August 22, 2001

Last time out. Despite dropping a pair of road matches last weekend, Rochester (12-3-6) is still clinging to the Northern Conference lead. The Rhinos’ foes were hungry teams trying to claw their way into the playoff picture --- a perfect antagonist for the squad’s seemingly complacent attitude toward scoring goals.

First up were the Pittsburgh Riverhounds (8-4-10, 5th place), who used five starters who have played in MLS within the last year to sneak away with a 1-0 victory. “But how,” you may ask yourself, “can a first-place team not score against a bunch of bottom-feeders who have allowed 1.61 goals/game?” By starting only one forward (and one that hasn’t scored once this year, we might add). Adding injury to insult was Pittsburgh’s goal, which came off a combination that used to thrill Rhinos fans several years ago --- Gutierrez to Steenkamp (“Words that are weighty with nothing but trouble”).

Then the team headed north of the border for its bi-annual shafting in Montreal (10-1-11, 3rd place), where the Impact extended its regular season record against Rochester to 8-0-1 at Claude Robillard Stadium. The referees were up to their same old tricks --- casually sending Rhinos off left and right, and refusing to call penalties on their old French-Canadian friends in the 2-0 debacle. Even Miracle Mladenov can’t work his magic on the road, leading The Score to assume hotel towels must be like Kryptonite.

Next up. The Rhinos face the Toronto Lynx (6-2-14, 6th place) twice this weekend in a pair of Turn Back the Clock matches, where each team will don kits of their NASL predecessors. Toronto has lost five straight by a combined score of 2-13, and has the League’s second-worst goal differential. There has never been a better time to clobber an inferior opponent with an all-out offensive assault to bolster the team’s confidence before the season ends. Rochester fan favorite Brian Ashton should miss one of the matches due to yellow-card accumulation.

Stats of the week. Rochester is 4-1-1 when Jamel Mitchell starts, but the talented player hasn’t started since June 22, even though he’s the only forward to find the back of the net in a month. The Rhinos are 0-0-3 in each of Mali Walton’s appearances since July 8. And despite not being able to lift his leg to get on the team bus, Lenin Steenkamp --- the Cal Ripken, Jr. of the team --- remains the only Rochester player to play every minute of every game this year.

Butchering the competition. In his first four matches since being loaned to Milwaukee, Steve Butcher has tallied four goals and one assist (as opposed to Rochester’s forwards, who have scored zero goals and zero assists over the same period). The Rampage lost five straight before acquiring Butcher, and has won four in a row since inserting him into the starting lineup.

Daytripping. The Safari is taking a bus full of rabid Rhinos supporters to Toronto for the match this Saturday. For $53 you get a ride there and back, a ticket, and a picnic lunch somewhere along the way. Call Linda at 544-4696 for more information. If you want to go with a more boisterous group, hang out with the Stampede behind the bullpen on Friday night and weasel yourself into one of its carpools.

Read the last issue of The Score here.