RHINO DROPPINGS

June 2, 2004

Last time out: Everyone knew, deep down in their insipid little hearts, that the Rhinos' trip to Puerto Rico would involve, minimally, penalty kicks and red cards.  And both matches did.  Little did we know Rochester would be on the receiving end of both.  The good receiving end.  Rochester escaped with six points, and the still-winless Islanders now proudly boast the league's Best Thug Combination in Javier Novarini and Ricardo Alcerro, who, in just ten matches between them, have amassed four red cards. As an added bonus, Martín Zapata (a/k/a That Prick Who Wears No. 7) received his third yellow of the year.  Corey Woolfolk made the Team of the Week for scoring the winner in each match, and Alexis Rivera made it for not getting any cards.

Since RD didn't see a lick of either match, and listened to them both while trying to figure out how to perform unique jumps in Grand Theft Auto, that's all we'll say about that...at least until we catch the RFIT (Time Warner channel 17) re-broadcast of both games on Wednesday and Thursday at 11:30 PM this week.

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	Tail of the Tape
5-1-1	Record	2-0-5
3-0-0 (home)		1-0-4 (away)
5-1-1	Conference Record	2-0-5
3-0-0		1-0-4 (away)
1.85	GFA	1.00
2.66 (home)		1.00 (away)
0.57	GAA	2.43
0.00 (home)		2.80 (away)
1.28	Goal Differential	<1.43>
2.66 (home)		<1.80> (away)
3 wins	Streak	1 loss
3 wins (home)		4 losses (away)
5-3-2	Last 10 matches	4-0-6
7-3-0 (home)		2-0-8 (away)
18-4-9	Head-to-Head	9-4-18
13-0-2 (home)		2-0-13 (away)
7-2-3	June Record*	6-2-4
3-0-1 (home)		2-0-2 (away)
9-2-8	Friday Record*	5-3-11
6-2-4 (home)		1-2-8 (away)
1-0-2	June/Friday Record*	1-0-2
1-0-1 (home)		1-0-2 (away)
	* - Last two seasons

On Sunday, Atlanta comes to town for what should be a very tough match.  The S-Backs have beaten Richmond once this year and have a stunning 2-1-0 record against the defending champion Charleston Battery, including last weekend's 4-2 bombing at Blackbaud.  Those are some sobering stats, but Atlanta has never beaten Rochester.  Not once, be they Ruckus or otherwise.  John Ball will make his eagerly awaited Frontier Field debut as a S-Back, and Mac Cozier - a late pre-season cut for the Rhinos in 2003 – threatens to light up the scoreboard for Atlanta.  He's scored in three of their last four.  Last year, Doug Miller and Ian Fuller combined to whack Atlanta for six goals and two assists in just three matches.

	Tail of the Tape
5-1-1	Record	3-1-3
3-0-0 (home)		2-1-1 (away)
5-1-1	Conference Record	3-1-3
3-0-0		2-1-1 (away)
1.85	GFA	1.42
2.66 (home)		2.00 (away)
0.57	GAA	1.28
0.00 (home)		1.50 (away)
1.28	Goal Differential	0.14
2.66 (home)		0.50 (away)
3 wins	Streak	2 wins
3 wins (home)		2 wins (away)
5-3-2	Last 10 matches	3-2-5
7-3-0 (home)		3-2-5 (away)
5-1-0	Head-to-Head	0-1-5
3-1-0 (home)		0-1-3 (away)
7-2-3	June Record*	4-0-11
3-0-1 (home)		1-0-8 (away)
6-3-2	Sunday Record*	1-1-7
2-2-0 (home)		1-0-4 (away)
2-0-1	June/Sunday Record*	0-0-2
0-0-0 (home)		0-0-2 (away)
	* - Last two seasons

Prediction: Rhinos take the struggling Lynx, 2-0, but only manage to draw Atlanta.  Probably on a very late goal by John Ball or Mac Cozier, if we've done our calculations correctly.

