The story of the first half: Gregory Richardson leaves Christian Arrieta behind. Photo by Jeremy M. Lange
WAKEMED SOCCER PARK—It was the most exciting league game of the year. Fast, furious and creative, the RailHawks brought their A-game against the rugged, battle-hardened and extremely adept Puerto Rico Islanders. It was also a road-weary Islanders lineup that put most of its regulars out on the field despite a looming, critical CONCACAF Champions League match against Mexican powerhouse Cruz Azul. The 2-1 result put the RailHawks back in second place ahead of the Islanders, which they can clinch with a win against Montreal Friday (although Charleston can tie them with two final victories).
The first 12 minutes were enough to win the game, as the RailHawks’ left winger Gregory Richardson waltzed at will past the Islanders’ star right back Christian Arrieta in the first half. In the second minute, Richardson broke into the box and took a ball from Joseph Kabwe, and put it past PR keeper Justin Myers at the far post. It was Richardson’s fifth goal of the season.
It was the fastest goal of the season for the RailHawks—and many fans were still arriving through the main gate. There was plenty of first-rate football left for them, however. In the 11th, Richardson left Arrieta flailing in a spectacular jinking operation, but the Islanders’ Sean Fraser came in to help. The ball came back upfield and Richardson uncorked from distance. It was on-frame, but the ball deflected off Andriy Budnyy on its high-speed way and the Ukrainian got his fourth goal of the season.
In the first half, the RailHawks put on their most fluid, creative and dazzling display of the season—an even more impressive performance than the 9-0 result against the hapless Miami, because Colin Clarke’s Islanders are no Miami. Continue reading »
Gavin Glinton attacks the goal against the Islanders on June 27. (Photo by Rich Bostwick)
Well, two days ago we were pretty pessimistic about the RailHawks’ chances of regaining second place after losing to Puerto Rico 2-0 on Tuesday. We noted that in order for the RailHawks to grab that spot back from the Islanders, they would have to beat Puerto Rico this Saturday, Sept. 12, AND some help would be required from either of Puerto Rico’s two remaining, nonplayoff-bound opponents.
What’s curious about a closer inspection of Puerto Rico coach Colin Clarke’s lineup is that he chose to rest his key players. Left off the starting lineup were such mainstays as forwards Nicholas Addlery and Kendall Jagdeosingh, midfielder Jonathan Steele, goalkeeper Bill Gaudette and defender Christian Arrieta. The latter two, both frontrunners for All-USL-1 honors, were left off the lineup entirely. (Among the squaddies who got a chance to start last night: ex-RailHawks phenom Martin Nuñez, now seeing limited minutes under his full name of Pablo Martin Nuñez.)
So, call Clarke crazy, but he seems to have calculated that it was best to keep his best players in reserve for Saturday night’s matchup against the RailHawks.
The stakes are very high for this game. If Puerto Rico wins, they clinch second place. If the RailHawks win, they move into second and can secure it with a win next Friday against Montreal.
And why all the fuss over second place, anyway? It means not facing the powerful Portland Timbers until the final round of the playoffs, of course.
Game on at 7 p.m. tomorrow. And no, you can’t go see N.C. State play Murray State instead—unless you’re Triangle Offense’s Joe Schwartz and Rob Rowe. Visit here for RailHawks ticket info. Also, tomorrow’s game is the occasion for a fundraiser to benefit The Magnificent Mile and the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation. The press release contains details after the jump. Continue reading »
It wasn’t going to be easy to fly down to Puerto Rico and extract a point, and it didn’t happen.
We followed this one on Twitter (while we watched Zidane with a bunch of Dukies) and caught the highlights on USLLive.com: After 74 scoreless minutes, the Islanders’ Christian Arrieta converted a PK after a foul by RailHawks keeper Caleb Patterson-Sewell. (Arrieta’s goal was his 10th of the season, one off the league lead. He’s also second in the league with 24 points. Pretty phenomenal considering that he’s a right back.) A few minutes later, ex-RailHawk Jonathan Steele sent a corner kick to the forehead of defender John Krause for the clincher. The game saw 12 shots, five for the RailHawks.
It brings the RailHawks’ losing streak to two, only the second time this season they’ve lost two league games in a row. (In a sign of what a bummer week it’s been, no RailHawk made the team of the week.)
The likely result of the failure to get a point in Puerto Rico is a second-place finish for the Islanders and a third-place finish for the RailHawks. The Islanders have 50 points with three games to play; the RailHawks have 49 with two left.
