June 4, 2003

Last time out.  The Score lobbied for it, and The Score was pleasantly surprised when it happened.  The "it" refers to Coach Ercoli's decision to play midfielder Stoian Mladenov in the center, as opposed to on the right wing where he's spent all of 2003.  The result?  Rochester's first three-goal performance and most solid outing of the season as the Scott Schweitzer-less Rhinos (4-2-2) tripped the Riverhounds (3-1-3) in Pittsburgh.  The Score doesn't like to say it told you so, but The Score just can't help it because goals make The Score giddy.  Check out this year's stats:

                                                                        Record            Scored            Allowed

Mladenov starting in the center                     1-0-0                 3.00                  1.00

Mladenov starting on the wing                      2-1-0                 2.00                  1.00

Mladenov off bench on the wing                   0-1-1                 1.00                  1.50

No Mladenov at all                                         1-0-1                 1.00                  1.50

Granted, it's only one match, but what a difference a Bulgarian makes. Mladenov even nabbed his first points of the season, assisting on Lenin Steenkamp's 20th-minute strike (Lenin made the Team of the Week).  Ian Fuller and Doug Miller also scored, and the latter's tally temporarily tied him with the lead league for about 41 minutes.  That's when the R-Hounds Thiago Martins netted his seventh (he's currently tied with Virginia Beach's Dante Washington).

Next up.  Martins and Miller will go mano-a-mano again this Saturday night at Frontier, when the Rhinos host revenge-minded Pittsburgh.  Rochester enjoys a whopping 10-2-2 lifetime league record against the R-Hounds.

And before the team will be able to catch their breath, they'll find the Syracuse Salty Dogs scratching at their door on Sunday, begging to have their bellies rubbed before the first match of the inaugural and still somewhat mysterious Can-Am Cup.  Syracuse is 5-0-2 – good enough for tops in the division – after a win and a loss on a weekend road trip through the dairy country of Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Tommy Tanner saw his first action in three matches and, since they seemed to enjoy it so much during their Frontier Field debut, the S-Dogs scored on themselves again during its loss to the Thunder. As if that weren’t funny enough, their coach Laurie Calloway got tossed at the end of the Wave clash – a match his team was winning (and eventually won) 3-1.

The Can-Am Cup continues at Frontier next Wednesday, when the 2-2-4 Lynx come to town for a breath of fresh, communicable disease-free air.  Brian Ashton appears to be nearing his peak form, gaining his first yellow card of the season last weekend.  Syracuse has more own-goals than Robbie Aristodemo has regular ones (discuss amongst yourselves).  The Rhinos are 16-4-10 against Toronto, but 10-0-2 at Frontier.

So what does that mean for The Score's deadly predictions (we called for a 2-1 loss in Pittsburgh last weekend, but only if Mladenov was still playing on the outside)?  The R-Hounds match-up is a no-brainer:  2-0 for the Rhinos.  Since Rochester is playing five matches in nine days, that Can-Am Cup nonsense is going to be a bit harder to calculate (expect to see lots of the guys you're not used to seeing).  Just for kicks, let's say 1-0 wins against both Syracuse and Toronto...unless Mladenov is on the outside.

The New Offense.  On the surface, it probably doesn't seem much different, but the numbers don't lie (they might fib a bit, but they never lie).  In their first eight league matches, Rochester has scored 13 times – the most over the same period since 1999.  Hey, it's a step in the right direction.

            Year                   Shots                      Goals              Matches with three or more goals

            2003                    108                           13                                   1

            2002                      90                           12                                    0

            2001                    121                             9                                    1

            2000                    112                           13                                    2

            1999                    123                           17                                    3

            1998                      84                           17                                    2

            1997                      98                           17                                    2

            1996                    117                            7                                     1

Hard to believe the shots totals aren't higher, especially after the opener against Atlanta, where Rochester took 33 cracks at goal.  That represents over 30% of the shots taken to date in 2003.  Also hard to believe:  17 goals on 84 shots in 1998, a season filled with matches against heavy hitters like the Jacksonville Cyclones, the California Jaguars, the Worcester Wildfire and the San Francisco Bay Seals.  Sounds a lot easier than facing Montreal four times, innit?  The Score will keep track of the offensive stats, and update you in the future.

Where have you gone, Andy Restrepo?  Eduardo Sebrango followed up last week's performance, which featured his first-ever assist as a member of the Impact, with a blistering scoring line in a 4-0 road thumping of Calgary on Sunday.  Sebrango had two goals and assisted on the other two (one was Mauro Biello's) and was named the league’s Player of the Week.  Apparently, Montreal didn't miss Martin Nash, the league leader in assists, who was with Canada's national team for their 4-1 loss in Germany.  Nash assisted on Canada's lone goal.  The Impact are a frighteningly talented team (Sebrango, backup goalkeeper Michael Ueltschey and defender Abraham François all made the Team of the Week), and they just re-signed veteran defender Drew Kopp  <gulp>.

Syracuse beat Milwaukee, 3-1, on the road, with Mike Kirmse scoring for the S-Dogs, while John Ball tallied for the Wave.  Greg Simmonds found the back of the net in Richmond's 4-1 dumping of Cincinnati.  Atlanta's Carlos Parra scored in a win over the hapless Lynx, and Hamisi Amani-Dove's goal couldn't prevent a 3-2 Virginia Beach loss over the previously winless Charlotte Eagles.

Not to be outdone by the local connections (Abby Wambach and Casey Zimny) in last weekend's WUSA friendly, Pittsford's Jamil Walker saw his first minutes of the MLS season with San Jose and their heavily worn-out roster.  In that same match, Rhinos 2003 draft pick Damiani Ralph had a goal in the Chicago Fire's 4-1 shellacking of the E-Quakes.

MLS update.  Despite playing just as many minutes as teammate Scott Garlick, Colorado's Scott Vallow does not appear on the MLS All-Star ballot.  What gives?  Vallow doesn't even have gray hair yet.

San Jose suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday, no doubt due to the absence of Pat Onstad, who was busy letting in four for the Canadian national team in the friendly in Germany.

Around the A-League.  Last week's Vancouver vs. Portland match was so hotly contested, they actually blew the lights out at PGE Park.  Not really, but there was a power outage at the stadium, which is pretty funny considering it's named after Portland Gas and Electric

With four particular MLS sides (Chicago, Columbus, DC United and the MetroStars) drastically affected by national team call-ups for the Confederations Cup (it starts June 18), look for a few A-Leaguers to be tapped for temporary trips to The Show.  Too bad their rosters couldn't be depleted for US Open Cup matches.  Say, doesn't a certain Rhinos goalkeeper have a certain relationship with a certain MLS team which will lose a certain Manchester United-bound 'keeper for the Confederations Cup?

Read the last issue of The Score here.