USLLIVE.com-After an anemic 0-0 draw before a crowd of 7,758 in Rochester’s Marina Auto Stadium, the RailHawks are now six points behind Portland, with six games to play for each team.
The ‘Hawks aren’t going to catch the Timbers: Four of Portland’s last five games are at home, and four of Portland’s last five games are against Cleveland and Austin, the twin doormats of the USL-1. The RailHawks have already earned 16 of the 18 possible points from the City Stars and the Aztex; Portland’s pace at the top of the table is all the more remarkable given that they’ve held these four fixtures in hand all season.
Meanwhile, the RailHawks’ last six games will be a grueling stretch against three different playoff contenders, including three against the Montreal Impact—two of which will be on the road.
Last night in Rochester, Martin Rennie showed a lineup that was unusual in two respects: Continue reading »
John Cunliffe, skimming on the Whitecaps (photo by Rich Bostwick)
The RailHawks and the Vancouver Whitecaps traveled an aggregate total of 10,000 miles in four days to emerge with two points apiece. Following Saturday’s 0-0 stalemate in Vancouver’s Swangard Stadium, the two squads battled fatigue and humidity Tuesday night in Cary for a 1-1 draw. After falling behind on a 66th-minute Vancouver goal, late sub Andriy Budnyy settled a ball from John Cunliffe and scored to salvage the draw in the 87th minute.
The thing of it is, it was a decent result for both sides. Vancouver got two points from a tough opponent to keep them in the playoff hunt. And, despite the results, the RailHawks are still in a strong second-place position—which some might consider a better prize than first place, with the first-round playoff bye that comes with it.
Right now, Portland is in the driver’s seat for regular season title, with 48 points to Carolina’s 44, with both teams having seven games to play. Here’s how the playoff contenders stack up, ranked by points-per-game. The top seven make the playoffs.
Luke Kreamalmeyer (in orange) battles Portland's David Hayes on June 11 at WakeMed. (photo by Rich Bostwick)
The USL-1 Carolina RailHawks are flying high on a league run of six victories in their last seven outings. The news only gets better as we see signs that midfielder Matt Watson—who hasn’t really gotten uncorked this season—may be ready to return to the field.
They have a tough eight-day stretch ahead, with a Tuesday home game against Vancouver sandwiched between away matches in Vancouver tonight and Rochester next weekend. Still, they’re keeping up with the blistering pace at the top of the table, matching Portland victory for victory.
(In a subject for another day, it’s worth noting that the bottom of the table is a dungeon of futility. Austin and Cleveland are out of contention for the playoffs with 14 and 13 points, respectively, while Minnesota just picked up three points with just their fourth victory of the season, to bring them to 18 points, seven behind Miami. Compare this ineptitude to the points totals for the bottom four of last year’s table: 37; 34; 34; 31. Carolina had 37 and missed the playoffs. Three guesses who had 31. Give up? Portland.)
Things are different in Portland this year, though. The first-place Timbers have only lost once at home in PGE Park, where attendance regularly approaches 10,000. Their opponent then was the MLS Seattle Sounders, in a US Open Cup third round game. Continue reading »
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.
Gavin Glinton, in one of several opportunities inside the 18 against the Islanders. He finished with two shots in 74 minutes. (Photo by Rich Bostwick)
WAKEMED SOCCER PARK/ CARY—When the final whistle blew after five minutes of stoppage time, and the RailHawks were once again without a victory, losing 2-1 to the Puerto Rico Islanders, the normally unflappable Martin Rennie gave vent—ever so briefly—to his feelings. A water bottle on the grass felt the brunt of Rennie’s one-time professional kick, before the young coach composed himself and shook hands with Puerto Rico’s formidable coach, Colin Clarke.
June has been brutal for the RailHawks: With only one game remaining this month—a friendly against Panama on Tuesday (a substitute for what woulda/coulda/shoulda been a 3rd round US Open Cup match against the Chicago Fire—the record for the month is this: 0-2-2 in league play and 1-3-2 overall. The only victory came in the month’s first game against the USL-2 Richmond Kickers in the opening round of Open Cup play.
