Hey AC fans you can get a good scouting report on the Menace as they play in St Louis against the St Louis Lions on May 13th 5:00pm Kickoff. I will ice down a few more beers for everyone
The St Louis Lions held an open door practice and scrimmage yesterday at the Tony Glavin Soccer Complex followed by a St Louis Youth Club Camp. The St Louis Lions were victorious in the scrimmage 4-1 with 1st Team members and Reserve Squad members all getting into the action. Another open door scrimmage will take place on Monday at 4:00 PM. In Regular Season Action the St Louis Lions will be taking on the Springfield Demize once again this weekend on Saturday June 5th at 5:00PM at the Tony Glavin Soccer Complex.
St Louis Lions Take Three from Springfield St. Louis, Mo…Due to some crazy scheduling the St Louis Lions and Springfield Demize met three straight times this week. On Saturday night the Lions capped off a big week with a third straight win over Springfield by a score of 2-1. “Playing a team twice in a row is challenging but facing a team three times in a week is dangerous.” said St Louis Lions coach Tony Glavin “We are happy to have taken 9 points from Springfield but it wasn’t easy. They are a good side and made some adjustments today that caused us some problems in the first half. But we responded and fought thru it and in the end prevailed.” Springfield surprised the Lions early and came out running and set the pace of the game. The Lions were slow to react and Springfield capitalized in the 12th minute when Michael Gow caught the Lions defense out of position and sent a looping ball over Lions goal keeper Nate Thackery for a 1-0 lead. This was the first goal Thackery had given up in two games. Springfield continued to press the Lions and carried a 1-0 lead going into halftime. In the second half the Lions came out full of energy and dictated the play. The Lions tied up the game in the 54th minute when Jarius “Juice” Holmes gathered a ball on the right wing and weaved his way thru three Springfield defenders and crossed to Tyler Nichols. Tyler drilled a beautiful shot into the far post netting for his first goal of the season. In the 68th minute of the game the Lions earned a corner and Blaine Veldhuis made the most of it. Olly Dyson drove a ball in from the corner to Juice to flick on to Veldhuis at the back post. Veldhuis volleyed the ball snapping the back of the net for a 2-1 lead. The Lions continued to pressure as the Springfield defense wore down. Aaron Brittain nearly added to the lead when he ripped a shot off the post in the 71st minute and Stuart Wark had an opportunity in extra time but it was cleared by the Springfield defense. “I was not very happy with our first half but we fought and showed some great determination and we finished strong. I was much happier with the second half” said Glavin. “As I mentioned we got some crucial points and we move on to concentrating on our game Friday in Kansas City. Our next couple games are important and will be intense as we have some great rivalries with Kansas City and Des Moines.” The Lions head to Kansas City on Friday for a matchup with the Brass and then return home on Sunday June 13th to face the Des Moines Menace. The Lions will be honoring the Missouri State High School Soccer Champions on June 13th. On June 12th the St Louis Lions players will be hosting a World Cup Watch Party at the Tony Glavin Soccer Complex as the United States will face England. All of the Lions players will be in attendance and watching the game with fans. Call 636-939-5151 for more details.
Wow the Division is heating up right now. We have some big matches this weekend against KC and Des Moines. Need to take care of business in KC and then gear up for Des Moines. Thunder Bay hung 6 on KC this past weekend. KC is now 1-5-1 on the season. Des Moines is on a road streak of 18 games undefeated, I think. They play Colorado on Saturday before they head to St Louis. So we will be rooting for a tie from them. Thunder Bay appears to be in full form as Oliveira and Swartzendruber appear to be tearing it up. Springfield is traveling to TB this weekend. Hopefully the boarder guards are nice to Springfield. We are battling for first place this weekend. Sunday 6/13 vs Des Moines 5:00PM at the Tony Glavin Soccer Complex $5 tickets.
Great little write up from Kyle Scarborough who contributes to the FloodPlain Footy Blog. http://floodplainfooty.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/the-round-football-column/#more-38
What would the St. Louis Lions think of having regionalized leagues? I saw another thread where someone pointed out the expense of traveling across the country for NASL & USL teams as being a possible reason for the lack of stability in the national leagues. His solution was to bring in many leagues including the USL PDL into the same league as the USSF Division 2 Pro clubs. You keep travel costs down by having everyone play the regular season in their region with a playoff finishing in a national championship. The idea makes sense to me, in part because it reminds me of college sports in America, which has worked for decades, where you have regionalized conferences & a national tournament at the end of the season. My local junior college certainly doesn't travel across the country, unless it is the national tournament. On the potential downside would be competitive balance issues if you had the St. Louis Lions & AC St. Louis in the same conference. Overall though, what do you think?
Except for the fact that there is usually one big reason why teams are in the PDL or USL 2 rather thank in the div 2. And that is money. Even with a regionalized travel, most of the PDL and USL 2 teams don't have the funds to play at that leve. The PDL already plays a regionalized schedule, why would they need to move up and spend more and probalby lose more money.
Another big reason is a majority of the players are amatuers and play at the college level, by playing professional they loose their NCAA eligibility and quite possibly scholarships. I do think there is a few PDL teams (there are some that pay their players that might find such a regional based league intreging.
