case...

 

And once again the winner is, the Harrisburg City Islanders in overtime 3-1 beating the New York
Red Bulls. Way to go guys! Next round they play the Philadelphia Union. Yahoooooooeeeee!

 

Great job at Flushing the Pink Cow Turds out of the USOC.

 

As per a phone call to the City Islanders ticket office, they are not anticipating being given any allotment of tickets to sell (which I geuss is something that simply isn't done in the U.S.). I wonder if there will be any attempt on the part of the City Islanders to encourage the fans to all sit together. PPL Park has a visitors section at the top of corner section 133. Not necessarily a preferred vantage point, and with tickets available all of the stadium, it might be hard to convince everyone to sit there.

So, any thoughts as to whether there can, should, and will be any effort to organize the City Islander support going down to PPL Park?

 

Harrisburg riding crest of stingy and well organized back line and keeper, speedy front line , steady midfield play and home turf to a succesful USOC run and season, so far. Let's hope they don't burn out too soon playing so many tough matches. They are fit, in form and not afraid to challenge opponents at any level of play anywhere on the pitch. Duckett and Brandt seem to have paired well with stalwarts Basso and Marshall. With Ekra, Mkosana, LeRoy, Mellor, Yates, Zizzi and Pettis, they have just enough depth to stay healthy and reasonably fresh. Bixler may even be available for limited duty, if needed. Ombiji has played with passion and is as sharp as he has been in a long time - Touray in rounding into scoring form and Pelletier/Noone are just plain solid.

Next 2 weeks could be critical with 2 league home matches Wilmington, Rochester and 2 road matches Orlando and Charleston plus 2 encounters with Union. Beating Union in USOC would be huge and propel Isles' into semifinals and national spotlight. Not bad for a small market, low budget, under-the-radar club, eh?

 

That' three in a row over MLS teams, beating their affiliate team Philadelphia Union 3-2.

Garrett Pettis who I believe is the son of the owner in his first season on the team is really coming into
his own quickly. I'd ask where they found this guy at, but I figure the owner of the Islander has been scouting him since he first kicked a ball.
Way to go, guys.

 

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/06/12/union-get-sneak-peak-opponent-usoc-quarterfinals

"I think we're both feeling that it's unfortunate that we're meeting in the quarterfinals," assistant coach John Hackworth told MLSsoccer.com. "We wish US Soccer would have maybe looked at that affiliation a little more closely and not put us in the bracket where we could have played each other. But at the end of the day, you've got to beat everybody to get to the trophy, so it is what it is."

​

 

A massively important five day span awaits the City Islanders with road matches at Orlando and Charleston plus the Open Cup quarterfinal at Philly. This might be the toughest stretch of the season, especially with a roadtrip to Rochester looming the following weekend. The City Islanders could be in dreamland or deep trouble depending on how the next couple of days go.

http://thesportsburger.com/2012/06/21/make-or-break-time-for-the-city-islanders.aspx

 

New City Islanders website is live: http://www.cityislanders.org/

This is such an improvement, way more professional than the old one. The team is still building it, so expect lots of changes and tweaks, but as a fan, thank you for continuing to work hard to improve our experiences supporting the team. Great job!

 

City Islanders stomped by Orlando 3-0 tonight, but... Take a look at the lineup Bill Becher fielded. No J.T. Noone, Andrew Welker, or Jason Pelletier in the midfield, instead two Philly Union youngsters in Jordan and McLaughlin?!?! Zizzi and Lucky get starts while Touray only plays 40 minutes? If I didn't know any better, and I don't, I'd say Becher rested a bunch of his first team because they play tomorrow at Charleston and then have the all-important Open Cup game on Tuesday. Very interesting...