What’s more, the team that entered June having reeled off four consecutive victories, with an aggregate score of 7-0, and had conceded only five goals all season, gave up nine goals in all competitions in June (four were conceded to USL-2 opposition).
The RailHawks are still in third place, four points behind the Islanders, who took the league lead with the victory. However, the RailHawks have played two fewer games than Puerto Rico, one fewer than second-place Charleston and two more than fourth-place Portland. In terms of points-per-game, the top of the table looks like this:
Portland: 1.91 2.0 [updated to reflect Sunday night results, which also dropped RailHawks to fourth in the points standings]
Lots of upbeat odds and ends here as the RailHawks, after a brief respite, resume training in advance of a tough 11-day stretch that will see either four or five games.
For the second week in a row, Daniel Paladini and Kupono Low were named to the USL-1 Team of the Week. Paladini, of course, kicked another late game-winner as he establishes himself as a crucial midfield playmaker. However, for longtime RailHawks watchers, it’s especially gratifying to see the fine season Low is having. He, along with Caleb Norkus, is the team’s longest-serving player, and he carries the distinction of scoring the first goal in team history. The massive roster turnover occasioned by the ascendant Martin Rennie era seems to be paying dividends, but Low’s continued stellar work on the squad provides a vital link to the past.
I neglected to mention, in my account of Friday’s last-gasp victory over Cleveland, that the team has now recorded four shutouts in a row and have not conceded a goal in 396 minutes. Plenty of players can be credited for that achievement, not least Low for his airtight work at left back.
On the all-important table front: The RailHawks, the Charleston Battery and the Portland Timbers are the class of the league right now. The ’Hawks are three points clear of the Battery, who have a game in hand, and seven points clear of the Timbers, who have two in hand. As it happens, these two squads are the only two that have beaten the RailHawks so far this season. Portland comes to town next Thursday.
RailHawks blogger Tim Candon tells us that the main field is being re-sodded. I’m not sure I understand why it’s being done mid-season, but I hope to find out. Anyone out there have a clue? What this means is the next couple of home games will be played on Field 2. There will be seating for about 700 on that side, so you might want to bring a picnic blanket for some old school football-watching.
Finally, to keep us busy while we wait out the 11-day break between games, the RailHawks staff are encouraging fans to do a little crowing—or cawing, or whatever sound railhawks make—by voting for their favorite of the 12 Carolina goals scored thus far this season. I haven’t voted but I say Mark Schulte’s. Click here.
USL LIVE/ WEB—This weekend, reality set in for the Carolina RailHawks. No one expected the team—which won its first three games—to continue its perfect form, but after two games this weekend in Portland in which they went 180 minutes without scoring, the difficulty of building and maintaining a first-place team is now evident.
To be sure, after last night’s 2-0 loss to the Timbers, the RailHawks are still in first with 10 points, but lurking below in third is Puerto Rico, which has seven points and two games in hand. Rochester also has seven points, with one game in hand.
Perhaps in an effort to bring water to the goal-scoring drought, coach Martin Rennie showed a radically different lineup last night. Up top, Sallieu Bundu returned after sitting out Thursday’s game, but instead of the ever-present Josh Gardner and Luke Kreamalmayer on the flanks, Rennie started Andriy Budnyy and John Cunliffe. In the midfield, Matt Watson saw his first start alongside Kupono Low and Amir Lowery. The previously stable back four of John Gilkerson, Mark Schulte, Jack Stewart and Caleb Norkus/ Devon McKenney became Schulte, McKenney, Brad Rusin and Jeremy Tolleson. Eric Reed took his turn in goal.
