Monthly Archives: March 2012

Rhinos Sign Zamudio and Defeat Colgate

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Gustavo Zamudio, with or without flowing locks, has just signed for the Rochester Rhinos

The Rhinos added Chilean central midfielder Gustavo Zamudio on Tuesday.  He adds a Latin American playmaking spark to the Rhinos midfield and I think he could be the “diamond in the rough” signing for the team this season.  The Rhinos midfield already includes tremendous talent out wide with J.C. Banks, a very versatile and talented Tyler Rosenlund, and a great partner who can martial the midfield in either Drew Cost and Michael Tanke.

“The first thing that impresses you about Gustavo is his technical ability. He’s very good on the ball,” Rhinos head coach Myers said. “After watching him play for a while you end up realizing how well he reads the game and how well he passes the ball. I inherited a hard working central midfield from Bob [Lilley], and I think Zamudio will complement that group very nicely with his technical flair and ability to get everyone involved.”

On Friday, the Rhinos played their third preseason match at home against Colgate University.  The game recap comes from the Rhinos’ press release on their website:

Continue reading →

Yosmel de Armas and the Problem of Cuban Player Defections

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Yosmel de Armas competing against Honduras in the 2012 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament

At some point between the Cuban u23 team’s game against Honduras on Saturday and when the team loaded onto the bus from the hotel for the match against Canada on Monday, Yosmel de Armas fled the team hotel.

The 22 year old defender who played for La Habana back in Cuba is the latest in an extensive series of athletes who defect during tournaments in the United States.  A majority of these cases are baseball players, boxers, and soccer players.

“The player that’s not here today is feeling very sick. He left yesterday in practice. He injured his ankle, so he was in the hotel. Something else happened. He doesn’t really know,” a translator said for Cuba coach Raul Triana Gonzalez about de Armas being listed as “Not present” for the match against Canada. Continue reading →

The 2012 U.S. Open Cup Is Here

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2012 marks the 99th edition of the U.S. Open Cup and thanks to a formatting change, it also marks the first time every professional soccer team in the country will participate.  The 2012 format includes 32 professional teams: the 16 U.S.-based Major League Soccer clubs, 6 U.S.-based North American Soccer League clubs, the 10 U.S.-based United Soccer Leagues-Pro clubs; and 32 amateur teams: 16 from the Premier Development League, 6.5 from the National Premier Soccer League, 9 teams from United States Adult Soccer Association, and .5 teams from US Club Soccer (one team from NPSL will face off against the USCS representative in a one game play-in match).

The 2011 U.S. Open Cup only included only 40 teams; 8 from MLS, 11 from USL-Pro, 9 from PDL, 4 from NPSL, and 8 from USASA.  This means that more teams are entering the tournament from every division this year.  NASL teams were disallowed from the 2011 cup partially because of late sanctioning and partially for political reasons.  Fortunately, for the sake of competition and integrity, all domestic-based professional teams are participating this season. Continue reading →

Our Neighbor to the South: What American Soccer Can Learn from Mexico

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If we take a closer look at soccer in the United States and soccer in Mexico, we can see that we’re more like Mexico than we often realize.

We both have big market teams that don’t perform as well as the better organized clubs in smaller cities.  Look at the stagnation of Club America (Mexico City, population of 20,000,000 in 2010) since 2006 and the recent successes of Monarcas Morelia (population of 806,000) in Mexico.  In the United States compare the eternal profligacy of the New York Red Bulls (nearly 18,900,000 in 2010) with the cup-winning and Concacaf Champions League final-reaching Real Salt Lake (1,125,000).

