USL1 Scariness: 2008 Week 3

Okay, for a first post on Monday morning, I thought I’d put up my scariness rankings for the USL1 (now that they’ve got three weeks of games under their belts. I’ve also settled into a formula for each game:

pts (game) + gd (game) + opp ppg (last 5 games) + 1 (away team)

I figure a weighted average over the last five weeks (or as many weeks as the teams have played) to come up with the current scariness.

Team	Scariness	Rank
POR	4.27	1
MIN	3.9	2
CAR	3.05	3
ATL	2.88	4
MON	2.25	5
CHA	2.2	6
SEA	1.7	7
PUE	1.51	8
MIA	1.18	9
VAN	1.15	10
ROC	0	11

At this point, Portland is looking like the cream of the USL, unbeaten and untied in 3 games with a +4 goal differential makes them look awfully good. It will be interesting to see how they do in US Open Cup play.

Down near the bottom of the table, Miami and Vancouver are separated by only .03 points, and are ahead of only Rochester (who has yet to play a game).

Don’t look for a USL2 scariness post from me, but I am planning on doing one for the PDL Northwestern conference.

SYL players abroad

The USL recently released a list of Super Youth League (SYL) players who will train with West Ham. It looks like the list was pulled together by SYL staff based on the players performance at the 4 day U-13 and U-17 camp held in Cocoa, Florida last month.

Here are the players, 10 field players and 2 goal keepers:

Justin Maheu	F	Ottawa Fury
Fabian Bastidas	M	Sunrise SC
Ryan Lehman	M	Atlanta Fire United
Glenroy Chapman	D	South Jersey Barons
Giovanni Freitas	D	Sunrise SC
Aaron Liang	D	Santa Cruz County Breakers
Alan Narvaez	D	Juventus Sport Club
Renato Pezzulo	D	Parsippany SC
Antonio Schneider	D	Chicago Magic
Sekani Sinclair	D	Schulz Academy
Cody Cropper	GK	Bangu Tsunami
Cody Mizell	GK	Atlanta Silverbacks

Given the presence of so many SYL and PDL players in the MLS SuperDraft, it’s probably worth watching these players over the next several years. It will also be interesting to see how many of these players end up skipping the USL and MLS to play in European leagues when they get older.

I’m a little surprised at the number of defenders on the list, but as the program continues through the coming years I think we’ll see other positions show up as well.

Week 25 Extra Power Rankings

Okay, time again for my (completely subjective) ‘extra power rankings’, where I’ll toss the USL1 semi-finalists in with my ranked MLS teams. I caught some flack on the Atlanta discussion boards and in a comment on my extra power rankings from last week for putting Puerto Rico ahead of the Silverbacks. It looks like I did indeed goof that up, Atlanta has shot up from #16 to #10 below—hopefully this is a more realistic picture. Anyway, here’s how I see it:

Ranking	Team
1	DC United (clinched)
2	Chivas USA (clinched)
3	Houston Dynamo (clinched)
4	New England Revolution (clinched)
5	New York Red Bulls (in the mix)
6	Kansas City Wizards (in the mix)
7	Chicago Fire (in the mix)
8	FC Dallas (in the mix)
9	Seattle Sounders (in USL1 Finals)
10	Atlanta Silverbacks (in USL1 Finals)
11	Portland Timbers (eliminated from USL1 Playoffs)
12	Columbus Crew (in the mix)
13	Colorado Rapids (in the mix)
14	Real Salt Lake
14	Los Angeles Galaxy
15	Puerto Rico Islanders (eliminated from USL1 Playoffs)
17	Toronto FC

What do you think? Am I way off base on any of these?

Week 24 Extra Power Rankings

It looks like my combined rankings drew some attention from the Sounders Forum. I’d love to hear what Sounders (or other USL1 fans) think about these rankings. This time around, I’ve only included the USL1 teams that survived to the second round of the playoffs.