Unfortunately, if predictably, the initial result of the roster remix was a lack of cohesion that yielded a quick fifth-minute goal for Portland. The ’Hawks regrouped thereafter, and proceeded to out-shoot the Timbers 8-3 for the half, 14-8 for the game. But the equalizer would not materialize, despite episodes of heavy Carolina pressure in the box. Timbers keeper Chris Seitz turned away a couple of dangerous shots en route to a nine-save performance.
(Seitz is nominally employed by Real Salt Lake. He’s an up-and-comer, though, and his MLS minders seem to be training him this season with a series of short-term USL loans. He’s also played a game on loan for the so-far woeful Cleveland City Stars, giving up a goal to Miami FC. One wonders if the RailHawks had a chance to check his plane ticket to make sure he’s not heading to Cary next weekend to stand guard for the Charleston Battery. But Seitz can’t be an excuse for the disappointing Portland trip; if the RailHawks could score against keepers for the New England Revolution and CD Olimpia, they can score against Real Salt Lake’s third-stringer.)
The best news out of the weekend is the evidence that Rennie has drafted a broadly talented roster, and he’s not afraid to experiment with lineups. He’s providing his players ample opportunity to shine within a squad that has demonstrated a tough defensive alignment and good possession instincts. It’s a team with a solid foundation and a nice new floor; however, that flooring awaits its finishers.
Amir Lowery in the thick of green things in Portland (photo by Craig Mitchelldyer)
USLLIVE/ WEB—Although the RailHawks are now in command of the league table with 10 points in four outings, it’s a bit worrisome that they’ve scored only four goals in four games. Fortunately, an airtight defense, led by the central trio of Mark Schulte, Jack Stewart and Amir Lowery, hasn’t given up a goal since the season opener against Minnesota. Schulte and Lowery, furthermore, have played every minute of the season, with Stewart just a half-hour behind.
Last night, with a perfect nine points in three games, the RailHawks went to Portland for the first of two fixtures against the Portland Timbers. In a hard-fought, foul-heavy contest, the apparently tiring ’Hawks held off their hosts in the second half to escape with a point for the 0-0 draw.
It was a tough year for the Carolina RailHawks, but they still went into Saturday night’s matchup against the Portland Timbers with a slim hope of making the playoffs. Although the ’Hawks prevailed, 1-0, on a heart-stopping finish, the result from the near-simultaneous Montreal-Minnesota match ended their season.
Still, fans and players go to their winter’s rest with the memory of a thrilling finale to the season’s final game, in which Martin Nuñez–named before the game as the team’s co-offensive player of the year–came up big in the last, desperate minute of stoppage time.
A crucial uncredited assist was provided by Mauricio Segovia, who battled the goalkeeper for the ball on the decisive play. Segovia, a huge defender, had been inserted only moments before as a sort of “Hail Mary substitution” to use his size against the Portland keeper. It worked.
UPDATE on Sept. 22: Upon repeated careful viewings of this video, it appears that it is remotely possible that PERHAPS one, two or possibly three ’Hawks may have been offside. If you disagree, please explain in the comments.
A light but compact crowd gathered at Bull McCabe’s in Durham on Friday night to watch the USL-1 Carolina RailHawks take on the Charleston Battery. It came as a surprise to some at the bar that such significant emotion could be generated for somthing that they did not heretofore know existed.
Yet, there it was, a handful of grown men screaming with arms raised when Matt Watson pulled the midfield lever that sent Hamed Diallo racing through to goal in the 8th minute. Continue reading »
caniacgirl on "Peters and pipes pickpocket a peck of prickly Penguins": I absolutely love the headline! Games like this one definitely reignite the little bit of playoff hope I have left in me. It should be an interesting few weeks that's for sure.
Greg Nccu Student on "Miller leads NCCU to 11th victory": There are a lot of Rumors on Campus about Joanna Miller leaving NCCU next year. Please Coach Robinson, We need to keep this player from gong to another College.
USLLIVE.com-After an anemic 0-0 draw before a crowd of 7,758 in Rochester’s Marina Auto Stadium, the RailHawks are now six points behind Portland, with six games to play for each team.
