First leg will be Thursday, 9/24 at 10:30pm EDT in Vancouver. Return leg at WakeMed Soccer Park on Sunday, 9/27 at 5:00pm EDT. Carolina is 1-0-2 against Vancouver this season with a 2-1 win in Cary as well as a 1-1 draw. We played them to a scoreless draw in Vancouver. Both Carolina and Vancouver bring 2 game winning streaks into the playoff, theirs against Cleveland and Austin, ours against a bit more formidable Puerto Rico and Montreal.
We've looked very good the past two games and if we can keep up the form I think we will be just fine. I hope we can pull a big crowd for the game, especially in 204!
Coming home down a goal, I do take some consolation in that Richardson, Bundu, and Kabwe should all be available for the return leg.
You think we'll have a good crowd? Also are we doing any talegating or anything for the game? I'm bringing up several friends with this time from CLT, so I was wandering if we should get there early or not?
Well, my wife is 39 weeks pregnant so I can't commit to any tailgating personally. I'll be lucky if she doesnt go into labor before the game. I'll check with Greg/Marc and see what they are thinking. I'm betting we get 3500-4000 depending upon how much marketing they do. I remember our first season, the 5pm Sunday games were the best attended of all.
Looks like Marc is planing a "mini tailgate" http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=171751848297&index=1
I fixed the time. I had to run so I didn't get the event info time right. Anyways its basically a tailgate sans grill and buffet. BYOFood.
Hard to second guess Rennie after a great season but... Budnyy off at half-time when he's arguably our best player in the first half? A Kabwe injury forces a substitution... and it's Gardner, not Kreamalmayer?? And the real head-scratcher... Plotkin on for Paladini??!? Gardner/Plotkin were both absolutely terrible tonight but what did we really expect from two guys that have featured very rarely this season? And maybe some of you are fine with it, but I have a real problem with signing a player a few days before the regular season ends and giving him major minutes in the season finale and two playoff games. It just doesn't make sense to me. Vancouver was always the better team tonight so maybe the subs weren't that big of a deal but I really don't understand the tactics Rennie employed. The Low/Paladini midfield was fantastic at Swangard... why did we need a change? Long balls to start the game... when has that ever been our game this season? What a very disappointing end to the season...
Yep, agree with everything you said. And want to add that Cunliffe was HORRIBLE tonight. He should look into getting Lasix during the offseason. (John, we were wearing orange tonight.) Also, did anyone check to see if Paladini's name was already on the MVP plaque? Is it to late to give to someone else?
I agree totally. Great season. Great coaching job.... then it seemed like he got too smart for his own good. Especially the part you pointed out about signing a new player and giving him tons of minutes at the end. I'm really disappointed b/c I was out of town this weekend so I was counting on there being more games.
I've been too depressed to come back here. But his tactics seemed a bit off. I did not disagree about the late season signing though. Delicate was the best player in USL-2 and their season was over. He played a bit and earned his spot on the team. I liked him. See you guys next season (hopefully)