Ranking	Team
1	DC United
2	Chivas USA
3	New England Revolution
3	Houston Dynamo
5	FC Dallas
6	Chicago Fire
6	New York Red Bull
8	KC Wizards
9	Seattle Sounders
10	Portland Timbers
11	Colorado Rapids
12	Columbus Crew
13	Real Salt Lake
14	Toronoto FC
15	Puerto Rico Islanders
16	Atlanta Silverbacks
17	LA Galaxy

The top three USL1 teams would probably play at competitively against the lower end of the MLS table. After that, I think there’s enough of a drop-off that we’d see a new ‘bottom-tier’ of teams beneath TFC. Right now, the Galaxy looks so bad, I think any of the USL1 teams that are still playing could beat them.

I already put together my MLS Power Rankings for week 23, but as I was doing it, I wondered where the top USL1 sides would fit. Now that their season is over and they’re headed into the post season, here’s where I’d slot the USL playoff teams in the MLS:

1. DC United
2. Chivas USA
3. New England Revolution
4. Houston Dynamo
5. FC Dallas
6. Chicago Fire
7. New York Red Bull
8. KC Wizards
9. Columbus Crew
10. Seattle Sounders
11. Portland Timbers
12. Colorado Rapids
13. Real Salt Lake
14. LA Galaxy
15. Montreal Impact
16. Toronoto FC
17. Atlanta Silverbacks
18. Rochester Raging Rhinos
19. Puerto Rico Islanders
20. Vancouver Whitecaps
21. Carolina Railhawks

The top three USL1 teams would probably play at competitively against the lower end of the MLS table. After that, I think there’s enough of a drop-off that we’d see a new ‘bottom-tier’ of teams beneath TFC.

Dave Sarachan, Toribio Rojas, and John Ellinger

Okay, time for a comparison. Midway through the season, an underperforming soccer team has fired their head coach. This has happened three times this year. It’s probably instructive to see what happened in each case.

The Chicago Fire

With today’s firing of Dave Sarachan, the Fire are looking to turn things around. Dave had been a successful MLS level coach, but lately seems to have lost his touch with the team. Instead of hiring a new coach right away, the Fire have opted to make Denis Hamlett (an assistant coach with the Fire since ‘98) their interim coach. This move should let them look around for an established coach, while letting Hamlett potentially win the job for himself.

While interim coaches aren’t always a good thing, the Fire have given themselves some room to work, and have put a coach in place (for now) who knows the team. We’ll see how things work out over the next month or so.

The Puerto Rico Islanders

On May 22nd, Colin Clark was hired by the Puerto Rico Islanders to replace Toribio Rojas. Colin Clarke is an experienced coach, who managed teams in the USL A-League, had a stint as an assistant coach for the MLS Dallas Burn, and went on to coach them to a Western Conference Championship. Prior to his hiring, the Islanders were 0-3-3, since his hiring, they’ve gone 2-0-2.

Real Salt Lake

Back on May 3rd, RSL fired John Ellinger and replaced him with former player Jason Kreis. Ellinger’s tenure as coach was widely viewed as a failure; he failed to develop players, produced a losing record, and was seen as managing games ineffectively. His replacement, Kreis, retired as a player the night before the move was announced, has had no coaching experience at any level, and has been the public face of numerous front office mistakes. Prior to the change, RSL was 0-2-2 (with one non-MLS win). Since the change, they are 0-3-4 (with one non-MLS win and one non-MLS loss).

Summing it up

Three coaching changes, and (not surprisingly) three different approaches. While it’s too early to tell about Chicago, it certainly seems that Puerto Rico did it right. Jason Kries was (and is) saddled with a lot of problems that aren’t his fault, but it’s hard to believe that RSL wouldn’t have done better making him an assistant coach and hiring (or at least looking for) an experienced coach for him to work under.

USL1 Coaches: Gavin Wilkinson

Gavin Wilkinson is a former New Zealand national team defender (38 caps, 1 goal), with a 10 year professional career that includes stops in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and the US. Since retiring at the end of the 2006 season, he’s become the coach of the USL1 Portland Timbers.

