July 16, 2003

Last time out.  The people who were there don't need a wordy recap of what happened.  Their hearts are still beating more quickly than usual.  For the folks who missed it, though, The Score is talking about last Friday's thrilling E-Ticket experience at Frontier, in which the Rhinos (11-2-4, 35 points) beat Virginia Beach (7-2-7, 23) in overtime after evening the score with, literally, seconds to spare in stoppage time.

Friday's match is the reason people like attending live sporting events.  In 12 years, when the Rhinos win the second of their back-to-back MLS championships, people will likely still be talking about what they witnessed on July 11, 2003.  It was easily the most exhilarating match at Frontier since the US Open Cup run in 1999.  The Score knows because The Score wasn't even thinking of looking at the Rhinestones through the binoculars. Except during halftime.

Interestingly enough, the Rhinos-Mariners match was three days away from the fourth anniversary of the Chicago match in '99. And it had everything you could think of, from the most frightening visitor striker tandem since Brian McBride and Stern John in the 1998 USOC, to Rochester playing a man up for 20 minutes (and they don't really have the best track record when it comes to capitalizing on those situations), to a midfielder tinier than Robbie Aristodemo, to bad refs who wouldn't know an offside call from a long-distance call, to a wind-assisted goal, to Craig Demmin shutting down two US Men's National Team vets and scoring his first regular-season goal (he's now tied with Tim Hardy and Chris Kennel, and is one behind Darci Monteiro).

And when was the last time fans have seen two opponents red-carded in the same match?  Actually, they didn't get to see it Friday either, on account of the lights being shut off for the fireworks while the Virginia Beach players chased the refs around the field.  They did, however, get to watch Team of the Week member Doug Miller notching his league-leading 12th and 13th of the season, not to mention A-League assist leader Pato Aguilera vaulting into 4th on the league's scoring list with his two tallies for the Mariners (everyone was too busy focusing on Dante Washington and Roy Lassiter, The Score guesses).

Next up. There's the third-round USOC match against D3 New Hampshire (8-1-5) at Frontier this Wednesday, but that'll be over by the time most of you read this.  So let's move on to Saturday, when the Rhinos begin a tough two-match road trip that begins in Charleston.  The Battery (12-3-3, 39) enjoy the league's best record and have lost just once in their last eight, but Rochester owns an impressive 6-0-1 record against Charleston, and that's not even counting the 3-0-0 playoff mark.  Their leading scorers are Josh Henderson (5+3=13) and Ted Chronopoulos (6+2=14).  The Score says it'll be a 2-2 draw.

On the flip side of the momentum thing are the Kickers (8-3-7, 27), who the Rhinos will face next Tuesday evening.  While Richmond's record against Rochester is more impressive than Charleston's, the Kickers have dropped three straight, including their third of the year against Pittsburgh (!). Kevin Jeffrey (6+6=18) and ex-Rhino Greg Simmonds lead the charge for Richmond, who you may remember as the team that beat the Rhinos in last year's conference championship.  The Score says the Rhinos take the grudge match, 2-1.

The Score also says there's a 91% chance the Rhinos will be playing one of these two teams in the conference finals again this year, should they find a way to get past mighty Montreal first.

Where have you gone, Andy Restrepo? Aleksey Korol scored in Pittsburgh's 2-1 win against Richmond, while John Ball earned both a goal and a red card in Milwaukee's 4-3 road loss in Pittsburgh.  Sean Michael Callahan also saw red for Seattle. Eduardo Sebrango had the match winner in Montreal's 2-1 win in Syracuse (Rene Rivas scored for the S-Dogs).  The Impact must not have missed Martin Nash or Nevio Pizzolitto, who were with the Canadian team in the Gold Cup.  And Onandi Lowe hit the GWG that put Jamaica through to the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup.  He also got tossed early into the second half.

Around the A-League. Pittsburgh dumped head coach Tim Carter and replaced him with defender Ricardo Irribarren, who led the team to two weekend wins. But in true Irribarren fashion, Ricardo was ejected from the second match. Some things just never change.

MLS update. John Wolyniec earned Man of the Match honors in the MetroStars' come-from-behind 3-3 draw in New England (if you think soccer is a bore, you haven't seen the Metros' last three matches, beginning with the Bob Matthews Special against San Jose).  Without Pat Onstad (who was also with Canada in the Gold Cup), the Earthquake lost to the lowly Colorado Rapids (okay, San Jose didn't have Landon Donovan or Richard Mulrooney, either).  Scott Garlick did get his second straight yellow card, which might be good news for backup 'keeper Scott Vallow.

Read the last issue of The Score here.