Showing posts tagged “Miami FC”
Joe Schwartz ·
24 Nov 2009, 11:12 AM ·
1 Comment
Pelé, seen in the film Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (Miramax Films)
Carolina RailHawks majority owner Selby Wellman expects at least 10 teams to be in the newly named North American Soccer League, though he declined to name the possible additions to the nine confirmed ownership groups.
Wellman and fellow owners announced Monday that they will bring back the NASL name, conjuring up memories of the first American professional soccer league, which included the likes of Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff before it folded in 1984.
“We talked about it a long time. There’s pros and cons because the league didn’t make it, that would be the con. The pro is it really did launch professional soccer in
America and had a good brand,” he said. “There’s a lot of us around here with some gray hair that’ll say, ‘I remember that brand.’”
The league now has a name, but the owners have a lot of questions to answer before the first ball is kicked in April. Along with the RailHawks, former USL teams Atlanta Silverbacks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps FC are part of NASL. St. Louis Soccer United, Tampa Bay Rowdies and Crystal Palace Baltimore also are slated for inclusion in the breakaway league.
Others have speculated that Rochester Rhinos may be included, but Wellman, also the spokesman for the new league, isn’t saying as of yet.
“I can’t name them,” he said. “We already have plans underway, and we’re getting all kinds of requests coming in from different groups.” Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina RailHawks, Crystal Palace Baltimore, Don Garber, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, MLS, Montreal Impact, NASL, Pele, Rochester Rhinos, Selby Wellman, St. Louis Soccer United, Tampa Bay Rowdies, TOA, USL, Vancouver Whitecaps FC
David Fellerath ·
29 Oct 2009, 7:22 PM ·
4 Comments
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 »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Alec Papadakis, Atlanta, Christian Arrieta, CONCACAF, Daniel Paladini, EPL, FIFA, Gregory Richardson, Mexican first division, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, New England Revolution, NuRock, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, TOA, USL, USSF, Vancouver Whitecaps, Wilmington Hammerheads, Winter schedule
David Fellerath ·
5 Oct 2009, 7:15 AM ·
15 Comments
Fans from the 204 Depot after the RailHawks' 2-1 victory over Puerto Rico on Sept. 12. (Photo by Jeremy M. Lange)
Last night the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact advanced to the USL-1 finals with victories in the two-leg semifinal round. Not only will there be an all-Canadian final, but this represents the victory of the No. 5 and No. 7 seeds over the league’s “big four” of Portland, Carolina, Puerto Rico and Charleston that had dominated regular season play.
And there’s an irony at work, too, for the two remaining teams are also members of the dissident USL-1 owners’ group known as the Team Owners Association. Last week, the USL took steps to sever ties with Carolina, Miami FC and Minnesota, by sending emails purporting to release those teams’ players from their contracts, and by removing links to those clubs on the USL Web site.
We spoke with RailHawks president Brian Wellman over the weekend and he clarified a number of issues, including the fact that Vancouver and Montreal have not renewed their franchise agreements with the USL, but were not included in the league’s actions last week simply because they are still playing.
“The day [Montreal and Vancouver] stop playing,” Wellman said, “they’re going to receive everything we received because they’ve not renewed.” That day will be Oct. 18, the day after the second leg of the USL finals.
Wellman also said that the Carolina players are under contract to the RailHawks, rejecting the USL’s position that the players are now free agents. He noted that the players have not been released by the United States Soccer Federation, the sanctioning body for American soccer.
We also discussed the options facing the TOA—including possibly partnering with the MLS—along with the status of the RailHawks player contracts and the surprising fact that, despite the decline in reported attendance, the RailHawks actually experienced a rise in paid attendance this year.
TRIANGLE OFFENSE: It sounds like the USL sent out a note to the three teams (Carolina, Miami, Minnesota) that the players are not under contract anymore. Is that right?
