Last year I put together a listing of the USL1 players that had appeared in MLS games. With the lower number of roster spots available in MLS this season, I expected there to be quite a few more MLS alums in USl1, but that's not the case - in fact there is one fewer.
This year's leaders -- the Carolina Railhawks and Puerto Rico Islanders with eight former MLS players apiece.
Austin Aztex
Kyle Brown 24
Sam Reynolds 2
David Winner 23
Carolina Railhawks
John Cunliffe 27
Gavin Glinton 67
Luke Kreamalmeyer 6
Amir Lowery 2
Daniel Paladini 8
Brian Plotkin 23
Mark Schulte 19
Jack Stewart 39
Charleston Battery
Nelson Akwari 78
Stephen Armstrong 77
Tyler Hemming 7
Dusty Hudok 12
Jamie Watson 39
John Wilson 32
Cleveland City Stars
Pato Aguilera 19
Ibrahim Kante 2
Arsene Oka 1
Troy Roberts 61
Israel Sesay 3 (on loan)
Miami FC
Connaly Edozien 9
Facundo Erpen 87
Diego Serna 124
Minnesota Thunder
Rod Dyachecnko 42
Julius James 15
Quavas Kirk 43
Andrew Peterson 2
Melvin Tarley 12
Montreal Impact
Adam Braz 13
Roberto Brown 13
Felix Brillant 19
Stephen deRoux 10
Srdjan Djekanovic 8
Matt Jordan 117
David Testo 16
Puerto Rico Islanders
Nicholas Addlery 11
Bill Gaudette 17
Dan Gargan 49
Domenic Mediate 37
Fabrice Noel 18
Osei Telesford 2
Kyle Veris 18
Petter Villegas 117
Rochester Rhinos
John Ball 11
Andrew Gregor 23
Tiger Fitzpatrick 18
Ty Harden 28
Scott Vallow 4
Portland Timbers
Steve Cronin 28
David Hayes 18
Stephen Keel 10
Cameron Knowles 4
Ryan Pore 58
Keith Savage 6
Scot Thompson 1
Vancouver Whitecaps
Justin Moose 8
Jay Nolly 8
Jeff Parke 132
Marco Reda 8
If you're interested in last year's list, you can view it here and here.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Thursday, July 02, 2009
US Oopsie Cup
The Major League Soccer sides played their first games in this year's US Open Cup this week, and half of them got knocked off by lower-level opponents. One of the most unlikely was the New England Revolution being beaten by the USL-2 Harrisburg City Islanders.
In a burst of insanity (or apathy) New England coach Steve Nicol made all three of his allowed subs at halftime. This came back to burn him big time as Kheli Dube went down with an ankle injury with almost a half hour left in the game. Twenty minutes later the Revs suffered another injury, forcing them to play the rest of regulation and all of extra time with just nine players.
You've got to feel for the Revs, but what the heck was he thinking leaving himself with no subs?
In a burst of insanity (or apathy) New England coach Steve Nicol made all three of his allowed subs at halftime. This came back to burn him big time as Kheli Dube went down with an ankle injury with almost a half hour left in the game. Twenty minutes later the Revs suffered another injury, forcing them to play the rest of regulation and all of extra time with just nine players.
You've got to feel for the Revs, but what the heck was he thinking leaving himself with no subs?
Why Must Modern Lyrics Suck?
I was listening to some Duke Ellington the other day, and was struck by just how low our standards for song lyrics are these days. Take this lyric from Come to Baby, Do!
Even songs about boot-knockin' were much better. Take this other Ellington example where after informing her man that he must kiss her Long Strong and Consecutive, the singer adds:
So pucker up my sweetHow many people writing songs these days even know what Waterloo is? Now we get to listen to the ever-nuanced Gwen Stefani repeat That's my sh*t over and over again.
and meet your Waterloo
Come to baby, do!
Even songs about boot-knockin' were much better. Take this other Ellington example where after informing her man that he must kiss her Long Strong and Consecutive, the singer adds:
When I want a chicken, I don't want the gizzardIt's a long, sad road from this to "I don't want no short d*ck man." *sigh*
When I go a-fishin' a minnow won't do
You must be a standout, a whirlwind a wizard,
got to be the champ, or else you're through.
Got My Mind on My Money, and My Money on the Mob
A review of 1 vs 100 Live for the XBOX 360
My dream of playing NTN Trivia from the comfort of my living room has finally come true... kind of. Microsoft is currently beta testing a massively multiplayer version of the television game show 1 vs 100. In addition to live games where "the one" and "the mob" are chosen from the thousands of people logged into the game, there are Extended Play sessions where the entire crowd competes on the same 37 questions.
In my opinion, the Extended Play sessions are more fun as they give you real chance to test your mettle against the masses. The contestants on the live show rarely make it more than a half dozen questions, which make competing from the crowd more of a buzzer-racing contest than a true test of knowledge.
As a true geek, I have some qualms with the questions. There have been numerous questions that were wrong because of poor editing. For example -- there is no Major League Soccer team called the Colorado Rockies -- it's the Colorado Rapids. Another is the repetition of questions. Now that I've been playing for a while, it's common for 10-20% of the questions to be repeats. For those who play more frequently, the percentage is probably higher. A third is that there's no sort of provision the keeps very similar questions from being in the same set. I once saw two questions about Scottish soccer and two about the musical Rent in the same round of extended play.
Hopefully Microsoft can get some of these issues resolved, and they don't get greedy by trying to charge for the game even though they show you in-game ads and you have to ante up for a gold membership to play in the first place. If this is true, I'll be wasting ridiculous amounts of time playing this for the foreseeable future.