As this is Wilkinson’s first year as a coach, there’s no history to post, but they’re in the middle of the table and seem to be playing better than last year.

MLS Picks for June 6

After stinking it up last week, I’m still game for another try … barely. For the MLS teams, I’m including their adjusted scariness rating

USL1 Friday Night Game

Portland Timbers @ Montreal Impact—0-2 Montreal

I think Montreal wins this one walking away.

Wednesday June 6

New York Red Bulls (2.62) @ Toronto FC (2.15)—2-1 NY

I think New York gets back on track after their loss to KC. Toronto should play this one tought though.

Thursday June 7

Colorado Rapids (1.61) @ Houston Dynamo (1.65)—0-1 Houston

The Dynamo pull off the win at home against a slightly less scary Rapids side.

Chinese MNT (unranked) @ Real Salt Lake (1.46)— 0-1 RSL 0-0 Draw

Rimando gets a clean sheet and Freddy gets a point. Hmm, just saw that RSL is going to be starting a lot of subs this game ... I'm downgrading this one to a draw.

Saturday June 9

LA Galaxy (1.16) @ FC Dallas (0.8) —0-1 Dallas

Dallas pulls out a boring win.

Chivas USA (2.18) @ Chicago Fire (1.00)—1-0 Chivas

Preki gets a win, Dave Sarachan doesn’t.

Sunday June 10

New York Red Bulls (2.26) @ DC United (2.35)—1-0 NY

A tired red Bulls side pulls out a second win in a week

Houston Dynamo (1.65) @ Columbus Crew (-0.12)—1-0 Houston

The Dynamo will get a second win during the week facing a completely non-scary Columbus Crew.

MLS Expansion Dreams Revisited

A lot of other people are writing about MLS expansion (one of my favorites is The Significance of the Frontier in MLS History which looks at expansion in a before 2010 and after 2010 context). Since I wrote up my MLS Expansion Dreams post, a couple of things have happened. How do they affect what I’d like to see? Let’s find out.

2008

I wanted to see Vancouver get an MLS team first (and really, for the Whitecaps to move up from the USL1. It’s looking more and more like San Jose is going to be the team instead. I think this is a bit of a shame, as California already has two MLS teams (along with a bunch of USL 1,2, and PDL teams). Not that I don’t want San Jose to get a team, I’d just like to see it happeh later.

2010

I’d listed Seattle and Montreal as my choices here. Seattle would renew it’s rivalry with Vancouver (if that happened), and Montreal would join an interesting rivalry with Toronto and Vancouver.

Seattle does seem to be on the short list, but there’s not a lot of clarity about how it might happen. There is at least some talk of the Sounders becoming part of the MLS franchise. If that happens, I really hope that Washington gets a new USL1 team, either in Spokane or Tacoma (though both cities have PDL teams).

Montreal, I don’t see anyone else talking about this (except for a brief mention in the ‘Frontier’ article linked above), and I think that’s too bad. The Impact have been at the top of the USL1 for the last several years, they play good looking soccer, and have a good-looking SSS being built. I do wonder if the MLS rule requiring national players would have to be adjusted to allow three MLS Canadian teams though (even two might be a stretch).

2012

I was hoping for Philadelphia and Portland as the two expansion teams here. I really think bringing the Timbers up to join the Sounders (and maybe the Whitecaps) would be the best option in the west. A brand new team in Philadelphia would round things out in the east.

2014

My last set of expansion was to bring back two familiar faces, San Jose and the New York Cosmos. While reality might beat me to the punch with San Jose, I still hope the Cosmos make it eventually. If San Jose does land a team early, maybe Vancouver could fill this slot or perhaps a team from the Midwest or Southeast would be a better fit.

Just some notes

I tried to keep the two divisions balanced, but I’d really like to see the divisions dropped and a single table created. I’d also like to see both the USL1 and USL2 fleshed out. I think 20 teams in the MLS, 24 in the USL1, and 30 in the USL2 would be great.

