Two bits of news of former Rhinos: Pat Onstad has been hired by Greg Berhalter as the keeper coach in Columbus, the site of one of the best Rhino moments. Brian Bliss is now the technical director for Chicago. Althought he never played for the Rhinos, he is one of the most successful soccer players/managers from the Rochester area.
Bob Lilly will need to find a new goalie as Kristian Nicht has signed a contract as the first player for Indy Eleven, an expansion NASL side. He would have been in his option year and the Rhinos let him out. One goalie that would be available is Neal Kitson, the keeper that Lilly had surplant Scott Vallow back in 2011. Since then he played in England, the PDL and last season with FC Phoenix.
Maybe the Revs will send their third keeper, Luis Soffner. He didn't get a minute of playing time last year and there are two keepers in front of him so he doesn't look likely to getting playing time with the Revs this year, either.
I can not remember the rules as they seemed to have changed. Is there a limit to the number of players that the Revs can send to the Rhinos on loan? That might be a determining factor to the few roster announcements so far.
2014 New England Revs draft class: 1st Round - Steve Neumann - Georgetown 1st Round - Patrick Mullins - Maryland 2 Round - Alec Sundly - California 4th Round - Pierre Omanga - Southern New Hampshire - he is French, 25 years old and scored 21 goals last season. I would love if the Revs loaned him to Rochester. I could see Omanga and Sundly spending time in Rochester. I would love to see Mullins spend a few months on loan getting into professional game shape. I wonder if Bob Lilly's track record will encourage the Revs to send these players on loan.
As of 21 Jan 2014, Rochester has 5 players under contract. 4 Midfielders and 1 Forward: Lance Rozenboom Mike Reidy JC Banks Pierre Rudolph Maynard Matt Luzaunaris There are lots of holes on the roster. The key will they go with local players to keep costs down, or will they be willing to go a little further afield to get batter talent?
The players are center midfielder Tyler Rosenlund, center back Kyle Hoffer, and goalkeeper Alex Horwath for the 2014 season.
So here is the squad so far: Goalie: Alex Horwath Defender: Kyle Hoffer Midfield: Tyler Rosenlund Lance Rozenboom Mike Reidy JC Banks Forward: Matt Luzaunaris Odd - Pierre Rudolph Maynard is no longer on the Rhino roster page???
Good question about Luzanaris on new thread at rocsoccer.com, question if he's still rehabbing and may not be ready for start of season.
Some more info here: http://www.democratandchronicle.com...ring-back-midfielder-tyler-rosenlund/4801507/ Forward Matt Luzunaris, who missed most of last year with a broken leg, is also under contract, but 2013 MVP Danny Earls is a free agent. The club hopes to bring Earls back, team president Pat Ercoli said on Wednesday. It is nice to see that Earls is not totally out of the picture.
When the schedule is released, I am just hoping that they do not have one of those killer road trips to start the season. Has Rochester ever started the season at home?
One writers view of the signings: http://www.thebentmusket.com/revolu...-kyle-hoffer-alex-horwath-2014-usl-pro-season
http://www.rhinossoccer.com/news/?article_id=431 A few nuggets from the article, actually well written. Lilley has been charged with returning the club to the playoffs after the Rhinos missed out on the postseason for the first time in their history in 2013. It is no surprise that Lilley's first move was to clean house on a roster that had the second highest salary in USL PRO yet only posted a 6-10-10 record the previous season. With Thursday's announcement that the Rhinos have agreed to terms with fifth-year midfielder Tyler Rosenlund for the 2014 season, only four players will be returning this season. I did not realise that the salary was so high. That makes what the Rhinos did last season even worse. Also the comment that only 4 players will be returning, I guess that means McManus will not be back. Horwaith: I bet that he will be making much less that Nicht. I know that many of the goals last season were not Christian's fault, but this seems to be the basic plan of pick up a good keeper from a team who folded for not a lot of money that is younger and potentially as good or just under. Hoffer: The defense was pretty bad last year, get a proven defender who has familirity with the goalie, and one for not too much money. These two moves make lots of sense. Lance Rozeboom and Tyler Rosenlund could have a breakout year. This will be the 2nd season they have played together in the middle of the field. If they can control the midfield, and learn to play with the revamped defense, there is potential. Goals, where will they come from? Both forwards on the roster are less than 18 months away from major injuries, ACL and broken leg. Putting the expectation of lots of goals from two people who have scored a total of 2 goals last sesaon makes me cringe.