We both have shady businessmen who own multiple teams, even though that is against FIFA’s wishes.  At one time the Anschutz Entertainment Group owned six teams in MLS; having sold the Colorado Rapids, the MetroStars, D.C. United, and the Chicago Fire, AEG still owns the Los Angeles Galaxy and are partial owners of the Houston Dynamo.  Likewise, the Hunt Sports Group owned three teams, but after selling Kansas City Wizards, now only owns the Columbus Crew and FC Dallas.  In Mexico, the two major ownership groups are both television media companies.  TV Azteca owns both Monarcas Morelia and Jaguares de Chiapas.  Televisa owns Club America, San Luis F.C. and (former Primera Division team; now Liga de Ascenso team) Club Necaxa.

We both have longer distances to travel for matches than most countries.  A 2000 mile flight separates Atlante FC from Club Tijuana.  Similarly, nearly 2600 miles separates the New England Revolution from the Los Angeles Galaxy in the United States.  In contrast, the longest distance in England, that between the Northeast teams, Newcastle and Sunderland, to the London clubs is around 250 miles.

However there are important differences with regard to promotion and relegation, youth structure, and sports culture.  There are many things that the American soccer world can learn from it’s southern neighbor. Continue reading →

Rhinos Top Binghamton University 4-0 in Preseason as More Trialists Feature

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Tam McManus, seen here celebrating a goal for Dunfermline Athletic, got on the score sheet for Rochester in the 6th minute

Rochester Rhinos head coach Jesse Myers started a full strength side against the Binghamton University Bearcats on Saturday morning at Sahlen’s Stadium.  Kristian Nicht started between the pipes and did well to maintain his concentration during the shut-out.  The back four looked like the starting contingent going forward.  Jack Traynor started on the left while Quavas Kirk played on the right.  Troy Roberts partnered Tyler Bellamy in the center of defense as he did much of last season.  The midfield showed some very promising attacking potential for 2012.  J.C. Banks started on the left wing, trialist Danny Earls played on the right flank, while Drew Cost and Tyler Rosenlund played centrally.  Having two highly capable wingers proved a plus for Rochester as they were able to attack from either side.  Tam McManus played as a withdrawn forward with Graciano Brito as the point man of the attack.

The formation could have been a traditional 4-4-2, or a 4-2-3-1 with advanced wingers, but the team most likely operated as a 4-4-1-1.  Scottish forward Tam McManus is the self-proclaimed “number 10″ for the Rhinos and likes to pop into spaces and exchange quick passes.The first half was largely the Danny Earls show and I fully expect his effort to be rewarded with a contract.  The Irish trialist had two assists to set up Tam McManus and J.C. Banks in the opening quarter of an hour. Continue reading →

United States Olympic Qualifying, A Class Above Cuba

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Joe Corona celebrates a first half goal against Cuba with the team

Claudio Reyna joined Caleb Porter on the bench for the United States’ opening match in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament and they both liked what they saw.  Porter lined the team up in his 4-3-3 with Hamid in goal; Sarkodie, Kitchen, Opara, and Valentin in front of him; Jeffrey playing the defensive role in a midfield triangle with Corona and Diskerud; and then a forward line of Adu, Agudelo, and Shea.  The tournament allows a full bench, meaning the rest of the squad was available as substitutes: Terrence Boyd, Teal Bunbury, Joe Gyau, Sean Johnson, Amobi Okugo, Michael Stephens, Tony Taylor,  Jorge Villafana, and Sheanon Williams.

The US was in control of the game from the outset, dictating play and probing for holes in Cuba‘s defense.  That hole came in the 11th minute when Joe Corona opened the scoring.  Freddy Adu put a served a free kick into the box and Juan Agudelo rose to challenge but Cuba’s keeper (Odisnel Cooper) came out to punch.  The ball fell to Corona in the box, who took it off his check and neatly side footed into the back of the net. Continue reading →

2012 Olympic Qualifying Roster

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On March 20, u23 head coach Caleb Porter named his final roster for the Olympic qualifying tournament.  That roster is mostly the same as the one released on March 12.  On March 13, Porter added Tony Taylor to replace the injured Dilly Duka.  FK Molde recalled American speedster Josh Gatt due to a number of injuries at the club.  Because Olympic qualifying is not an official tournament during a FIFA window, clubs don’t have to release their players and do so on a voluntary basis.  Gatt was listed as a right back in the squad so replacement options considered by supporters included 20 year old Club Tijuana defender Greg Garza and 22 year old Philadelphia Union defender Sheanon Williams.  In the end it was Williams who got the call and he joins the other 19 Americans in Nashville.

