June 19, 2002
Last time out. The Rhinos (6-1-2, 25 points) neatly dismantled the high-powered offense of the Atlanta Silverbacks (9-0-4, 41 points) last Friday night at a windy Frontier. Sure, it was mighty strange to see the Beautiful Game played on such a tiny pitch (there were 47 World Cup matches on gigantic-looking regulation-sized fields in between this game and Rochester's last home appearance), but none of that seemed to matter to Lenin Steenkamp, who gunned home both goals for the division-leading Rhinos. Any evening that includes two Elvis-themed goal celebrations is truly a fine one.
Though Rochester could have easily tallied another handful of successful second-half strikes (Atlanta 'keeper Cole Burgman must have been watching too much of Brad Friedel's stellar performance for the US National Team), the team nearly suffered a bench-induced setback because of a silly substitution. With a 1-0 lead and 20 minutes to play, forward Jimmy Tanner came on for forward Dan Stebbins. Before you could muse, "Shouldn't an extra defender be brought in to protect the lead?" Atlanta evened the score with a blast from former Rhino Carlos Parra. Luckily, Steenkamp, obviously inspired by the repetitive blasting of JXL's remix of Elvis's "A Little Less Conversation" over the PA system, hit his second of the evening and everyone went home happy (the song, which you've no doubt heard in the Terry Gilliam-directed Nike commercial, is currently the Number 1 song in the UK).
Up next. Rochester hits the road this Friday, traveling to the unfriendly confines of Claude Robillard Stadium to face the Montreal Impact (4-1-2, 18 points), which has gone five straight without a loss since opening the season with two disappointing but very close road losses to Southeast Division powerhouses Charleston and Atlanta. The Rhinos are 1-0-8 at the Claude during the regular season and haven't won there since 1998. The Impact is led by former Rhinos Mauro Biello (1+2=4) and Eduardo Sebrango (4+0=8), the latter of whom has scored in each of his last three starts.
Next Wednesday, the Rhinos return home to face the Des Moines Menace (10-2-0) of the PDL in the second round of the US Open Cup at Webster. Should they advance past the Menace and their potent strike force of 23-year-old Czech midfielder Tomas Boltnar (12+8=32) and assistant coach/forward/former Rhino Neathan Gibson (8+1=17), Rochester will face the Kansas City Wizards of Major League Soccer on July 17 at a high school in Webster. Apparently the Red Wings have a very important homestand at Frontier that might actually determine whether they finish in last place or second-to-last place this year.
Stat of the week. Greg Simmonds hasn't scored in any of the Rhinos’ four home matches this season but has found the back of the net in each of the three road games in which he has started. The moral of the story: Frontier's pitch is way too small for him to fully capitalize on his strengths (blinding speed, ability to get open). The Score is looking forward to watching him run amok out in Webster if Rochester advances in the US Open Cup..
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