My dream of playing NTN Trivia from the comfort of my living room has finally come true... kind of. Microsoft is currently beta testing a massively multiplayer version of the television game show 1 vs 100. In addition to live games where "the one" and "the mob" are chosen from the thousands of people logged into the game, there are Extended Play sessions where the entire crowd competes on the same 37 questions.
In my opinion, the Extended Play sessions are more fun as they give you real chance to test your mettle against the masses. The contestants on the live show rarely make it more than a half dozen questions, which make competing from the crowd more of a buzzer-racing contest than a true test of knowledge.
As a true geek, I have some qualms with the questions. There have been numerous questions that were wrong because of poor editing. For example -- there is no Major League Soccer team called the Colorado Rockies -- it's the Colorado Rapids. Another is the repetition of questions. Now that I've been playing for a while, it's common for 10-20% of the questions to be repeats. For those who play more frequently, the percentage is probably higher. A third is that there's no sort of provision the keeps very similar questions from being in the same set. I once saw two questions about Scottish soccer and two about the musical Rent in the same round of extended play.
Hopefully Microsoft can get some of these issues resolved, and they don't get greedy by trying to charge for the game even though they show you in-game ads and you have to ante up for a gold membership to play in the first place. If this is true, I'll be wasting ridiculous amounts of time playing this for the foreseeable future.
Confederations Cup Rewind
By now any fan of the US Men's National Team already knows that the boys followed up their miracle escape from the group stage by snapping Spain's record unbeaten streak and going up 2-0 on Brazil before coming back to earth. Rather then opine on how historic these results might be, I'd like to present some things we may have learned about this team.
It's a Whole Lot Easier to Play With 11 Men
Everyone's head exploded when the US got their lunch handed to them in the first two games. What folks seemed to overlook is that the US played 90 out of 180 minutes of those games a man down. You won't find many teams who will handle Brazil and Italy well 10 v 11.
Charlie Davies is Legit
When Davies left Boston College early and jumped straight to Hammarby in Sweden I thought it was a mistake. Many others that have opted to spurn MLS and go straight Europe have slunk back home after a year or two of riding the pine. Davies has bucked the trend, and has teams from larger leagues looking into acquiring him. If his goal versus Egypt and well worked counter with Donovan against Brazil are any indication, he may be the speed option the US has lacked up top for a while now.
Donovan is a Midfielder
This tournament may be the best performance Donovan has ever put in as a Nat. He was all over the field and stole the show. In the thick of the action, he's a warrior, but as a forward he seems to lose focus and drift out of the game. Hopefully this will keep Bob Bradley from deploying him up top any more.
It's a Whole Lot Easier to Play With 11 Men
Everyone's head exploded when the US got their lunch handed to them in the first two games. What folks seemed to overlook is that the US played 90 out of 180 minutes of those games a man down. You won't find many teams who will handle Brazil and Italy well 10 v 11.
Charlie Davies is Legit
When Davies left Boston College early and jumped straight to Hammarby in Sweden I thought it was a mistake. Many others that have opted to spurn MLS and go straight Europe have slunk back home after a year or two of riding the pine. Davies has bucked the trend, and has teams from larger leagues looking into acquiring him. If his goal versus Egypt and well worked counter with Donovan against Brazil are any indication, he may be the speed option the US has lacked up top for a while now.
Donovan is a Midfielder
This tournament may be the best performance Donovan has ever put in as a Nat. He was all over the field and stole the show. In the thick of the action, he's a warrior, but as a forward he seems to lose focus and drift out of the game. Hopefully this will keep Bob Bradley from deploying him up top any more.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The Pride of Bayport
Being a resident of the state of Wisconsin, I was wondering if the rise of Jay DeMerit was going to get any play during the Confederations Cup. It's not often that a player from hardcore football country, that didn't even get drafted by MLS ends up playing in a major international tournament.
As it turns out, the New York Times has taken notice. Technically DeMerit is from just outside Green Bay, but the article is still a fun read.
As it turns out, the New York Times has taken notice. Technically DeMerit is from just outside Green Bay, but the article is still a fun read.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Of Confederations and Profanity
The start to the USA's Confederations Cup campaign inspired a torrent of vitriol among American supporters, as well as a fair amount of swearing, including -- the alleged drunken Facebook rants of former US player Eric Wynalda. (Wynalda claims his Facebook account was hacked.)
I enjoyed it when he announced games for ESPN. For all his faults, he would usually come through with at least one really incisive observation. My favorite comment from his rant? "Maybe if I make a comeback, Bob will let me limp around and take ten pens to pad my stats." Think Waldo might be bitter about Landon Donovan passing him on the all-time scorers list for the USA? Probably... but he's kind of right. When was the last time Lando scored a goal from open play?
Of course the team pulled off a miracle escape, beating Egypt 3-0 while Italy lost 3-0 to Brazil to move into the knockout stages of the tournament. This great escape led to the following quote from US midfielder Michael Bradley:
I enjoyed it when he announced games for ESPN. For all his faults, he would usually come through with at least one really incisive observation. My favorite comment from his rant? "Maybe if I make a comeback, Bob will let me limp around and take ten pens to pad my stats." Think Waldo might be bitter about Landon Donovan passing him on the all-time scorers list for the USA? Probably... but he's kind of right. When was the last time Lando scored a goal from open play?
Of course the team pulled off a miracle escape, beating Egypt 3-0 while Italy lost 3-0 to Brazil to move into the knockout stages of the tournament. This great escape led to the following quote from US midfielder Michael Bradley:
"All the [expletive] experts in America, everybody who thinks they know everything about soccer, they they can all look at that score tonight," said the coach's son, midfielder Michael Bradley said. "Let's see what they say now, all right? Nobody has any respect for what we do, for what goes on in the inside. Let them all talk now."Point taken. Maybe that 3-0 loss to Brazil doesn't look so bad after all.
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