I think there is to much smack being said on the menace thread, i think we all need to be carefuly of what is being said. Oh yah, my predictions for the play-offs, On friday Chill will beat Chicago 3-0, Michigan will beat St. Louis 5-0, no offence Lions fans, but i believe your team will not be prepared properly by your coaching staff. The chill will play michigan in the final and the chill will win 3-2 in extra time.
5-0 it is your opinion and you are entitled to state that and I will disagree. But that is my opinion. Congrats on the season and winning the division. See you in the Conference Final on Saturday.
Congrats on winning the division. The Chill has some loyal fans and a well run roganization. I've previously enjoyed my trips there (except for the long drive) and also eating at the dinner that one of your coaches owns.
Thanks for coming in here. Please feel free to express your feelings and opinions. We dont expect you to agree with us. We didnt start to write before, cause we didnt know about this website. It is awesome to know what you guys think about soccer (even knowing that some of you cannot kick a soccer ball). I am not writing this in other thread cause I dont like to be threated like I was by the moderator. My comment was senseriuos, I mean it is never good to lose when you think you will. I think our moderator should open an USL- PDL thread ONLY. That will make easier to others to know about it. Just to register here, we have a few players that ARE playing in the pro level. I mean it is not a heck of a lot, but at least when we send somebody they at least make the team and stay. Not like others, get drafted (no contract), training camp and thanks for coming. Also, it is our second year that we are able to use americans not seeing as foreigners, last year because of the late note by the league, we couldnt recruit enough of you to make our roster competive. Thunder Bay is a very small city and is not easy to find many soccer players here unfortunatly, to get it from Toronto (18 hours), Montreal (25hs), Vancouver (days), it is even harder than bring americans. Now that we play by the same rules as others in the PDL, we believe we can compete.
I think in the other thread one of you guy's mentioned that you have a score to settle with the Fire? What is the issue?
I don't understand what you want me to do? There are plenty of PDL threads on the USL Board, and wouldn't it make sense to do like you did (and most others do) and make a team/club specific thread for each season? I am somewhat interested in seeing the names of those players, plus interested in the apparent slap at those players who were drafted and did not "stick". Are you insinuating that you have more players than maybe other Heartland Division teams that are still actively playing or on rosters of professional teams? Please, give names to back this claim up? What? I don't understand this part of your post in the slightest? What rules were you not able to take advantage of that other PDL sides could in the past? Please explain what changed to "allow you to be competitive"? It isn't like markets like Des Moines are huge markets either, especially when you consider how close Kansas City, St Louis, Springfield, Chicago, Sioux Falls, and such are. It is fairly difficult to recruit players for everyone....until you win a Championship. Then it seems to be a little simpler. The new challenge there is choosing the right players....
I am not saying we have more players sent than others. Chicago and Des Moines, just to mention a few, have many more players pick on the draft, however I dont think many of them are still playing, the few that even made the team. I can give an example your 2005 PDL championship team, where I believe 5 were drafted and I few were back on your team for the 2006 campain. Only the Andy G. (that i remember now) stayed. Josiah Seton is playing in the first division in Malasia, Guilherme Souza is in Vietna playing first division, Wilson Rodrigues is playing second division in Brasil, Felipe Lawall was drafted by the Orlando Sharks. Marcelo Santos is going to his second year in the Indoor league. Kosuke is playing for the colorado rapids. Those are players, that played in a much weaker than yours in the past years, once they had the chance to go to the next level they didnt let it pass. About the rules. It looks like u dont much about that. In 2005 , CANADIANS teams were only allowed to have 5 foreiners on their line up, the funny thing is that americans were considered foreigners in their own country. Never seem that in anywhere else. In 2006, they changed that, however too late for us to get the good players, they were already taken 2007, lets see how many players will move on. 2005 - 2 americans on the roster, 2006 - 4 americans on the rosters, 2007 - 12 americans. Please, correct me if you know better.
There are those on these boards who do know much more than I do about the logistical/rules side of the USL. Shipdawg and PERFDBDAN can speak much more directly than I can about this.....but it would seem odd to me that you would be under any more restrictive rules than the rest of the PDL. It seems to me that we are only able to have a limited number of "foriegn" players as well. Foreign being foreign to the location of the team. So, are you telling me that there aren't as many talented Canadians as there are Americans, and this is why you were at a disadvantage? I would think that having very few PDL teams in Canada you would have an advantage of being able to recruit the best college players in Canada (different system, I know). I am not trying to be difficult, but I still don't understand your complaint.
no problem. I can clearify. for many years we had in our team the top players in the canadian collegiate level, that is the most we could have. Bottom line they are not good enough. Otherwise they would get a scholarship in USA to play there. All our 5 foreigners were top level for PDL, Josiah Seton, Doco Wessah, Marcelo Santos, Guilheme Souza, Kosuke Kimura only to mention a few that are in the pro level. 2003 was the 1st year the chill started recruiting foreigners. The problem was that 5 or 7 guys cant compete with 14 or 16 good players. Bottom line. They removed the rule and we prove that was a extremely disavantage for us. The good canadian players are far away fom us and of course they rather playing in the closest teams.