BRIAN WELLMAN: Contractually speaking, while it is true the RailHawks have not renewed their franchise agreement with the USL-1 for the 2010 season, there’s still a chance that could happen-and several other teams haven’t either. There was a specific date when the franchise agreement ran out which meant our contract expired with the USL, but our players are under contract with the RailHawks and they’re still under registration with the federation—the USSF [United States Soccer Federation]. It’s a little misleading because under normal circumstances when you let a player go out of contract he goes onto the list and anyone can talk to him. Under this situation its very unusual that all the TOA teams are getting the same information but at the same time the federation is not releasing any of our players from their registration with our club. It’s a little unfortunate, it may have been a bit of a posturing, scare tactic technique on the part of the league due to the nature of the negotiation. It was unnecessary and unfortunate. We met with our players today [Saturday, Oct. 3] for about an hour and a half to explain the entire situation. Our players are under contract with us, and they’re under registration to the federation whether we play in the USL, in a new league or partnering with the MLS, wherever we play next year, our players are under contract with us. That’s the bottom line. Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Alec Papadakis, Brian Wellman, Chris Economides, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, NuRock Soccer Holdings, Team Owners Association, TOA, USL-1, Vancouver Whitecaps
David Fellerath ·
3 Oct 2009, 12:57 PM ·
5 Comments
The confrontation between the new ownership of the United Soccer Leagues and a dissident group of first division owners led by the Carolina RailHawks has escalated a notch.
Three dissident clubs, including the RailHawks, haven’t paid their fees to participate next season. On the USL’s Web site, work has begun to remove links to the RailHawks, as well as to the Miami FC and Minnesota Thunder clubs. On one page, the soccer-ball icons for those three cities has been removed. On others, the club crest and mascot names have been removed.
In a just-published post on Inside Minnesota Soccer, blogger Brian Quarstad writes that Minnesota Thunder management confirmed that USL President Tim Holt has sent out an email informing players for Carolina, Miami and MInnesota that they are released from their contracts.
However, it’s not clear that the USL has the authority to do so (unlike the MLS, which owns all player contracts under its single-entity structure). According to Quarstad, Minnesota is taking the position that the league does not have that authority. Quarstad promises to post a copy of Holt’s email later today.
We haven’t been able to get a comment from RailHawks management yet. We’ll keep working on it.
The other bit of news—which Quarstad doesn’t support with a source—is that the other two main dissident owners groups in the Team Owners Association (TOA)—Montreal and Vancouver—have both signed on with the USL-1 for the 2010 season. Vancouver, of course, is headed to the MLS in 2011.
The TOA consists of Carolina, Minnesota, Miami, Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact, the 2010 expansion club Tampa Bay Rowdies and ownership groups without active teams in Atlanta and St. Louis.
There are now eight current USL-1 clubs that have active links on the USL site. The two expansion clubs, the Tampa Bay Rowdies and FC New York (which is not a TOA member), also have active links.
One club, the Cleveland City Stars, is for sale—sketchy Internet reports of a buyer that will keep them in Cleveland have not been confirmed—but appears to be a USL-1 member in good standing.
The current brinksmanship was not unexpected: After the late August sale of the league to NuRock Soccer Holdings, the TOA, which had seen nearly two years of negotiations to buy the league themselves come to naught, announced a “chill” in relations with the league. In a subsequent interview with Triangle Offense, RailHawks majority owner Selby Wellman laid out the likely scenario in the near future.
But I would expect somewhere in the next 30 days or so they’ll start coming out to us, wanting us to recommit to play in 2010 in USL. If they don’t come to the table with us having the ability to control our league, we won’t play with them.
Finally, Miami-based blogger Kartik Krishnaiyer adds this intriguing tidbit of analysis to the Quarstad post:
The breakaway league that now is likely to be pursued by Minnesota, Miami and Carolina would need to be approved by the USSF and FIFA. These approval processes could take anywhere from a month to several months, leaving the three clubs affected and its potential allies in other markets in the limbo for the start of the 2010 American calender season.
However, if the new league seeks to adhere to the international calender, and begin play after the 2010 World Cup, the three affected clubs, in fact have plenty of time to try and put this new organization together and receive the requisite approvals.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer FC New York, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, Tampa Bay Rowdies, TOA, USL, Vancouver Whitecaps
David Fellerath ·
2 Sep 2009, 9:56 AM ·
7 Comments
Carolina RailHawks majority owner Selby Wellman (Photo courtesy of RailHawks)
On Monday, we spoke with Selby Wellman, majority owner of the Carolina RailHawks. Wellman is also the spokesman for the Team Owners Association, which has announced a “chill” in its relations with the USL and declared that it will pursue aggressively all options—including the formation of a new league—as a solution to establishing the owner-controlled league it says is vital to the success of their clubs.