18 year old Birmingham City defender Will Packwood was also mentioned, but Jurgen Klinsmann has spoken out discouraging players skipping ahead in their development (Packwood would be available for the next Olympic cycle).  Royal-Dominique Fennell is a 22 year old with Stuttgart who has been called up in the past and is starting to blend into the first team at his German club.  There had also been a few calls for Houston Dyanamo academy player and Duke University defender Sebastien Ibeagha, but the 19 year old does not have enough quality experience to add anything to the team.

The roster as it stands now:

GK, 2- Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire)

D, 6- Perry Kitchen (D.C. United), Ike Opara (San Jose Earthquakes), Zarek Valentin (Montreal Impact), Kofi Sarkodie (Houston Dynamo), Jorge Villafaña (Chivas USA), Sheanon Williams (Philadelphia Union)

M, 6- Freddy Adu (Philadelphia Union), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana), Mix Diskerud (Gent, on loan from Stabæk), Michael Stephens (Los Angeles Galaxy), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union), Jared Jeffrey (Mainz)

F, 6- Terrence Boyd (Borussia Dortmund), Brek Shea (FC Dallas), Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls), Joe Gyau (Hoffenheim), Teal Bunbury (Sporting Kansas City), Tony Taylor (Estoril Praia)

The squad now includes 14 MLS players, including all goalkeepers and defenders.  In the last month the u23 team has gone 4-0 which includes wins against FC Dallas (2-1), NASL side San Antonio Scorpions (3-0), the Mexican u23 team (2-0), and on Sunday a 3-0 result against the Atlanta Silverbacks of NASL.  Mexico is a likely match-up in the semifinals if both teams make it out of their respective groups.

The United States begins group play on Thursday night at 8PM against Cuba.  This is followed by a match against Canada at 6PM on Saturday.  The final match of the group stage is against El Salvador on Monday night at 8PM.  All of the U.S. games will take place in Nashville Tennessee and will be shown on Telemundo-2 and Universal Sports Network, as well as streamed on concacaf.com.

If the U.S. gets results against its group opponents, it will likely face either Mexico or Honduras in a semifinal matchup.  Both semifinal winners will advance to the Olympic Tournament in London during the summer.  In London, the full u23 team (Jozy Altidore, Timmy Chandler and Danny Williams) can be joined by 3 overage players which may include Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan or Michael Bradley.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Taking a Deeper Look at the Newly Created Professional Referee Organization

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This is the first (and probably last) piece in a segment I’d like to call Doherty Soccer’s Mega Media Mop-up.  In this week’s episode we are going to take a look at the brand new Professional Referee Organization (PRO), a creation of U.S. Soccer.  Many soccer bloggers who are much better at what they do than I am have posted on this topic, but none of them has adequately approached why this decision was made or probed some basic questions surrounding this issue.  Those are what I intend to tackle in this post.  Let’s give it go.

For this exercise I read the official press release by U.S. Soccer, a short write-up by SBNation, a post on SoccerByIves, the great piece by Brian Quarstad of InsideMNSoccer, a Canadian perspective from the11.ca, and a video interview by Simon Borg with Nelson Rodriguez from MLSsoccer.

Recently, the USSF has decided to take an important step in its governing and regulating of soccer in America, which is kind of its job.  In conjunction with MLS, US Soccer has created the Professional Referee Organization to oversee, evaluate, train and improve the quality of referees in the United States and Canada.  The joint operation has named Peter Walton, longtime English Premier League official, to lead the program as general manager. Continue reading →

Red Bulls Sign Ryan Maduro

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This morning, March 19, the Red Bulls issued the following press release:

The New York Red Bulls announced today that it has signed midfielder Ryan Maduro. Per league and club rules, the terms of each deal were not disclosed.