Here’s how the standings shake out, as of this afternoon.
Points
Games
Portland
55
27
Puerto Rico
50
27
Carolina
49
28
Charleston
46
27
Rochester
41
28
Montreal
39
27
Vancouver
36
27
For the RailHawks to regain second place, they’ll probably have to take six points from their two remaining games—both at home, one against Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, the Islanders will not only have to lose the final RailHawks fixture, they’ll have to fail to beat either Minnesota or Miami. (Of course, Puerto Rico could simply lose or draw all three of their remaining games—which are all on the road—but that’s unlikely to occur. Portland could lose its last three games and finish in a tie with Carolina, too.)
Second place isn’t impossible, but third is the more likely outcome—unless Charleston collects nine points from its final three games (against Miami, Rochester and Minnesota). In this case, the RailHawks could finish in a tie for third with the Battery, and presumably be seeded fourth on the basis of their performance this season against Charleston.
Two big games are coming up. Clear your schedule for Saturday, Sept. 12 and Friday, Sept. 18. The RailHawks need the 12th man in a big way as first the Islanders, then the Montreal Impact come to town.
His movie plays tonight while the RailHawks play Puerto Rico.
It’s been nearly a week since the RailHawks’ unbeaten streak came to an end in Montreal and things have been fairly quiet. No more.
The RailHawks kick off at 8 p.m. at Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium, where the Islanders have lost only once this season and where the have outscored their opposition 27-11.
Carolina will be playing with history against them: Never have the ’Hawks defeated Puerto Rico, at home or abroad. The RailHawks will be playing without coach Martin Rennie on the sideline, due to the red card he received in the Montreal loss.
And if that weren’t enough, the RailHawks are clinging to second place by their fingernails talons. They’re two points ahead of the third-place Islanders, who have a game in hand. A point is surely a must if they want to hang on to the top seed for the first round of the playoffs.
Given the way the odds are stacked tonight, we’re betting on a defensive mindset. It’s unlikely that Rennie would actually acknowledge playing for a draw, so maybe we can tweak the semantics and say “play cautiously for a win without losing.” We’ve been wrong before, but we’re still betting on seeing two defensive midfielders—Brad Rusin and Amir Lowery—in the lineup tonight.
Or the RailHawks could win 4-0 with an attacking lineup. We’ll see. Tune into usllive.com at 8 p.m. We’ll be catching it later, though, because we’re watching ZIDANE: A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT at Duke tonight.
In a USL-related news tidbit, the talk of the Montreal Impact getting the 19th franchise in the MLS took a new twist. The New York Times’ Jack Bell confides that an unnamed source claims David Beckham is interested in partnering with Montreal owner Joey Saputo. Like a lot of Bell’s reporting, it’s a little credulous, but here it is.
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]
The Islanders, of course, are the pride of the USL-1, having marched to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League—where they are presently ahead of Cruz Azul 2:0 after the first leg. Colin Clarke’s side is also home to ex-RailHawks Jonathan Steele (who was last year’s league MVP with the Islanders) and Martin Nuñez (who was a finalist for league rookie of the year with the RailHawks).
However, don’t expect to see too many minutes from McClellan: The Islanders have one of the better keepers in North America and the Caribbean in Bill Gaudette, who was last year’s USL-1 goalie of the year.
Obviously, RailHawks fans and observers can’t and won’t spend all of the 2009 season pining for the quicksilver winger Martin Nuñez, but we can’t help but note the following: In a preseason exhibition on Thursday, Feb. 12, Nuñez’s new squad, the Puerto Rico Islanders, defeated last season’s MLS champs, the Columbus Crew, 2-0.
You know where this is heading: The game’s first, and winning, goal was scored by Nuñez.
Within the first minute of the game, former Carolina Railhawks‘ Martin Nuñez (from Uruguay) found a loose ball in front of theCrew’s goal and scored the first goal of the preseason for the Islanders.
Just for old times’ sake, we’re re-posting Nunez’s last goal as a RailHawk. (Thanks to Jarrett and Veoh.com for the video. For context, see our post here.) Online Videos by Veoh.com Video courtesy of Jarrett at trisoccerfan.com and Veoh.com.
Kyle on "UNC holds off pesky NCCU with big second half, awaits selection committee": Mike Potter does Triangle sports fans a wonderful service by providing a unique perspective of events that may not otherwise receive media coverage. Thanks Mike for all you have done and continue to do in your outstanding career as a journalist and an ambassador for the Triangle.
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.