I realize that I’ve dropped a bunch of cities that are in the running—St. Louis, Phoenix, and Las vegas leap immediately to mind. Of these, the only city I’d look at putting an MLS team into would be St. Louis. Even then, I’d rather move an existing team (cough Kansas City cough) than expand.

May 30th Picks

Here are my picks for this weekends MLS action (and the Friday Night USL game—you are watching it, right?). I’ve included my current scariness ratings for each team in parens.

USL Friday Night

Vancouver Whitecaps (2.28) @ Montreal Impact (2.60)—1-2 Montreal

This game (along with Saturday’s New York @ KC match) looks like the best game of the weekend. I think it’ll be really close, but Nick DeSantis and the Impact will extend the Vancouver losing streak to two games.

MLS Saturday

Colorado Rapids (2.28) @ Toronto FC (1.38)—2-1 Colorado

Colorado wins this in a tight game. I think Jeff Cunningham will score for his new team though.

Real Salt Lake (0.62) @ New England Revolution (1.96)—1-3 New England

I’d love to be wrong about this (I’d even take yet another tie), but I think New England is just too much for RSL.

New York Red Bulls (2.04) @ Kansas City Wizards (1.96)—2-1 New York

Along with the Friday Night pairing of USL1 powerhouses Vancouver and Montreal, this game is the cream of the crop. It’ll be tight, but I think Jozy and Angel both score, as does Eddie Johnson, and the Red Bulls take 3 points on the road.

DC United (2.16) @ Los Angeles Galaxy (0.76)—2-0 Los Angeles

DC is playing to well and LA will be missing too many players.

MLS Sunday

FC Dallas (1.80) @ Houston Dynamo (0.54)—1-0 Dallas

Kenny Cooper gets another goal, and Dallas beats the slumping Dynamo.

Columbus Crew (0.92) @ Chicago Fire (0.24)—0-0 Draw

This sounds like a painful game to watch. I don’t think either side has it in them to pull out a win.

May 28th Pick Review

Thursday May 24 — ESPN’s Game

Chicago Fire @ New York Red Bulls — (1-3 NYRB) 0-3 NYRB

ESPN must be awfully happy about this game. There was some pretty good soccer on the field, a non-draw, and enough scoring to keep the non-soccer fan interested. Good stuff.

Saturday May 26

Kansas City Wizards @ New England Revolution — (1-2 Revs) 4-3 KC

Wow, I guess Eddie Johnson might be back after all.

Houston Dynamo @ DC United — (0-2 DC) 1-2 DC

Christian Gomez finally scored and Ben Olsen added a goal as well. DC is starting to look like they’re capable of playing. As hot as New York and New England look, it might not be enough.

Toronto FC @ Columbus Crew — (1-0 TFC) 2-2 Draw

Columbus finally got a couple of points and Toronto put up some points on the road, but neither side did enough to win.

Los Angeles Galaxy @ Colorado Rapids — (1-1 draw) 0-1 Rapids

LA went down a man early, and ended up losing on a Herculez Gomez goal following a Terry Cooke cross.

FC Dallas @ Chivas USA — (2-1 Dallas) 0-2 Chivas

Galindo and Razov both scored, putting the goats over Dallas.

Sunday May 27

Real Salt Lake @ Chicago Fire &mdash (2-1 RSL) 0-0 Draw

This was a game that neither team deserved to win. Chicago fans can take heart in breaking their losing streak, and RSL fans can (maybe) find a silver lining in the play of Kipre and Esky.

USL1 Friday Night Game

Miami FC @ Montreal Impact — (1-2 Montreal) 0-1 Montreal

This was a pretty good game. The Montreal crowd seemed pretty engaged. Montreal’s really got to love their win as Vancouver lost to Carolina, setting up a huge Vancouver @ Montreal match for Fox Soccer Channel’s match next Friday.

How’d I Do?