Where have you gone, Andy Restrepo?  It was all about Fred Commodore in Montreal this past weekend when the ex-Rhino scored three times in a pair of Impact wins over Toronto.  On Friday, he came in for the last 20 and scored. On Saturday, Commodore was rewarded with his first start and netted a brace in just 57 minutes (with one assist from Mr. Mauro Biello).  Fred has five goals in just 112 minutes, meaning he's averaging over four goals per 90 minutes.  Jesum Pete.  And he didn’t even make the TOW, though teammate Patrick Leduc did for the third time in ’04.

David Hayes didn't start but still had the game-winning goal when Richmond traveled to Virginia Beach and pummeled the Mariners 4-2.  Hamisi Amani-Dove scored for VeeBee.

Around the A-League:  Toronto back Adrian Serioux was sent off in Toronto's 4-1 home loss to the Impact, but the Lynx chose to use his one-match suspension the following day in Montreal, rather than this Friday against Rochester.  Ironically, Serioux was ejected the last time Rochester and Toronto played (8/1/2003).

Portland's Alan Gordon, last week's Player of the Week, won the honor again this week after getting the rare Trouser Trick (three goals and a yellow card), scoring the winner in the 96th minute of the Timbers' 3-2 overtime win over the still-winless Wave United.

Syracuse didn't get any red or yellow cards this week.  Mostly because they didn't play.  In their honor, however, Shaun Tsakiris picked up his third caution of the season.  Is anyone surprised that the Rhinos' team leader for seeing plastic is an ex-Salty Dog?

Edmonton midfielder Jamie Lopresti, tired of hearing about Javier Novarini and all of his red cards, up and got his second of the year in the Mustangs' home opener – a 0-0 draw against Minnesota.  It was Lopresti's fourth match of the season, which means when this suspension is over, he will have missed as many as he's played.

Richmond signed ex-Charlotte star Dustin Swinehart, who looks to have replaced Kevin Jeffrey in the Kickers starting XI.  Swinehart scored the only goal in Richmond's 1-0 win Virginia Beach.

MLS update:  Pat Onstad out (he was with the Canadian Nats) and Jamil Walker in (he made his first start) down in San Jose, where the Earthquakes lost 1-0 in Columbus to the deceptively un-hot Crew.  San Jose was plagued by call-ups (Onstad and Dwayne DeRosario) and injuries to a huge chunk of their usual starters (Troy Dayak, Eddie Robinson, Todd Dunivant, Chris Ronér, Ronnie Ekelund and Chris Brown).

Diego Gutierrez didn't start for Kansas City because somebody said his mother wore army boots.

It was either Cornell Glen's call-up to Trinidad & Tobago, or Bob Bradley has been reading RD and finally figured out why his team keeps losing. Bradley started John Wolyniec when the Metros faced the Kansas City Crybabys on Sunday, and Woly netted the only goal of the match.  For the record: Woly starts, the Metros are 3-0-0 and Woly has three goals.  Woly rides pine, the Metros are 0-4-1 and Woly has no goals.

With Woly and Commodore tearing it up this past weekend, a lot of people are talking about strikers the Rhinos have let slip through their fingers (and well they should be).  Here's a study we've been conducting here at the RD labs.  We've been waiting for the data to be, shall we say, a little more conclusive, but figured it's timely enough to release now.  The following compiles data for forwards only (according to uslsoccer.com) of both the current and ex-Rhino variety.  So, for example, not all of Hamisi Amani-Dove's stats are included, because he's been spending most of his time in the midfield.  But three of Mauro Biello's games can be found herein, because, according to the USL, he was a forward in those matches:

 Pretty miniscule differences.  So, at least for now, all the talk is for naught.

Miscellaneous droppings:  We're looking for ideas here at RD headquarters.  If you can think of some fun weekly addition we can add to our coverage, drop us a line at rhinodroppings@sick-boy.com.