 

Pelletier was sick, but confirmation that six City Islanders skipped Orlando altogether: Pelletier, Noone, Welker, Ombiji, Bixler, and Yates. All will be available tonight against Charleston. While I don't like losing three points on the road like that, this schedule is brutal and it's probably wise to spare these guys that extra travel and fatigue considering what's at stake this week. Plus the weather in Orlando sucked, so why risk it?

http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnewssports/2012/06/orlando_city_shuts_down_visiti.html

 

Orlando plays on turf as well. so like you said probably not worth the risk. Weather here is warm and humid. The first hour of the match should be hot for the players, but I was outside last night as the sun was going down and it was felt fabulous (well it could have been I was at a pool party!) so I look forward to a good match tonight.

 

The Philadelphia Union may have suffered a scare, but in the end they were the ones who looked the most frightening.
Led by a brace from Lionard Pajoy, the Union advanced to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals with a 5-2 victory over USL Pro club Harrisburg City Islanders at PPL Park on Tuesday night. The result may have finished in lopsided manner, but it took a second half penalty kick from Pajoy and a floated effort from substitute Gabriel Gomez to give the hosts breathing room in front of the 4,313 fans in attendance.
The Union let a 3-0 lead at halftime nearly vanish, as Brian Ombiji and Morgan Langley punished defender Porfirio Lopez's slack marking to pull Harrisburg within a goal. Lopez was starting in central defense due to the suspension of Carlos Valdes.
With the City Islanders throwing numbers forward, the Union managed to get some breathing room when Pajoy converted on a spotkick that was questionably awarded after substitute Amtoine Hoppenot was brought down in the box.
The other Philadelphia goal-scorers were Freddy Adu and Jack McInerney, who each scored within the first nine minutes of a match that seemed destined to be a rout.
The Union will host the winner of the Sporting Kansas City-Dayton Dutch Lions quarterfinals match in the semifinals on July 10 or 11.

 

There's really no way to sugarcoat it, the past week was a disaster for the City Islanders. Three games, three losses, outscored 11-3 in the process. Harrisburg remains in playoff contention, and they certainly have the quality to make a serious run at the title, but things fell apart during the road games in Orlando, Charleston, and Philadelphia. The only silver lining is that Harrisburg won the $10K for advancing furthest in the Open Cup from the USL-PRO, otherwise it's hard not to be deflated by bad losses and major injuries. Next up is a crucial game at Rochester and Harrisburg will likely be missing Touray (ankle), Basso (shoulder), Duckett (nose), and Welker (suspension). Earning any points in Rochester will be a coup.

http://thesportsburger.com/2012/06/27/roadkill-city-islanders-crash-in-open-cup-and-league-play.aspx

 

Wouldn't they split it with Dayton and Charlotte?

 

There was a tie-breaker that Harrisburg won. I have no idea what that tie-breaker was, but it was tweeted by the cup.us

https://twitter.com/usopencup/status/217847016389218304

 

I missed that so congrats!

 

Does anyone know how the tie-breaker worked? It's a mystery to me...

 

Wow, the injury list is even worse than anticipated. Missing from tonight's match will be: Basso (shoulder), Touray (ankle), Bixler (hamstring), Brandt (calf), Welker (suspension), and probably Duckett (nose). That's nearly the entire starting backline plus the club's most dynamic offensive player. Jimmy McLaughlin and Greg Jordan will be on loan from the Union again, but as I wrote before, if the team can earn even a point tonight, it'd be an accomplishment with their fatigue and injuries.

http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnewssports/2012/06/city_islanders_and_rochester_t_2.html

 

well as the grounds were done on a coin flip I wouldn't put that out of the question. Maybe josh over at thecup.us knows? if you find out let us know. I am pretty sure this is the first year they haven't split the winnings.

 

I read somewhere that the first tiebreaker was number of wins against MLS competition. Since all three USL Pro quarterfinalists had one win over an MLS side, it goes to the second tiebreaker, which is draws against MLS sides. Harrisburg, by virtue of its draw against New England (won in PKs), gets the nod over Dayton and Charlotte here.