I ended up 3-6-0 this week (4-6-0 if you count the US Open Cup game) and 6-8-2 overall. I’m still doing well enough that I’ll try picking this weeks games, but I’m sure I’m not at the top of anyone’s table.

USL1 Coaches: Colin Clarke

During his club career, Clarke was a hugely important player for the Northern Ireland national team, for whom he scored 13 goals (second behind David Healy) in 38 appearances and played in the 1986 FIFA World Cup. During his club career, Clarke played in 361 English league games, scoring 146 goals, for teams including Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Queens Park Rangers. —from Wikipedia

Richmond Kickers

Year	League	Reg. Season	Playoffs	U.S. Open Cup
1998	USISL A-League	1st, Atlantic Division	Conference Semifinals	Did Not Qualify
1999	USL A-League	2nd, Atlantic Division	Second Round	Did Not Qualify

San Diego Flash

Year	Division	League	Reg. Season	Playoffs	U.S. Open Cup
2000	2	USL A-League	2nd, Pacific	Conference Quarterfinals	3rd Round

Dallas Burn 2003, 2004, 2005

Year	Reg. Season	Playoffs	U.S. Open Cup
2003	5th, West	Did not qualify	Round of 16
2004	5th, West	Did not qualify	Quarterfinals
2005	2nd, West	Quarterfinals	Final
2006	1st, West	Quarterfinals	Quarterfinals

Virginia Beach Mariners

(team folded before the season started)

Puerto Rico Islanders

Colin Clarke was named the head coach of the Islanders on May 22, 2007. Taking over for Toribio Rojas, who will stay on with the clubs’s player development programs.

May 22nd Picks

Okay, I think I’ve recovered enough from my horrible picks last week to try again. I’m also going to try my hand at the USL1 game of the week that Fox Soccer Channel will be showing this Friday.

Thursday May 24 — ESPN’s Game

Chicago Fire @ New York Red Bulls — 1-3 NYRB

The Red Bulls are looking too strong to pick against right now. And this time, Jozy will be on the field, not at his prom.

Saturday May 26

Kansas City Wizards @ New England Revolution — 1-2 Revs

Again, the home team looks like they’ll be too much for the visitors.

Houston Dynamo @ DC United — 0-2 DC

Picking the home side for the third time in a row. I don’t think Houston can pull this one off, DC is starting to put the pieces together.

Toronto FC @ Columbus Crew — 1-0 TFC

I think Toronto will pick up where they left off before the loss to DC last week. Columbus just won’t be able to keep up with them.

Los Angeles Galaxy @ Colorado Rapids — 1-1 draw

A lot is made of Colorado being ahead of LA in the standings, but they seem to be fading. I’m not sure that LA is that much stronger though.

FC Dallas @ Chivas USA — 2-1 Dallas

Dallas is looking pretty good, though there last couple of games haven’t been against strong teams — then again Chivas isn’t a very strong team.

Sunday May 27

Real Salt Lake @ Chicago Fire &mdash 2-1 RSL

If Kreis can get the boys fired up (sorry, I never could resist a good pun) I think RSL can can beat a fading Fire side.

USL1 Friday Night Game

Miami FC @ Montreal Impact — 1-2 Montreal

Miami played well last week, but Montreal is the second best team in the league (behind Vancouver). As well as Nick DeSantis has been coaching them, I’d think some MLS teams might want to tune into this game to see how he does.

Weighted Rankings, USL Week 5

I decided to take a couple of minutes to figure out where the various USL1 teams stood in terms of “points per game”, or a weighted score. To me, this produces a much clearer picture of how strong each of the teams is. I suppose you could go even further and make the “points per game” a weighted moving average, maybe next week.