Wellman gave us more details about the buildup to the sale of the league to NuRock Soccer Holdings (a group unknown to him and his fellow owners), and about why he and his fellow club owners think an owner-controlled league is vital. He suggested that the declining attendance experienced by the RailHawks and other clubs is an issue of poor-to-nonexistent league marketing and reiterated that the owners have decided it’s time to “take control of our own destiny.”
He noted that the USL-1 clubs make single-year commitments to participate in the league, and that in a month or so, the league will approach the owners about committing for next season. But, “If they don’t come to the table with us having the ability to control our league, we won’t play with them,” Wellman says.
For background on the sale, see posts here and here. Also, Kartik Krishnaiyer of majorleaguesoccertalk.com and others are working on a multipart, in-depth series on the USL sale. Here’s today’s Part III.
Triangle Offense: Last Wednesday, after the Miami game, I spoke with Brian [Wellman, the team president] and he said there was nothing but silence coming from the USL about where they were on the sale. Did it all come down Thursday? Did it catch everybody by surprise?
Selby Wellman: Nike called the group in St. Louis that we were teamed up with to buy the league and told them that ‘we had changed our mind and we were selling it to another group’ after a month of negotiations. And the issue is they sold it to a group, basically it’s a non-team, non-USL-1 team entity, it’s a large real estate developer in Atlanta along with his partner who owns a PDL team. So we were upset with that, and we didn’t think it was right, because we’ve been working for almost two years [inaudible] and Nike to restructure this league to where it would have the ownership control like all other sports leagues around the world. The USL did not promote itself, did not do anything at all that a league should do. So we wanted to buy it and take it over. Continue reading »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Brian Wellman, Don Garber, Mark Abbott, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, NuRock Soccer Holdings, Selby Wellman, USL, Vancouver Whitecaps
David Fellerath ·
27 Aug 2009, 9:01 AM ·
Comment
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 »
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Andriy Budnyy, Daniel Paladini, Edgar Miranda, Eric Reed, Gregory Richardson, Jack Stewart, John Cunliffe, Joseph Kabwe, Martin Rennie, Miami FC, Sallieu Bundu
Chris Gaffney ·
26 Jul 2009, 9:26 PM ·
1 Comment
One, two, three for Gregory Richardson, the hottest thing happening on a scorching afternoon. (Photo by Rich Bostwick)
WAKEMED SOCCER PARK—It was bloody hot, 2 p.m. on a Sunday. It took effort to get to the stadium. Surely, there were cooler things to do. When I sat, the backs of my legs burned until they absorbed the heat of the plastic. It hurt but I consoled myself with the realization that I was watching, not playing. Expectations were low. Miami FC and the RailHawks had both played on Friday night. It was hot. Hot like Mexico 1986, like USA 1994. Who chose this time of day in this month in the dang South? The game would be slow. I hoped the sweat running down my back would make it into the seat so I could sit in a puddle. Tweet!
Ten minutes of running industry produced a few good chances for the RailHawks before physiology trumped psychology. Everyone squinted at the emerald field for the next half an hour, wondering how much one would have to earn to run around a stadium wearing an oversized bird head. Swoops is probably receiving an intravenous drip in his cage. In the 39th minute, just as I felt the sweat reach my buttocks, Joseph Kabwe sliced through midfield, laid off to Gregory Richardson charging into the box on his left and the lad from Guyana slotted home from 12 yards. Luke Kreamalmeyer turned good fortune into a great goal with a sweet left-footed, lobbed volley four minutes later. The referee mercifully did not add any time. Tweet! We ran for the shade, 2-0 to the good.
In football, as in NASCAR, there is no substitute for skill and pace. Richardson has bags of both and he’s brought them with him to Cary. Twenty minutes into the second half, as the back of my neck changed hue, Daniel Paladini orchestrated Richardson’s second. His 30-yard run finished with a crashing left-footed drive that left the ‘keeper swatting at flies. Four minutes later, coach Martin Rennie gave Richardson the ball for a penalty (taking it from a clearly miffed Paladini), and Richardson notched his first hat trick in a RailHawks kit. 4-0. Tweet! The kid is hot.
