By TRAVIS CLARK
Goals have been hard to come by for Montreal and Vancouver this season, and over the weekend that trend continued when the two sides met in league action Saturday night.
The Canadian rivals battled to a 0-0 stalemate in the Pacific Northwest, extending Vancouver's goalless streak in the league to two games. The Whitecaps were missing captain Martin Nash and attacker Jonny Steele, blunting an already struggling offense. Both sides created a few chances, but 'keepers Matt Jordan and Jay Nolly proved equal to everything thrown at them.
Despite the result, the two clubs remain in first and second in the NASL Conference, with Vancouver still in first. However, the lack of goals — each has just four on the year — is a telling statistic, and something that needs to be corrected if either side hopes to live up to championship aspirations.
Here's a look at the rest of the USSF D-2 action:
AUSTIN DEFEATS CRYSTAL PALACE BALTIMORE, GRABS TOP SPOT
A tired Crystal Palace Baltimore limped into Austin for a third game in nine days. And with the ascension of the Aztex one of the big stories of 2010, getting a second straight win was going to be a tall task. The Austin attack looked spry and fresh, opening up Baltimore's defense in the 36th minute on a Lance Watson goal. But the visitors wouldn't go away, digging deep for an equalizer through Matthew Mbuta in the 63rd minute. Baltimore couldn't preserve the draw, however, with USSF D-2 leading scorer Jamie Watson knocked home the game-winner. Austin's 2-1 win was enough to vault them over Portland and into the top point spot in the league.
A.C. ST. LOUIS SNATCHES LATE DRAW IN PORTLAND
The scoring troubles plaguing a number of other USSF D-2 clubs is starting to creep up towards Portland. After coming up empty against Crystal Palace Baltimore Thursday night, the Timbers couldn't get full points from another visiting expansion team, this time drawing A.C. St. Louis 1-1 at PGE Park. Portland dominated the run of play, but couldn't get more than Mandjou Keita's 66th minute goal. That would come back to haunt the Timbers in stoppage time when Mike Ambersley pounced on a loose ball and slotted it past Steve Cronin to earn St. Louis' first road point of the season.
MIAMI DRAWS FIFTH GAME IN A ROW AGAINST MINNESOTA
Miami FC — who are already synonymous with drawing at home — decided to take their one-point show on the road, trekking up to Minnesota and tying the Stars 1-1. Johnny Menyongar notched the game's first goal in the 55th minute, giving the home side a lead that they hoped to hold. However, Christian Gomez flashed his play-making skills, crossing nicely for teammate Paulo Araujo to head home. Disaster then struck for Minnesota a few minutes later, as the Stars conceded a penalty — but Joe Warren came up big, saving his third penalty of the season by denying Abe Thompson's spot kick and preserving the draw.
TAMPA BAY WINS ROAD MATCH AGAINST RAILHAWKS
The Railhawks returned home for their only match at home in the month of May, and couldn't send the home support away happy, falling 2-1 against expansion Tampa Bay Saturday evening. Gregory Richardson opened the scoring for Carolina from the penalty spot, but two Nic Platter blunders in goal proved costly. First, Platter got caught out on a Tampa Bay free kick that Joe Donoho headed into an empty net. Late on in the 84th minute, substitute Aaron Wheeler beat Platter at his near post to seal the points.
Coach Dalglish has done really well w/ the Tampa Rowdies so far. Credit to the guy. He has emphasized a possession, ball on the ground style; the team has a fighting spirit and speedy players on the wings. I like it a lot. As terrible Yankees field is for soccer, I will be going there to support the team game in and game out. Professional soccer in Tampa Bay has a bright future and I hope that this team is here to stay!
And, yes, the Rowdies will make the playoffs in its first season in the second division.
Go Rowdies!
Montreal played Vancouver last week for some dinky cup we have (because were are a banana republic and dont have our own league when every country in the world has one. yes, even Iceland with 300,000 people have their own league. and their national team players play in bigger clubs than our 40million country) to finaggle our way in the Champions league.
That game ended 1-1.
This game ended 0-0.
Guess which game was waaaaaay more exciting?
No, not the one with the goals.
I have no problems with goaless draws if you have this kind of game. That 1-1 game made me wish for the excitement of an italian league game.
Funny, i didn’t even know they did that. I suspect it’s not that expensive. Probably free in exchange for some in-kind advertising. Probably not terribly difficult to pull off either. The colored lights are already there..for July 4th, st.pat’s day, christmas..etc…
Good time for the Rowdies to be playing. Though the Rays are doing well, there’s not college of pro football to contend with. This part of the country loves its football(…gators, noles, U,..bucs.. ). As bonus the NHL season for the Lightning has long been done.
Don’t mess with Jonny. My five year old loves that guy. She’s still mad that he left Puerto Rico Islanders. Now she says that she likes the Whitecaps. If she were older, I would kick her out of my house but there’s this thing called the law…
How did you guys arrange to get the Suntrust building lit up in your colors. I don’t have any idea how much it cost but it looked cool as heck. Props!
http://nasl.com/photo_gallery/gallery/id/148
Brilliant (nuff said)
I was impressed by Baltimore last night. They did not look like a one win team.
The offense is playing nice soccer. I’m concerned about the defense, though.
Glass 1/3 full.;)
Y’all have some serious speed up top. You’re going to burn a few more teams besides Portland before this season’s over.
Jonny Steele – part time Whitecaps attacker, part-time porn star, part-time superhero.
It can’t match the night where the fans of Cleveland turned so ugly that even Billy Martin called them “animals”:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=beernight/080604
HA. Steve Cronin.
The Aztex are playing some really nice soccer, hopefully they can continue it against Vancouver and Portland when they get the chance.
Rowdies will be hurt by the departure of Christie for WC duty. Good problem to have, though. To be fair, the Railhawks had the better of the play. Rowdies still finding their feet. Like the way Dalglish has them playing. Certainly not English-esk.
Gotta love marketing. Thirsty-Thursday coming up on the 27th. Dollar beers.
Austin looks much improved after thier debut season.
Tampa Bay is getting better results than I had expected so quickly.
Miami: Glass half full or half empty? Guess it all depends on how you look at it. They are still undefeated…
Baltimore is playing better. They appear to be turning things around. I am really looking forward to the road trip ending and the boys returning home to play Portland Timbers. I think that the chances are good that they are going to give a very tough Portland Timbers side another good match.
But first they have to deal with Rochester. Many of our guys have never experienced a road trip like this one. For the ones who have, it’s been a long time. So they are on a learning curve.
I still think that better things are to come.