Funds is the main reason that I include the potential downside of competitive balance issues. ButlerBob, I acknowledge it's mostly the Div 2 & USL-2 teams that would get the break in regionalized leagues that could improve their stability. Regionalized leagues can still allow clubs to be amateur, retain their college players, yet play Div 2 teams. I get the impression that Shipdawg works for the St. Louis Lions, so I wanted to ask the Lions directly if they would go for that.
Going to see both STL teams in one day One thing I've thought about, especially since I don't live in the St. Louis metro, I finding a day I can attend both a St. Louis Lions & AC St. Louis game. However, the days they both have home games, the Lions play at 5 & AC St. Louis plays at 7. Not likely to work out, unless they play a doubleheader at the same place. Driving Directions state it takes 38 minutes to get from Tony Glavin to One Soccer Park Road I wonder if it would be viable for the two clubs to play a doubleheader or have a bus transporting people between the two games?
Sorry but I have been away traveling and have not had the opportunity to be online. Dropping a couple of games in Colorado was not what we wanted. Now it is time to rebound and prepare for two very tough matches against Thunder Bay. They have been on a roll as expected. nicolassarkozy - regional division is really the only way to go. Travel costs is teh biggest part of your budget. The USL needs more teams in the Midwest. I could see this happening in the USL2 where there are several PDL teams that could add USL2 to thier organizations. Then I could see a lot of double headers with PDL teams playing the early game and USL2 teams playing the later game. As for the scheduling of conflicts for the Lions and AC St Louis we were in communication with each other and we both did our best to try to avoid scheduling conflicts. However, there are some conflicts due to AC not being able to play on days when Athletica was playing. The USSF2 made the league rewrite thier schedules multiple times and don't forget the schedule has to accomodate not only the home team but the visiting teams.
Big Games this weekend against the Thunder Bay Chill. We need your support!! Saturday's game is at 5:00pm Sunday's game is at 2:00pm reminder it is $1 days at theh park Sunday
planning on any more of these? Sounds great but I don't see the wife letting me out on a Sunday after being out all day Saturday for US v Ghana and AC St.Louis vs Vancouver.
We will not have another $1 day sor this season but we will have it in our promotions for next year. Already lining up some promotions for next season.
July 11th is the final home game, unless of course we qualify for the playoffs. We will need to go on a winning streak starting this saturday
Given this post, I'm guessing the St. Louis Lions may not be up for something that would, among other things, AC St. Louis into the same division with the St. Louis Lions. If so, understandable. I'm imagine things would be quite unequal if you had both in the same division & the Lions may feel pressure to spend more to make up the difference. The way I read some people's regionalization idea, it sounds more like bringing the current PDL squads into competition with existing USSF-2 & USL-2 squads, rather than PDL organizations adding another squad.
Fixed my post I temporarily forgot about the need for college players to return to school in the fall. I wish the edit option lasted longer, like until someone responds.
Chill Stay Hot Against Lions St. Louis, Mo…The St Louis Lions dropped the first game of a two game set against the Thunder Bay Chill by the score of 2-1. The hot temperatures fit right in with the hot action with this always heated rivalry. Thunder Bay riding a four game unbeaten streak opened the scoring first in the 34th minute when Brandon Swartzendruber struck a far post shot past a diving Nate Thackery. The outstretched Thackery was able to get a touch on the ball but was unable to send it wide. With the Chill holding a 1-0 lead both teams battling the heat and exchanged shots and fouls as the tension mounted. “You come to expect heated and entertaining matches between the Lions and Chill. These two teams battle extremely hard” said Assistant Coach Mike Poropat. In the second half both teams came out just as aggressive and in the 42nd minute the Nolan Intermoia of the Chill made a two footed studs up challenge on the Lions Stuart Wark. Players from both teams then engaged in a heated exchange of yelling and shoving. The referee had seen enough and issued red cards to Intermoia and Wark. Both teams playing with 10 men settled down and tried to make the most of the open space on the field. The Lions struck back in the 62nd minute when Tyler Nichol headed home a fantastic cross from Dodgie Smith. Smith gathered a ball at mid field and took it wide left beating a defender. Smith then found Nichol on a fantastic run thru the Chill defense. Nichol flicked the header past the Chills goalkeeper Andrew Patterson. Less than 3 minutes later the Chill took advantage of a poor back pass by a Lions defender. The ball bounced awkwardly and the Chills Gustavo Oliviera gathered the ball and sent Paul Craig in one-on-one with Thackery. Craig slipped the ball past Thackery to secure the 2-1 lead and the win. “In this league it is so important to win your home games. We have three home games left, including tomorrow against the Chill and we must win those game.” said Head Coach Tony Glavin. The Lions will take on the Thunder Bay Chill one more time tomorrow at 2:00pm on a $1 day at the Tony Glavin Soccer Complex. Call 636-939-5151 for more details.
I really don't understand what you are saying. As I posted earlier and as some others have posted. We are not in the same league. AC St Louis is a professinoal side and the St Louis Lions are college players who are not professional. USSF-2 and PDL are completely seperate leagues. The only chance they have at playing eachother is in a scrimmage or in the US Open Cup.
Man I'm sorry I didn't make it out all weekend. Between being away for the US match and Sunday being my only day of family time with work all week I couldn't justify it to an angry wife. Tell Tony to turn the Lions pro, damnit.