The roster updates from the Cary offices of the Carolina RailHawks have been trickling in. There have been heartening re-signings, most notably that of quicksilver Guyanese winger Gregory Richardson. Also back for another season: stalwart defensive midfielder Amir Lowery, goalkeeper Eric Reed, the aggressive midfielders Brian Plotkin and Joseph Kabwe, and defender Caleb Norkus. Right back Greg Shields—currently on loan to Partick Thistle of the Scottish second division (according to the gratifyingly transparent Web site of the Glaswegian club, we know that his loan expires March 31)—seems to be slated for a return, as well.
Today brought two pieces of news. First was the surprising retirement of 2009 team defender of the year Jeremy Tolleson. Only 27 years old, the Atlanta native has elected to hang up his boots and become a missionary in Honduras. Tolleson began last season on the sidelines, recuperating from a foot injury. His return came at a fortuitous time, however, when central defender Jack Stewart was lost for the season with a broken leg. Tolleson subsequently partnered with Mark Schulte to anchor the league’s best defense; despite being only 5-foot-9, he effectively positioned himself to snuff out attack after attack, and also proved to be a dangerous attacking weapon with his long balls forward (3:18).
It’s disappointing to lose a player of his caliber, but one can’t help but be impressed by his willingness to walk away from a sport that has surely dominated his life for 20 years. Although it’s true that Division 2 soccer players in America are paid little more than missionaries (and perhaps D2 soccer players are secular missionaries, spreading love for a game that pays them less than they could make doing almost anything else), it still comes as a start to fans that an athlete could have a calling above playing sports for a living. Our hat is off to you, Mr. Tolleson, and Godspeed.
Tolleson’s departure will intensify interest in whether Stewart will return to the club. Continue reading »
Can Gregory Richardson, shown here scooting past USL-1 player of the year Cristian Arrieta of the Puerto Rico Islanders, lead the RailHawks into a successful new league? (Photo by Jeremy M. Lange)
In an interview Thursday afternoon, Carolina RailHawks president Brian Wellman confirmed that the dissident group of USL-1 club owners known as the Team Owners Association (TOA) would be submitting an application to the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) to form a new league.
“We’ll be submitting an application to USSF for a new league as soon as tomorrow,” Wellman said in a phone interview from Charleston, S.C., where he was meeting with Andrew Bell, president of the USL-1 Charleston Battery, to coordinate the scheduling of friendlies next season.
“Nothing’s changed as far as the teams go,” Wellman said of the composition of the proposed new league. The TOA consists of five former USL-1 clubs (Minnesota , Miami FC, Montreal, Vancouver and Carolina) and three ownership groups (in Atlanta, Tampa Bay and St. Louis).
Wellman suggested that the TOA has heard from other member prospects, as well.* “We have at least one conversation a day with people representing new markets. Even without media coverage [of the dispute], there’s a lot of interest in the league.”
Furthermore, Wellman left open the possibility that the new league might follow the FIFA calendar, playing during the winter months.
If the TOA settles on a winter schedule, Wellman said, “It wouldn’t be this winter. It would start sometime in the summer, and prorate as our fiscal year went along.” Continue reading »
Daniel Paladini, RailHawks midfielder, team MVP and now first-team all-USL-1 (Photo by Rich Bostwick)
The RailHawks’ stellar midfielder Daniel Paladini was named to the All-League USL First Division’s first team, the USL announced today.
Yesterday, the RailHawks’ defender Mark Schulte was named to the second team.
Here’s the complete first team:
GK: Steve Cronin (Portland Timbers)
D: Nelson Akwari (Charleston Battery)
D: Cristian Arrieta (Puerto Rico Islanders)
D: Matt Bobo (Charleston Battery)
D: David Hayes (Portland Timbers)
M: Daniel Paladini (Carolina RailHawks)
M: Ryan Pore (Portland Timbers)
M: Ricardo Sanchez (Minnesota Thunder)
F: Charles Gbeke (Vancouver Whitecaps)
F: Mandjou Keita (Portland Timbers)
F: Johnny Menyongar (Rochester Rhinos)
Last night, I posted a forecast of this first team. I got eight (or maybe 7.5) of 11 correct, including the 4-3-3 formation, but my three misses were all RailHawks-related: Cronin was named, not Caleb Patterson-Sewell; two Charleston Battery defenders were named instead of one-plus-Jeremy Tolleson; and finally, Paladini instead of Gregory Richardson. No complaints on the last one—Richardson put up juicier numbers and would have been a league POY candidate had he been in Cary for a full 30 games, but Paladini was the man in the middle all season long and was voted most valuable RailHawk by his teammates.