Carolina had a shocking outing in Charleston on Friday night and missed a great chance to pick up some valuable points on the three points leaders. With this victory, however, they become the first team in USL-1 to reach 10 victories this season and have surpassed their victory total from last year. When the Austin Aztex come to visit next weekend, the Hawks will be without Amir Lowery and Paladini, but have the depth on the bench to cover for them. Richardson is the real deal and is supported by a solid defense and creative midfielders who can get him the ball in dangerous positions. 4-0 was a fair score today. Rennie’s side look deep, strong and organized. Kudos for a blistering show on a scorching day.
Stat box here.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer, Uncategorized Daniel Paladini, Gregory Richardson, Joseph Kabwe, Luke Kreamalmeyer, Martin Rennie, Miami FC
David Fellerath ·
26 Jul 2009, 7:47 AM ·
1 Comment
Miami FC visits WakeMed Soccer Park this afternoon at 2 p.m. The temperature is forecast to be 91 degrees at kickoff, and Miami will be no pushover. This month, they’ve begun a march out of the bottom of the table: They’ve won two games, drawn two and lost just once. One of their draws was against the undefeated Portland Timbers (although the Timbers returned two days later to hammer the Blues 3-0).
The RailHawks need to win today to salvage the weekend and stay near the top of the table. If they lose, they will be five points off the pace set by Portland, with each having played 18 games. Puerto Rico and Charleston are tied with Portland with 35 points apiece, but they’ve played 22 and 20 games, respectively.
Friday night was not so hot for the ’Hawks as the Charleston Battery fired two artillery shots past Eric Reed in the first half, and held on for a 2-1 victory. Luke Kreamalmeyer scored in the 87th off a long free kick from Kupono Low Daniel Paladini. *
Particularly worrisome was an apparent reversion to the defensive form of June: Both Battery goals originated as corner kicks.
Aside from failing to pick up any points (and handing three more to a injury- and suspension-plagued, but first-place Charleston side), the RailHawks saw midfield stalwarts Amir Lowery and Daniel Paladini each pick up their fifth yellow cards of the season, meaning that they will have to serve a one-game suspension. According to Tim Candon, the suspension will likely be served next Saturday, a home game against cellar-dwelling Austin.
In other USL news this weekend:
- USL-2 Wilmington clinched a playoff berth with a 2-1 victory over the Harrisburg City Islanders, thanks to the help of goalkeeper and former RailHawk Chris McClellan, who had six saves.
- How good are the Portland Timbers? Yesterday they played Burnley FC, newly promoted to the English Premier League, to a 2-2 draw. Burnley visited WakeMed Soccer Park a year ago and lost 2-1 to the RailHawks’ U-23 PDL team (which they don’t maintain anymore). Here’s a recent Times story (h/t Tim Candon) on the vastly different West Coast preseason tours being undertaken by Burnley and Chelsea.
*Corrected July 27
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Amir Lowery, Burnley FC, Charleston Battery, Chris McClellan, Daniel Paladini, Kupono Low, Luke Kreamalmeyer, Miami FC, Portland Timbers
David Fellerath ·
24 Apr 2009, 10:18 PM ·
Comment
Just watched the Friday night USL-1 game on Fox Soccer Channel, in which the Miami Blues knocked off league power Montreal, 2-1.
It was a sloppy, choppy game that was notable for the extraordinary diving and time-wasting undertaken by the Blues, a team with a fair share of wily South American veterans—notably Diego Serna, the 35-year-old Colombian striker. Serna scored the first goal early in the second half on a PK, and then proceeded to burn approximately 10 minutes with various histrionics. He finally earned his red card after repeatedly approaching the ball to tamp down turf on a free kick in stoppage time.
On the other hand, the stalling tactics may have saved the win: Montreal was finally coming out of its coma midway through the half, and Eduardo Sebrango headed in a lovely cross to bring the game to 2-1.
With this victory, the Blues—who only a couple of months ago were in danger of folding—join the RailHawks at the top of the USL table with six points.
Connally Edozien, the popular former RailHawk, was a late sub for the Blues but only saw a couple of touches.
Carolina RailHawks, Soccer Connally Edozien, Diego Serna, Miami FC, Montreal Impact