Thank you for the clarification, I understand now. Truthfully, I am pleased with anything that makes the PDL a more competitive place. It really is not as much fun to dominate a division or conference. It was much more fun to have a race to the wire regarding playoff spots. Here's to many more rivalries and great competitions in the years to come.
I was unaware of this change. Tony normally handles that issue. Is it the same the other way? So if we pick up a canadian does that count against our foreign cap? I our two years we have never had to register a canadian so we never looked into this situation. Heck we had our first border crossing this year and we thought we would have trouble with that but we did not.
Before 2006, the canadians were foreiners to you. Now, you can have them. I have the contact info if you need a couple.
Be carefull Insider what you say!! You do not want to alienate your local Canadian talent cause you might alienate your local fans. You don't want to be playing in front of empty stands do you? It's a tough battle to change peoples perception of a team. We're constantly battling the saying "...we're not coming out to watch you guys play cause you don't have enough St. Louis players...." Sometimes it becomes an excuse for not getting the support a team needs from the local fans and sponsors. To further the discussion on foreign players, also this year the rule was changed so the registered alien players with "Green Cards" were considered Americans and did not count against the number of foreigners.
The city here is a little bit different. Lots of imigrants from Europe, Italy, Croacia and Portugal. They want to see good soccer. They know the canadians like hockey better and the youth soccer programs are very small to develop players. Plus they only play soccer during the summer. That is y I say they need to go to school in the USA in order to play the whole year, improve and play for the chill. Stephen Paterson is a good example. U can see the attendance this year with only 5 local players compare to other years. They get excited to see the "chill players(out of town)" , plus the media etc .. I guess it works different for you there. I am just stating a fact.
Did you guys check the forecast in Lake Orion? Starting tomorrow Thunderstorms hi 80's low 60's throughout the weekend. This sucks, I hope it clears out.
No, I havent check weather. It is too far for us to attend. 14 hours is just too much for me in a bus.
Chicago has probably sent the most to the professional ranks. Ned Grabavoy, Brad Guzan, Matt Bobo (Des Moines native), just to name a few. Des Moines has had a quite a few guys drafted recently and no they didnt stick. Andy Gruenebaum started quite a few games this year for Columbus. Ezra Hendrickson also played for the Menace back in the early years. Matt Nickell spend some time with DC United. Stephen Shirley spent some time with the Kansas City Wizards. Michael Kraus is playing for KC now. Josh Wicks, GK, is having a hell of a year with the Portland Timbers. There may be a few I am missing. I'd say that isn't too bad when it comes to the pro ranks. MLS or USL-1.
Players going pro, You guys forgot Chill had a Player few years back. Saverio Lento who left to go play in the Italian Serie B for Reggina.
poor guy decided to get married, just like some other ex chill players who should of been playing professionally, like frank the finger licking lacaria, dirty dave colistro and of course mike the hammer nerino.
, shipdawg, thanks for the congrats, and we would definitely rather see an all heartland division final anyways, good luck against the bucks, its going to be tough.
shipdawg, with regards to settling a score with chicago, it's simple, they used to kick the living snot out of us on many occassions. this year, i believe it will be different, plus there old coach makovic, was a bit of a prick, never had any respect for his opponents.
Here's a list of former Menace guys who went pro: Kirk Wilson (most recently of Montreal), Ezra Hendrickson (currently with Columbus), Nick Bratt (formerly with New Hampshire), Matt Nickell (most recently with DC United), Andy Gruenebaum (currently with Columbus), Tighe Dombrowski (formerly with San Jose and is now playing over in Sweden), Corey Farabi and Chris Hamburger (KC Wizards), Jesse Baker (Minnesota Thunder), Matt Wieland (NE Revs), Michael Kraus (KC Wizards). Those are just off the top of my head. Plenty of guys taken to the pro's for the Menace. As for Chicago, they definitely have the most players going from the team to the pro's. Since I'm lazy and don't want to type it out, here's a link to all their former players who have gone pro. http://www.chicagofirepremier.com/alumni/