After Sunday’s season-ending draw versus Vancouver, I spoke to both honorees about their off-seasons plans. Paladini said he hopes to do some training overseas while Schulte dropped a hint about considering retirement. Congratulations to both, and let’s look forward to having them back in orange next spring.
RailHawks midfielder Joseph Kabwe plays the ball as Ansu Toure defends. (photo by Rich Bostwick)
WAKEMED SOCCER PARK/ CARY—Bummer. It was a lovely evening for soccer, sunny and mild in early fall. Just as it’s a little early for the leaves to change color and drop from the trees, it was a little early for the RailHawks’ remarkable season to end.
But end it did, as an exhausted and increasingly desperate squad failed to put the ball in the net against the seventh-seeded Vancouver Whitecaps, finishing with a nil-nil draw. The RailHawks needed a 1-0 victory just to get to penalty kicks, but the Cary XI closed their season by failing to score in 180 minutes and two home-and-home legs against a bigger and more experienced, playoff-hardened Vancouver side.
By the end, the RailHawks were in a 4-4-2 and throwing everyone forward. “We had chances in the first half and didn’t take them,” coach Martin Rennie said. “It made it a little more difficult. We started to go more direct.
“When you go more direct, you need the ball to bounce your way and it didn’t—which usually isn’t the way we play,” Rennie said. “We’re usually much more thought-through, much more precise. But once we weren’t getting the goal, I think maybe we began to panic a little bit, which made it more difficult to break them down.”
“You’ve got to credit Vancouver,” center back and captain Mark Schulte said. “They knew what they had to do: They had to shut us down—they sat in [on us].”
In truth, the RailHawks showed little of the squad that scored 43 goals in USL-1 league play. They launched 12 shots, but Whitecaps keeper Jay Nolly only needed to make four saves.
It was one save in particular that would prove to put the kibosh on the season. Continue reading »
Matt Watson during practice earlier this season. Watson broke his fibula in the early minutes of last night's game. (Photo by D.L. Anderson)
WAKEMED SOCCER PARK/ CARY—We began the evening with an early dinner at the home of friends in the countryside outside Chapel Hill. We lingered a little long and then arrived at Wake Med just in time to witness the unsettling image of RailHawks midfielder Matt Watson writhing in pain on the visitor sideline, attended by four or five trainers and staff.
Watson looked utterly stricken—he had the collar of his shirt in his teeth—but he may have been reacting also to the dread of a second debilitating injury to his wheels this season. While John Cunliffe took his place in the 17th minute, the stretcher was sent away and Watson went off the field on crutches and, apparently, to an ambulance. Word came later that his fibula was broken and his season, which was also disrupted by a knee injury, is apparently over.
It was an unfortunately sour note to an otherwise workmanlike, convincing 2-0 victory over the Montreal Impact. [Stat box here.] This result, combined with a near-simultaneous draw by the Charleston Battery, means that the RailHawks finish in second place and have the home advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Their first-round opponent will be the Vancouver Whitecaps, and the first of two legs will be played Thursday, Sept. 24 at Swangard Stadium in Vancouver.
Andriy Budnyy started again at striker in Martin Rennie’s 4-5-1 formation, and it was evident that the game plan was to play long balls over the top to him. Delivery after air-mail delivery soared his way. In the 36th, for example, Mark Schulte launched a ball from a position in the back, which Budnyy met with his head at the far post.
That ball went straight to Montreal keeper Matt Jordan, but the crowd was roused—including Cary soccer parents sitting near us who valiantly kept redirecting their kids’ attention to the game for teachable moments. And there were teachable moments: In the 27th, for example, the parent-coaches thrilled to the one-two-one-two combo between Daniel Paladini and Greg Shields down the right flank, although it only resulted in a cross just out of Budnyy’s reach.
On the evidence of the night, the RailHawks are fully in the second stage of their Gregory Richardson tactical evolution. The word is out around the league that the ball should be kept away from the dazzling Guyanese left winger, so we saw the RailHawks effectively exploit the rest of the pitch—especially in the middle where the hard-working Budnyy trolled for a ball he could put in the back of the net. The Ukrainian was caught offside several times, mistimed a few runs and had two goals disallowed. For the game, the RailHawks were caught offsides six times, to none for the Impact.