“Ryan earned his spot on the roster after a solid showing in preseason,” said Red Bulls General Manager and Sporting Director Erik Soler. “He is a young midfielder from the northeast who will provide us depth and can develop within our squad.”

Maduro had training stints with English sides, Sheffield Wednesday and Blackpool, as well as Portugal’s Belenenses in the past year. Before turning professional, Maduro enjoyed four excellent seasons on the collegiate level playing for Providence College from 2004-08. During his college career, Maduro played in 60 games, scoring 12 goals and 16 assists. As a junior, Maduro was named a First Team All American and a First Team All- Big East selection. Since finishing his college career, Maduro played for USL Premier Development League sides Rhode Island Stingrays in 2009 and Forest City London in 2010. Last year, Maduro, 25, appeared for the Red Bulls Reserve League team twice.

Since I have taken up the position as eternal skeptic of New York’s pool of trialists, I’m not too keen on this signing.  Maduro takes up one of 4 of the open Red Bulls’ roster spots, given the facts that Rodgers has not yet signed for 2012 and the team is planning on collecting $70,000 allocation money for spots 29 and 30.

5’10″ Maduro was a college standout and played PDL for two years.  That’s pretty average for American professional hopefuls.  Maduro went undrafted out of college before signing for the Rhode Island Stingrays in May 2009 and securing a trial with C.D. Santa Clara of the Portuguese second division.  He spent the next two years training with other clubs in Europe’s lower divisions but never impressed enough to earn a contract.  One news story out of Portugal referred to Maduro as a Portuguese-American, so he might have been able to obtain a European passport through his parents, making the costs and difficulties of signing him much less.

In 2011, 25 year old Maduro made two appearances for a largely disappointing Red Bulls Reserve team.  Maduro also had time to try out for the Rochester Rhinos in March of 2011, but was not signed by the team.  In the last year, apparently, he jumped leaps and bounds in his personal training and talent and work rate.  He went from unimpressive at a division 3 trial to good enough for an MLS roster.  A round of applause are in order for Mr. Maduro. Continue reading →

A Look at Some of the Rhinos’ Trialists

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Former Rhino Danny Earls is among the players currently in camp

There is a frustrating lack of information about the players currently in camp with the  Rochester Rhinos.  On Sunday, the team played their first preseason game against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in Pennsylvania.  Many of the first choice players did not feature while head coach Jesse Myers tried to figure out where to fit in certain players and which of the hopefuls would make the 2012 team.  I decided to investigate a bit about the players who do not currently have an announced contract with the Rhinos.

As of Sunday night the team has 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 4 midfielders, and 5 forwards signed which adds up to 16 players under contract.  Last season the Rhinos finished the season with 26 players under contract [3 GK, 7 DF, 11 MF, and 5 FW] and the team had 24 players during the 2010 season [2 GK, 6 DF, 11 MF, and 5 FW].    We can expect between 7 and 10 more signings between now and the USL Pro roster freeze date (which has previously been the middle to the end of July), and based on past years, a majority of these signings should be midfielders.The starting line-up in a 4-5-1 formation for the Rhinos in their preseason friendly was: Joe Marino; Jack Traynor, George Kyliazis, Tyler Bellamy, Michael Tanke; Drew Cost, Gustavo Zamudio, Danny Earls, Pedro Rivas, Conor Chinn; Graciano Brito.

Of this squad, only goalkeeper Joe Marino, midfielder Drew Cost, defender Tyler Bellamy, and Michael Tanke featured for the club last season.  Also in the starting XI were newcomers Jack Traynor, Conor Chinn and Graciano Brito who have already been signed to the team.  Tanke has played as a central midfielder but saw minutes Sunday as a right back. Continue reading →