The USL is in Beverton, Oregon this week, home of Nike Soccer, the former owner and new league sponsors of the United Soccer Leagues. The teams are meeting in preparation for the Annual General Meetings that will take place in Tampa Florida in a few weeks.

According to a news article produced by the USL themselves, they are stating that Owners representing Austin, Cleveland, New York, Puerto Rico, Portland, Rochester and Tampa Bay were in attendance as well as individuals representing USL-1 Canadian expansion teams in Edmonton and Ottawa and American teams in Baltimore and Detroit were on hand.

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The USL is in Beverton, Oregon this week, home of Nike Soccer, the former owner and new league sponsors of the United Soccer Leagues. The teams are meeting in preparation for the Annual General Meetings that will take place in Tampa, Florida in a few weeks.

According to a news article produced by the USL themselves, they are stating that Owners representing Austin, Cleveland, New York, Puerto Rico, Portland, Rochester and Tampa Bay were in attendance as well as individuals representing USL-1 Canadian expansion teams in Edmonton and Ottawa and American teams in Baltimore and Detroit were on hand.

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It wasn't as exhilarating as last year, when the Islanders scored 3 goals at home (the last on the 119′, in overtime) to win the series 3-2 on aggregate; but the Islanders duplicated the feat: To knock out the Rochester Rhinos of the USL Playoffs.

After losing 2-1 to the Rhinos last Thursday in the away leg of the 2009 USL Quarter Finals, the Islanders won 4-1 in the return leg in Bayamón to win the quarterfinal match up with a 5-3 aggregate, and eliminate the Rhinos from the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row.

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It wasn't as exhilarating as last year, when the Islanders scored 3 goals at home (the last one on the 119′ in overtime) to win the 2008 Semi-Final match up 3-2 on aggregate; but the Islanders duplicated the same feat this year: to knock out the Rochester Rhinos of the USL Playoffs.

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It wasn't as exhilarating as last year, when the Islanders scored 3 goals at home (the last one on the 119′ in overtime) to win the 2008 Semi-Final match up 3-2 on aggregate; but the Islanders duplicated the same feat this year: they knocked out the Rochester Rhinos of the USL-1 Playoffs.

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In the first 2009 post season firing in USL-1, Rochester Rhino's owner Rob Clark has told Darren Tilley he will not be managing the Rhinos in 2010. Clark also said in a press release he will not renew Rhinos general manager Matt Ford's contract but Ford will stay on for the transition.

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In the first 2009 post season firing in USL-1, Rochester Rhino's owner Rob Clark has told Darren Tilley he will not be managing the Rhinos in 2010. Clark also said in a press release he will not renew Rhinos general manager Matt Ford's contract but Ford will stay on for the transition.

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Having had the great honor to serve as a color commentator for Miami FC's local broadcasts this season (both on USL Live and local cable), I have seen every USL-1 team in person and broken them down. Here is my analysis of the first round of the playoffs.

#2 Carolina RailHawks (16-7-7, 55 pts) vs #7 Vancouver Whitecaps (11-10-9, 42 pts)

Carolina is just too deep for Vancouver, the defending champions who struggled much of this season.

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Regular season USL-1 play has now concluded for 2009. The playoffs start tomorrow (Thursday). Sure it would have been nice to see Austin there; but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. We might as well get a head start on looking back.
Both of the league's expansion teams, the Austin Aztex and the Cleveland City Stars, fared poorly in their inaugural seasons, winding up at the bottom of the final standings:
P
Team
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
1 Portland Timbers 30 16 10 4 45 19 +26 58 2 Carolina RailHawks FC 30 16 7 7 43 19 +24 55 3 Puerto Rico Islanders 30 15 8 7 44 31 +13 53 4 Charleston Battery 30 14 11 5 33 21 +12 53 5 Montreal Impact 30 12 7 11 32 31 +1 43 6 Rochester Rhinos 30 11 10 9 34 32 +2 43 7 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 30 11 9 10 42 36 +6 42 8 Minnesota Thunder 30 7 10 13 39 44 -5 31 9 Miami FC 30 8 5 17 26 52 -26 29 10 Austin Aztex FC 30 5 8 17 28 51 -23 21* 11 Cleveland City Stars 30 4 19 7 22 52 -30 19
As you can see, the Aztex escaped the very last spot, if barely. Click to continue reading...

I say (nearly) because there's one game (Austin at Miami, September 5) with no reported attendance. If you know about Miami, there's a possibility there was no actual attendance, but until I get a number, the chart below gives you a fairly good picture of how things went in USL's top division this year:

Team G Total Avg. Click to continue reading...

It looked like they were going to lose after the first half of the game. However, the Vancouver Whitecaps managed to come back and defeat the Austin Aztex 2-1. The tie and winning goals where put in by Marcus Haber and Gordon Chin on home turf at the Burnaby Stadium near Vancouver. It was Chin's first goal on home grounds.

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Jeff Di Veronica is reporting that Johnny Menyongar's season is over with the Rochester Rhino's.

Johnny Menyongar - Photo by Brian Quarstad

The former Thunder star known as the Tiny Ticket had an MRI done on his knee today after injuring it in Sunday's 0-0 draw with Miami FC.

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Jeff Di Veronica is reporting that Johnny Menyongar's season is over with the Rochester Rhino's.

Johnny Menyongar - Photo by Brian Quarstad

The former Thunder star known as the Tiny Ticket had an MRI done on his knee today after injuring it in Sunday's 0-0 draw with Miami FC.

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The Portland Timbers have secured the first seed in the playoffs.
Carolina RailHawks, Puerto Rico Islanders, Charleston Battery will battle in the last round of matches for 2nd thru 4th.
Montreal Impact, Rochester Rhinos, Vancouver Whitecaps will fight for 5th thru 7th place during the final round of regular season matches. Click to continue reading...

In a recent live blog which was hosted by Jeff Di Veronica of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester New York, Rhino's owner Rob Clark, who has been vocal with his displeasure of the Team Owners Associations issues with the USL, was asked how he was keeping all this chaos out of the manager's and players' minds.

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In a recent live blog which was hosted by Jeff Di Veronica of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester New York, Rhino's owner Rob Clark, who has been vocal with his displeasure of the Team Owners Associations issues with the USL, was asked how he was keeping all this chaos out of the manager's and players' minds.

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After their 3-1 victory on Saturday over the Aztex, Miami FC gets ready to take on The Rochester Rhinos at Lockhart Stadium this Tuesday September 8th at 8 pm.
Last time these teams met was back in April at Lockhart Stadium when the Blues were stunned by the Rhinos 2-1 in front of over 1500 people. Click to continue reading...