The Official Rankings

Team	Pts	Games	Pts Per Game
Vancouver Whitecaps	17	7	2.428
Montreal Impact	11	5	2.2
Atlanta Silverbacks	11	7	1.57
Miami FC	9	6	1.5
Carolina RailHawks	9	6	1.5
Rochester Raging Rhinos	9	8	1.125
Portland Timbers	7	4	1.75
Puerto Rico Islanders	6	7	857
Seattle Sounders	6	8	75
Charleston Battery	5	5	1
Minnesota Thunder	5	6	833
California Victory	1	3	333

The Weighted Rankings

Team	Weighted Rank	Unweighted Rank	Pts/Game
Vancouver Whitecaps	1	1	2.428
Montreal Impact	2	2	2.2
Portland Timbers	3	4	1.75
Atlanta Silverbacks	4	2	1.57
Miami FC	5	4	1.5
Carolina RailHawks	5	4	1.5
Rochester Raging Rhinos	7	4	1.125
Charleston Battery	8	10	1
Puerto Rico Islanders	9	8	.857
Minnesota Thunder	10	10	.833
Seattle Sounders	11	8	.75
California Victory	12	12	333

Update: Oops, I mis-slotted the Sounders and Thunder. Thanks uhclem for pointing it out.

USL1 Coaches: Chiquinho de Assis

I’ve had a terrible time trying to find information about Chiquinho de Assis, the first, and only, coach of Miami FC. Most of what I’ve found has come from the press release that announced his hiring.

Before coaching, de Assis played as an offensive midfielder for a number of brazilian clube from 1970-83.

He has a great reputation for discovering and developing young talent—for example, he’s credited with discovering Dida and Adailton. He’s been a very successful coach in the youth soccer program of the brazilian club Vitoria da Bahia. He’s led them to three Philips Cup Championships and one the Professional Bahai cup twice.

2006, Miami FC/s only year of operation so far, has been quite successful for an expansion team. They played to a 11-11-6 record, and made it to the quarterfinals in the USL1 playoffs. Four games into the 2007 season they’re not doing as well, sporting an 1-3-0 record.

Season	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	US Open Cup
2006	USL First Division	5th	Quarterfinals	2nd round

MLS Expansion Dreams

Okay, admission time. This isn’t some well thought out list of where the MLS ought to place teams based on years of analysis. It’s just my dream of how things ought to work out. (Thanks to Jason Kreis Superstar for the idea.)

The MLS wants to grow by three teams by 2010, I’d like to see expansion beyond that. If I could make it happen, here’s what I’d do in 2008, 2010, 2012, and and 2014.

2008
Western Div	Eastern Div
Vancouver
2010
Seattle	Montreal
2012
Portland	Philidelphia
2014
San Jose	New York Cosmos

I could even see moving the two 2010 teams to 2012 to preserve the Seattle/Portland rivalry.

The best way for the MLS to make this happen (I think), would be to buy the existing USL1 Whitecaps, Sounders, Impact, and Timbers (either now or later) and replace them with new USL1 teams when they transition them into the MLS. I think some potential USL1 locations might be:

• Spokane (or Tacoma), Washington
• Phoenix, Arizona
• Ft Collins, Colorado
• Detroit, Michigan

Of course, the best course of action is to build better geographical coverage of the US and Canada at the USL2, USL1, and MLS levels then figure out how to make relegation and promotion work. (Hey, I did say this was my dream, and who’s dreams ever really tie that well to reality?)

So, what are your expansion dreams?

USL1 Coaches: Nick DeSantis

Nick DeSantis, currently the coach of the Montreal Impact, looks like a great MLS coaching prospect. He played the game (as a midfielder) in Canada and the US for 16 years, and has recently met with incredible success as a manager. The only reason he shouldn’t get a job with the MLS would be the promotion of the Montreal Impact to the MLS (they’ve been leading the USL in attendance and on the field for the last couple of years)—and since there’s no promotion/relegation opportunity (too bad), I guess we don’t need to worry about that.

