i noticed that the kingdom had 7 players from western michigan university last year. i thought that the each pdl team could only have 5 players from a single college team. can anybody explain this?
You are correct...the limit (i think) is 5 CURRENT players per team. What might be happening is that some of those players might not be CURRENT players...that's my theory. I would be surprised if the WM Edge "missed" that small little NCAA rule.
Stephen Armstrong is on trial with Columbus according to http://www.huntparkinsider.com/news/051205_news.html
Go Invaders! Mario has built an excellent facility west of South Bend. They have their lighted match field, an indoor facility, and 4 to 6 fields for their youth teams. The matches are not as well attended as they should be as the Invaders always field a competitive team. What a great way to spend a summer evening. Can't wait for the season to start.
Edge Lose at "New" Home in Season Opener http://www.mlive.com/sports/grpress/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/1116065710198770.xml The new home kind of sucks for me since my mom's house is in Grand Haven (15 minutes from Holland). Its ironic that they decided to move so close to Grand Haven the EXACT same years I was out at college here in Iowa. I finally have a full summer without school obligations and they move back farther away. On the plus side though, they play one game at Mona Shores which is only 10 minutes away! I played rugby at the FHC stadium for Grand Haven High back in the day (I have fond memories of that place) and it CAN'T be more that 45 minutes from Holland. I think it was 30 minutes from my place in GH and there really aren't traffic problems. I'm concerned about three things: Attendance (which was up a bit in Holland), press coverage (which was excellent in the Holland Sentinel), and revenue (the team EXISTING is most important).
CFP/Indiana 5/15/05 CFP win 2-1 on a disputed stoppage time goal. David Leung pounced on a first half Invader defensive error and finished with an outstanding effort. Indiana carried the second half play and earned a just equalizer on a free kick wormburner from the top of the arc that snuck inside the post. The winner came about when CFR/CFP veteran Nowaf Jaman was sent through on the right, drew the keeper out, and squared the ball to #6 who tapped into the open net as the flag stayed down on both passes. In a scene out of the Mexican League, the Invaders rushed to surround the AR and were lucky to get off with just one yellow card. Whether or not the call was right, Indiana was hard done by and deserved to share the points.
Kingdom vs Bucks 5/15/05 Would love to learn more about this season's CFP squad. The 2004 squad was loaded; are they a step lower than last year's squad? My Bucks beat the Kingdom 3-1 tonight in their home opener, a non-Cup qualifier at Oakland U. It was damn cold, and I left after the Bucks went up 3-0. First goal was scored by Nate Craft on a beautifully executed set piece from the top of the 18 in 1st half extra time. Based on the flow of play, the Bucks had a small edge in the first half. Ryan McMahen, who otherwise had a ho-hum game, scored on another free kick early in the 2nd half. Ryan delivered a nice shot on goal, but the Kingdom goalie really blew the play. He got two good hands on the shot, yet it still slipped thru for the goal. Shoddy stuff. The Kingdom goalie was late getting into position to defend the 3rd Bucks' goal, and the ball came in just under his left arm. Another poor effort. No way are the 2005 Bucks as good as the 2004 edition, though on first look they may be better coached. The back line does look pretty solid, as Kyle Veris looks good paired up with Kevin Taylor. Won't know for sure until they face a decent attack. The Kingdom don't have one. Good news for 2005 Bucks' fans: both offense and defense on set pieces appears to have improved.
Re: Kingdom vs Bucks 5/15/05 I would like to know more too, but there were no rosters available. IMO, there is less name talent this year than the last two years. The midfield is pretty bare this year. Jed Zayner is playing box to box this year, whereas last year he stayed in the defensive half more. As a midfielder, he's an All-American defender. The CFP front runners were starved for service & the Indiana midfield outworked their CFP counterparts. I thought ex U-17 John DiRaimondo was the best of the bunch, but Matko must have thought otherwise & gave him the hook in the second half. Leung brought a lot of energy up front early, but after Jaman came in he moved to right mid & ran out of gas. Leung & Jaman would seem to be the obvious first choice strike force when the team gets settled in. After watching the opening match, it's clear there are no attacking midfielders the quality of Grabavoy, Khumalo, Dombrowski, or Kreamalmeyer. Defense seems to be in good shape led by returnees Moss & Robinson. The match was played on field turf, but it's rare to see a CFR/CFP side get out worked at home. Matko has some work to do to get this side close to the level of the last two years. Who knows though, this may be the side that brings home the hardware that has eluded the last two star studded line-ups.
