The score

Rhinos
get regional

Last time out. Rochester (8-2-3, 34 points) hosted Richmond and Montreal and thrilled fans
with a pair of exciting (and, at times, excruciating) 1-0 overtime wins in a
mini-homestand last week. Everybody who hopped on the We Hate Dan Stebbins
bandwagon can now jump right the hell off because the Rhinos forward came up
with a goal and an assist (as did red-hot Lenin Steenkamp).

            The Richmond Kickers (7-5-3, 35), who hadn’t lost since
dropping a 2-0 game at home on June 9, did their best impression of Rochester
in an extremely defensive battle on the 4th of July. Goalkeeper Ronnie Pascale
did his best to deny every Rhinos shot in regulation. Steenkamp sealed the deal
just six minutes into extra time on a cheeky backheel from Stebbins.

            Rochester ‘keeper Pat Onstad single-handedly kept his
team in the game on Saturday night when the suddenly sizzling Impact (5-2-5,
23) brought the smelly, smoky air of a wildfire and a familiar pair of forwards
(Mauro Biello and Eduardo Sebrango) to Frontier. In one brilliant example of
world-class goalkeeping, Onstad saved back-to-back point-blank strikes from
both ex-Rhinos. As thrilling as that match was, whose decision was it to
greenlight the similarly colored uniforms? My Nintendo offers a kit-clashing
option when competing teams have similar uniforms — why can’t the A-League?

Next up. The
Rhinos will see action four times in the next eight days. They’ll be in
Montreal for what we can only assume will be another home-job Canadian referee
special on Wednesday, followed by a home-and-home series against Toronto
(4-3-8, 20) this weekend (home on Saturday, away on Sunday). The road match in
Toronto was supposed to be preceded by the first leg of the hotly contested
Lake Ontario Derby between supporters’ groups the Stampede and the Ultras. But
all bets are off due to the ongoing municipal workers’ strike. (Hopefully
Canada will be able to keep the stench of accumulating garbage within its
borders, unlike that wildfire thing.)

            Then, on Wednesday, July 17, the Rhinos host the eagerly
anticipated third-round US Open Cup showdown against Tony Meola and the
bottom-dwelling Kansas City Wizards (5-6-5, 21) of Major League Soccer at
Webster Municipal Stadium (which is akin to using the word
“international” when referring to our airport). Should Rochester
advance, they’ll face the winner of the Chicago (MLS)-Milwaukee (A) match. With
the Chicago Fire as injury-depleted as any team The Score has ever seen, and the Rampage en fuego, we’re pulling for a rematch with Milwaukee, the team that
broke the Rhinos’ ridiculously long home winning streak on May 31.

Scoring problems? Aside from Biello and Sebrango, other ex-Rhinos had no problem finding
the back of the net last week. John Wolyniec scored the lone goal in
Milwaukee’s road defeat of mighty Charleston (it was the Battery’s first loss
in 11 matches, dating back to the 2-1 overtime loss to Rochester back in May).
Steve Butcher had one in Toronto’s 3-2 loss to Cincinnati, and was denied the opportunity
to hit the winner two evenings later when he was taken out less than halfway
through a 0-0 draw against Richmond. With defenses concentrating on striker
Nikola Budalic (a three-time selection to the Team of the Week with seven
goals), Butcher just might turn into an unstoppable scoring monster.

            Former Rhinos aren’t the only A-League players finding it
easy to score. Canandaigua Academy grad Andy Guastaferro netted his second in
two games as Charlotte fell 3-2 to Hampton Roads, and Seattle’s Brian Ching,
another three-time selection to the Team of the Week, added two more last
weekend. He has scored seven in his last eight appearances after missing two
games with a hamstring injury.

Bonus point blues. Only three A-League teams have failed to earn a bonus point during the
2002 campaign. Two of them (Calgary and Indiana) are in last place in their
respective divisions. The other is first-place Rochester.

It was only a matter of time. Pittsburgh finally released coach-GM Kai Haaskivi on
Monday, following a 3-1 loss to Charlotte that dropped the Riverhounds to a
dismal 3-4-11 record with just one win in eight June matches. Assistant coach
Tim Carter assumes responsibility for this train wreck, whose season isn’t
likely to get much better, as the team’s remaining matches include road trips
to Rochester, Minnesota, Milwaukee, and Atlanta.

This article appears in Jul 3-9, 2002.