As a player:

Montreal Supra	1987-??
Montreal Impact	1993-98, 2000-03	219	21
Raleigh Express	1999
Canadian MNT	1988-97	9	1

• 2nd in games played for the Impact
• 4th on scoring list for the Impact

As a coach

Montreal Impact

2004-

84 games

49-14-21

Titles: * League Champion: 2004 (A-League) * Regular Season Champion: 2005, 2006 (USLD1) * Voyageurs Cup: 2004, 2005, 2006 * Can Am Cup: 2004 * USL1 Manager of the Year finalist 2004, 2006 * USL Manager of the Year 2005 * 15-game undefeated streak (10-0-5) in 2005

Montreal Impact standings under DeSantis

Year	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	Voyageurs Cup
2004	USL A-League	1st	Champion	Champion
2005	USL First Division	1st	Semifinals	Champion
2006	USL First Division	1st	Semifinals	Champion

If you’ve enjoyed this, please take a look at the other USL1 coaching posts I’ve made.

USL1 Coaches: Laurie Calloway

Laurie Calloway played professionally in England and the US for 18 years, from 1960-77 and 1979. He played for a variety of english clubs reaching as high as the second division (with the Blackburn Rovers). He spent his entire US career playing in California, playing for the San Jose Earthquakes.

Calloway coached the ASL Southern California Lazers in 1978, then went back to playing for a year in 1979. Since then, he has been coaching full time.

Years	Position	Team	Notes
1980	various assistant coaching positions	unknown
1981	Head Coach	California Surf (NASL)	folded after the 1981 season
1983	Head Coach	Seattle Sounders (NASL)	3rd in Division, folded after the 1983 season
1985-88	Head Coach	San Jose Earthquakes (WSA)	1985 WSA conference title, 1988 3rd place in WSA, folded after 1988 season
1991-95	Head Coach	San Francisco Bay Blackhawks (APSL)	1991 APSL championship, 1992 CONCACAF semifinals
1996-97	Head Coach	San Jose Clash (MLS)	fired midway through season
-2002	Head Coach	Des Moines Menace (USL PDL)	2002 Coach of the Year, 2002 undefeated regular season
2003-04	Head Coach	Syracuse Salty Dogs (USL2)	26-20-10, team folded after the 2004 season
2005-	Head Coach	Rochester Raging Rhinos (USL1)	2nd both seasons, reached USL1 finals in 2006, US Open Cup quarterfinals in 2005

Calloway is also know for an extensive feud with Eric Wynalda.

USL Coaches: Chris Agnello

Next on my list of coaches is Chris Agello, a coach with some deep Utah roots. He enjoyed a lot of success in what’s now the USL2 with the Utah Blitzz—winning two league championships, five conference titles, and being named Coach of the Year in 2002. His five year record was 64-21-11.

Utah Blitzz

Year	League	Regular Season	Playoffs	Open Cup
2000	USL D-3 Pro League	2nd, Western	Conference Finals	Did not qualify
2001	USL D-3 Pro League	1st, Western	Champion	2nd Round
2002	USL D-3 Pro League	1st, Western	Semifinals	2nd Round
2003	USL Pro Select League	1st, Western	Semifinals	2nd Round
2004	USL Pro Soccer League	1st, Western	Champion	3rd Round

Following his success with the Blitzz, Agnello served as an assistant coach with RSL in 2005. He then moved on to a Coach/GM role for the USL1 Portland Timbers. He didn’t fare as well there, lasting only one season, and posting a 7-15-6 record before resigning.

According to his bio at the RSL website,

Agnello was the first coach in the USL to achieve both the national title and the regular season championship.

I don’t know what Chris Agnello is doing now—google hasn’t helped much, can you?

USL1 Soccer: May 11, 2007

I’m off to go camping with my scouts tonight, then hiking tomorrow, but the tivo is all fired up, and I’ll be resting Saturday afternoon watching the Seattle Sounders at the Portland Timbers. This looks like it’ll be a great game.

Both the MLS and USL1 need to get more teams into them (slowly, I know), to help build these kind of rivalries. Who knows, if the MLS decides to expand into Las Vegas, we’ll have three teams pretty close (LV, RSL, and the Rapids) which might turn into a great three-way rivalry like the Portland-Seattle-Vancouver area enjoys.