But it only takes one converted opportunity, and that moment came in the 57th minute when Budnyy took yet another long ball, from John Gilkerson, and was hacked in the area by defender Stefano Pesoli. Up came the red card and off went Pesoli.
After some disagreement between Paladini and Richardson about which up-and-comer would do the honors, Paladini ended up over the spot. Jordan went to his left, Paladini went to his left and the RailHawks had the only goal they needed. 1-0. Continue reading »
Mark Schulte and Sallieu Bundu celebrate earlier this season in a game against the Minnesota Thunder (Photo by Rich Bostwick)
We’re coming to the sad realization that the RailHawks’ regular season is drawing to a close. It’s been a real treat to see such a quality team this year. In reflecting on the season in advance of tonight’s regular season finale against the Montreal Impact, we find ourselves thinking about the issue of year-end league honors.
Team honors, selected by the players, will be announced prior to the playoff game Sept. 27—and you can vote, too, for “fan favorite.”
We’re thinking about the league: The USL will recognize a first and second team all-USL-1 lineup, and there should be citations for best goalkeeper, best defender, and most valuable player. A recent speculative press release from the league office, after reviewing the top performers from other squads, acknowledged the difficulty of recognizing the RailHawks, who are unique in their dependence on a revolving lineup of 20+ quality players, rather than four or five aces.
To take the most obvious example: The league leaders in goals scored (Johnny Menyongar of Rochester, Mandjou Keita of Portland, Charles Gbeke of Vancouver) all have 11 goals. The RailHawks’ leading goal scorers, however, have only six (Gregory Richardson and Sallieu Bundu), yet collectively the team is the second in the league in scoring goals, with 41.
However, if one looks at goals-per-game, one RailHawk in particular becomes one of the league’s best scorers. Richardson’s six goals have come in 11 games, a rate that would put him in first place in the league if it were sustained over the season. (Then there’s Joseph Kabwe and his five goals and four assists in 15 games and 806 minutes; production that’s good enough to place him in the the league’s top 20 in points.)
Richardson is probably the RailHawks’ best candidate among the scorers, with Bundu also a strong second-team possibility, but we’d like to make a case for Daniel Paladini for post-season honors. Continue reading »
USLLIVE.COM—Before a midweek crowd of 11,173 at Montreal’s Saputo Stadium, the Carolina RailHawks conceded an early goal when the Impact’s Leonardo Di Lorenzo, unmarked inside the 18, took a cross from Adam Braz (the same Adam Braz who notched a similar assist against the RailHawks Sunday) and fired a shot past Eric Reed.
The second-half action was quite lively—players dropped left and right, pushing and shoving occasionally supplanted the kicking and running and, most strikingly, the RailHawks’ mild-mannered young coach Martin Rennie was sent off in the 68th minute for a water bottle kick.
The departure of Rennie seemed to energize his team. The final 20 minutes were a succession of furious assaults on the Impact goal—which was well-tended by Matt Jordan, who finished with three saves against eight Carolina shots. In a game that grew more violent as it approached the end, there were eight cautions; after Nevio Pizzolitto was shown a second yellow, the Impact were down to 10 men in injury time. The closest the RailHawks came to an equalizer was a Daniel Paladini rocket from distance that clanged off the right post in stoppage play. Stat box here. Match report here.
After the whistle blew, the scuffling continued as the Montreal-based USLLive.com commentators continued their game-long complaints about RailHawks thuggery and, more plausibly, weak-kneed officiating.
I wrote down some of the comments:
With respect to a non-call in the penalty box for Impact. “There are no courageous officials in this league… they get overwhelmed in the moment… The moon has to get full and then it has to land on the earth before a penalty will get called in this league.”
Edwin Miranda leaves the field under the glare of the Cary law. photo by David Fellerath
WAKEMED SOCCER PARK/ CARY—The 1,597 fans who showed up on the relatively mild evening saw an extraordinary sight: a soccer game with the preposterous score of 9-0.
That’s right. 9-0. The RailHawks’ match against playoff contender Miami FC Blues wasn’t a baseball game, but a soccer game.
But the lopsided result has us reaching for non-soccer comparisons: Perhaps the time the Chicago Bears won the NFL Championship (in pre-Super Bowl days) with a 73-0 win. Or perhaps if one were to go fishing and have fish hit your lure on every single cast.
