LAST SEASON:
Regular season record: 5-6-17, 9th place in Eastern Conference and out of playoff contention
Record against active USL-1 teams: 5-5-15 (explanation)
RD's 2004 prediction: n/a
Puerto Rico’s debut in the A-League was neither impressive nor surprising.  The Islanders began the season with a 0-3-6 record before hiring Hugo Maradona and elevating play enough to achieve a 5-3-11 mark under his tutelage (including a 5-3-3 streak before crapping out with four straight losses to end the season).  Puerto Rico amassed an astonishing nine red cards in 2004 – three of which came from Javier Novarini…in just seven matches.  Needless to say, he won’t be coming back this year.

 

SEACREST, OUT:
F Raul Diaz Arce (7+1=15)
F Martín Zapata Cry-baby of the Year
Diaz Arce

 

BACK IN BLACK:
D Alexis Rivera-Curet 27 starts
D Christopher Gores 27 starts
D Raphael Ortiz-Huertas 26 starts
F Mauricio Salles-De Alencar (11+2=24)
Gores

 

FRESH MEAT:
M Marco Velez (2+0=4) from Seattle
M Isaias Bardales, Jr. from Syracuse
M Noah Delgado from Rochester
F Corey Woolfolk (9+1=19) from Rochester
F Drew McAthy from Cape Cod
GK Dan Kennedy from the MetroStars
Woolfolk

 

LOCAL HISTORY:
- Puerto Rico is 0-0-3 against Rochester
- In 2004, Corey Woolfolk scored two goals against Puerto Rico
- In 2004, Shaun Tsakiris has two yellow cards against Puerto Rico
- In 2004, Puerto Rico had three red cards against Rochester

 

THE LOWDOWN:
Trying to track the progress of Puerto Rico is a nightmare because their official web site isn’t in English, and the USL lists all of their players with hyphenated names (sometimes even double-hyphenates) which sometimes aren’t used at all in day-to-day conversation about the team.  Edivaldo da Silva-Sarafim, Jr. is really Juninho?  Okay, so who’s Memi?  And when it says “Rivera” on the lineup sheet, are we talking about Alexis Rivera-Curet or Héctor Rivera-DeJesus?  All RD knows is that we hate Zapata, and he’s not supposed to be back in ’05.  ¡Viva no Zapata!   The Islanders 2005 roster might feature names that sound more familiar to USL-1 fans, but that won't necessarily translate into a drastically better record.

 

RD's 2005 prediction: 5-5-18, 12th place and out of playoff contention

Back to the 2005 preview