RHINO DROPPINGS

August 3, 2005

Congratulations, Rhinos!  You've taken a big step toward providing acceptable volume levels at home matches!  Keep at it -- you're almost there!

A couple of lingering issues:

- The PA Clown is still averaging over 85 dBA for the match, a level that can cause permanent hearing damage.

- The total number of non-soccer-related interruptions hasn't changed in a favorable way.  Ads pay the bills -- we get that.  But the music, which was the only thing to get noticeably louder as Saturday's match progressed, still serves no purpose.  Half of the 90 minutes of match-time is filled with noise (and pretty much all of pre-game, post-game and halftime).  Like bikinis, less is more.

- The air horn.  For the love of Christ, please stop the air horn (97 dBA).

We're still listening, but Saturday's readings were an improvement.  Thank you for not trying to deafen your fans!

Now, on to the footy:

- Saturday's match was a disappointment.  Richmond, playing without two of their starting midfielders because of suspension, would have handily thumped the Rhinos was it not for blasting most of their shots off the pipes.  At this point in the season, the Kickers are a better team.

- Richmond was a rare example of a team with both the firepower and cajones to actually come to Frontier with the intent to play offensively.  Everyone else has figured out the old bunker-down-and-hope-to-get-a-chance-on-a-counter-attack style that makes matches frustrating to watch (and, one would imagine, frustrating to play, as well).  We've got a feeling that the handful of remaining games at Frontier aren't going to feature too many goals.  The last five regular season matches have seen five goals total from both the Rhinos and their opponents.  Can't wait for PTP.

- Until last season, when they dropped two of three, Rochester had never lost to Atlanta, this Saturday's opponent.  Is it time to kick it all the way back to '96 and hit the S-Backs with a little Miller-Steenkamp-Rivas-Andracki action?  Doug has an amazing 26 points in just 13 matches against Atlanta, including four multi-goal games.  Lenin and Rene have combined for another 16 points.  Billy has a 5-2-0 record when suiting up to face the Monkey Men.  We're just sayin' . . .

- Here's to hoping this August goes better than last year, when the Ercoli-led Rhinos were winless in their first six contests (including the heartbreaking USOC loss to Charleston) before closing out the month with a pair of home victories.

- Is Jason "Scary" Perry's red card suspension for tonight's USOC match against the MetroStars the best thing that could have happened to the club?  RD thinks so.  T-Bone should help out in a big way facing his former teammates.  Look for the Metros to be frustrated by the comfy confines of Frontier, especially when it comes to the speed of their youngsters (Bradley, Gaven, Magee; average age = 18.6).  Get in Bradley's head (he gets lots of yellow cards) and stay away from Tony Meola's patented Pie-Eating Headlock.  Maybe Tony and Billy the Biter will finally have something in common.

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