Thursday April 29 Syracuse @ Puerto Rico - 8pm Friday April 30 Virginia Beach @ Richmond - 7:00 US Open Cup Match, James River Cup Kickers preview / Mairners preview Montreal @ Charleston - 7:30 Impact preview (including match in Atlanta) / Battery Preview Edmonton @ Vancouver - 10:00 USL story on upcoming Whitecaps season Saturday May 1 Montreal @ Atlanta - 6:00 Richmond @ Virginia Beach - 7:30 USOC, James River Cup Toronto @ Rochester - 7:35 Syracuse @ Puerto Rico - 8:00 Seattle @ Portland - 10pm USOC, Cascadia Cup all times are Eastern Standard
I may be nitpicking here but I feel it neccessary to point out that in the article about Vancouver by the USL that Vancouver will be kicking off their 18th season at Swangard not 12th. It may be their 12th in the A-League but they did kick off 6 seasons as members of the CSL before that.
Do we make predictions for A-league games? I was going to pick Puerto Rico to win their first, but apparently Syracuse won 2-1. This is not looking like a good season for the Islanders, I hope the fans keep faith and the team improves next offseason. I'll say VB ties Richmond, the Kickers just don't impress me this year. Charleston over Montreal at home. Vancouver over Edmonton (easily). Montreal over Atlanta Virginia Beach again over the Kickers. Rochester over Toronto, Puerto Rico gets their first win this time over the Dogs, and Seattle and Portland draw.
Cant argue with most of your choices. I figure Puerto Rico will win the second game against Syracuse as Syracuse players will certainly be off their game having spent so much time in Puerto Rico.
Syracuse 2 vs. Puerto Rico 1 Maher (Woan) 64th Maher (Dore) 65th Salles 73rd PK syracuse newspaper report match stats
Was at the match between PR Islanders and the S Salty Dogs. Clean game, no cards, well called match by the ref. No controversy, we blew our chances and we had a few. The two goals by Syracuse were nothing short of awsome. They score 2 minutes apart, a bicycle kick and a header. Fun game, good crowd, 4000 in attendance. Puerto Rico gets their first goal and now we need our first shutout and win. Peace, Felix
Hey MightyMouse, do you think you could tell us how you think the Puerto Ricans are doing in comparison to the Argentinians, Brazilians, and Americans? If a significant part of the purpose of the team is to improve the PR Nats, I'd like to know how it's going so far.
You can listen to the Battery's match tonight v. Montreal via webcast tonight at 7:15pm. follow the link http://www.charlestonbattery.com/webcast.asp ChrisE-- the Battery are hosting their annual A-league challenge. Winner gets a signed Battery jersey at the end of regular season. See the home page for more info. www.charlestonbattery.com Mikey
Extremely hard to tell because when you get to the game you don't know who is who as there is no gameday info guide. I can say the Argies are kicking ass, the one good Brazillian we had might have a bad injury after landing badly from a bicycle kick clearance on defense. One of the best Puerto Ricans is a guy with dreads named Alexis who makes fantastic runs and has tremendous pace. If there is any Puerto Rican you can point to and say for sure he is our top guy I'd say Alexis. There is another guy that has been playing in the local soccer league for the past 13 years nicknamed "papito" who is 33. He isn't as good as Alexis but its fun to watch him live a dream after playing in a soccer black hole for years. I am still learning who all is on the team and who are the Puerto Ricans. For the most part we don't have enough top talent in good physical condition to be on the field. It will take time to get us up to a decent standard in every position. In any case Alexis is class and a good pro.
Speaking of jerseys. Has the team started selling them? I'm hoping to somehow snare a Chris Gores jersey.
This would have made for an excellent match to kickoff the FSW A-league season. But it certainly is nice that there will be a webcast of it. Just to state now, in advance. I'm going with Montreal to get a draw out of tonights game.
Starting lineup for Charlston vs. Montreal Charleston 1-Hudok 2-Jensen 5-Watson 8-Green 3-Downing 13-Korol 7-Evans 19-Klein 21-Jackson 23-Bagley 11-Simmonds Montreal 20-Biello 1-Sutton 8-Gervais 3-Braz 7-Ditullio 18-Grande 10-Roberto 19-Fronimadis 15-Leduc 9-Budalic 12-Sebrango
Charleston/Montreal match update: 0-0 at halftime. Not much action, the best opportunites came from the Battery. Most of Montreal's scoring chances were cleaned up by Charleston's defense. Watson had quite a few clearance headers. Roberto was given a yellow card in the 28th minute.
Virginia Beach/Richmond Update: 1-1 in OT Montreal/Charleston 0-0 at regulation time. A lot more runs in the half with quite a few subs. Braz had an excellent chance from a free kick. Roberto was lucky not to get his second yellow in the game on a late challenge. A lot more exciting half than the first with Hudok and Sutton getting excellent saves to keep the game scoreless.
goal Montreal 1-0 in the second overtime. A cross by Leduc to Ditullio or biello. The charletson broadcaster didn't stay on long after the goal.
Edmonton 0 vs. Vancouver 0 Whitecaps report Official Stats Montreal 1 vs. Charleston 0 Mauro Biello (Patrick Leduc) 106th Impact report Battery Report Charleston Post & Courier Canoe (Montreal) Official Stats Virginia Beach 1 vs. Richmond 1 Jakob Fenger VB 43rd Joey Worthen (Tony Williams) 69th Kickers Report VB Pilot report Official Stats
I'm pretty surprised with the Edmonton/Vancouver results. And I'm not sure how to take them, as a sign that Edmonton is stronger than expected, that Vancouver is not as strong as expected or its just an early match and Vancouver was not completely ready for an actual regular season game? May 1st Toronto @ Rochester Webcast Democrat & Republic preview of Rhinos Seattle @ Portland Seattle Webcast Sounders press release Tacoma King County Seattle Times Also playing tonight: Montreal @ Atlanta Richmond @ VB
This excerpt from the Vancouver Sun game report by Dan Stinson may give you an idea: "Rarely has a Vancouver team looked so ineffective at the venerable Burnaby facility. The Whitecap passing game was woefull, their penetration into the Aviators penalty area virtually non-existant, and their shooting only marginally better..."
Well you were at the game, do you agree with this assessment? Or was it that Edmonton actually has a defense?
Montreal 2 vs. Atlanta 0 Fred Commodore (Mauricio Vincello) 60th Fred Commodore (Eduardo Sebrango) 75th Montreal match report
I was at the game and the Whitecaps were absolutely pathetic. Edmonton has a defense but when you play as poorly as Vancouver did, it's hard to judge exactly how good Edmonton will be. The assesment in the paper was dead on.
Rhinos 4 Lynx 0 Final Carrieri scores the first in the eleventh minute... Kirk or John Wilson (heard it on the radio, forgot which one it was) shot one that deflected off of a defender and went in. In the second half Corey Woolfolk (last year played alongside Thiago Martins in Pittsburgh) scored two quick goals (both assisted by Carrieri). Rochester absolutely dominated the game, even without team all-time leading scorer Doug Miller (down with ankle injury). The team still has 26 players and is going to have to make plenty of cuts, but is going to have a tough time doing so. The forward situation is crowded with Miller, Carrieri, Woolfolk and Noah Delgado, who started the game and played extremely well with two shots that should've been goals.