Another article about the Rhinos: http://www.thebentmusket.com/2014/1...thquakes-sacramento-timbers-battery-whitecaps In a radio appearance in December, Rochester Rhinos' president Pat Ercoli teased that because of a diminished number of MLS Reserve League teams, USL-Pro clubs may face different MLS teams during intraleague play. In 2013, the Rhinos faced former USL-rival Montreal Impact's reserve team home and away. Ercoli suggested that Rochester might play Montreal once and another team like the Red Bulls for its second match. With 13 USL-Pro clubs and the imminent addition of the Galaxy reserve team, the 14 teams should play each other twice and play two games against the remaining MLS Reserve League teams for 28 total games. It will be interesting to see whom the Revs send to Rochester and also if they will play both the Impact and Red Bulls reserve teams.
Most people thought the Rhinos were the second most talented roster behind Orlando going into the season last year. Of course, the chemistry just wasn't there. Not everyone loves Lilley because his style can be defensive and he favors younger players, but after seeing dysfunction on a talented roster last season, I'm excited to see another Lilley team. He's a student of the game, good at development, and quite strict. He runs a tight ship, so we shouldn't see a replay of last year's shenanigans. The initial signings seem positive. (I'm a tad surprised Lilley didn't go after Kitson again. Not that it's good or bad.) We'll see how the rest go.
I agree that Lilley is defensive in style, but so was Ercoli during the glory years. Granted Ercoli always had at least one good striker that kept teams honest. But those defenses with Craig Demmin and Scott Schweitzer were rock solid. I maintain that people will come out to see a defensive minded team if they are producing results. Last years team had some serious chemistry issues. I know the USL combine was last weekend. Is there a draft? Here is the list of players who were there: http://www.uslsoccer.com/docs/USL PRO -- 2014 Combine Rosters.pdf
LA Galaxy announce their USLPro team: http://www.lagconfidential.com/2014...ill-field-usl-pro-team-2014-first-games-march At least the road trip to LA will have two teams. I hope that they do not play Friday/Saturday. That would not be fun.
Interesting comments from new article posted on rhinossoccer.com http://www.rhinossoccer.com/news/?article_id=432 Rochester Rhinos head coach Bob Lilley is at IMG Academy this week with the New England Revolution for their first full week of pre-season, as the two clubs look to expand the working relationship in their affiliation this year. Rochester opens training camp in Sahlen's Stadium on the weekend of March 1st, 2014. It is anticipated that the New England Revolution and Rochester Rhinos will make a joint announcement regarding loaned players during the month of March. Here is what I read from this. Lilley is there not just to get ideas from Jay Heaps, but also to look at the players on the Revs roster. He will essentially be scouting from a certain group of players that the Revs will make available to him. Once he selects the 4 players, with approval of Jay Heaps et al, he then comes back to build the rest of his squad. The only problem is that quite a few of the other USL Pro teams are already hosting tryouts etc.
Rhino reaction to LAG II: http://www.rhinossoccer.com/news/?article_id=434 THREE... Three years ago the ownership and management of the Rochester Rhinos were faced with a difficult choice that would shape the future of the club – whether to return to the third division United Soccer Leagues or join the second division NASL. While the consensus opinion of fans and the media seemed to be to join the NASL, the Rhinos believed that the United Soccer Leagues had a better business model. Three years later there's a growing chorus of fans and pundits in American soccer who agree with them. This reads like an "I told you so ..."
MLS screwed over Rochester enough by now to throw them a bone. I always thought they could have been the Green Bay of MLS but alas the stars never aligned.
Back in the late 1990s that was the thought of many people. The Rhino's outdrew some of the MLS teams, Miami, KC, Tampa and SJ. I think the big issue was two fold. From my understanding Rochester never had someone who would pay the $20 expanaison fee and MLS wanted bigger markets. The 1st issue is laughable now considering how much a MLS teams expansion fee is today. The 2nd is a little more debatable, by holding out MLS did attract larger markets, thus more exposure. But I still maintain that the Rhinos could have been like the Patriots, drawing fans from all accross Western NY. To little too late. Now they just need to turn the onfiled product around and that will help with the gate. I still believe that if there is ever a MLS2 , they would be perfect for it. As an aisde, with Lilly spending the next month or so with the Revs, I do not expect to see much movement on players until training camp opens on 1 March.
Rob, this subject is old, old news...its been beatin to death. The decision they made 3yrs ago buried them even further.....not many fans are interested in paying for a 3rd tier team. Thats why they they are starved to sell season tix and putting a "spin" on the decision to stay in USL Pro, otherwise why bring it up if tix were selling like hotcakes?....I just received my 4th letter from the Rhino's to purchase my two seats that I gave up years back. Others I know get those too, and put them right in the shredder with all the other junk mail. MLS2 ?....its called a reserve/ developmental league were already in, don't hold your breath for a pro/reg system , ain't happening. You have a 2nd division thats slowly growing with better qualified ownership groups. Thats good enough for me.