I think one thing that happens is that for the first game a lot of our players get to town as we are playing the first game due finals at school. For example Jimmy Klatter was on the bench, he was a solid fixture for the CFR/CFP last season. Hamid is back, though I don't think anyone wanted him to test his knee on the field turf. The way our team turns over year to year it's hard to tell after the first game, plus the Invaders are a first rate squad, tonights game could have easily gone the other way. Mario's got his act together and the Invaders are going to be a team to deal with in the Great Lakes.
Thanks for the reports on the Fire/Invaders match. The local paper was kind enough to post a 20 word report on the match with no details. Very encouraging start for the lads from the Bend. Sadly, I will miss their home opener next week.
Re: Kingdom vs Bucks 5/15/05 Looks like most of the CFP returnees with significant playing time from last season are either defenders or forwards. Nowaf Jaman - F Western Illinois Jimmy Klatter - F - Eastern Illinois John Mariscalco - D - Butler Hamid Mehreioskouei - F Brandon Moss - D - New Mexico Dasan Robinson - D - Dayton Jed Zayner - D - Indiana On another note, Cleveland apparently defeated Toledo in an exhibition, 3-0.
It was Cleveland (3) - Toledo (0). It's not listed on any site I could find. It was relayed to me by a member of the referee crew that did the game.
I have e-mailed both Toledo and Inter about Saturday's match. They are more tight-lipped than the NSA. Sheesh.
Re Fever / Toledo 5/17 Well it the Fever took a while to get it going but came back to pound the 'Slayers' 5-2. Ft.Wayne spotted toledo 2 goals and the Dan Broxup demolished them With 4 goals and PJ Wilson added another. I don't know what Broxup is doing still playing PDL, but I am glad he is here in Ft.wayne. He had 3 hat tricks last year and looks well on his way to bettering himself and leading the Fever to new heights.
Isn't Broxup still in college. The Fever website says he attends U. of Evansville. Is this not correct? It may be the fact that he would count as an International player that counts against him. Either way, his performance vs. Toledo should earn him Team of Week 5 honors. But he will not be the first GLCer to make it this year. Congratulations to Michigan's Nate Craft who earned a Team of the Week XI for his performance vs the Kingdom http://pdl.uslsoccer.com/honors/99399.html Get ready for Inter's open opener this Sunday. Sadly I will be unable to attend any Sunday games in May but look out for me in June! Inter, which has a black ops thing going with regard to their roster, may actually fied a team of soccer players, or 11 highly trained ninjas, which would explain why they have already played a game and no one can name a single player on the team, including anyone on the team administration. Apparently the game v. Toledo was a pre-season match. Even though Inter apparently won that game 3-0, that doesn't bode well for Cleveland since Inter beat Toledo in a pre-season match last year 3-0 and then proceeded to play to their weaknesses with a solid GLC near-last finish.
Just got back from checking out the game between Cleveland and West Michigan. Cleveland took the three points with a 4-2 win. WM made a couple mistakes on the last two goals. On the third goal one Clev. player caught 2 Edge players napping and ran past them to get a 1v1 against the goalie. The fourth goal came in extra time of the second period. A pass through the box found the foot of a Inter player for goal #4. If it wouldn't be for the mistakes maybe the game would have been tighter. Sorry, forgot my pen to write down the scoring. From the showing this evening look like it will be a three way race for last place with Toledo joining WM and Cleveland. The new stadium at Forest Hills Central High School isn't near as good as the field in Holland. First the field is artifical plus has a track field going around the playing field so the fans are farther away from the game. What is worst is the field goes East/West so the fans are always getting the sun on one side of them. One goaltender is looking in the sun for the first half. Holland had the field North/South so the fans could sit with theirs backs to the sun. At least the team had a good crowd of about 150-200. The flavor of the year is going with local players. If you have local players it is more likely that people with watch familiar faces. The new stadium is about 45 minutes from Holland. I am not sure why they moved. No TV coverage for the game tonight. At least the team got a decent turnout. I don't buy the paper so I won't be able to see if the team is getting any press. In Holland the local paper did do some coverage. WM Edge just needs to get organized with a plan and follow it instead of changing things all the time. Next home game isn't until June 10 against Indiana. Maybe I'll try to make it to see the Invaders take out the Edge.
Premier get tied up by the Slayers 1-1. Talk about no luck. Premier out shot Toledeo 38 to 1. Premier earned 18 Corner Kicks to Toldeo's 2. No less than five shots went off the iron. Hat's off to Slayer goalie Eric Pogue, had a career game. One should expect that, he probably has more games as Goalie at the PDL level than any active goalie. Hamid's back, also had Denny Clanton in the stands, it was good to see our old friend.
It was a sad day when the Bucks had to part ways with Eric Pogue. He's among the best GK's in the PDL. (I think they couldn't have him on the team because in '03 because of roster rules that have something to do with him being a coach somewhere, and I think one of his players was on the team....I don't remember)