But if we stick to soccer analogies, the RailHawks’ absolute dominance was reminiscent of some of Barcelona’s games last season, particularly the first half of their return leg against Real Madrid last May. Like Barça, so dominant were the RailHawks that the goal seemed to be a magnetic field for the ball, and on a couple of occasions the RailHawks nearly walked the ball into the back of the net.
Joseph Kabwe led all scorers (there’s a basketball construction) with three goals, while Sallieu Bundu chipped in a late brace. Also scoring: Daniel Paladini, John Cunliffe, Andriy Budnyy and Gregory Richardson. Continue reading »
Gregory Richardson on the move (photo by Rich Bostwick)
Joe Schwartz, the newest staff reporter at the Independent Weekly, attended Saturday night’s game and filed this report:
WAKEMED SOCCER PARK/ CARY-I hate to admit it, but I’m one avid Triangle-based soccer loon who hadn’t made my way out to a Carolina RailHawks game until Saturday night. It seems I’ve spent more time monitoring the comings and goings of the Barclays English Premiership in the offseason than taking in United Soccer League action in my backyard.
So, when a colleague and I set sail for WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, I had a boatload of questions. Key among them was, “What’s the biggest difference between the quality of play at this level compared to the MLS or European football (yes, football)?”
“The finishing,” he responded. For about 80 minutes he couldn’t have been more spot on as the first-place RailHawks (15-3-5) and the last place Cleveland City Stars (2-13-7) created chances but scuffed and flubbed shots wide left and right, and even chipped one ball into the parking lot.
Enter former Chivas USA and Los Angeles Galaxy-man Daniel Paladini in the contest’s 62nd minute and all that changes. Moving the ball with pace and intent not seen until he took the field along with brother-in-law and new father Josh Gardner, Paladini gave life to the match and created the turning point when he was greeted with a strong tackle by midfielder Alioiune Gueye.
“When he hit me, it was just a clip, but I had so much momentum that I made it look bad,” said Paladini, whose theatrics earned Gueye a red card in the 76th minute. “I heard the ref blow the whistle so fast that I knew I made it look worse than it was. But that’s part of the game. You’ve got to do that sometimes.” Continue reading »
It’s Tuesday, and again the white-hot Carolina RailHawks are a little underrepresented on the USL-1 team of the week. This afternoon, word came from league HQ that Joseph Kabwe, who’s seen a resurgence of form after being largely absent from the lineup, would be so honored. The citation is chiefly for his goal against Austin Saturday, but it’s also perhaps a bit of a makeup for leaving him off last week’s team after his two assists in the 4-0 rout of Miami. Announcement here.
Not the weekly honors matter all that much, of course. The team would surely much rather have that Wilmington game back, for the RailHawks in their present form would be making a good show of it in the U.S. Open Cup. Including two friendlies, the RailHawks have won seven of their last eight games (five out of six without the exhibitions), and they’ve played those eight with an aggregate score of 18-4.
Today, the RailHawks released this highlight reel from Saturday’s 3-0 romp over Austin, from the USLLive.com feed. You’ll see (and Kabwe surely doesn’t need to be reminded) that the Zimbabwean midfielder shoulda-coulda had a hat trick, going 1 for 3 on lay-offs from Gregory Richardson.
Wednesday night, the RailHawks visit the Rochester Raging Rhinos at Marina Auto Stadium. The Rhinos have been nipping at the heels of the league’s top four all season and this game will be no picnic. (Well, that’s what I said in advance of the Miami game.) The RailHawks will have midfield mainstays Amir Lowery and Daniel Paladini available again, after the duo served suspensions during the Austin game. Kickoff is 7 p.m. and you can watch on USLLive.com.
Big Honking Image on "Ward leads Hurricanes to fourth in a row against Blackhawks, 4-2": I've noticed a recurring theme with this blog are the _giant_ images in the posts. The image in this post is 1646x1225 but it is forced into a box that is 498x371.
This is bad for four reasons:
1) On slower connections, they take a while to download.
2) It is big waste of server bandwidth, which costs
Ben Wilson on "After a tough 25 minutes, N.C. State goes cold in loss to UNC": LOL, like UNC is ANY different than NC State or any other school for that matter when they are losing at home. Do I have to remind you that NC State fans VASTLY outnumbered UNC fans at Kenan 2 years ago in the 42-10 blowout?
Get off your high horse and REALIZE that UNC is NO
